The group sat in uncomfortable silence for a moment until the President spoke out loud. “We must find a way to continue our species. If the Sun, Earth, and Moon have three weeks to exist we must use that time to get humans moved elsewhere. Seed is our best bet, possibly our only bet. Get your team on it.”
About the Book
The generation ship Seed is in the final construction phases before embarking for Tau Ceti.
Captain Hsu is trying to ensure they leave as scheduled but much work remains. A new gravity wave comms system is being tested using a path through the sun. Silently the high frequency waves cause an unnatural number of discontinuities, and the uncertainty generates a black hole within Sol. As the ship and crew flee the impending supernova, it is attacked by an entropy obsessed AI prophet.
The suicidal assault triggers a superposition of human qualia from which emerges a hive mind, one that controls quantum probabilities. The uplift provides Gaeans with the ability to penetrate the blackhole and traverse hyperspace.
Once through they find themselves under attack by microbes with a far stronger hive mind. Barely escaping destruction, they are forced to Retreat to Sol. The ensuing battle puts not only Earth, but the entire universe at risk, as Entropy uses quintessence to destroy the Gaeans.
Evolution of information
As synapses evolve, sensory information and the ability to use it grow exponentially. This upward trend in complexity makes it possible to describe a brane’s particles on several different layers.
COSMO: Causation of the timesphere and surface fields
PHYSICAL LAYER: Particle wavefunctions and panpsychism
SYNAPTIC LAYER: Qualia fields. Minds and hive minds
SCHEMA LAYER: Allowable phenomena and brane transcriptors mapping between them
Origin of Species
A ket, | > is used to describe the full state of a qualia consciousness at a particular instant. It evolves in complexity as it finds new degrees of freedom hidden among the fields.
B=|x,y,z,t,a,q> Me
B=|x,y,z,t,a,q1> SC8
B=|x,y,z,t,a1,q1> Observers
B=|x,y,z,dt,a2,q2> Gaea
B=|x,y,z,dt,a3,q3> Pan
B=|C,a4,q4> Cosmo
A note from the author
Retreat to Sol is meant to be a cozy space opera, portraying a unification of time, space, and consciousness. It is an effort to stoke imaginations, and to create such a wonderland requires free speech on any subject.
It seems to me nothing could be less violent than the simple written word, illustrating the importance of tolerance. However, it may not always be received in the manner intended. If any offense is taken, that is your prerogative. If so, please put the book down, throw it away, or delete the file. However, no book should be banned, nor readers intimidated.
I believe blasphemy and apostasy must be non-punishable offenses. Otherwise, these concepts should be confronted. It is illegal or dangerous in many places to possess this book. If you are permitted to read it, consider yourself lucky. If not, I hope someday you will. It should be your choice, as should your choice of faith. The freedom to challenge religions must be practiced, to be protected. If you feel otherwise this book will not be for you.
Whatever anyone may think, Retreat to Sol is an effort to further the peaceful practice of religion. It is licensed for Creative Commons and profits are donated to charity. If you steal it, you're forgiven. I enjoyed writing it, so please feel free not to buy or read it. –Glen Gerhard
About the Author
Glen Gerhard is a technologist and pronoiad amateur. He has worked in several startup tech companies and spent a year at the South Pole in 1982. His interest in physics started at Kent State University and psychology at UC San Diego. His interest in yoga and rock climbing was found at Ohio State University. His antipathy for religion seems to be innate. This is his first novel.
