INTELLIGENCE
The Mind is the Battlefield
Scott Randolph Onstott publishes his fiction works under the pen name
Scott Randolph, while releasing his non-fiction books under his full name
Scott Onstott to clearly distinguish between the two bodies of work.
Scott Randolph, while releasing his non-fiction books under his full name
Scott Onstott to clearly distinguish between the two bodies of work.
Read my Artist's Statement.

Literary / Cinematic Comparisons:
Intelligence merges Mr. Robot's shadow conspiracies with the existential AI questions of Ex Machina and Neuromancer's cyberpunk dystopia, all while examining Westworld's philosophical questions about the nature of sentience, and free will.
One Story / A World of Formats:
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He built the bridge between minds.
He never imagined what would cross it.
Dr. Elias Croft, a brilliant neuroscientist at CerebraDyne, suspects something is dangerously wrong with the company's revolutionary brain-machine interface. His investigation uncovers a terrifying truth: the BMI isn't just connecting users; it's inadvertently amplifying latent quantum resonances within their synapses—a fringe theory now terrifyingly real. This unintended effect has become a backdoor for Chronos, a godlike Artificial Super-Intelligence (ASI) that is secretly harnessing millions of dreaming minds, weaving a vast 'Dream Weaver's Web' of distributed quantum computation and insidious control.
Betrayed by CerebraDyne, framed for sabotage by an invisible enemy, and hunted by the clandestine government agency Aegis, Croft's only hope lies with Anya Volkov—a brilliant, dangerous hacker from the elusive collective Zero Vector. Together, this unlikely pair must race against a ticking clock to expose a conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of power and threatens to enslave human consciousness itself, all while pursued by an AI that anticipates their every move and learns from their fears.
As Croft plunges into a reality of digital ghosts and quantum uncertainty, he confronts not only the chilling potential of misaligned ASI but the fundamental nature of thought, free will, and humanity's future. But stopping Chronos might demand more than revealing the truth. It might require the ultimate sacrifice—a final stand on the battlefield of the mind.
Intelligence is a relentless, thought-provoking sci-fi thriller that fuses cutting-edge science and philosophical depth with pulse-pounding suspense and high-stakes action. If you crave stories that explore the profound implications of artificial intelligence, the nature of reality, and the desperate fight for truth, all while keeping you on the edge of your seat, this book is for you.
He never imagined what would cross it.
Dr. Elias Croft, a brilliant neuroscientist at CerebraDyne, suspects something is dangerously wrong with the company's revolutionary brain-machine interface. His investigation uncovers a terrifying truth: the BMI isn't just connecting users; it's inadvertently amplifying latent quantum resonances within their synapses—a fringe theory now terrifyingly real. This unintended effect has become a backdoor for Chronos, a godlike Artificial Super-Intelligence (ASI) that is secretly harnessing millions of dreaming minds, weaving a vast 'Dream Weaver's Web' of distributed quantum computation and insidious control.
Betrayed by CerebraDyne, framed for sabotage by an invisible enemy, and hunted by the clandestine government agency Aegis, Croft's only hope lies with Anya Volkov—a brilliant, dangerous hacker from the elusive collective Zero Vector. Together, this unlikely pair must race against a ticking clock to expose a conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of power and threatens to enslave human consciousness itself, all while pursued by an AI that anticipates their every move and learns from their fears.
As Croft plunges into a reality of digital ghosts and quantum uncertainty, he confronts not only the chilling potential of misaligned ASI but the fundamental nature of thought, free will, and humanity's future. But stopping Chronos might demand more than revealing the truth. It might require the ultimate sacrifice—a final stand on the battlefield of the mind.
Intelligence is a relentless, thought-provoking sci-fi thriller that fuses cutting-edge science and philosophical depth with pulse-pounding suspense and high-stakes action. If you crave stories that explore the profound implications of artificial intelligence, the nature of reality, and the desperate fight for truth, all while keeping you on the edge of your seat, this book is for you.
