I’m excited to appear once again in the ^webpages of Nature with “Deus exed,” a story about an AI that’s believed to be a god and the false prophet who controls them. You know, real Steven stuff. Like with my last story in Nature, I was very eager to see Jacey’s original art for this story, and holy guacamole it’s perfect.

In the story notes, I mention the intro to StarCraft: Brood War as a key inspiration for the feel of Deus exed. After reading, I recommend watching the 4-minute video yourself. It has apparently been living rent-free in my brain for decades, and rewatching it for the first (and second, and third) time in 20 years still gives me chills.