Duncan Ritchie— What happens when truth itself becomes a weapon?
When technology can manipulate information faster than we can verify it, who—or what—do we trust to tell us the truth?Join us for a thought-provoking conversation where murder, mystery, mayhem, technology, politics, and morality collide.Duncan spent thirty years advising governments and companies on energy, infrastructure, transactions, and policy. He has also written nonfiction for international organizations, including the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations Environment Program, advocating for policy changes and investment related to climate change. Now, he has turned his experience with governments, policy, finance, and global affairs toward fiction.The Truth Chamber began with a series of “what if?” questions Duncan started exploring in 2022. What might happen if outside forces attempted to exploit America’s political divisions? How could artificial intelligence change the battle over information? And what happens when people trying to protect democratic institutions begin questioning how far they themselves should go?The resulting novel combines political intrigue, artificial intelligence, assassination attempts, foreign influence, disinformation, and moral dilemmas in a high-stakes story about the increasingly complicated relationship between truth and power.At the center of the novel is Admiral Liam Driscoll, a grieving man drawn into presidential candidate Anna Hoffman’s campaign as political violence escalates. Their team recruits a Stanford Ph.D. student developing an AI technology known as the Truth Chamber, hoping it can help uncover who is behind the violence.But the conspiracy extends far beyond one campaign.As domestic turmoil collides with international ambitions, Liam and his team confront an unsettling question: How much can you compromise the principles you are trying to protect before you become part of the problem?Dr. Katherine and Duncan explore:Duncan’s journey from investment banking and international policy work to political thriller authorThe real-world concerns and “what if?” questions that inspired The Truth ChamberHow he created a fictional American presidential race while separating speculation from realityThe Truth Chamber itself and the possibilities and dangers of AI in determining what is trueDisinformation, propaganda, foreign influence, and the manipulation of public perceptionThe global power struggles operating behind the novel’s domestic political conflictLiam Driscoll’s central moral dilemma: how far can someone go to protect democratic institutions without compromising the principles behind them?The challenges of writing politically charged fiction for readers who may bring very different perspectives to the storyHow Duncan’s career and international experiences informed the novel’s geopolitical worldWhy thriller fiction offers a compelling space for exploring uncomfortable questions about truth, technology, morality, and powerWhat Duncan is writing nextDuncan Ritchie is a former—he jokingly says “recovering”—investment banker who grew up on a plantation in North Borneo and graduated from the University of Western Australia.During a thirty-year career, he advised governments and companies on major energy and infrastructure transactions and policy. He has also written persuasive nonfiction for multilateral organizations, including ADB and UNEP, focusing on climate-related policy and investment.Concerned by international conflict, political extremism, and growing questions surrounding misinformation, Duncan began developing speculative “what if?” scenarios in 2022. Those ideas eventually became his political thriller, The Truth Chamber.Duncan now lives in Tasmania with his Malinois pup, Aletheia—Alé for short—who, thinks he is slightly mad.The Truth Chamber is a speculative political thriller examining AI, disinformation, foreign influence, political violence, power, morality, and the fragile boundary between protecting principles and violating them.
