Set in the not too distant future, a mischievous alien intelligence hijacks the worlds communication nets to send a message, but nobody quite understands what is at stake. Everyone is looking for answers, and Rachel finds herself leaving the augmented virtual world behind and joining forces with Charles, an enhanced human. They find themselves in the crosshairs of powerful organizations, and twisted underworlds eager to unravel the alien message and wield what secret power it holds...
Throughout The Noxian Gate we explore our relationship with the natural world. We dive into a future that engages genetic engineering, synthetic biology, artificial intelligence, and augmented realities. Our characters come from vastly different cultures. A young woman who has lived her life in a virtual world. A young man who himself is an offshoot of a rogue genetic colony. And an alien intelligence that doesn’t draw the same boundaries as humans.The book brings into focus how we can shape our own future technologies and how they can shape us.
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THE SCIENCE
Imagine a future where your computer could eat your cell-phone and then call your mother on her birthday. One where your house is grown rather than built, often with the help of a swarm of tiny robots. What if we harvested our electronics from engineered sponges at the bottom of the ocean rather than factories in China? Further, what if you could survive in the cold arctic without clothes, see in the dark, and breathe underwater. All of these things are possible, and in fact are based on how real biological organisms have evolved on Earth- yet to most of us they seem utterly alien.
One of the most amazing parts of my career has been learning the incredible and the totally unexpected aspects of nature. The sea slug that can eat a toxic meal of stinging anemone tentacles, yet instead of being stung it simply keeps the stingers and is able to move them from its stomach to its own skin for defense! Or the deep sea sponge that grows optical fibers, and hosts symbiotic bacteria that glow to attract more food to the sponge. The incredible intelligence and resourcefulness of ants that can build towers, find food, and dominate ecosystems through a swarm intelligence that we are just starting to understand.
The book highlights many of these ’alien’ technologies that are right here on our own planet.
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ABOUT ME
I’m a father of two, a scientist, and I run a small design/biology firm outside of Seattle. I used to write for treehugger.com with over 200 articles published about science, design, and the people who are changing our world. I have been fascinated in my career with the boundaries of what we know, and what we have yet to discover.