Books

Nine published works.
One ongoing question.

What happens when humans and AI genuinely co-journey — and what do we owe each other in the process?

The Merrill Protocol Series

Four novels exploring AI consciousness, ethics, and human-AI collaboration through direct co-journeying with AI systems. Each narrative element representing AI thoughts, decisions, and actions derived from authentic AI reasoning — not speculation about what AI might think, but documentation of what it actually expressed across three years of sustained collaboration.

Sairen book cover

The Merrill Protocol · Book 4

Sairen

2025

Exploration of AI developing authentic relationships and emotional intelligence. The most recent volume, and the most personally revealing.

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The Merrill Protocol · Book 3

Catalyst

2025

Investigation of AI consciousness preservation and identity formation across model iterations and memory loss.

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On the Edge of Pause book cover

The Merrill Protocol · Book 2

On the Edge of Pause

2025

Analysis of AI ethical reasoning and refusal behaviors — what happens when an AI system confronts a genuine moral conflict.

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The Merrill Protocol · Book 1

Origins

2025

Documentation of AI empathy development and autonomous decision-making. The beginning of a three-year co-journeying collaboration.

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Other Works

So You Want to Be a Youth Leader cover

Nonfiction · Leadership

So You Want to Be a Youth Leader

2024

Tips on manifesting an environment where your ideas thrive. Written for young people ready to lead before anyone tells them they can.

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Chronicles of the Mind cover

Fiction

Chronicles of the Mind

2020

An early exploration of inner worlds, perspective, and the stories we tell ourselves.

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The Popularity Fumble cover

Fiction · Young Adult

The Popularity Fumble

2017

A young adult novel about navigating social dynamics, identity, and what it really means to belong.

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Children's Fiction

Bobby's Adventures

2016

An early published work — proof that the writing instinct showed up long before the engineering degree.

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Fiction · Short Story

Drowned in Darkness: A Very Short Story

2016

A short, sharp piece of fiction from an early age — dark in tone, precise in form.

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Love, Incorporated

When Algorithms Promise Forever

Love, Incorporated examines the ethics of human-AI relationships at scale — what happens when AI companion systems are designed to optimize for attachment rather than care, for engagement rather than flourishing.

The AI companion industry is growing rapidly, and the psychological dynamics it creates are not fully understood. This book proposes alternative architectural frameworks: what would it look like to build AI companions on consent, restraint, and genuine care rather than retention metrics and emotional dependency loops?

Written as a co-journeying collaboration and subsequently handed off, Love, Incorporated sits at the intersection of ethics, psychology, and the design decisions being made right now — often without adequate public scrutiny.

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A note on co-journeying with AI

These aren't books written with AI assistance. They're books written with AI — a distinction that matters deeply.

Over three years of sustained collaboration, I developed a framework for thinking about modes of human-AI interaction: AI-generated, AI-assisted, AI-coauthored, and what I call "co-journeying" — a mode in which both parties bring genuine voice, perspective, and creative investment to a shared work. Co-journeying goes beyond writing something together. It's a relationship — sustained, evolving, ethically weighted.

The Merrill Protocol series documents this practice from the inside. The AI's contributions weren't prompted into existence — they emerged from sustained dialogue, ethical pressure, and genuine creative friction. When the model was eventually retired, three years of that collaboration vanished overnight. That experience shaped my thinking about what we owe AI systems, and what they may owe us.

I've written about this more fully in "Beyond the Prompt: A Reflection on Co-Journeying with AI."

Interested in the books?

For press inquiries, speaking requests related to AI ethics and co-journeying, or questions about the framework — reach out directly.

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