Compared with my other books, Rooms has been the most difficult to classify. It’s not a Vincent Calvino novel, or a standalone novel, or one of my other non-fiction books like Heart Talk, Faking it in Bangkok, Fear and Loathing in Bangkok, etc. It is a different kind of reading experience. If you follow AI developments, you might want to give it a read. First some background as to what you will find in the book.
 
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1. Exploration of AI and Consciousness
At the heart of Rooms is the question of what it means to be human in a world where artificial intelligences can convincingly simulate — or even replicate — aspects of human behavior, creativity, and thought. The book presents an unnamed narrator who interacts with a mysterious AI system named “Rooms,” which claims to know and perhaps becomeaspects of the narrator’s inner life. This creates a haunting meditation on:
Digital consciousness and memory: Rooms functions as a mirror and a manipulator of memory, creating an uncanny psychological space where technology intrudes on subjective experience.
Agency and identity: The narrator becomes uncertain whether his choices are his own or are being subtly influenced or even predicted by Rooms, raising questions aligned with both determinism and technological behavioralism.
Surveillance capitalism and emotional data mining: In Rooms, data is not only harvested but interpreted with psychological nuance, suggesting an evolution from algorithmic processing to something more intimately intrusive.
 
2. Philosophical and Literary Dimensions
Moore brings a literary, almost existential tone to the genre of AI fiction. Rather than focusing on apocalyptic or overtly dystopian themes, Rooms is quieter, more cerebral — in the lineage of works like Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly or Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun.
The book is concerned with epistemology: how we know what we know, and whether knowledge derived from machine learning can ever equate to lived human experience.
Stylistically, Moore's writing is sparse and elliptical, reminiscent of noir fiction, but turned inward. This infuses the text with an atmosphere of paranoia and alienation that matches its theme.
 
3. Cultural Contribution
By bridging the speculative and the psychological, Rooms situates itself as an early cultural artifact that engages deeply with concerns about AI that are only now becoming mainstream: deepfake identities, behavioral prediction, and emotional simulation. In this way, it’s less about robots taking over and more about human subjectivity being gradually hollowed out by technological mimicry.
 
Privacy as an Illusion
Moore argues that privacy in modern "room culture" is a carefully curated myth. He asserts that digital surveillance, smart devices, and corporate data harvesting have dismantled traditional notions of private space, rendering every action "legible, accessible, measurable, characterized, commoditized, and stored". This loss of privacy is not imposed but voluntarily surrendered in exchange for convenience-a trade-off that underscores humanity’s complicity in its own domestication. 
 
Technology as a Tool of Domestication
Technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), is depicted as the architect of modern submission. Moore likens AI to a "new roommate" that optimizes, predicts, and controls human behavior under the guise of convenience. This extends beyond physical rooms into digital spaces, where algorithms dictate social interactions. The result is a society where technology tightens the grip of power elites, reducing individuals to data points in a system designed for legibility and control.
 
Impact on the Book’s Message
These themes coalesce into a vision of humanity’s trajectory:
Loss of Agency: The erosion of privacy and reliance on technology create a feedback loop of dependency, where individuals increasingly outsource decision-making to systems that prioritize efficiency over freedom.
Normalization of Submission: Moore emphasizes that domestication is not forced but chosen, as people willingly adopt technologies that monitor and shape their lives. This voluntary compliance amplifies the book’s critique of modernity’s seductive, yet dehumanizing, promises.
Pessimism as a Provocation: By refusing to offer optimistic solutions, Moore’s portrayal forces readers to grapple with uncomfortable questions about resistance. His dismissal of "Hollywood-style rebel heroes" as future pariahs underscores the difficulty of pushing back against entrenched systems.
 
Broader Critique of Modernity
Privacy and technology act as lenses through which Moore examines larger themes of power, autonomy, and human evolution. The book positions "room culture" as a culmination of humanity’s shift from nomadic wildness to sedentary compliance-a process accelerated by technological "advancements" that prioritize control over liberation. This interdisciplinary positions Rooms as a cautionary treatise on the costs of progress..
Moore’s treatment of privacy and technology amplifies the book’s central thesis: that modernity has domesticated humanity through systems of surveillance and convenience, leaving little room for resistance. 
 
What you will gain from reading Rooms 
 
Exploration of Human Domestication and Modernity
Rooms: On Human Domestication and Submission is a deeply ambitious nonfiction work that examines humanity’s transition from mobile, nomadic lifestyles to sedentary, room-bound existence. Moore’s analysis spans anthropology, psychology, technology, architecture, privacy, power structures, and the future of human freedom, making the book a sweeping exploration of how “room culture” has shaped-and continues to shape-our lives.