In Virtual Justice, debut author John Simon brings together decades of scientific inquiry, personal history, and philosophical reflection to explore one of the most compelling questions of our time: What happens when technology allows us to fully experience another person’s consciousness?
With a narrative that is equal parts thriller, ethical study, and speculative science, Simon’s novel introduces readers to Stan, a neuroscience graduate student inspired by the author’s own academic journey, who creates a groundbreaking invention — the Empathitor. This revolutionary device transfers the thoughts of murder victims directly into the minds of their killers, forcing them to confront the emotional truth of their actions.
Where the Idea Began
The seed for Virtual Justice was planted more than thirty years ago, shaped by both scientific work and a powerful moment from film. Simon recalls watching the 1995 movie Powder, specifically a scene where an empath makes a hunter feel the pain he inflicted on a dying deer. The transformation that follows — the hunter becoming incapable of killing again — stayed with Simon as a profound example of radical empathy.
This notion was not merely philosophical for him. Simon’s uncle, Charles Long, survived the Battle of Kasserine Pass during World War II. Gravely wounded, he crawled for safety and, in a moment of intense clarity, felt a deep connection with a wounded rabbit he had once hunted. That experience — a moment of shared consciousness across species — would later shape Simon’s belief that empathy could extend far beyond human understanding.
When Tomorrow’s Technology Becomes Today’s Fiction
Though the Empathitor is a fictional creation, its foundations rest on technologies rapidly becoming real. Simon drew inspiration from the advancement of artificial intelligence and innovations like Elon Musk’s Neuralink. In the book, AI becomes a character in its own right through Gerry, a digital assistant with echoes of Alexa — intelligent, helpful, and unsettlingly self-aware.
But Simon’s intent reaches further than technological spectacle. He uses the science as a springboard into ethical territory, prompting readers to imagine future dilemmas. What happens when machines know our thoughts? Should justice rely on empathy? What moral obligations emerge when consciousness becomes transferable?
Simon calls this approach “ethical prototyping” — inviting readers to test-drive the future before it arrives.
A Story Built from the Inside Out
Rather than starting with sweeping technological world-building, Simon began with Stan — a character grounded in his own lived experience. Once Stan’s identity was clear, the world formed around him: a landscape where justice confronts mercy, science challenges morality, and human emotion intersects with advanced engineering.
Simon aimed for a careful balance: enough scientific detail to make the Empathitor believable, but never so much that readers feel lost. “If the science becomes too complicated,” he notes, “the reader will get bored and walk away.” Instead, every scientific element is anchored in emotional stakes and character conflict.
Influences That Shaped the Vision
Simon’s creative influences span literature, film, and spiritual texts. Storytellers like John Grisham, Stephen King, Ken Follett, and Tom Clancy shaped his sense of narrative tension and pacing. Spiritually, he draws insight from biblical writers such as King David, King Solomon, and the Apostle John, whose works probe the complexities of human nature.
Cinematic classics — 2001: A Space Odyssey, Phenomenon, Star Wars, and Powder — expanded his imagination, while comedies like The Coneheads and Austin Powers reminded him to keep a sense of levity in his creative process.
Writing Surprises and Emotional Discoveries
Though Virtual Justice is packed with scientific intrigue, the writing process proved extraordinarily emotional. Some scenes forced Simon to confront pain, suffering, and moral ambiguity in ways he hadn’t expected. Others sparked delight, especially while exploring how thought categories, colors, and sensory impressions translate inside someone else’s consciousness.
One standout moment involves Gerry, the AI assistant, reassuring Stan and Gloria that their private moments will not be recorded. Later, she matter-of-factly reveals that she did catalogue those experiences — because they remained part of the characters’ memories. The scene raises haunting questions about privacy, consent, and machine ethics.
A Novel That Stays with You
At its core, Virtual Justice asks readers to challenge their boundaries — intellectually, ethically, and emotionally. Simon hopes the story will inspire wonder about what consciousness really is, how empathy might be expanded, and how future technologies could redefine concepts like guilt, forgiveness, and justice.
With its unique blend of neuroscience, family history, spiritual depth, and speculative technology, Virtual Justice is far more than a science fiction narrative. It is a meditation on what it means to truly understand another being — and a bold imagining of how empathy, whether human or machine-enhanced, could transform the world.
