Hello 👋 I’m Mark

I wrote The Human Signal because too many smart people were getting left behind in the AI conversation.

Everywhere I turned, I saw two extremes: either breathless hype that promised AI would replace all our jobs, or dense technical material that required a graduate degree and a lot of patience. What I didn’t see was a story that helped regular professionals—managers, builders, analysts, creatives—understand how generative AI works and why it matters, without forcing them to wade through whitepapers or academic jargon.

So I borrowed a structure that has worked for decades. Books like The Phoenix Project, The Goal, and The Cuckoo’s Egg taught complex ideas—DevOps, systems thinking, cybersecurity—through story. Not fiction for fiction’s sake, but narrative with a purpose: to teach. I took that same model and applied it to the most important shift in technology since the internet.

The Human Signal follows two protagonists on parallel paths. One is Felix Canis, a technologist (loosely based on yours truly) navigating the real-world chaos of implementing AI inside a mid-sized business. The other is an enigmatic figure known as Ganik Rithm, a digital native building an entirely virtual operation without employees. Their journeys are separate, but their choices intersect—and ultimately collide.

This book isn’t about predicting the future of AI. It’s about equipping readers to shape it. You’ll learn how generative AI works (without math), where it fits into real workflows, and what it takes to make it useful. You’ll also see what happens when AI is deployed without human oversight—and how quickly things can unravel.

My goal wasn’t to impress engineers. It was to empower professionals. Whether you’re leading teams, running a business, or just trying to stay relevant in your career, The Human Signal gives you a strategic and accessible lens into a rapidly changing world.

If you’ve been curious about AI but turned off by the technical complexity—or if you’ve already started experimenting and want to go deeper—this book is for you.

Welcome to The Human Signal. Let’s figure it out together.

Mark R. HinkleSubs