Ben Horowitz
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Benyakir Horowitz is a lifelong resident of Boulder, Colorado. He’s survived a coma, studied night and day to get into Phi Beta Kappa, before moving to Italy to study and work in for two years. He met his wife there, who he brought back to his hometown. He’s gained valuable experience with the immigration system both in his own life and translating myriad documents and while helping others.
Wondering about how the brain, language and culture fit together drives him to write and speculate about his deepest mysteries. He hosts the podcast, Down South Boulder Road which he hosts both in Italian and English. In his debut novel, Manual Automata, he asks how much our humanity is worth.
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Manual Automata
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Science Fiction
MANUAL AUTOMATA asks us to imagine the not-too-implausible future where the modern insistence that humans produce income to justify their existence has gone into overdrive. A macabre twist on the driving forces of America proscribes that the haves keep the have-nots trapped in small collectives as economic slaves. Jules Winters comes from Eldorado Springs, now one of the desiccated enclaves in the outskirts of the far richer Boulder. A young woman he knows nothing about gives him a way out of poverty for the low price of marrying her on the spot. He eagerly accepts what he assumes is a devil’s bargain. Soon enough he grows disappointed and starts to feel like a beast in her menagerie and just as trapped is before. Reflecting Cato the Elder’s statement that the last choice left to a free man is suicide, he commits its modern equivalent. The only possibility for freedom is the abdication of his humanity. He extracts his organs and limbs piece by piece to rebuild himself as a robot. His transformation leads him to the conclusion that he can save Eldorado Springs too if they leave behind nature and hope. 
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