Showing results for "Ray" in Hard Science Fiction

Bob Johansson didn't believe in an afterlife, so waking up after being killed in a car accident was a shock. To add to the surprise, he is now a sentient computer and the controlling intelligence for a Von Neumann probe. Bob and his copies have been spreading out from Earth for 40 years now, looking for habitable planets. But that's the only part of the plan that's still in one piece.

After 25 years serving as the human Monitor of the Interstellar Ark, Hermes, Orion is scheduled to be placed back into hibernation with the other crewmembers. Knowing he'll die there and be replaced before the ship's voyage is over, he decides that he won’t — can’t — accept that fate. Whatever it takes, Orion will escape Hermes and see what's beyond, even if it means defying the regulations of his only friend — the ship-wide artificial intelligence known as Dan.

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

There's a reason We Are Legion was named Audible's Best Science Fiction Book of 2016: Its irresistibly irreverent wit! Bob Johansson has just sold his software company for a small fortune and is looking forward to a life of leisure. The first item on his to-do list: Spending his newfound windfall. On an urge to splurge, he signs up to have his head cryogenically preserved in case of death. Then he gets himself killed crossing the street. Waking up 117 years later, Bob discovers his mind has been uploaded into a sentient space probe with the ability to replicate itself.

Civil war looms in the Bobiverse in this brand-new, epic-length adventure by Audible number one best seller Dennis E. Taylor. More than a hundred years ago, Bender set out for the stars and was never heard from again. There has been no trace of him despite numerous searches by his clone-mates. Now Bob is determined to organize an expedition to learn Bender’s fate - whatever the cost. But nothing is ever simple in the Bobiverse. Bob’s descendants are out to the 24th generation now, and replicative drift has produced individuals who can barely be considered Bobs anymore.

When it comes to artificial intelligence, we’re no longer in a “what if?” reality. We’re squarely in a “now what?” world. From books to financial markets, from healthcare to research, the age of artificial intelligence has arrived. We’re in for a ride, and it’s anything but smooth. What will the world look like as we share it with the genie we let out of its digital bottle? How will AI evolve? Perhaps, even more important, how will we?

Story three of The Dawn series follows Victor Siversky, a talented, outspoken scientist researching the biological foundations of human moral judgment. His project takes a sharp turn when a new-generation AI system gets involved, and a prominent journalist sets out to write a story about his longtime scientific rivalry.

When a prominent art expert, Sean Davis, is asked by the leading AI company to teach art to their system, he doesn’t know how far that request will take him -- and what kinds of stunning discoveries he will make on the way.

The Terran Union is engaged in a vast interstellar war against the Krag Ruthless aliens intent on exterminating humankind. In 2315, the wily Max Robichaux is given command of the USS Cumberland, a destroyer with state-of-the-art capabilities but a combat record so bad, she’s known as the “Cumberland Gap.” Capt. Robichaux’s first mission: to take his warship to the Free Corridor, where the Krag have secretly been buying strategic materials, and to seize or destroy any ships carrying enemy cargo.

In 2315, the Earth Union is losing a 30-year-long war with the Krag Hegemony. Having encountered the Krag before, Space Commander Max Robicheaux now faces daunting challenges aboard the USS Cumberland: The dangers from the enemy without…and clashes with crew and superiors within. Meanwhile, Doctor Sahin receives a coded message summoning him to a secret meeting which aims to forge an alliance that could change the balance of power in Known Space.

The entire human population is attacked by a very suspicious virus. SIMPOC's programmer doesn't come in to work, that day, the next, or ever. The commander of the space station Oasis, Joan Herl, is forced to abandon the station because of dwindling resources. When they land on earth, they are attacked by another thinking computer who would do anything to protect itself and to continue thinking.

The stories of The Path of Most Resistance feature curious nonconformists who find themselves pushing back against strange and oppressive social norms. They are mavericks who transgress the boundaries of convention in their strive for freedom and authenticity. No matter if they’re in a Silicon Valley office, the far reaches of space, or dystopian futures where relationships are subjected to totalitarian control, the characters show unshakable conviction in a world plagued with uncertainty.

North American Federation Navy Commander Evan Gabriel was dishonorably discharged after a disastrous mission on a far off world called Eden. He's spent the last five years hiding from his past, from those responsible for the failed mission, from those responsible for running him out of the Navy, and from those originally responsible for making him into who he was - a highly-trained, physically and mentally augmented Special Forces soldier. Two mysterious visitors appear unannounced at the door of a Gabriel's seedy hotel room in the slums of Jamaica.

Penumbra, a haphazard city of outcasts, rebels, and malcontents, has floated around a dead planet in a backwater system for longer than living memory can recall. Its towers abandoned starships melded to an ancient, mysterious core, Penumbra is the last remnant of chaotic individualism in a galaxy where conformity to the will of the all-powerful Galactic Council is paramount.

Русский инженер Пётр Гарин создаёт "гиперболоид" — аппарат, испускающий тепловой луч огромной мощности, способный разрушить любые преграды....

Gabriel has always been haunted by his past. Now he must face his past once again. On the far-off icebound planet of Poliahu, North American Federation Navy Commander Evan Gabriel suffered the loss of several team members in order to free a native species and save his brother. Now he is being called away on a new mission by a friend in trouble, and by a name from his distant past. He and his surviving team must again travel across the galaxy, this time to the world where he lost his naval command, and his original team, so many years ago: Eden.

Nine classic science fiction stories.

A missile has no conscience. It is an inanimate steel object: cold, emotionless. But once ignited, it burns white hot inside, and cannot be shut off. Fired in combat, it has but one objective: the total destruction of its intended target. And it will only stop when its objective has been achieved, or it runs out of fuel. Not all missiles are made of steel. North American Federation Navy Commander Evan Gabriel thought it was over. Returning from a mission on the far-off world of Eden, he finds that Mars is in a state of political upheaval.

Will true artificial intelligences be able to appreciate or even create art? Explore dystopian societies, where AI generates most of the content and human artists must eke out an existence, and utopias where artificial minds help unlock and enhance human creativity.

When a small town in New Mexico wakes up to find one of its banks robbed overnight, it doesn’t take long for Lieutenant Gorton to identify a suspect. Although the bank’s own longtime loan officer does not strike anyone as a potential criminal, Gorton suspects that the quiet employee is behind the robbery. Plus, the soft-spoken dependable man seems to have undergone a recent dramatic transformation that he managed to conceal from everyone around him.