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We are on the cusp of science fiction becoming reality. The Pod paints an all too plausible vision of the near future.
Fifty odd years removed from a transformational invention; the economy is managed by artificial intelligence with armies of robots delivering all goods and services. A revolutionary neural chip is developed that bypasses the five senses, communicating directly with the brain. The chip tells you that you see a tree and you do, even though no tree or image of a tree exists. You smell a flower, taste a strawberry, all because the chip fires the proper synapses in the brain. The technological breakthrough allows creation of alternate realities each tailored to the individual. This substitute life soon usurps the real one. No more disappointment, failure, boredom. Happiness is off the charts. A pod is developed that can accommodate longer stays – days, weeks at a time.
The pod revolution fundamentally changes the status quo. With the vast majority opting for the perfection of the pod, society as we know it collapses. Nations wither away. Pop culture is frozen in place. Families fall apart.
The powers that be mandate a strict on/off schedule – four days in the pod and three out each week. For Joe and Jess, the three out is nothing but a restless waiting period. When the Yellowstone caldera erupts, spawning a catastrophic earthquake that destroys their apartment building, they are ripped from the safety of their artificial lives and thrust into a brutal fight for survival. After a harrowing escape, they take refuge in an abandoned ice cream shop. Their cozy nest is upended when they are attacked by a group of survivors led by a deranged dictator who has super-imposed his military pod experience on real life. Forced to confront reality at its harshest, Joe and Jess face a profound moral dilemma, one that will determine not only their own fate, but the future of the human race itself.
