Most books about tech culture and surveillance sound the same these days—buzzwords, sci-fi name-drops, a little hand-wringing about social media. Kevin J. Crosby’s Encoded Illusion doesn’t play that game. It’s not trying to scare you into deleting your apps or unplugging your Wi-Fi router. What Crosby does instead is bigger, stranger, and frankly harder to ignore: he argues that the real battleground isn’t online at all—it’s in your head.
Encoded Illusion is part exposé, part call to arms. It’s also one of those rare indie releases that feels like it could have come from a major imprint but didn’t—maybe because it’s too blunt for corporate comfort.
Crosby opens with education and media. This isn’t fresh territory, but he keeps it specific. He references public education’s roots in the Prussian model, citing John Taylor Gatto, Edward Bernays, and U.S. Department of Education data. The through line: our systems don’t accidentally under-educate people—they’re designed to. School, media, and entertainment keep the population obedient, distracted, and unable to ask hard questions.
If it stopped there, Encoded Illusion would be just another social critique. But it doesn’t. The second section jumps straight into human-machine integration. Brain-computer interfaces, neural implants, EEG headsets—it’s all there. And Crosby isn’t just name-dropping Neuralink. He’s pulling receipts: DARPA-funded experiments, real-world cases where neural data is being harvested, brain-to-brain communication tests in rats.
One specific example stands out: Emotiv EEG headsets. Crosby points out a clause buried in their terms of service about who owns the brain data they collect. If that doesn’t give you pause, Crosby’s broader question will: when your thoughts can be recorded, altered, or overwritten, who really owns you?
What makes Encoded Illusion different from other “future shock” books is where it lands. Crosby doesn’t end on dystopia. Instead, he steers into something most tech writers wouldn’t touch: ESP, extra-sensory perception. Before you roll your eyes, he’s got the research to back it up—declassified documents from the U.S. military’s Stargate Project, plus newer studies linking consciousness to quantum physics and collective human focus.
Crosby argues that human minds have been programmed not just to accept control, but to forget their own deeper abilities. Intuition, remote viewing, psychic phenomena—it all gets lumped under “crazy” or “unscientific,” but according to Crosby, that’s exactly the point. A society that can think beyond the five senses is a society harder to manage.
That might sound like a reach, but in the context of today’s tech landscape, it hits differently. Neural implants, AI-driven social control, the race to integrate human cognition with cloud networks—suddenly the idea of cultivating untapped human potential instead of outsourcing it doesn’t seem so fringe.
The writing style helps. Crosby doesn’t ramble or get lost in jargon. His tone is clear, lean, and direct—equal parts Wired magazine feature and late-night AM radio monologue. You get the sense he’s less interested in selling books than getting a specific message across: you can either keep scrolling through the curated feeds shaping your thoughts, or you can push back, wake up, and start running your own mental show.
In short, Encoded Illusion isn’t a book about tech. It’s a book about sovereignty—the kind that starts between your ears. And in a country like the States., where tech, media, and mind games overlap more than most places, that message feels unusually urgent right now.
About the Author
Kevin J. Crosby is a Seattle-based writer and researcher exploring consciousness, technology, and education. Blending formal study with personal investigation, his work invites readers to question not just what they think, but how they think. Away from the desk, Crosby might be racking up a game of pool or chess, playing guitar, watching documentaries, or reading. A former protector of public safety, he still keeps close ties with old friends from the rave scene. Encoded Illusion, his debut book, examines what it means to remain fully human in a world built to distract and erase.
Availability
Encoded Illusion is now available on the official website, Amazon, and other online platforms in multiple formats; paperback, hardcover, e-Book, and audiobook. Follow the listed channels below to stay up to date with any exciting news and events regarding Crosby and his literary journey: