Cryostasis Revival


Book Description

Cryostasis is an emergency medical procedure in which a human patient is placed in biological stasis at cryogenic temperatures. A cryopreserved patient can be maintained in this condition indefinitely without suffering additional degradation, but cannot yet be revived using currently available technology. This book presents the first comprehensive conceptual protocol for revival from human cryopreservation, using medical nanorobots. The revival methods presented in this book involve three stages: (1) collecting information from preserved structure, (2) computing how to fix damaged structure, and (3) implementing the repair procedure using nanorobots manufactured in a nanofactory - a system for atomically precise manufacturing that is now visible on the technological horizon.




Humanity In-Between and Beyond


Book Description

This volume discusses the definitional problems and conceptual strategies involved in defining the human. By crossing the boundaries of disciplines and themes, it offers a transdisciplinary platform for exploring the new ideas of the human and adjusting to the dynamic in which we are plunged. The emerging cyborgs and transhumans call for an urgent reconsideration of humans as individuals and collectives. The identity of the human in the 21st century eludes definitions underpinned by simplifying and simplified dichotomies. Affecting all the spheres of life, the discoveries and achievements of recent decades have challenged the bipolar categorizations of human/nonhuman and human/machine, real/virtual and thus opened the door to transdisciplinary considerations. Ours is a new world where the boundaries of normality and abnormality, a legacy of the long history of philosophy, medicine, and science need dismantling. We are now on our way to re-examine, re-understand, and re-describe what normal-abnormal, human-nonhuman, and I-we-they mean. We find ourselves facing what resembles the liminal stage of a global ritual, a stage of being in-between—between the old anthropocentric order and a new position of blurred boundaries. The volume addresses philosophical, bioethical, sociological, and cognitive approaches developed to transcend the binaries of human-nonhuman, natural-artificial, individual-collective, and real-virtual.




The Death of Death


Book Description

Is death inevitable? Until now, the history of mankind has been marked by this fatal fact. Religions, borders and progress are born from an ancient fear of death, comfort from this fear man often found only in religious paradigms. But according to José Luis Cordeiro and David Wood, the incontrovertible fact of death is no longer an absolute certainty - science and technology are preparing to tear down the final frontier: that of immortality. This accessible book provides insight into recent exponential advances in artificial intelligence, tissue regeneration, stem cell treatment, organ printing, cryopreservation, and genetic therapies that, for the first time in human history, offer a realistic chance to solve the problem of the aging of the human body. In this book, Cordeiro and Wood not only present all the major developments, initiatives, and ideas for eternal life, they also show why there are a number of good arguments for seeing death for what it is: the last undefeated disease. Enter any drugstore or bookstore, and we confronted with a mountain of nonsense concerning the aging process. Society seems obsessed with aging. That is why The Death of Death is such a refreshing delight, able to cut through the hype and reveal a balanced, authoritative, and lucid discussion of this controversial topic. It summarizes the astonishing breakthroughs made recently in revealing how science may one day conquer the aging process. Michio Kaku, theoretical physicist and author of The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything We are entering a Fantastic Voyage into life extension, crossing different bridges that will take us to indefinite life spans. The Death of Death explains clearly how we might soon reach longevity escape velocity and live long enough to live forever. Ray Kurzweil, co-author of Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever and co-founder of Singularity University The Death of Death is a truly revolutionary book. This is a visionary book that confronts us with the terrible reality of aging, and its authors are friends and connoisseurs of the subject. I believe that the authoritative and exhaustive description of this crusade that José and David make in this excellent book will accelerate this process. Forward! Aubrey de Grey, founder of LEV (Longevity Escape Velocity) Foundation and co-author of Ending Aging




The Vorkosigan Companion


Book Description

Master the Vorkosiverse! "I've always tried to write the kind of book I most loved to reacharacter-centered adventure. Readers return to such books because those characters have become their friends, and there is no limit to the number of times you want to be with your friends again." ¾Lois McMaster Bujold, from The Vorkosigan Companion. It's the companion for everything Miles and Vorkosigan: Insightful essays, encyclopedic entries on the characters, the plots and¾most of all¾the fantastic world-building! Plus, an extensive story-behind-the-story essay on the creation of the books, and a Bujold mini-biography! At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). "Bujold mixes quirky humor with action [and] superb character development. [E]normously satisfying." ¾Publishers Weekly




Limits of Life


Book Description

New technologies and scientific imagination rearrange the boundary that we identify as the beginning and end of life. New techno-social constellations, such as the ever-increasing presence of digital avatars and genetic screenings, implore us to reconsider and transcend the existing definitions of life and death. Through a multidisciplinary approach, this volume explores how the limitations and perceived finality of life and death are reconstituted through engagements with modern technology.




