In the run up to the release of The Know Circuit, the sequel to Under an Amoral Bridge, I've done a new logo and header for the site. The header has the release date, Feb. 2nd. I'm on track to get the first installments done on time. Keep watching this space.
Read more...Sunday, January 25, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
The Know Circuit is Coming
Just a quick update to say that the sequel, The Know Circuit, is in progress. I've done the rough draft for the first three chapters, which will likely end up being about 6 updates at 2 updates a week. I like where the story is going, and while walking the dogs last night, I got some cool side ideas for the third book in the series. Yes, I've already conceived a sequel to the sequel. The Know Circuit will shed a bit more light on the relationship between Bridge and Aristotle, as well as reveal some parts of the world outside of Chronosoft's control.
Follow the mundane aspects of my life on Twitter, where I'll also be updating the release of the new novel. The current plan is to release the first segment on Tuesday, February 3rd.
Monday, December 22, 2008
The Future of Bridge
It's time to update the five or so readers who still follow this blog on the future. Specifically, the future of this blog and my writing. The good news is that there will be a future. The relative silence of the last few months can be chalked up to general procrastination and my continuing addiction to video games and Tivo'ed television. But I have not been a completely idle layabout. There has been writing. I'm currently putting the finishing touches on a short story that is loosely connected to the Bridge tales. I've an entire week and a half of time off of work for the upcoming Christmas holidays, time I intend to spend finishing that story and beginning the next Bridge novel. Entitled The Know Circuit, the intention is to release it on the one-year anniversary of the release of Under the Amoral Bridge. So expect the first chapter somewhere around Jan. 31, 2009.
The format will vary slightly. One of the criticisms of the novel is based on the format. The blog format is not conducive to long chapters, and I am at times rather long-winded. Rather than one chapter every two weeks, I am structuring the novel in smaller, more bite-sized chunks. Hopefully, this will serve two purposes. It will be easier to read in a blog-like sitting, and it should allow me to release chapters/parts on a more frequent basis. I'm aiming for an output of 2-chunks-per-week. We'll see how that works.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Meatpunk: Look what stem cells can do now
Some days life imitates art. Doctors in Spain reported today the successful use of stem cells in a tissue-engineered whole organ transplant operation. In this case, a patient who was in danger of losing a lung to tuberculosis needed a trachea transplant to repair her damaged airways. The doctors used the trachea of a dead organ donor and a concoction of chemicals with the patient's adult stem cells to "vat-grow" an entirely new trachea. Of course, the reason this is so exciting is that using regrown organs means that the patient should run little risk of rejecting the new organ. In this case, the patient not only used no anti-rejection drugs, but five months after the transplant she is in perfect health and the organ is working with its own blood supply. This means there is almost no chance the organ will ever be rejected.
It has long been a staple of cyberpunk stories that organs and even limbs can be regrown in "vats" for easy transplantation, but it is miraculous to see this theory become a reality. I cannot help but wonder what the benefits we might see from stem cell research should the US allow funding of embryonic stem cell research again. Though I've heard the arguments against such restrictions many times, the cons pale in comparison to the genuine potential for good such research holds. This isn't about political points, or snowflake children, it's about saving and improving the quality of lives for people suffering from debilitating diseases like Parkinson's or devastating injuries and sicknesses such as this patient suffered. Embryos used in stem cell research are not snowflake children, they are embryos that are never used and will be discarded once their parents no longer need them. Please do not let innocent people suffer because of some high-minded, wrongheaded ideal about mythical never-babies.
Perhaps in a few years we can regrow new spines for paraplegics injured in car crashes. Maybe we can replace the limbs that have been blown off our soldiers by some IED in Iraq. Could cancerous cells be replaced by completely healthy cells without damaging radiation and enervating drugs like TNF blockers? Birth defects, genetic diseases... is there any field of medicine that might not benefit from all kinds of stem cell research?
Welcome to the world of Meatpunk.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
GlobalPedia 2028: Chronosoft, Inc.
Chronosoft, Inc. is the public name for a multinational conglomerate of corporations, most of who specialize in the electronics industries. Made up of thousands of businesses both big and small, Chronosoft, Inc. has its global headquarters in the city of Los Angeles, California. The parent company of all Chronosoft entities is known as the Chronosoft Holdings Corporation. One of its subsidiaries, the Chronosoft Local Governance Administration, is in charge of the civil administration of the Los Angeles county area under the Local Governance License issued in 2027. PCE spent the 1980’s in intensive acquisition mode, gobbling up smaller software and hardware companies while never attempting to compete directly with what Willingham had correctly seen as unassailable juggernauts of the computer world, Microsoft and Apple. Through intelligent acquisitions, PCE was uniquely poised to take advantage of the technology boom of the ‘90’s. Much of the underlying technology behind the Internet was developed and licensed by PCE subsidiaries. By the year 2000, PCE had grown to be one of the largest publicly-traded corporations in the country, but with a surprising lack of public awareness. A new millennium brought with it a new direction, highlighted by a complete revitalization of the corporate brand, symbolized by the reinvention of the company as Chronosoft, Inc.
