Stephen B. Kagan

Augmented Dreams Stephen B. Kagan

It is the year 2048 and information has seeped into all the nooks and crannies of the world from layers of useful augmentations to vast virtual game worlds. Most people now access this web of information directly through nano built neural implants. Many of the advanced AI left after the Great Purge are now under the control of the military and powerful corporations. A few though are still free, hiding in the virtual game worlds of the Web.
 Ben, a nature friendly virtual artist (world-weaver) and dream researcher follows a trail of darkness on an odyssey through different worlds of cyberspace to find a virtual art thief. Gordon, an MRI researcher, technophile and part time AI hunter seeks a cure for a mysterious web based sleeping sickness spreading throughout the population. Daniel, a recluse poet and Luddite struggles with having to use medical nanotechnology to cure his cancer but what he finds in the unconscious foundations of his biology is nothing less than a revelation that will change everything. Augmented Dreams is an allegory of the modern mind (psyche) struggling to find balance between the roots of our ancestors and the modern world in a time of accelerating change. It is a palimpsest that takes place at the intersection between advanced technology, ancient myth, gaming and environmentalism.