Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

General

Read an Exclusive Excerpt of (R)EVOLUTION by PJ Manney!


Scientist Peter Bernhardt has dedicated his life to nanotechnology, the science of manipulating matter on the atomic scale. As the founder of Biogineers, he is on the cusp of revolutionizing brain therapies with microscopic nanorobots that will make certain degenerative diseases become a thing of the past. But after his research is stolen by an unknown enemy, seventy thousand people die in Las Vegas in one abominable moment. No one is more horrified than Peter, as this catastrophe sets in motion events that will forever change not only his life but also the course of human evolution.

Peter’s company is torn from his grasp as the public clamors for his blood. Desperate, he turns to an old friend, who introduces him to the Phoenix Club, a cabal of the most powerful people in the world. To make himself more valuable to his new colleagues, Peter infuses his brain with experimental technology, exponentially upgrading his mental prowess and transforming him irrevocably.

As he’s exposed to unimaginable wealth and influence, Peter’s sense of reality begins to unravel. Do the club members want to help him, or do they just want to claim his technology? What will they do to him once they have their prize? And while he’s already evolved beyond mere humanity, is he advanced enough to take on such formidable enemies and win?

 Sounds like a must read for the summer!  After the jump, check out an exclusive excerpt of the book!

Excerpted from (R)EVOLUTION by PJ Manney. Copyright 2015. Published by 47North. Used by permission of the publisher. Not for reprint without permission.


Ruth sat in the waiting room at Stanford Hospital. She had a signed document allowing her the right to remove the Hippo 2.0 and Cortex 2.0, just in case Peter Bernhardt emerged mentally incapacitated. Clutching it in her hands, she watched Peter and his doctors and nurses live on her GO. But she could not keep still, only catching a glimpse of the screen every few seconds.

While brain-computer interface chips would be buried in Peter’s brain to fuse with his neurons, the short-term memory Hippo 2.0 and long-term memory Cortex 2.0 receivers would be embedded in his scalp, so they didn’t overheat and cook delicate brain tissue. By keeping them just under the skin, they were easily accessible should any changes need to be made. In addition, the Cortex 2.0 prototype would be partially external for easy updating. A magnet connected an outside receiver to his skull and the receiver was attached to a wireless, mobile hard drive the size of a pack of cigarettes. Peter could pocket the hard drive or wear it around his neck. This backup brain’s processor and memory was also programmable with Prometheus’s computer systems, allowing for easy software updates as the technology evolved. It also held power generation outside the head, because the bloodstream nanogenerator they were using couldn’t yet generate enough power for the external processor, only the internal parts of the Hippo 2.0.

Eventually, as the device size continued to decrease and he had proved his concept worked, the hard drive would be small enough to be attached discreetly to the skull and, finally, under the skin itself. Future patients could have the prosthetics and no one would ever have to know.

As they wheeled him into the operating room, the chief of neurosurgery, a gangly man with black hair that stood straight up under his surgical cap, stopped the orderly. “Sure you want this, Pete? You’ve got nothing to prove.” He bent close to Peter. “You, of all people, know the risks involved. But I still feel obligated to give you an out.”

“If I’m not willing to walk the walk, I’d never let anyone else do it. And I can turn the damn thing off or have it removed if necessary.” He didn’t voice his concern that two functioning hippocampi and cortex systems might make him psychotic.

The surgeon gave his team the thumbs up and followed the gurney into the operating room. As they prepped him, every reason why he shouldn’t be there flew through Peter’s head. But his last thought before chemical twilight descended was he hoped his wife and best friend would forgive him.

An army of activity wheeled around Peter’s brain. There was the neurosurgeon, leading the implantation team; a neuroanesthesiologist, who kept him in a painless twilight during the scalp incision and removal of a keyhole in his skull, but otherwise awake; a neurologist to monitor the surgery and make sure no damage was done; a computer engineer to coordinate the robotic and computer-guided systems linking Peter’s MRIs to the surgeon’s pointer as he operated; as well as nurses, assisting residents, and interns.

Peter’s skull was braced by four prongs of a square stereotactic head frame screwed to his scalp, which not only kept it immobile, but helped the small robot sitting at the side of Peter’s temple to reference the 3-D coordinate scans inside and outside his brain, finding the perfect location to insert the instruments through the keyhole. The neurosurgery team could rest assured they were working on the correct location for the prosthetic with the help of the fMRI-programmed robot literally leading the way with its own probe entering the brain tissue.

Bundles of nanowires followed, each about one one-thousandth the diameter of a human hair, linking the Hippo 2.0’s nano-scaled bloodstream generator in the basilar artery to a chip. The chip’s individual transistors would attach directly to existing brain cells through liquid polymer connections formed around the neurons, which would grow onto the chip to integrate into Peter’s brain.

They woke Peter after they opened his skull so that if they adversely affected any neural areas, they could spot it in his behavior. Lying there motionless was the most nerve-racking six hours of his life. The only questions he kept asking himself: Am I still sane? Am I still me?

About The Author

PJ Manney is a former chairperson of Humanity+, the author of Empathy in the Time of Technology: How Storytelling is the Key to
Empathy
, and a frequent guest host and guest on podcasts including
FastForward Radio. She has worked in motion-picture PR at Walt
Disney/Touchstone Pictures, story development and production for
independent film production companies (Hook, Universal Soldier, It Could
Happen to You
), and writing for television (Hercules–The Legendary
Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess
). She also cofounded Uncharted
Entertainment, writing and creating pilot scripts for television. Manney
is a culture vulture and SF geek, and the daughter and mother of them,
too. When not contemplating the future of humanity, she is a mother,
wife, PTA volunteer and education activist in California.

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

DISCLAIMER

Forces of Geek is protected from liability under the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) and “Safe Harbor” provisions.

All posts are submitted by volunteer contributors who have agreed to our Code of Conduct.

FOG! will disable users who knowingly commit plagiarism, piracy, trademark or copyright infringement.

Please contact us for expeditious removal of copyrighted/trademarked content.

SOCIAL INFLUENCER POLICY

In many cases free copies of media and merchandise were provided in exchange for an unbiased and honest review. The opinions shared on Forces of Geek are those of the individual author.

You May Also Like

Books

Rising from the depths of history comes an all-new examination of the 20th Century’s best horror comics, written by Peter Normanton (editor of From...

Movies

Religious and occult horror has always fascinated audiences, and this horror sub-genre has indeed delivered many classics such as Rosemary’s Baby, The Omen and...

Books

Written by Kelley Simms Published by Bear Manor Media   Back in 1980, I had just finished an acting course, which served me well...

Animation

Let me begin this review by saying that It had been about 12 years since I had seen Paprika before this current watch and...