History
The company which would become Chronosoft Holdings Corporation was founded in 1948 by Jordan Pennington as Pennington Calculation & Electronics, a company specializing in early computer development for military and aeronautics research. Much of PCE’s early contracts were with the United States military, thanks to Pennington’s extensive connections from his time with the NIA and the early days of the CIA. Their equipment has served an instrumental part in the development of the Air Force’s evolving technological superiority, from the first jet plane designs to the foundation of the space program. Known in many government circles as “the most important company you never heard of,” PCE grew to be one of the largest government contractors in the military-industrial complex of the ‘50’s.
By the late 1970’s, PCE founder Pennington had begun to shift much of PCE’s focus to the nascent personal computing arena. He provided much of the funding for a number of early PC projects. Most failed in the face of competition from Apple and IBM, and in 1979, the board of PCE voted Pennington out of his post as Chief Executive Officer. He maintained a non-voting seat on the board, but never seemed to recover from what he publicly deemed a “Benedict Arnold-sized betrayal.” The new CEO, Artis Willingham, was a young, energetic turk with an eye towards finance. In a bitter twist of irony, Willingham personally steered the company towards software development despite the board’s objections. Many felt he was following “Old Man” Pennington’s failed vision. However, his gamble paid off much better than expected as the personal computing boom of the ‘80’s created a huge demand for PCE’s products.
The economic downturn of the early 21st century did little to slow Chronosoft’s growth, as it spread its reach globally. They became one of the prime movers in the Internet’s metamorphosis into the GlobalNet, a much more robust platform for the set of global applications Chronosoft had been developing. Under the direction of CEO Kato Flauvio, appointed as successor to Willingham in 2007, Chronosoft displayed more prescient business decisions by investing in the early development of cyberware. Their commercial releases of such ‘ware as the interface jack and the first crèche models were instant successes, garnering them massive sales and public fanfare.
Flauvio stepped down from his position in 2025, and was replaced with another in a long line of visionary young CEO’s, the 32-year old Sanborn Davis. A former staffer on President Benton’s successful 2024 run, Davis used his Washington connections to broker a deal in the negotiations that led to the compromise legislation credited with ending the unrest of 2027, the Local Governance License Act. Davis’s role as the public face of the company has been downplayed since the LGL’s were established. His stated intention for a reduced role was to let the Chronosoft LGL’s stand on their own without overt interference from corporate hierarchies, a move many believe has helped the LGL’s favorability among citizens.
With yearly revenues in the hundreds of billions of dollars, five LGL’s in 3 states, and offices and subsidiaries in 156 countries around the world, Chronosoft, Inc. is one of the largest corporations on the planet. Its 2028 prospectus labels the company one of the surest growth leaders in the world. The corporate slogan “Let Us Take You Where You Need to Go!” is indicative of the corporation’s aggressive attitude towards continued growth.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Welcome Analog Science Fiction & Fact and Asimov's Science Fiction Readers
Welcome, readers of the Analog Science Fiction & Fact and Asimov's Science Fiction magazines. I'd like to thank the editors of those respected magazines for featuring this blog novel on their Blog Links pages. For those unfamiliar with the work, you can read the Introduction to see how it all began, or just dive into the Chapters and start from the beginning. The GlobalPedia 2028 section is for extra articles related to the world in which our main character, Artemis Bridge, lives. Feel free to comment on any posts, or send me an email.
In the coming months, I'll be adding to the Bridge storyline with more GlobalPedia articles, and have already begun thinking about a sequel. Keep checking back for updates or sign up for my RSS feed.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Epilogue
October 31, 2028
The next two months were eventful for Bridge and Angela. True to her word, she moved them in together that week, refusing to take no for an answer as she and Bridge abandoned their respective apartments in the middle of the night. A creative use of some of her best freelance credcrashers saw their leases dissolved, their belongings packed up as quietly as possible and shifted from apartment to storage space, where another application of the hacking arts caused those goods to disappear from recorded existence. It was an expensive move, as far as Bridge could tell, but Angela handled most of it and either footed the bill or had someone else pay for it. Bridge laid low for the week after the election, rescheduling as many of his appointments as he could. He lost a few jobs, but nothing he couldn’t replace once he felt a bit safer.
