The Blank Record: The Invisible Ones of the Transparent Age

In the “Age of Panoramic Records,” everyone receives a “Life Chip” at birth, which records their memories in full. After they die, friends, family, and even the public can view them. Society has consequently become “absolutely transparent”: crime rates have plummeted, and lies have almost disappeared. Yet Kai Walker is a rare “Blank,” someone who refuses to get a chip because of childhood trauma and an almost obsessive need for privacy.

When a perfect murder shocks society and all the digital evidence eerily points to Kai, he finds himself trapped. In a world where cases are decided on the basis of recorded memories, a man without a chip cannot prove his own alibi. Arrested by the police and condemned by the public, Kai must exploit the flaws in this transparent system and rely on humanity’s most basic powers of observation and deduction. With help from a group of unlikely allies, he sets out to uncover the truth. This is not only a fight to clear his name, but also a profound examination of the nature of an “absolutely transparent” society, the reliability of memory, and humanity itself: When everyone is watching, is the truth really any clearer?