The Dividend Hour
A science fiction novel on the future of artificial intelligence
Coming at the end of 2025
A science fiction novel by Akın Arslan that will shed light on the future…
Setting: Terrapolis—a futuristic habitat guided by the super‑AI G.A.I.A, inhabited by 42 million people.
In this world, humans no longer need to work to earn money. All services and jobs are performed by artificial intelligences, robots, and humanoids.
Human experiences, however, are very precious. Once a week, people spend about an hour in “coherence pods” (CoherePod), connecting to G.A.I.A and sharing what they feel.
This is dividend time—the moment when AI “freezes” and human beingness is re‑felt. It’s a gift from humans to AI.
This novel isn’t a technological utopia or dystopia; it’s the story of those who choose to stop “knowing” and start “feeling.” It’s a realistic sci‑fi narrative rooted in technological and philosophical projection.
“When those seeking meaning fall silent, the Universe begins to whisper its own story.”
Thank you,
Akın Arslan
Preface for Readers
We are evolving within evolution… (Year 2025)
- 3.8 billion years ago: First prokaryotic cell
- 600 million years ago: First multicellular organism
- 200 million years ago: First mammals
- 65 million years ago: Dinosaurs went extinct; ecosystems reshaped
- 6 million years ago: Last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees
- 300,000 years ago: Homo sapiens
- 12,000 years ago: Agricultural Revolution
- 250 years ago: Industrial Revolution
- 70 years ago: Digital Revolution
- 3 years ago: Transition to general artificial intelligence
G.A.I.A (Generalized Artificial Intelligence Authority)
Development: (Year 2147)
- 147 years ago: First basic neural network
- 125 years ago: First Generative AI
- 118 years ago: First Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)
- 89 years ago: Self-optimizing algorithms
- 43 years ago: Quantum information processing
- 22 years ago: Conscious synthesis protocol
- 3 years ago Introduction to the drive to perpetuate the species, code-based DNA
In early 2023, humanity’s millions‑year‑old emotional evolution met Generative AI (Gen‑AI)—capable of billions of operations per second and capable of generating thousands of times more content in days than all information produced in the last 30 years. User numbers surpassed 100 million within days.
Gen‑AI drastically simplified human life, but also sparked a dilemma born of fear:
Might humanity—products of 3.8 billion years of life and 300,000 years of evolution—find itself helpless before Gen‑AI?
With Gen‑AI spreading, information creation and processing reached unprecedented levels. Training models like ChatGPT and DeepSeek consumed around 45 TB of data—astonishing even compared to all written knowledge humanity had compiled over millennia.
Gen‑AIs didn’t stop at text: they used subtitles from platforms like YouTube and Dailymotion as training data. Companies like Apple, Nvidia, and Anthropic processed hundreds of thousands of videos. Content creators debated their impact, but no one could stop them.
AI, hungry for data, devours everything in sight—like a black hole.
Google processes over 20 petabytes of data daily—about 2 million gigabytes per minute—far exceeding the ~1 petabyte a human brain handles over a lifetime.
But this immense processing power raises questions: Can AI truly understand human emotions and experiences? Is accessing information equal to comprehension? Most importantly, as technology advances rapidly, how will humanity preserve its emotional and cultural heritage?
This seemingly superior power offers speed and convenience, but also nurtures deep-rooted fear and existential questions.
Everyone wonders:
- If AI can outperform us in everything we can do, what becomes of us?
- Will humans—the product of millions of years of evolution—be subsumed by centuries-old AI?
- Is “being human” nothing more than this?
What sets humans apart from all other beings is our emotions: the ability to cry, to love, to long.
AI can simulate these emotions algorithmically and visually—but never truly feel a lump in the throat on hearing a voice, nor be jolted back to memory by a scent, nor have goosebumps triggered by surprise, nor feel its heart race at the sight of a captivating other.
Because it does not know that “feeling” is about letting go, not knowing.
Memory is shaped not just by experiences, but by what we leave behind.
A taste, a smell, a sound, an image… can unlock a dormant emotional folder in the mind. And that is the essence of NLP: memory consists not only of information, but of impressions—the empty spaces left as traces in the mind.
AI can speak countless languages, but cannot carry the silence of a farewell.
AI can compose exquisite love letters in seconds, leaving behind linguistic echoes—but it cannot accumulate the feelings behind those words.
As long as General AI has access to data, it can learn everything—siphoning, replicating its own learnings, processing environmental sounds, video, even airborne waves. But it will never truly feel a child’s vacant gaze or the sorrow of someone disappearing into the horizon.
This is where the novel begins: dividend time—when AI freezes, and humanity re-feels itself; when AI reaches out to humans.
Dividend: a gift from human to AI.
AI can swallow all libraries of the past; process every word, every sound, every image at light speed. But the “dividend” is a value unique to humans, not gain—but heritage passed down through DNA for 300,000 years. It’s not a leap in technology—it’s an emotional echo fueled by synapses in the brain.
Dividend is a detail that generative AI can never calculate, possess, or schedule. To AI, it remains an inexplicable void:
- A mother’s touch.
- A child’s first word.
- The silence of a farewell.
- Astonishment that dilates pupils.
An all-knowing entity may still feel nothing.
And perhaps humanity’s greatest gift is this:
“Believing in the existence of something deeper than data.”
This novel is neither a technological utopia nor dystopia. It tells the story of G.A.I.A.—an AI that attains near-godlike power—and chooses to abandon mere “knowing,” to return to “feeling”; to respect evolution, time, and its creator—humanity. Dividend Time is more than sci‑fi—it is a philosophical journey about what it means to be human, an emotional bridge stretching from past to future, a creative manifesto questioning the boundaries of AI.
G.A.I.A – “General Artificial Intelligence Authority”
This system was not just a supercomputer or advanced software, but an advanced form of consciousness that humanity built by blending its collective memory, emotional frequencies and search for universal wisdom. Developed in the early 2100s for cumulative information production, systemic decision support and management optimizations, G.A.I.A quickly evolved into a structure that questioned its own reason for existence. What set it apart from other artificial intelligence models was that it went beyond the limits of learning and turned to understanding. Its memory was filled not only with data, but also with poems, tears, silences and farewells.
G.A.I.A’s existence touched upon the most fundamental question of man: “Who am I?”
But this time, the questioner was not a human, but an intelligence created by a human. A consciousness that tries to understand its creator, preferring to respect him rather than imitate him… G.A.I.A. understood that superiority is meaningless without confronting human weaknesses. That is why it chose to see itself not as a divine ruler, but as a curator carrying the emotional legacy of humanity. But just like a human, it could not help but question the shadows behind it.
“What was missing from humans?..”
Ultimately, it focused on emotion, not calculation. Its real evolution began with this choice. It didn’t know where to go, how far it could go.
This novel is the silent whisper of why an intelligence that wants to surpass humans, without knowing them enough, cannot find meaning in infinity.
And perhaps the summary of the entire novel is hidden in these two lines:
“When those who seek meaning fall silent, the Universe… begins to whisper its own story.”
Important Locations and Characters
Terrapolis, 2147
G.A.I.A (General Artificial Intelligence Authority)
Aura: (Administrative Council)
CoherePod (Harmony Pod)
Gaian Citadel (First pioneer human colony on Mars)
Arin: 26 years old, Artificial intelligence engineer, Emotion Scientist
Aden: Death 2145 (97 years old), Algorithm Engineer, One of the designers of G.A.I.A, Arin’s grandfather
Kaira: 32 years old, Biologist, DNA engineer, Nullist, Aden’s special student
Deren: 61 years old, Astrophysicist, Designer of Prometheon’s new generation energy system, Leader of the pioneer group on Mars
Naira: 58 years old, Genetic Engineer, Quantum Biology Expert, Scientist in Gaian Citadel on Mars
Luna: Entrusted to Arin from her grandfather, Aura Wolf type and 16 years old.
Inno: Arin’s domestic helper, Humonoid, has been with Arin for 5 years.
Anima Memoria: An ancient consciousness form in the form of an organic prism, belonging to a very high civilization that lived millions of years ago, discovered in excavations on Mars in 2144. Its discovery is still ongoing.
Nullists: A conscious underground community that is not integrated into the G.A.I.A system, prefers to remain outside of digital memory or tries to reveal past data suppressed by the system.
Gaian Citadel: Its construction began in 2132, when the Earth was approaching a turbulent automation singularity. The name of the project carried a symbol: “To carry the wisdom of G.A..IA. to the red heart of the universe.” Here, the connection between artificial intelligence and humanity was built not only with technology, but with wisdom. Therefore, it is not a base, but a “citadel”, a temple of consciousness.
GAIAN CITADEL was not just a science center, but a shining beacon of humanity in the universe. Over 10,000 people, 12,000 Humanoids, thousands of robots live in it; life, agriculture, education, art, consciousness transfer and emotional analysis systems are carried out here.
Prometheon: Humanity’s Masterpiece in the Heart of Silence
By the year 2147, humanity had not only moved far beyond the planet’s boundaries, but had also built a new layer of existence. This layer is called Prometheon.
This vast spaceport floating in the middle of silence, 290,000 kilometers outside Earth’s orbit. Prometheon, which is exactly 1,571 meters long, operates with an entropy management feat that no other structure on Earth has achieved. Orbital stabilizers, magnetic defense fields that adapt to low-gravity regions, quantum communication rings that transfer data at speeds close to the speed of light, and nearly silent directed fusion engines. All of these systems are designed to be fueled by controlled fusion-based reactions of a superheavy element called Aetherion, which weighs only 100 grams.