Technoconvergence by James Smith

A floating corpse drifts through an antigravity nightclub, a first assignment for Epoch the electronic investigator. Enlisted to determine whether the cause was antigravity toxicity, drug overdose, or murder, Epoch's investigational skills improve exponentially. But while Epoch investigates, his complacent human colleagues find themselves increasingly addicted to hallucinations induced by virtual reality tablets. Gradually, the humans begin to have doubts about their robot friend. What was his origin? Who were his creators? Has he been sent to destroy the human race? What does all of this have to do with Fermi’s paradox? And above all, the one question which persistently vexes them — has the Technoconvergence arrived at last?