There’s no room for failure in the robot apocalypse, not if you don’t want to get eaten.
With the world destroyed by insane, man-eating robots, only technomancers stand between humanity and utter annihilation.
Unfortunately, 64Bit might be the one technomancer who can’t command robots with his mind. As an acolyte, he has managed to hide his shame until an army of hungry robots came marching right toward his home settlement. Hopelessly unprepared, beyond the point that revealing his secret would do any good, 64Bit gambles everything on the slim chance that he might be able to wake his master from a coma before everyone is devoured.
The Failed Technomancer is Boo Ludlow’s debut novel, a dark science fantasy novel with horror elements.
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The Failed Technomancer Table of Contents
For Kim Ludlow
None of this would have been possible without your love and support.
I have been accused of hating what makes man human. Nothing could be further from the truth. I love humanity so much that I wish to isolate the core of what it means to be human and set it free.
Arnon D’Bvaym, The Emancipation from Pain and Limitation: Collected Essays
If we waited until we fully understood everything, we would never do anything.
Arnon D’Bvaym
What consequences? We can speculate, but there’s no knowing until we move ahead and see what happens.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Life need not be nasty, brutish, or short. There is a better way.
Arnon D’Bvaym
It is irresponsible to leave evolution to chance now that we have the means to manage it.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Nothing will go wrong because nothing can go wrong. That doesn’t preclude some rough edges in need of smoothing.
Arnon D’Bvaym
I will not stop revising and iterating until the E10 unit is ready for mass consumption without compromise.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Of course, until the human mind can be extracted from the brain, we will always be under fleshy house arrest.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Flesh can only go so far.
Arnon D’Bvaym
It is not a matter of if, but when. The future slows for no man or woman, and the E10 is that future.
Arnon D’Bvaym
I’m sure you’ve heard stories aimed to shame or smear this movement. All are unequivocally lies.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Once, the utopian vision of the future was of a world post-scarcity. Now, such dreams are hilariously reserved. The E10 unit promises a world post-injury, post-illness, post-disability, post-weakness. All people will have the same resources, physical strength, beauty. And when the cognitive enhancers are working properly, all will be equally intelligent.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Damn the consequences.
Arnon D’Bvaym
I understand that most of my arguments will only be read by the “intellectuals” and not the public. I hardly care. Advertisement is sufficient persuasion for the idiot, and I act for the betterment of both intellectuals and idiots.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Pain will become a forgotten word.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Technomancers, despite obstinate opposition by most, only prove my case. This stage of human technological transcendence would not be possible without their contribution— unwitting by many, direct by some.
Arnon D’Bvaym
What happens if you lose your foot? Well, you could receive a prosthetic, but you can’t control it directly, nor can you feel from it. With the E10, if you lost your foot, you could order another, identical to the first, and it would be as if you had never lost anything.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Some call it post-human—I call it superhuman.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Designer considerations also cause one to question what is really human. When synthetic bodies can be customized to any appearance, including gender or race, such distinctions lose all meaning. Perhaps they never had any to begin with.
Arnon D’Bvaym
No, this must have a real, practical function in our world, in reality, or it does not function at all. Meta-worlds are not sufficient. The E10 is real.
Arnon D’Bvaym
This is merely the near-culmination of millennia of human hope. As early as the Epic of Gilgamesh, mankind has sought immortality. Religion is an extension of this hope, if just as false a branch as all the rest.
Arnon D’Bvaym
No, my goal is a more real, heightened reality. Stronger and sharper than the flat wafers we are fed through our senses.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Beyond being post-pain, the E10 promises a state of being post-feeling. Imagine such a world—all sensation, all emotion, is but a distraction from true, ethereal stillness. What yogi could have predicted that this was the path to inner peace?
Arnon D’Bvaym
I do advocate human supremacy. The E10 will never work on a dog, let alone be made by one.
Arnon D’Bvaym
As with any project, accumulating funding has its difficulties. Investors want to see immediate results, experience the final product even while still in the testing phases. They are fools.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Take a moment. Take a deep breath. Chew slowly on something sweet. Listen to music you love. Stare at your favorite artwork. Feel the touch of your lover. The strength of these sensations is nothing compared to what could be.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Allegations of “accidents” are all untrue or grossly exaggerated. Ms. Melbeyrs did not threaten or partially eat anyone. Thanks to the E10, she is more herself than ever before.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Just imagine what is possible when unnecessary ethical concerns, the dated reservations of culture and tradition, are swept away.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Of all the marvelous inventions of man, the one thing man has not yet re-invented is himself. I’m speaking of a true reinvention of body and mind, not merely a mental placebo.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Growing pains are a necessary part of any new venture. Even after iteration upon iteration, imperfect man is still at the wheel. But if man can be made a little more perfect each time, then we will eventually become as gods.
Arnon D’Bvaym
I agree with all evidence that self-aware, intelligent AI is impossible. The human mind will not be exceeded by technology, but it may be exceeded with technology.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Once you catch the vision, it will never let you go.
Arnon D’Bvaym
If the customer is happy and the product is good, then there is no need for competition. I see no reason to support the bill expanding access to technological-human-body research. Competition would prevent experts from doing their job anyway.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Eventually, it won’t even be an option not to adopt the E10 unit. All who disagree will naturally pass from old age, leaving behind the immortals.
Arnon D’Bvaym
There is no afterlife, but we can strive to make this life exceed the wildest dreams and imaginations our ancestors had of what comes after.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Some are concerned about procreation. What of it? If the E10 unit cannot procreate, we will build the knowledge to replace or reinvent procreation. And if not, what need is there for procreation among immortal beings? Children will become mythological.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Perhaps with proper genetic work we can fully restore the ancients and offer them this same blessing. That said, memory is not stored in DNA, so I have a hard time imagining that accomplishing anything meaningful.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Think with your heart, not with your head.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Men change to match their environment, not the other way around. Create a perfect world and men will become perfect.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Then, finally, a splinter group of the technomancer movement formally pledged their support of the E10. I predicted it was only a matter of time before their opposition crumbled.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Don’t you understand? We saved them—human ingenuity and audacity, fearlessness in the face of the unknown. There was no God in this.
Arnon D’Bvaym
It will be an end to all violence, all struggle, all hate, all war, all bigotry, and everything else that we despise. When everyone has everything, what would there be to fight over? Nothing.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Of course, current limited resources will mean that only a portion of the human population will be able to shift to the E10 unit and leave behind their fleshy bodies, but we are committed to an ethical, balanced distribution among the rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown; between man and woman, among all nations and races.
Arnon D’Bvaym
After years of testing, working with proper government authority, building strong media relationships, and the development of robust manufacturing and distribution, the final phase of the E10 unit, the R0713, will be in the hands of billions by the end of the year. Or, rather, will be the hands of billions.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Even after seeing what my work has done, I have no regrets. If I had been followed better, listened to more closely, all of this could have been avoided.
The fault is not in the R0713.
Arnon D’Bvaym
Boo Ludlow 