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Alautun Press |
Contemplating Oblivion, Coming 2024
Contemplating OblivionComing 2024Keith Wiley
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What people are saying |
| "Beautiful! Wiley portrays a galaxy-spanning civilization in which people are computerized and immortal, transmitting their self-patterns in and out of simulations, as well as branching their minds to travel between stars. But we see a culture stymied by the unsolvability of consciousness and horrified by the end of the universe. In this world, the protagonist must explore the galaxy in her quest to tie these two final and greatest mysteries together." | |
| —ERIC KLIEN • President of Lifeboat Foundation | |
| "A unique vision of humanity's future. Wiley has created a world in which technology and biology are indistinguishable and people travel between the stars as beamed data streams. Consciousness itself has become the predominant curiosity, while survival has become the primary concern in a universe fated to die. A beautiful story of commitment and quest, both personal and societal." | |
| —ZOLTAN ISTVAN • Founder of the Transhumanist Party and Author of The Transhumanist Wager | |
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| Qualia: the quality or feeling of a conscious experience. Qualia can't be described, they must be experienced to be known. A million years in the future physics is closed. Humanity has computerized the brain, solved death, and spread across the galaxy. The greatest challenge that remains is figuring out how a quadrillion immortal, nearly omnipotent humans might survive the eventual end of the universe. Lysandra is a million-year-old quale-diver, a person who designs novel neural configurations in search of new conscious experiences—qualia. When she discovers a conscious state that hints at a solution to the universe-survival problem, the entire galaxy erupts with renewed excitement and hope. The final question to end all questions might be on the brink of a solution. But there are those who believe that surviving the end of the universe will destabilize the timeless cycle of infinite universes, leading to eternal oblivion, and they will stop at nothing to prevent Lysandra from completing her work. |
