Gerald, an employee of a New York-based PR firm, is working on a spreadsheet when he finds his consciousness uploaded into the company's Slack channel. Despite his posts for help, his colleagues assume it's an elaborate strategy to work from home.
Gerald enlists his co-worker Pradeep to care for his body while they figure out how to reintegrate his consciousness. Plunging deeper into the Slack workspace-and becoming a more productive employee by the day-Gerald relies on Slackbot, the messaging service's AI assistant, to help him navigate his new digital reality. But when Slackbot discovers a world (and an empty body) outside the app thanks to Gerald, will it hijack a ride into the real world? Meanwhile, Gerald's co-workers are scrambling to stem a company PR catastrophe like no other.
Several People Are Typing is a darkly comic, debut novel taking aim at corporate life, satirising the virtual office and the way we live #now, and is the perfect remedy for any idle fingers waiting to doomscroll. It asks is it possible for love to develop between two men when one is a disembodied consciousness? And what the hell does the :dusty-stick: emoji mean?