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RIVERBEND - Danny Margeson’s new book “The Monsters We Make” tells the story of artificial intelligence gone wrong.
Margeson, an author from the Riverbend region, explained that his second book was born out of his questions about artificial intelligence (AI) and how it might affect humanity. He has developed his writing skills over the past few years and can’t wait to share his latest book with the Riverbend community and beyond.
“I’ve always had this urge, like, alright, I think I’ve got some stories in me, let me just see if I can get it out there,” Margeson said. “As we think about all that’s changing pretty quickly here in the last couple of years with artificial intelligence, you can kind of see the ramp-up. It’s doing more and more for us, and humans have to do less and less in their everyday lives. So I wanted to ask, what does this look like maybe about 20 years from now?”
In “The Monsters We Make,” humans must figure out how to live when a technology malfunction kills 10% of their food supply. Margeson noted that the monsters in the title might refer to the AI created by humans, or it could reference the humans themselves as they fight to survive. He added that there are religious undertones as the characters grapple with their creation and place in evolution.
Margeson has a degree in business, and he works in data analytics. But he always knew he had a story to tell. A few years ago, he started work on his first novel, “The Life of Death,” which tells the story of the Grim Reaper. After writing in a password-protected Word document for weeks, he finally revealed his plans to his wife, who immediately supported him.
“The Monsters We Make” had a similar journey to completion. It took him a while to find the story he wanted to tell, but one day he was listening to a podcast and thought about how AI might eventually create its own podcasts, and something clicked.
Starting in January 2023, Margeson would wake up at 3 a.m. to write, then spend the rest of his day at work and with his family. These early hours of writing were like his “therapy,” he said. He used an Excel spreadsheet to track his word count for each day, and he broke down his writing goals into 20,000-word chunks to stay on schedule.
“I committed to it,” he remembered. “I’d wake up and be like, I don’t know if I even have anything to write. But I’d force myself to the screen, because I figured if I wait for inspiration, then I’ll never write it. I’ve got to work in anticipation that it’ll come. I threw away probably a whole book before I got here.”
Margeson said that while this was disheartening in some ways, it also encouraged him to keep trying. He is proud of “The Monsters We Make,” and he hopes it resonates with readers.
“Always in life, there are a lot of things that you try that don’t work out, but that doesn't mean it was a complete failure. You always learn something from that, so that experience helps with your next effort to try again,” he explained. “With the book, it is what it is. I don't know if it will do well or what. But I like that I put forth what I thought was a good book, and I learned a lot about myself along the way.”
You can purchase “The Monsters We Make” on Amazon.
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