Ramez Naam - Nexus

Of course, it's still fiction. The research to date has been a great proof of principle. It's shown that we can get data in and out of the brain. It's shown that we can interpret that data to make sense of what the brain is doing, or to input new data in a way that the brain can make sense of. What we're left with is an incredible challenge for engineering and for medicine – taking that proof of principle, and building on it to increase the amount of data we can transmit, decoding more and more of that data, and doing so in a way that's safe and healthy for humans. That work will be motivated by medicine – finding ways to restore sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, motion to the paralyzed, and full mental function to those who've suffered brain damage. And that work will take decades to bring to full fruition, if not longer.

A few other tidbits: Genetic enhancements to boost strength, speed, and stamina are likely already possible. Over the last decade researchers looking for ways to cure muscular dystrophy, anemia, or other ailments have shown that single injections loaded with additional copies of select genes (delivered by a tame virus) can have a lifelong impact on the strength and fitness of animals ranging from mice to baboons. Those enhancements, by the way, are nearly impossible to detect in humans. It's possible that some athletes, for example, are using them today. And DARPA has shown quite a bit of interest in such enhancement technologies for future soldiers.

Finally, the Nexus backdoor that Kade and Rangan code on the airplane is based on a very real hack created by Ken Thompson, one of the inventors of the Unix operating system, that gave Thompson and his colleagues a back door into every copy of Unix that existed for several years. That hack went undiscovered until Thompson revealed its existence in a public lecture, after all versions containing the back door were gone, more than a decade later.

If you're interested in more, feel free to pick up my non-fiction book More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement. That book goes in depth into brain computer interfaces and also into the genetic enhancements that might make humans stronger, faster, smarter, and longer lived than ever. As a bonus, it dives into the politics, economics, and morality of human enhancement – other topics that Nexus touches on.

To understand a thing is to gain the power to change it. We're surging in our understanding of our own makeup – our genes, our bodies, and especially our minds. The next few decades will be more full of wonders than even the greatest science fiction.

Acknowledgments

Writing is thought of as a solitary craft. Yet for me, the production of this book has been an experience of tremendous support, encouragement, and constructive engagement from others. This novel was born as a purely recreational exercise in writing fiction, in a casual writing group including Kira Franz, Gabriel Williams, Leo Dirac, Corrie Watterson-Bryant, Dana Morningstar, and Scotto Moore. Those Sunday meetings and that first handful of readers gave me something to write for. Their encouragement and critique helped me tremendously.

Eventually this work transformed from a lark to an actual attempt to write a novel. Through the subsequent process of writing a book, Molly Nixon provided me with invaluable assistance, going above and beyond what an author can ask of anyone, serving as first reader and often nightly reader of raw pages, as a keen mind to bounce ideas off of, and as a bottomless well of enthusiasm.

A number of already established science fiction authors helped me turn this from a manuscript into a published book. Brenda Cooper took the time to read a huge second draft and gave me incredible encouragement. Greg Bear, David Brin, John Barnes, Alastair Reynolds, Dani Kollin, and Daniel H. Wilson also en couraged me at multiple steps along the way. Karl Schroeder gave me clear, no-nonsense advice on the steps I had to take to make the manuscript publishable.

My agent, Lucienne Diver, took a chance on a submission from a first time novelist who approached her at a convention. My editor, Lee Harris, did the same. The book has reached you due to their willingness to give those sorts of chances to new authors.

Anne Zanoni, ostensibly my copyeditor, went far beyond that job in checking fact, logic, style, and consistency of the novel throughout.

Most of all, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the tremendous number of people who read drafts of this novel along the way and took the time to give me their thoughts, on everything from neuroscience to geopolitics to dialogue.

Those beta readers include those I've mentioned above, and also: Ajay Nair, Alexis Carlson, Alissa Mortenson, Allegra Searle-LeBel, Anna Black, Betsy Aoki, Beverly Sobelman, Brad Woodcock, Brady Forrest, Brian Retford, Brooks Talley, Cat Koehn, Coe Roberts, Dan Farmer, Dana Morningstar, Darci Morales, David Lockhart, David Perlman, Doug Mortenson, Elene Awad, Eric Schurman, Gabriel Williams, Grace Stahre, Ivan Medvedev, Jaime Waliczek, Jenna Udren, Jennifer Mead, Jessica Glein, Jim Jordan, Joe Pemberton, Kevin MacDonald, Lars Liden, Lesley Carmichael, Linda Mortenson, Llew Roberts, Lori Waltfield, Mason Bryant, Mellington Cartwright, Michael Chorost, Mike Tyka, Miller Sherling, Ming Holden, Nat Torkington, Oliver Lange, Paul Dale, Peter Tiemann, Rob Gruhl, Robert Fisher, Rose Hess, Sean Daily, Simon Cooke, Simon Winder, Stephanie Schutz, Stuart Updegrave, Suzanne Picard, and Thomas Park.

The input and assistance of so many people has made this not just a better book, but one that was far more enjoyable to write. Thank you all.

ANGRY ROBOT

A member of the Osprey Group

Lace Market House,

54-56 High Pavement,

Nottingham,

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An Angry Robot paperback original 2013

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Copyright © Ramez Naam 2013

Ramez Naam asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-0-85766-292-7

eBook ISBN: 978-0-85766-294-1

Cover design: ARGH! Oxford.

Set in Meridien by THL Design.

Printed in the UK by CPI Mackays, Chatham, ME5 8TD.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.