Michael G. Healy has spent a lifetime exploring one enduring question: how ideas change civilisation.

That question has shaped an unusually varied career spanning philosophy, the birth of personal computing, Silicon Valley, artificial intelligence and, most recently, fiction and historical commentary. Although these pursuits may appear diverse, they are united by a single intellectual thread—the belief that the great turning points in history begin not with machines or institutions, but with ideas.

Born in Cairo in 1945 while his father was serving with the Royal Air Force, Healy spent his childhood moving between countries during the reconstruction of post-war Europe. Growing up in an international military family gave him an early awareness that societies are shaped by history, culture and technology as much as by politics. That perspective has remained with him throughout his life.

He studied philosophy at the University of London during a remarkable period in the department's history, when Sir Bernard Williams was one of Britain's leading philosophers. Williams's emphasis on reason, ethics and intellectual honesty left a lasting impression and established the philosophical foundations that continue to underpin Healy's work today.

Soon afterwards, he travelled to Rishikesh in northern India to study Transcendental Meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The experience deepened his lifelong interest in consciousness, creativity and the relationship between human thought and the wider patterns of civilisation.

Rather than remaining in academic philosophy, however, Healy chose an entirely different path. At a time when commercial computing was still in its infancy, he entered the emerging software industry, convinced that computers would transform not simply business, but society itself.

His early work at Computel and later at London University Computing Services introduced him to the first generation of commercial computer systems and remote computing networks. In 1980 he founded Intelligence UK, where he developed advanced financial modelling software for the Apple II, exploring ideas that anticipated many later developments in decision-support systems and artificial intelligence.

That experience led naturally to Silicon Valley during the formative years of the personal computer revolution. Following a meeting with Adam Osborne, Healy became President of Osborne Computer Corporation UK, helping to establish one of the world's first successful portable business computers in the British market. It placed him at the centre of one of the defining technological revolutions of the late twentieth century and brought him into contact with many of the pioneers who were reshaping the industry.

Over the following decades he advised technology companies entering European markets, witnessing at first hand the extraordinary acceleration of computing, software and communications. Throughout that period, however, his deepest interest remained not technology itself, but the larger historical forces that technology both reflects and creates.

Those interests eventually found their natural expression in writing.

His six-volume Hero Engine series uses speculative fiction to explore the ethical, political and philosophical consequences of transformative artificial intelligence. Rather than treating technology as an end in itself, the novels ask timeless questions about power, freedom, responsibility and what it means to remain human in an age of intelligent machines.

Alongside his fiction, Healy writes extensively on artificial intelligence, computing history, political leadership and the evolution of civilisation. His essays, published through Substack under the banner of The Long Continuity, explore the connections between ancient philosophy, scientific discovery and the technological revolutions that continue to shape the modern world.

Today, Michael G. Healy's work brings together a lifetime spent in philosophy, computing and writing. Whether discussing Homer, Alan Turing, Adam Osborne or the future of artificial intelligence, his central concern remains the same: understanding how ideas emerge, how they transform civilisation and how individuals can help shape the future.