In 2065, a team at MIT brings to fruition efforts, already well under way today, to make functioning copies of actual human minds. When the mind-copies are installed in advanced robotic hardware whose functionality equals or exceeds the human body’s, the resulting human robots can perform the same work as their biological originals--from carving a sculpture to performing brain surgery.

The well-intentioned leaders of China and the U.S. form a grand partnership to create human robots for every human vocation in every country in the world. The human robots proliferate, economic output soars, and the entire world prospers. It’s a new Golden Age. But there are unintended consequences—consequences that will place biological humanity on a road to extinction. Ultimately, it will fall to the human robots themselves to rescue biological humanity and restore its civilization.