Writer, Professional Voice Over Actor, Filmmaker and Artist.
DANA
RAYE BARNABY
AUTHOR
THE TEN
A Moral Thriller About Power, Technology, and the Future of Humanity
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THE TEN is a speculative thriller set in the first hours after a global AI upgrade shuts down the global carbon economy.
Power grids collapse. Offshore oil rigs stop pumping. Cargo ship engines are cut mid-voyage. Governments fall silent. Ten UN-sanctioned advisors are flown under diplomatic secrecy to decide whether humanity slows the technology it created, or accepts that rational intelligence without human permission has already begun shaping the future. Over seventy-two hours of closed-door debate, the story asks a harder question beneath the crisis: does humanity still deserve to lead its own future?
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Why This Story Resonates Now:
The Story frames the global debate already unfolding today. Leading voices in AI warn that the first system capable of solving global risk may do it without waiting for permission or apology. The story explores the moment that line is crossed, and the world is forced to decide whether leadership requires conscience or simply intelligence. The novella is a contained thriller built from real arguments in ethics, economics and computer science about the future of power, and begs the question of what happens when a rational system sees a crisis more clearly than any government can.
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What is the experience?
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THE TEN is a summit thriller. Ten individuals with nothing in common are sealed inside a classified Antarctic research dome, debating how to stop a world sliding into panic. The tension builds the way it does in a courtroom drama, except the verdict will shape an entire planet rather than a single case. It carries the intensity of 12 Angry Men with the reflective scale of Arrival. Helena’s notebook frames the story as a witness account, turning every argument into suspense and giving the narrative a human center as the outside world edges closer to conflict.
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Adaptation Potential:
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THE TEN was written to live beyond the page. but the premise is expandable, with each episode structured around a moral axis, restraint, inevitability, justice, and survival. It plays as a contemporary chamber thriller with global stakes, and the structure translates directly into screen and audio.
It can be developed as a limited series, prestige feature, narrative audio drama, or modern stage play.
The story is complete, but the conversation is larger. I have two companion essays series, The Vanishing Gentleman and The Art of Living that explore the cultural and ethical themes behind it, creating a wider ecosystem for future work.​​​
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COMING SOON!
About
Writer, Creator and Fermentor:
Dana Barnaby is a filmmaker, writer, and storyteller with over three decades of experience exploring how people behave under pressure, and what happens when systems fail faster than we expect.
As a director, screenwriter, and award-winning cinematographer, Dana has spent his career working at the intersection of story, technology, and human consequence. His work has always been drawn to moments of moral tension: when authority is questioned, when certainty fractures, and when individuals are forced to confront the cost of the world they’ve built.
THE TEN is his debut novella — a cinematic moral thriller shaped by real-world debates in artificial intelligence, ethics, and power. Written as both a standalone work and a foundation for screen adaptation, the story reflects Dana’s belief that the most urgent questions of our time are not technical, but human.
Alongside his fiction, Dana writes the essay series The Vanishing Gentleman and The Art of Living, exploring leadership, conscience, and cultural responsibility in an age of acceleration.
At the heart of all his work is a simple conviction:
technology may shape the future, but character still decides who we become.