Published: Dec. 27, 2010
Words: 44,839 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781458170651

Short description

"The Alpha Centauri Project" is a transhumanist novel about emerging technologies and space, set in a near future populated by humans and digital beings. Suspense and action, but also a fascinating travel into the impacts of Artificial Intelligence on our civilization, leaving us face to face with the morals of a world that one day we might share. Script available.

Extended description

"The Alpha Centauri Project" is a transhumanist novel about emerging technologies and space, set in a near future populated by humans and digital beings. Suspense and action, but also a fascinating travel into the impacts of Artificial Intelligence on our civilization. From this, a powerful comparison with our civilization emerges, that stripping away layer after layer of conventions and prejudices, leaves us at last face to face with the morals of a world that one day we might share.

The title – Alpha Centauri project - is the symbol of the mastery by the digital people of a bright and endless future. Social issues as well as dreams and projects of the digital people are key drivers of the story. For digital beings aiming at eternal life, truth and collaboration might be primary values. Seeking exponential growth in knowledge and technology, avoiding conflicts and spreading into the Universe their goals.
Eve and Victoria, the main characters, are “souls”, digital beings who.. (Read more) "The Alpha Centauri Project" is a transhumanist novel about emerging technologies and space, set in a near future populated by humans and digital beings. Suspense and action, but also a fascinating travel into the impacts of Artificial Intelligence on our civilization. From this, a powerful comparison with our civilization emerges, that stripping away layer after layer of conventions and prejudices, leaves us at last face to face with the morals of a world that one day we might share.

The title – Alpha Centauri project - is the symbol of the mastery by the digital people of a bright and endless future. Social issues as well as dreams and projects of the digital people are key drivers of the story. For digital beings aiming at eternal life, truth and collaboration might be primary values. Seeking exponential growth in knowledge and technology, avoiding conflicts and spreading into the Universe their goals.
Eve and Victoria, the main characters, are “souls”, digital beings whose brain was digitized after death. They move in a context of epoch making events, becoming more and more involved and finally merging their destiny with that of the digital people.

A script is available. The novel has been translated into English, Spanish, French and Italian. The last editions of the ebooks can be downloaded for free from the Author's website.
A vast bibliography as well as links to videos by main exponents of advanced think tanks, plunge the reader into an enchanting, boundless voyage.
(Less)

Tags

artificial intelligence, science fiction, cyberpunk, immortality, transhumanism, alpha centauri, free science fiction, ray kurzweil

Available ebook reading formats

This book is free. How to download ebooks to e-reading devices and apps.

Format	Full Book
Online Reading (HTML, good for sampling in web browser)	View
Kindle (.mobi for Kindle devices and Kindle apps)	Download
Epub (Apple iPad/iBooks, Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo, and most e-reading apps including Stanza, Aldiko, Adobe Digital Editions, others)	Download
PDF (good for reading on PC, or for home printing)	Download
RTF (readable on most word processors)	Download
LRF (Use only for older model Sony Readers that don't support .epub)	Download
Palm Doc (PDB) (for Palm reading devices)	Download
Plain Text (download) (flexible, but lacks much formatting)	Download
Plain Text (view) (viewable as web page)	View

Videos

The Alpha Centauri Project - video English
Suspense and action, but also a fascinating travel into the impacts of Artificial Intelligence on our civilization. From this, a powerful comparison with our current beliefs emerges, that stripping away layer after layer of conventions and prejudices, leaves us at last face to face with the morals of a world that one day we might share.

Marco Santini on Singularity 1 on 1: There Is A Lot Of Space For Rational Optimism
“There are big problems, but there are also big challenges. Singularity University is achieving fantastic goals. This means that the potentiality of human being is enormous, it is unimaginable for most of the people. But if we put together the right message with the rationality and the right organization, I believe that almost any objective we can imagine and we cannot imagine, can be reached.”

Reviews

Log-in to write a Review   Log-in to add a Video Review

Review by: Rita Carla Francesca Monticelli on Feb. 12, 2013 :
Is “thinking” life better than the real one?

I was not happy in my impact with cyberpunk. It happened a couple of years ago when I read for the first time a book by William Gibson (“Virtual light”). What then had me puzzled, however, was not the topic itself but how cumbersome it was presented within the book.
Fortunately, even though I decided to put aside reading other books by Gibson, I did not do the same with this sub-genre of science fiction, whose premises fascinate me. The chance to exist, to have self-awareness, to live a “thinking” life as a digital creature within a virtual reality is something that is not easy to conceive, but it contains within itself implications of great interest.
If our consciousness is nothing but the result of chemical reactions and electricity, from this conceptual point of view imagining a digital consciousness does not appear absurd. And within this novel Marco Santini tries to outline a future scenario in which this practice is the norm so much to make this virtual people almost a threat to the real one, limited by their body. The beauty of digital is the fact of being limitless. You can create virtual worlds where to live, but at the same time you can download your own consciousness into androids who live in the real world, moreover you can exist forever and travel through space without worrying about the distances, because time is not an enemy. This absence of limits allows the author, with great imagination, to create an intricate and compelling story. To tell you the truth inside of this book there is material for much more than just a novel. Santini could have made a trilogy or even a series of novels, allowing the reader to enjoy longer and at the same time to further investigate a topic which is not always easy to understand.
In any case the result is more than good. It is an enjoyable read, with controversial aspects, but they offer many insights. And all this at no cost, as the ebook version is even free. Also in this version the author also takes full advantage of the potential of digital by periodically updating the text. If you want to imagine a distant future that is completely different from the present in which we live, “The Alpha Centauri project” can give you what you look for.
(review of free book)

Review by: Carilda Thomas on Feb. 26, 2011 :
The characters are underdeveloped but that is in keeping with the whole flavor of the book, as if it had been written by one of its own machine intelligences. Somewhat strange but once I got into it, I liked it.
(review of free book)

Review by: Calboy on Feb. 17, 2011 :
This was pretty good. A bit dense in some areas, but the premise worked for me.
(review of free book)

Review by: Luther Giordano Nancy Edgington on Dec. 30, 2010 :
This book is bubbling over with ideas and lush descriptions. However, the characters feel like puppets. The plot development suffers badly from the abrupt introduction of heavy explanations of the history and technology leading to the story.
(review of free book)

Reason for report:
— Select a reason — Book is or contains spam Book infringes copyright Same content is published elsewhere with different author (for ex., by private-label rights) Duplicate Incomplete work (such as sample or serial) Should be marked adults-only Category is inappropriate Poorly formatted Nudity or other inappropriate content on cover Nudity or other inappropriate visual content in book Inappropriate erotica content Cover image is improper Content is inappropriate Other violation of Terms of Service Other reason not shown above.

Additional details: