The Future

AUGR is the name assigned to the software program that Martha employs to convince the CEOs to buy into the apocalypse: “The name could be both an augur (a prophet) and an augur (a tool) that drills down” (180). Thus, the name signifies that the software could predict the future and get down to the bare facts of the matter, whisking the CEOs to safety before the apocalypse becomes threatening to them or their livelihoods. Ironically, however, as Martha later reveals to Zhen, the software itself does not work as promised; it functions like any other navigational software, or primitive AI, in that it can investigate the possibilities and provide options. It does not know the future. As such, it symbolizes the concept of the future that unfolds in the novel: a highly combustible and completely unpredictable phenomenon.

AUGR is not the only reference to prophecy in the book; prophets, mostly fraudulent or failed, abound. Enoch, also known as Ralph Zimmerman, claims to be a prophet who predicts the end of the modern, technology-dependent world. His ideas still fuel Martha’s beliefs, though she has rejected his authoritarian style. There is also Zhen’s fascination with, and study of, the Temple of Orpheus in London.