The election was a colossal slow-motion train wreck, of course. As Bridge had predicted, the Sunderland story took off. The first downloads happened within minutes of Bridge’s exit from Chronosoft headquarters, and by morning, it had over 100,000 views. The news networks, freed from their gag order by the underground release, swooped in on the story like ravenous vultures. An estimated 85% of all Los Angeles LGL eligible voters were said to have seen or heard about the recording from a news outlet or friend. Only hours after voting began, with exit polls showing Soto riding a burgeoning landslide, Freeman’s hacking misdirection became apparent. Voting machines began to malfunction, hiccup or otherwise show signs of irregularities and in a panic, the election commissioner tried to shut the voting booths down city-wide, beginning in some of the neighborhoods hardest hit by the riots. With resentment still simmering, the people reacted just as one would expect them to react when the un-elected, corporate-controlled government attempted to disenfranchise them. Riots were only narrowly avoided. While there were some injuries and property damage, the efficiency of CLED negotiators averted a repeat of the previous year’s violence. In the end, the election commissioner decided to let the vote go ahead as scheduled. By the time the polls had closed, the rout was obvious. Soto had won, but the media cast a shadow on the victory party by reporting on the voting machine irregularities and near-riots. Days were spent with the election commissioner on the hot seat, with both parties clamoring for certification, reporters requesting investigation and rumors flying. By the end of the week, the commissioner had resigned in disgrace and the election was certified by his successor, triggering disenfranchisement lawsuits and rendering Soto’s enormous victory tainted. Bridge never had so much fun watching the news feeds.
His reunion with Angela was not always as entertaining. There were many marathon-length talking sessions, heartfelt discussions about their feelings and shrieking arguments. Through it all, however, neither gave in and more importantly, neither gave up on the relationship. Something in the months they’d spent apart and in the crazy day they’d spent almost dying together had forged a stronger bond between the two. Angela still disliked the way he made his money. “You’re not an amoral bastard, you know,” she said at one point. “You just know how to push your few principles aside to deal with the scum of the earth. What I don’t get is how you can stand it.”
Finally, he’d explained it as best he could. “Look, I know these people are shit. I get the worst of the worst. I don’t get little old ladies who need me to get their pension back from the loan shark. I get the loan shark when he needs a new guy to break the little old lady’s legs. And I help him, and you know why I help him? Leave aside the fact that even if I refuse to help him, someone else will. That’s just a fact. I help him because I know that guy is going down a one-way road the wrong way. And eventually, some other dumb fucker is going to come down that road from the opposite direction. So I just run them both into each other so the sorry bastards can get themselves the fuck off my planet sooner.”
Angela laughed and shook her head. “Bullshit. That’s bullshit. You’re trying to rationalize the fact that you make money off of misery because you gotta eat. It’s not some kind of twisted service to the world.”
“Maybe. We all gotta eat. But I’d rather those guys eat each other than me.” And nothing more was said about it.
Gina Danton had gotten Aristotle off the charge, just as she had promised. With the mayor’s greatly reduced respectability in those first hours of election day, no one had given two shits that Aristotle had pulled his mischief at the man’s fundraiser, not when a cop of Danton’s reputation had been willing to vouch for the bodyguard. Amazingly, Aristotle never gave Bridge any grief over his arrest, instead making light of it as often as he could. Bridge still ended up buying the giant a fantastically bejeweled watch, making sure to show it off to Angela before giving the gift.
Nicky took care of himself. Bridge had set up the bust with Danton, of course, and Bridge spent a few good hours worrying that the Cajun mobster would evade capture and come directly after Bridge. Nicky, never the sharpest tool in the shed, decided instead to go out Tony Montana style, trying to shoot his way out of the dragnet. He did manage to wound one cop before getting perforated. Thinking back on it, Bridge felt no remorse for his part in the gangster’s death. Nicky was too stupid to live, too selfish to remove himself from the gene pool and too worthless to feel any guilt over. Nicky’s guys drifted from one boss to another, like all hard guys do. None of them had the talent or brains to make much of themselves beyond hired muscle.
Paulie was a problem, of course. Soon after Bridge started working again, Paulie became a regular fixture at all the spots where Bridge plied his trade. Bridge would be finishing up work with a client when he’d spy the ex-footballer standing at the bar, eyes burning holes through him. Paulie would spot Bridge, Bridge would spot Paulie and the heavy would raise his new cybernetic hand in a sarcastic salute. Before leaving, Paulie would point the cyberhand at Bridge and make the sign of a pistol with his thumb and first two fingers, then exit with that same predatory smile of his. Short of hiring someone to whack the footballer, Bridge really hadn’t come up with a good way to deal with that grudge, but he still had a month to go.
A month was a long time. Hell, Bridge could get hit by a bus in that month. He could get abducted by aliens, or blown up along with half a city. Some punk ass disgruntled client could come back and stick a vibroknife in his back. He’d figure something out when the time came. That was what he did best. He figured things out. He’d figured out the Sunderland mess, and stuck it to “the man” in the process. Paulie wasn’t nearly as smart as Thames. And if he couldn’t figure something out, well, he knew a guy that could.
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