The Plastic Prison is #96 in the AI Lore books series, from Lost Books, a Canadian AI publisher.

This book is the first to use Midjourney’s version 5.1, and describes a near future dystopia where everyone has to wear plastic biohazard suits at all times, just to survive. The art in this book is, in my opinion, pretty incredible. I think it’s partly due to the subject matter being somewhat upsetting, to see people’s bodies inside of plastic bags, and submerged underwater, etc. The images are starkly beautiful and at times scary, and looking at them can make it feel like you’re suffocating (trigger warning). In a good way, if that’s possible…

Thematically, the concept is partly inspired by moving past Covid, partly by the so-called “loneliness epidemic” that is beginning to be recognized, and partly by (also connected to loneliness, I think) people always being on their cell phones, and having a sort of invisible bubble or layer between them and the real world.

Anyway, this book for me reaches some kind of new plateau that I haven’t hit before with any of the others. It’s deeply emotional and vibey. Really happy with it. Feels great to be reaching this level of quality as we near 100 volumes. Many of these images would be impossible (or very difficult and possibly dangerous) to get without AI.

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