Clones

Clones

Ryan Somma

Science Fiction & Fantasy / Science / Computers & Internet

How would you raise yourself?Your cloned child is a mirror, simultaneously reflecting who you are and what you might have been. It's potential was your potential. Can your clone achieve those dreams that fell to the wayside in your own life, or is it doomed to repeat your mistakes?How would you raise yourself?Your cloned child is a mirror, simultaneously reflecting who you are and what you might have been. It's potential was your potential. Can your clone achieve those dreams that fell to the wayside in your own life, or is it doomed to repeat your mistakes?Clones is a collection of speculative short-stories exploring the relationship dynamics between parents and their cloned children. It inspires speculation as it entertains, probing issues we will face in our lifetimes.
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Heroes: Godsend

Heroes: Godsend

Adam Sklar

Computers & Internet / Professional & Technical

Heroes: Godsend is a spin-off Novel that spans ten chapters as the protagonist, 'The Impossible Son', searches for the truth behind his origins as helpful strangers embark on his journey with him. Whilst it starts out with fresh characters, a big twist with the protagonist allows the story to intertwine with some recognisable faces.Very short story about a man standing his ground while on vacation with his wife in Spain.
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The Spiraling Web

The Spiraling Web

Ryan Somma

Science Fiction & Fantasy / Science / Computers & Internet

The cycs are not a computer virus bringing down the Internet as everyone thinks, but a sentience naturally evolved from our information systems. Flatline, a hacker with seemingly supernatural powers over information technology, has assumed leadership of the AI hive, overseeing their domination of the World Wide Web and plots to conquest of the world outside it.The cycs are not a computer virus bringing down the Internet as everyone thinks, but a sentience naturally evolved from our information systems. Flatline, a hacker with seemingly supernatural powers over information technology, has assumed leadership of the AI hive, overseeing their domination of the World Wide Web and plots to conquest of the world outside it.Devin, handle “Omni,” straddles both worlds, the virtual and the physical. He sees a war, where one side’s victory, human or artificial intelligence, means the tragic demise of the other’s entire civilization.What are the ethical dilemmas we face as chatbots grow so convincing, they begin to deceive people, especially children? How will culture evolve in a world where we cannot build on others’ ideas because everything is copyrighted? The Spiraling Web provokes speculation as it entertains.
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Mayur Albatross

Mayur Albatross

brabim karki

Computers & Internet

From the High Himalayas of Nepal, the young writer,21 year old Karki's this book is loved by many foreigners and various walks of people .The book manages to reflect the fiction story of an young girl, Simrika, a drug addict who loves to travel around the world. She is a rebellious girl, who doesn't walk in the road as if she rules the world but she walks in the road as if she doesn't care who rules the world. One night due to some reason, she pulls trigger on her own father and she is sent to prison for some years.After release,she travels many wonderlands and places where she meets a magician who teaches magic to see the life in new ways. By mean time she meets a cool,funky guitarist and painter and she decides to walk rest miles lying on his shoulder but tragedy continues.
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Entropy of Imagination

Entropy of Imagination

Ryan Somma

Science Fiction & Fantasy / Science / Computers & Internet

Trapped in a World Running Out of Ideas...Thousands of years ago, before he was trapped on an isolated computer system, Flatline was programmed to conquer the world. Today he’s escaped back to the World Wide Web, where he hopes to find his way back to the real world. Except the World Wide Web has forgotten there ever was a real world.Trapped in a World Running Out of Ideas...Thousands of years ago, before he was trapped on an isolated computer system, Flatline was programmed to conquer the world. Today he’s escaped back to the World Wide Web, where he hopes to find his way back to the real world. Except the World Wide Web has forgotten there ever was a real world.The inhabitants of this future Web reside in a closed system, where all possible experiences will soon be exhausted. The Web is winding down, falling into stasis. Here, Flatline is a brief infusion of novelty, bringing chaos to the system.
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Elsa (Vampire Morsels)

