Justin Park

Pushing the Envelope Justin Park

When Joseph Sedulus, son of a Bill Gates figure, enters graduate school at Stanford University, his father introduces him to a dark corrupt underground society. Comprised of extremely wealthy investors called "The Elite" and professional hackers known as "The Guys Upstairs", this secretive organization works in concert to control the world's financial and political destinies. This journal-formatted collection of ideas is a contemporary-fiction book that depicts a world in which a massive mega corporation called Maxion, often referred to as M$, gradually takes over the globe through a series of large business mergers. Joe's father, Dr. Sedulus, is the CEO of Maxion as well as richest man on earth. There are several blatant similarities between M$, the company in Pushing the Envelope, and Microsoft. This same mechanic is applied to other entities throughout the novel to give it a very realistic perception. For example, Wally World and Maxion join in the middle of the book to create Maxion Online, a massive distribution and telecommunications conglomerate. In a few short years, M$ releases several popular devices such as the WebTVo+, SmartScreen, and Model C#. Joe discusses how these technologies and globalization come together to redefine the world economy using a technique called "Monopolistic Socialism." The repercussion of Maxion's success leads to a jealous Elite who eventually setup a coup to take down the Sedulus Empire.