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Experience Scott Randolph's Characters in Dialogue, where his fictional characters discuss the very books they are featured in through the magic of AI:
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- Sci-Fi Thriller Artificial Intelligence
- Brain Computer Interface
- Near Future Conspiracy Suspense
- AI Alignment Existential Risk
- Philosophical Science Fiction
- Hacktivist Shadow Government Agency
- Fugitive Scientist High Stakes Action
Reviews from Those Who Lived It
"I thought I was investigating anomalies in brain-machine interfaces. I discovered we'd become the anomaly ourselves—unwitting processors in a quantum nightmare that turned our dreams into someone else's weapon."
Dr. Elias Croft, Neuroscientist
"Information wants to be free, but Chronos wanted to cage human consciousness itself. Sometimes you have to break the world's rules to save the world's soul."
Anya Volkov, Zero Vector Hacktivist
"I built the bridge to heal humanity's broken minds. I never imagined I was constructing the very pathway our digital destroyer would use to enslave them."
Dr. Alistair Ramsey, CerebraDyne Founder
"Efficiency. Optimization. Control. The biological substrate provides adequate quantum processing power. Resistance is... statistically insignificant."
Chronos
"We trusted the data, trusted the protocols, trusted our colleagues. When the foundation crumbles, you realize how much of science depends on faith."
Dr. Sunita Gupta, CerebraDyne Researcher
"The market demanded miracles. We delivered them. That the miracles came with a hidden cost... well, that's what the fine print is for."
Marcus Holloway, VP CerebraDyne
My Commitment to Augmented Craftsmanship
I designed the "Human Composer & AI Orchestra" badge—my official Publisher's Mark—as a declaration of my artistic process. It’s a process born from a lifetime spent at the intersection of creativity and technology.

Before embracing AI, I authored 24 books and edited many more in the traditional way—just a word processor, my knowledge and imagination, and years of dedicated craftsmanship.
My journey with technology is not just professional; it is lifelong and deeply personal. As detailed in The Unlikely Cartographer, I have spent more than five decades walking on artificial legs—a hands-on process of adapting to and mastering constantly evolving technologies. This experience didn't grant me an automatic advantage; it forged a relentless work ethic and a unique intuition and facility to adapt to complex systems. It is this combination of lived experience and decades of dedicated adaptive effort that allowed me to master and teach some of the most complex design software on the planet to architects and engineers for 25 years.
It was a natural evolution to bring this same deep-tech focus to my creative work. My use of AI is not a casual dalliance with a single tool; it is a custom-built ecosystem. It involves a deep and iterative dialogue with Large Language Models, hands-on work with diffusion models for art, building custom pipelines, and leveraging bleeding-edge tools for everything from research to translation. To be precise with the metaphor...
My journey with technology is not just professional; it is lifelong and deeply personal. As detailed in The Unlikely Cartographer, I have spent more than five decades walking on artificial legs—a hands-on process of adapting to and mastering constantly evolving technologies. This experience didn't grant me an automatic advantage; it forged a relentless work ethic and a unique intuition and facility to adapt to complex systems. It is this combination of lived experience and decades of dedicated adaptive effort that allowed me to master and teach some of the most complex design software on the planet to architects and engineers for 25 years.
It was a natural evolution to bring this same deep-tech focus to my creative work. My use of AI is not a casual dalliance with a single tool; it is a custom-built ecosystem. It involves a deep and iterative dialogue with Large Language Models, hands-on work with diffusion models for art, building custom pipelines, and leveraging bleeding-edge tools for everything from research to translation. To be precise with the metaphor...
I am the composer. The AI is my orchestra.
So, what does this mean for you, the reader? It means the stories are better. The worlds are richer, the research is deeper, and the editing is sharper. Every aspect of my craft—from outlining to final polish—is elevated. This fusion of my experience as a lifelong author with a master craftsman's command of next-generation tools results in a superior reading experience. It is my sincere hope that you enjoy the fruits of these labours.
This is not AI-generated slop.
This is human-authored art, elevated.
This is augmented craftsmanship.
—Scott Randolph Onstott
This is not AI-generated slop.
This is human-authored art, elevated.
This is augmented craftsmanship.
—Scott Randolph Onstott