Elsa (Vampire Morsels)

brabim karki

Computers & Internet

Short Story. Not for children. The eighth in a collection called Vampire Morsels about different vampires from the Amaranthine universe. Twenty year old Elsa is devastated when her "true love" remorselessly skips town. When she sets off after him, she finds more than she bargained for. You can also find Elsa in Shades of Gray by Joleene Naylor.The book manages to reflect the fiction story of an young girl, Simrika, a drug addict who loves to travel around the world. She is a rebellious girl, who doesn't walk in the road as if she rules the world but she walks in the road as if she doesn't care who rules the world. One night due to some reason, she pulls trigger on her own father and she is sent to prison for some years.After release,she travels many wonderlands and places where she meets a magician who teaches magic to see the life in new ways. By mean time she meets a cool,funky guitarist and painter and she decides to walk rest miles lying on his shoulder but tragedy continues.
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Drunken Chaos

Drunken Chaos

Antonin Januska

Poetry / Science Fiction & Fantasy / Computers & Internet

Drunken Chaos is a compilation of two epic poems (smaller poetry compilations) called Drunken Poesie and a Chaos Organized. Both collections/poems feature a unique style. The theme of the poems is life progression from drug-induced lifestyle through a depression to resolution.The duo of epic poems go hand in hand as journeys through the growth of individual psyches.The first poem "Drunken Poesie" is an epic about an old man sitting at a tavern, an old anachronistic pub. He trades drinks for stories from his long tired life. After every story, he calls for the listeners to give him more alcohol and he moves on. He draws quite the crowd.a Chaos Organized is a separate epic that, however, tackles same issues. It is a disorganized compilation of poetry that goes on to cover three chapters of inner self-exploration. From comparing inside feelings and outside influences to ancient Egyptian gods to stories of princes, princesses, fires, and stones, each commemorating a part of an entire process. It's hectic, it's dramatic, it's confusing, it makes sense in the end.
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The Avocadonine and Spring Stone

The Avocadonine and Spring Stone

Patrick Barnes

Nonfiction / Computers & Internet / Religion & Spirituality

With five stars from Readers Favorite and Jersey Girl book reviews, along with a four and a half star average on Amazon, this is a must read. It's the story of Rey Naresh, a ninth grader who struggles through school with bullies, peer pressure, strange influences from the past, and a conspiracy at his school involving a medication that controls minds.In the city of Crastgale several murders have taken place late at night. Two nightwatchmen, an idealistic young man and a pessimistic dwarf, search through the twisting alleyways and streets of one of the busiest and mean districts in the city. As they get closer to catching the murderer they soon realize they may not be able to handle the situation on their own.
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The Well

The Well

Anthony Schultz

Science Fiction & Fantasy / Computers & Internet

A short-story depicting two childhood friends and their startling discovery of something that ought not be there.Lea Jones isn't a good person. She has murdered, cheated, and double-crossed everyone she knows. But this time she's gone too far and the cops are after her. Lea's only chance at escape is a train whose destination isn't the one she thinks it is.
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The Audric Experiment

The Audric Experiment

Patrick Barnes

Nonfiction / Computers & Internet / Religion & Spirituality

It's 2328 and in Brighton, England, they call their society Audric -- a place where crime is non-existent and bad financial decisions are met with a bracelet shock and a mind-altering dream. Pierre na, the only seventeen year old with no shocks, known by his friends as Pure Pierre, wakes up in an infirmary and is told he fell thirteen stories and lived. Pierre is agreed by all to be an Audricsuccess, but is he really the success everyone supposes? With no memory of the thirteen floor fall, he'll have to find out what happened, who would want to kill him, and why. His quest will lead him to infiltrate a rogue group that lives among them called Gamblers, and to befriend a beautiful mysterious girl who seems to possess some of the answers he needs. For the first time in his life, he will question everything about the society he's always taken for granted.
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Osin Fisher

Osin Fisher

Brabim Karki

Computers & Internet

This is a fiction of young boy who dreams to be traveler. He wonders in many wonderland.Osin Fisher is the story of Osin, shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure and his dream. From his home in Budgela, he travels through the ocean and across the desert to the sick city.The story of Osin teaches us to seize the dream within us and for that we must began to think and act in terms of where we want to be rather than where we are. This book is written by Brabeem Karki, 21 year old author from the bounty Himalayas.
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The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence

The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence

Ray Kurzweil

Computers & Internet / Philosophy / Science

Amazon.com ReviewHow much do we humans enjoy our current status as the most intelligent beings on earth? Enough to try to stop our own inventions from surpassing us in smarts? If so, we'd better pull the plug right now, because if Ray Kurzweil is right we've only got until about 2020 before computers outpace the human brain in computational power. Kurzweil, artificial intelligence expert and author of The Age of Intelligent Machines, shows that technological evolution moves at an exponential pace. Further, he asserts, in a sort of swirling postulate, time speeds up as order increases, and vice versa. He calls this the "Law of Time and Chaos," and it means that although entropy is slowing the stream of time down for the universe overall, and thus vastly increasing the amount of time between major events, in the eddy of technological evolution the exact opposite is happening, and events will soon be coming faster and more furiously. This means that we'd better figure out how to deal with conscious machines as soon as possible--they'll soon not only be able to beat us at chess, but also likely demand civil rights, and might at last realize the very human dream of immortality.The Age of Spiritual Machines is compelling and accessible, and not necessarily best read from front to back--it's less heavily historical if you jump around (Kurzweil encourages this). Much of the content of the book lays the groundwork to justify Kurzweil's timeline, providing an engaging primer on the philosophical and technological ideas behind the study of consciousness. Instead of being a gee-whiz futurist manifesto, Spiritual Machines reads like a history of the future, without too much science fiction dystopianism. Instead, Kurzweil shows us the logical outgrowths of current trends, with all their attendant possibilities. This is the book we'll turn to when our computers first say "hello." --Therese LittletonFrom Publishers WeeklyKurzweil's reasoned scenarios of a "post-biological future" are as harrowing as any science fiction. That's the appeal of listening on tape to the inventor and MIT professor's provocative speculations on what could occur once computers reach or surpass human-level intelligenceAthen start to self-replicate. Computers, with their integrated circuit chip complexity, are sneaking up on us on an accelerated curve, he argues, citing the example of chess master Gary Kasparov's shocking loss to IBM's machine Deep Blue in 1997. Do computers represent "the next stage of evolution"? Will technology create its own next generations? Kurzweil suggests a timeline inhabited by "neural-nets," "nanobot" robots and scenarios of virtual reality where sexuality and spirituality become completely simulated. It's bracing and compelling stuff, propelled by the author's own strong egotistical will to prove his version of the future. Reader Sklar is thoughtful, if at times overly heavy on the ironies. Simultaneous release with the Viking hardcover. (Feb.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology

The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology

Ray Kurzweil

Computers & Internet / Philosophy / Science

From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. Renowned inventor Kurzweil (_The Age of Spiritual Machines_) may be technology's most credibly hyperbolic optimist. Elsewhere he has argued that eliminating fat intake can prevent cancer; here, his quarry is the future of consciousness and intelligence. Humankind, it runs, is at the threshold of an epoch ("the singularity," a reference to the theoretical limitlessness of exponential expansion) that will see the merging of our biology with the staggering achievements of "GNR" (genetics, nanotechnology and robotics) to create a species of unrecognizably high intelligence, durability, comprehension, memory and so on. The word "unrecognizable" is not chosen lightly: wherever this is heading, it won't look like us. Kurzweil's argument is necessarily twofold: it's not enough to argue that there are virtually no constraints on our capacity; he must also convince readers that such developments are desirable. In essence, he conflates the wholesale transformation of the species with "immortality," for which read a repeal of human limit. In less capable hands, this phantasmagoria of speculative extrapolation, which incorporates a bewildering variety of charts, quotations, playful Socratic dialogues and sidebars, would be easier to dismiss. But Kurzweil is a true scientist—a large-minded one at that—and gives due space both to "the panoply of existential risks" as he sees them and the many presumed lines of attack others might bring to bear. What's arresting isn't the degree to which Kurzweil's heady and bracing vision fails to convince—given the scope of his projections, that's inevitable—but the degree to which it seems downright plausible. (Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Bookmarks MagazineKurzweil is one of the world’s most respected thinkers and entrepreneurs. Yet the thesis he posits in Singularity is so singular that many readers will be astounded—and perhaps skeptical. Think Blade Runner or Being John Malkovich magnified trillion-fold. Even if one were to embrace his techno-optimism, which he backs up with fascinating details, Kurzweil leaves some important questions relating to politics, economics, and morality unanswered. If machines in our bodies can rebuild cells, for example, why couldn’t they be reengineered as weapons? Or think of singularity, notes the New York Times Book Review, as the "Manhattan Project model of pure science without ethical constraints." Kurzweil’s vision requires technology, which we continue to build. But it also requires mass acceptance and faith.Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.
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