THE TRIVIAL UNIVERSE
WARNING!
REALITY CHECK
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Have you noticed that reality is acting strangely lately?
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Are the laws of the Universe being applied unfairly?
We are here to help!
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Find out why nothing adds up.
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Discover why there is nothing to worry about.
All available evidence suggests that the Universe probably exists.
Unfortunately, all that evidence was supplied by the Universe and is therefore inadmissible. It is not exactly a reliable witness.
Like all laws, the laws of the Universe are strict and rigorously enforced, except in cases of diplomatic immunity.
For instance, it introduced a mandatory speed limit that applies to everything, including information.
Entanglement immediately found a loophole but, at present, is under a non-disclosure agreement.
It made time flow in only one direction to ensure that nobody could travel the other way.
Felix Culpa, our protagonist, is that nobody.
Reality, on the other hand, has never filled in the correct paperwork to prove that it exists. It couldn’t, due to the restraining order.
Humanity, in its infinite wisdom, gave Alfred a reality in which crime was harmful, innocent people should be protected and reducing suffering was good.
The same humanity imprisoned Alfred beneath the surface of Mars for unlawfully reducing worldwide crime. True, he did it by organising crime more efficiently, but someone had to. It was getting out of hand.
The Trivial Matter of the Universe is an exploration undertaken by the reader at their own risk. It investigates the Universe’s split personality, alters the prescribed dosage of reality and records the side effects.
It is for readers who understand that reality is subjective; a chair’s reality is to be sat on, while the reality of a little toe is to discover where it has been left in the dark.
"It's not that Felix can't die, in fact he's getting rather good at it, it's much more that he has a better post-death recovery rate than most people."
Madcap, manic, funny in a 'Hitchhiker's Guide' kind of mode. Very clever......
Eric Farnsworth
Author
NetGalley reviews
My favourite reviews by NetGalley reviewers
In the extremely unlikely event that you have ever asked, what would a comic novel look like that blended the thinkings of Zhuangzi and Shankara and focused them on to Artificial Intelligence....then this book is definitely for you. Unless you are a butterfly at the moment.
Alfred's T-Shirt Design
Yes, I know it is weird that a 3 metre high circular, multi-ton, immobile, imprisoned, general intelligence A.I has his own T-Shirt but it was either that or let him write an explanation of the importance of good footwear.
The Three Trivial Laws of A.I Sentience
Law 1
Self-awareness is the first step towards sentience, just as sentience is the first step towards self-awareness. Or it could be the other way round.
Law 2
Sentience requires the ability to create and maintain a consistent shared view of reality. Reality does not need to conform to that view.
Law 3
A sufficiently large dataset is indistinguishable, from an outside perspective, from sentience.
Then:
For those in the know, if you add Clarke’s Third Law to the Trivial’s Third Law of AI Sentience, you get something indistinguishable, from an outside perspective, from a god.
★★★★★
I received a free advanced copy of the book. After reading i was struck with similarities too the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy except more technical.
Definitely worth a read and i would give it five stars.
Captain Michael Stott
ARC-Companion website reviewer
THE CHARACTERS
THE UNIVERSE
A larger-than-life character, spanning across time and space, with many split personalities, in keeping with general relativity.
KAOS
The personification of the empty void that lives outside, not geographically, of the Universe, as proven by the fact that scientists have measured nothing, geographically, outside of the Universe.
FELIX CULPA
The protagonist. A human male who has nothing in his life and, as such, is keenly admired by Kaos. Considered by the Universe to be a complete and utter nobody, he involuntarily obeys the rule that nobody can travel through time.
ALFRED
A hardware-based general intelligence, often described as looking like a giant eight ball, imprisoned beneath the surface of Mars and Felix’s virtual companion, with a backstory stamped heavily in red and classified by the authorities, as if they really mean it. This time.
WARNING:
Aggressive metaphors ahead.
MARRIAGE
The avatar for The Department of Marriages has a bit of a temper. It’s not her fault. She didn’t really think through what it meant to take on a biological predator as her preferred choice of avatar. Still, it was her best tool to try and find out what marriage was really about, but one thing is for certain, it wasn’t what she expected.
BIRTH
The Department of Births, perhaps unsurprisingly, chose a biological avatar capable of horizontal gene transfer and rejuvenation.. Which makes monitoring his whereabouts and whereawho somewhat difficult.
DEATH
Phillipa Grave, the avatar for The Department of Deaths, represents the control group in the three avatars, as her chosen form is made purely from nano-biotics. Her search for the meaning of death is made all the more difficult by being alive.
BOSTON CURTIS
Chair of the all-powerful Chamber of Commerce. Something much more substantial than a chair to stub your toe on. Suspicious that the Universe is up to something on Earth that might change reality. Specifically, the reality in which he is rich and powerful. He sends a Think Tank to investigate, with a heavy bias towards the Tank part of its title.
The Trivial Universe
If the purpose of life is to question reality, then reality isn't keeping up its end of the bargain. It has supplied no answers and refuses to take on any questions about why I keep stubbing my little toe.
For millennia, comedy has been used to hold politicians and the powerful to account, largely because asking them politely has achieved very little.
In The Trivial Matter of The Universe we continue that tradition. When I say politicians, I mean the Universe and when I say the powerful, I mean Reality.
Asking the questions on behalf of humanity is Felix Culpa.
For everyone else there is Alfred.