Artifact of the Dawn


Book Description

Taking shelter from a sudden rainstorm, Ardyn of the Athla’naa finds a strange object, inscribed with the ancient writing of his people. Except, it’s all wrong. The artifact is made of a metal he’s never seen before, not even among the metal-forging Medellans. What’s even stranger? Whenever he touches the object, the inscription glows. In a quest to seek the truth behind this discovery, Ardyn meets Jevan, a Medellan trader. They risk both their lives and the tenuous truce between their people by venturing deep into forbidden woods, known as the Aria'una. What Jevan and Ardyn discover could change their world forever. Before they can decide what to do, hunters bring them before the Athla’naa Triumvirate, who are intent on making an example of them for daring to trespass in the Aria'una. Will they face the consequences of their defiance or risk everything to flee and expose the truth?




Professor Ricksted's Children and the Aliens


Book Description

Ricksted's Syndrome children are slow to acquire normal human language but can understand non-human language. When invasion by hostile viking-like aliens is imminent, SETI scientist receive a warning message from a friendly alien but it sounds like gobbledygook! Two Ricksted children are able to come to the rescue. The USA president wants to nuke the aliens - not a good idea! The invasion starts just as the Ricksted children (with a little help from friends) have a breakthrough. This is NOT a children's book!




The First Immortal


Book Description

Cryonics-the freezing of human beings for later reanimation-has become commonplace in the 21st century in this innovative techno-thriller.




When We Wake


Book Description

My name is Tegan Oglietti, and on the last day of my first lifetime, I was so, so happy. Sixteen-year-old Tegan is just like every other girl living in 2027--she's happiest when playing the guitar, she's falling in love for the first time, and she's joining her friends to protest the wrongs of the world: environmental collapse, social discrimination, and political injustice. But on what should have been the best day of Tegan's life, she dies--and wakes up a hundred years in the future, locked in a government facility with no idea what happened. Tegan is the first government guinea pig to be cryonically frozen and successfully revived, which makes her an instant celebrity--even though all she wants to do is try to rebuild some semblance of a normal life. But the future isn't all she hoped it would be, and when appalling secrets come to light, Tegan must make a choice: Does she keep her head down and survive, or fight for a better future? Award-winning author Karen Healey has created a haunting, cautionary tale of an inspiring protagonist living in a not-so-distant future that could easily be our own.




Transcension


Book Description

Damien Broderick has been a leading Australian SF writer since the ‘70s. His novel The Dreaming Dragons was listed in SF: the 100 best novels. His recent nonfiction book, The Spike, is a mind-stretching look at the wonders of the high-tech future. Now in Transcension he brings to life one of the futures he imagined in The Spike, a world pervaded by nanotechnology and governed by artificial intelligence. Transcension may be Broderick’s best book yet. Amanda is a brilliant violinist, a mathematical genius, and a rebel. Impatient for the adult status her society only grants at age thirty, but determined to have a real adventure first, she has repeatedly gotten into trouble and found herself in the courtroom of Magistrate Mohammed Abdel-Malik, the sole resurrectee from among those who were frozen in the early twenty-first century, the man whose mind was the seed for Aleph, the AI that rules this utopia. Mathewmark is a real adolescent, living in the last place where they still exist, the reservation known as the Valley of the God of One's Choice, where those who have chosen faith over technology are allowed to live out their simpler lives. When Amanda determines that access to the valley is the key to the daring stunt she plans, it is Mathewmark she will have to lead into temptation. But just as Amanda, Mathewmark, and Abdel-Malik are struggling to find themselves and achieve their potentials, so is Aleph, and the AI's success will be a challenge to them and all of humanity. At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.