Quantum computing, advanced physics, and AI meet Japanese manga in "Rule-Set: A Novel of the Quantum Future"
In 2060 the notorious hacktivist group, Rule-Set (The One Set to Rule You All), threw the US presidential election by seizing control of NETS, (the National Election Tabulation System) and diverting three million votes from the winning candidate. In 2062, Rule-Set topped itself by hacking Colossus, the backbone of the first commercial immersive service. Via biometric inputs fed to wearable gossamers, immersive computing revolutionized society by enabling subscribers to experience all five senses when gaming and interacting online.
Warned anonymously, the FBI discovered that 42 accounts, each running a software simulation, had been illicitly installed on a quantum computer powerful enough to store data equivalent to five times the number of atoms in the universe. The government impounded Colossus, set traps and waited for Rule-Set members to return to the scene of the crime and login. But no one did and no Rule-Set member was ever caught. For a quarter century, these accounts have run with full access to the power of Colossus. Some Sims are unchanged, some have died, some have evolved and now something wants out and will kill to escape.
In 2087, Clarence Hamilcar, ex-Marine lieutenant, decorated veteran of The Koumintang War, associate professor of oriental literature studies, and failed tenure candidate at Black Hills University, South Dakota, is flown under contract by the US Army to Waxahachie, Texas. His destination is the Hyperconducting Hyper Collider, the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, built on the remains of the Superconducting Super Collider, abandoned in 1993 after excavation of 14 of its planned 54 miles of tunnels. Clarence’s agreement requires him to immerse and “liaise” with Hanabusa Narihisa, an AI extracted from a Japanese-manga-based sim who combines beauty with a bad temper and a very sharp katana. In the HHC’s tunnels 200 feet below Waxahachie, Clarence and Narihisa engage in a battle of skill and wits whose prizes are the secrets of Colossus and Rule-Set.
With advances in quantum computing, teleportation and advanced physics transforming “fictional” concepts such as alternative universes, machine sentience, and mind/computer uploading into serious scientific possibilities, it’s time for an epic sci-fi novel that combines the science of the future with…Japanese manga! Readers of “Rule-Set: A Novel of a Quantum Future” by Merrill R. (Rick) Chapman will be drawn into a world where cutting edge future technologies blend with high fantasy to spark a conflict that explore the breakdown of the barrier between the real and unreal at the furthest reaches of science.
