Bix is a brilliant tech genius and the founder of the massively successful social media platform Mandala. Having achieved immense wealth by developing the memory-sharing software Own Your Unconscious, he feels unfulfilled and craves the intellectual stimulation of his earlier years. Despite his success, he struggles with a sense of isolation and disguises himself to join academic discussion groups.

Alfred is the youngest son of art historian Ted Hollander. Fiercely opposed to anything he views as fake or performative, he conducts bizarre social experiments, such as screaming in public, to provoke genuine reactions from strangers. His rebellion isolates him from his family, though his eccentricities attract the attention of academic researchers.

Miles is the oldest Hollander brother, who spent years meticulously crafting an image of suburban perfection with a high-paying job and a family. Driven by deep anxiety, his carefully managed life eventually crumbles under the weight of prescription drug addiction and an affair. In the aftermath of his mistakes, he attempts to rebuild his identity from the ground up.

Drew is a dedicated doctor who serves low-income communities and maintains a fiercely positive outlook on life. He is deeply empathetic but carries a lifelong trauma stemming from the college drowning of his friend Rob. He balances his medical responsibilities with his eccentric family life, often acting as a stabilizing force for those around him.

Miranda is a legendary anthropologist who found success later in life after researching a remote indigenous tribe in Brazil. Her book, Patterns of Affinity, details algorithms of human behavior and unintentionally becomes the foundation for Bix Bouton's tech empire. Rejecting the fame and capitalization of her work, she increasingly withdraws from society.

Chris is the son of Bennie Salazar and Stephanie, a young man who often feels like a supporting character in his own life. After losing his best friend to an overdose and going through a painful breakup, he eventually pivots to creating Mondrian, an alternative virtual world designed to help people in recovery centers escape their trauma.

Lulu is a resilient woman who spends her childhood living with the Salazar family while her mother is incarcerated. As a teenager, she is generous and confident, offering kindness to those around her. In adulthood, she takes on a dangerous role as a Citizen Agent, enduring espionage and severe physical trauma while heavily augmented with government surveillance technology.

Lincoln is Drew and Sasha's son, characterized by a hyper-analytical, mathematical mind. He considers himself atypical because he views human interaction entirely through statistics and diagrams, which often alienates him from others. He deeply desires a connection with his coworker M but struggles to process emotions that cannot be quantified.

Melora is the daughter of Miranda and Lou Kline. Growing up with an elusive mother and a wealthy, chaotic father, she ultimately chooses to help manage her father's failing music business. Her pragmatic decision to sell her mother's intellectual algorithms to tech companies creates a permanent rift in her family.

Charlie is one of Lou Kline's daughters from an earlier marriage. Curious about her father's past and the origins of his music empire, she utilizes Mandala's collective consciousness technology to access his memories. She searches for deeper meaning in her family history but finds that raw data rarely provides emotional closure.

Roxy is another of Lou Kline's daughters, who has spent much of her adult life battling severe drug addiction. Seeking to reclaim a sense of belonging, she attempts to revisit fond childhood memories of her father using a Consciousness Cube. She is desperately searching for validation and connection in a world that has largely left her behind.

Jules is Chris Salazar's uncle, a man trying to rebuild his life after a stint in prison. He struggles with his own mental health and paranoia, often hiding in his room to avoid past mistakes. Despite his eccentricities, he possesses a sharp intellect and eventually reinvents himself as a respected music journalist.

Gregory is Bix Bouton's youngest son, an aspiring fiction writer who actively rejects his father's technological empire. Disgusted by the idea of quantifying human experience, he prefers the imagination of literature over the raw data of Own Your Unconscious. He works odd jobs to fund his writing, dealing with complex grief over his father's declining health.

Ames is the middle Hollander brother, frequently overshadowed by Alfred's rebellion and Miles's pursuit of perfection. Quiet and often forgotten, he later joins the military and Special Ops, seeking anonymity. His story highlights the difference between knowing the mere facts of a person's life versus understanding their actual, lived experience.

Lou is a massively successful music producer who has married multiple times and fathered several children. Though he provides his daughters with wealth and privilege, he often remains emotionally distant and hides the darker aspects of his lifestyle. In his later years, declining health and the rise of digital streaming threaten his empire.

Sasha is an artist who creates intricate sculptures out of discarded materials and trash. Having overcome a troubled past that included kleptomania, she is now happily married to Drew and lives a bohemian, fulfilling life. Her artistic success and personal stability serve as a stark contrast to Miles's crumbling facade.

Molly is a sensitive preteen navigating the petty cruelties and exclusionary dynamics of adolescence. Desperate to fit in with mean girls, she unexpectedly finds genuine joy and acceptance when she ditches the country club to spend an afternoon with Lulu and Chris, experiencing a rare moment of uncurated freedom.

Noreen is Molly and Hannah's mother, viewed by her community as an odd, friendless conspiracy theorist. She neglects her household to wage a bizarre, paranoid feud against Jules Jones, even sleeping on her lawn to guard her property. Beneath her erratic behavior lies an unspoken desire for connection.

Rebecca is a driven PhD candidate in sociology who attends the same academic meetings as Bix. Intrigued by the anomalies of human behavior, she doggedly pursues Alfred Hollander, hoping to use his bizarre public experiments and unpopular documentaries as case studies for her academic research.

Ted is an art history professor and the father of Miles, Ames, and Alfred. He serves as an intellectual hub for various thinkers, inadvertently connecting massive tech figures with academic researchers. He watches his sons take wildly different paths with varying degrees of success.

Lizzie is Bix Bouton's wife. She has supported him since before his massive technological success, keeping him grounded in the reality of family life. While Bix wanders the city grappling with existential thoughts, Lizzie maintains the stability of their household.

Rob is a college friend of Bix and Drew who tragically drowned in the East River. Though long dead, the trauma of his sudden passing heavily influences the trajectories of both men, driving Bix to develop memory-sharing technology and motivating Drew to dedicate his life to medicine.

Lana is the daughter of Miranda and Lou Kline. She grows up deeply affected by her parents' divorce and her mother's long absences. Ultimately, she follows a different path from her sister Melora, joining the elusive online demographic that completely rejects public data sharing.

Bennie is Chris Salazar's father and Stephanie's husband. Heavily connected to the music industry, his professional relationships frequently intersect with his family life, occasionally bringing massive cultural figures into his son's orbit.

Stephanie is Chris Salazar's mother and Bennie's wife. She frequently finds herself managing the chaotic elements of her household, including taking in the young girl Lulu and dealing with her eccentric brother Jules, all while fielding the erratic behavior of her neighbor Noreen.

Dolly is Lulu's mother. Having spent time in prison during Lulu's childhood, she works to rebuild their relationship in later years. She carries a heavy sense of guilt over her past actions as a public relations representative for questionable political figures.

Joseph is Lulu's husband, a man who works in National Security. He is deeply concerned for his wife's safety and psychological well-being following her traumatizing work as a Citizen Agent, though he remains entirely unaware of the specific secrets she keeps to cope with her pain.

M is Lincoln's coworker and the object of his intense affection. She views the world outside of Lincoln's rigid mathematical boundaries, leading a more typical emotional life that consistently confounds his statistical predictions about her behavior.

Hannah is Molly's sister and Noreen's daughter. Unlike her erratic mother and anxious sister, Hannah possesses a highly logical and rational perspective. She watches her mother's obsessive behavior unfold with mature, detached concern.