Tracy R. Atkins on Aeternum Ray: Don’t Wait For The Singularity

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Tracy R. Atkins is not only a contributor to Singularity Weblog but also the author of a brand new singularity book titled Aeternum Ray.

Aeternum Ray is rather unique because it is openly and whole-heartedly utopian in character. It is written in the epistolary literary tradition of classic science fiction works such as Frankenstein and is structured as a mémoire – a series of letters from a father to his son.

The book is also interesting from a technical point of view: It also comes in a Dyslexia Edition which has been formatted to include a special typeface that may assist readers who have a developmental reading disorder (DRD or Dyslexia). The open-source font – OpenDyslexic by Abelardo Gonzalez, utilizes weighting at the bottom of many characters in an effort to prevent letter inversion while reinforcing the line of text. This typeface modification technique has been shown to increase reading accuracy for some forms of DRD.

During our conversation with Tracy R. Atkins we cover a wide variety of topics such as his definition of the technological singularity; how Star Trek inspired Tracy to love science fiction and how Transcendent Man inspired him to write a singularity novel; growing up in a home that marveled in science and technology; what the title Aeternum Ray stands for and what the novel is all about; whether the future of humanity is digital or if there are benefits to biology; writing dystopia versus writing utopia; human nature and the potential for a pre-singularity global war…

As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation, or become a patron on Patreon.

More About Aeternum Ray:

“Poverty, terrorism, murder, disease, homelessness, hopelessness, hunger, and death; all cease to exist in 2049.”

Aeternum Ray is a sweeping, yet intimate story of mankind’s next renaissance that will appeal to fans of visionaries Isaac Asimov, Gene Roddenberry, and Ray Kurzweil.

The novel is a collection of emotional personal letters written by 240-year-old William Babington to his newborn son Benjamin. Having lived a full life, William has experienced everything from death to his rebirth into the utopian Aeternum; an advanced computer system shepherded by the omnipotent artificial intelligence Ray. William pens the highlights of his existence, love, and loss while reflecting on the centuries of wonder he has witnessed firsthand. His humble letters form a detailed memoir that is intertwined with humanity’s greatest triumphs, the technological singularity, and the solemn burden of surviving Earth’s darkest night of terror.

Through the light and dark times of the near future, Aeternum Ray departs from dystopian themes and brings back the uplifting notion of utopian speculative ideals.

More about Tracy R. Atkins:

Tracy R. Atkins has been a technology aficionado since a young age, proclaiming with lighthearted glee that it began when he first saw DOS in kindergarten. By fifteen, Tracy had already written and sold software as well ran a pre-internet era bulletin board system, which put many residents of his hometown of Madison, WV online for the first time. At the age of eighteen, he played a critical role in an internet startup, cutting his tech-teeth during the dot-com boom. After the bust, Tracy hit the books and graduated college at the top of his class with a degree in Business Information Systems. Throughout his fifteen-year career, he has earned numerous professional-level tech-industry certifications, which he pursued out of a misguided sense of fun.

As a man whose life is intertwined with technology, he has not let it define him. That same sense of fun and exploration that propelled his career has also driven his desire to live life to the fullest. Tracy’s interests have run the gamut from writing, traveling, and attempting to set a record by eating a cheeseburger the size of his head, to bringing home a World Champion trophy for his car stereo. His interests may be eclectic but at the core, Tracy is a family man first, with four wonderful children and a supportive wife. All of these multi-faceted experiences coalesce in his writing, creating interesting stories full of excited wonder and humanity.

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