"TECHNOMANCY"

TECHNOMANCY is an old project of mine whose origins date back to about probably 6 years. I sincerely don't even remember what inspired it; maybe it was my first contact with the power of computation in cryptography or the marvels posed by "quantum computation".In actuality, I don't think a quantum computer can even do what I claim it to do in the story, but who cares? It's sci-fi. The reach of quantum computation, however, is so wide that I might as well be very wrong.

The other element involved in TECHNOMANCY is my favorite sci-fi topic, time travel. Travelling through time is a subject widely exploited both in old and modern literature as well as cinema. For me it is not about the fact of travelling to another era what fascinates me, but the rules that might govern such undertake. Many different artists (or even serious scientists) have imprinted many different takes on "the rules of time travel". Nowadays is widely known that the problem of time travel is no longer a problem of Physics but a problem of engineering (we simply lack of the technology to build a time machine). I have my particular point of view on the matter (I'll explain it one of these days) but indeed this is a topic that extends to several interesting territories such as fate and/or free will and/or the existence of a higher power, etc, which are always very interesting to explore from the sci-fi POV.  In this sense I feel also influenced by the work of Gregory Benford, particularly the novel "Timescape" which basically uses the same idea I want to introduce in mine. Benford also goes technical, but he takes a very different road.

The storyline of TECHNOMANCY revolves around a group of hackers that infiltrate an allegedly military channel and steal what in appearance is a portion of an encrypted message. However, the hackers rapidly discover that their names are in the message! As further intercepted mysterious messages unveil their content, the thieves start dieing under particular circumstances, as predicted in the messages. The main character is the last in the list and has 24 hours to discover the enigma behind the messages before dieing as predicted; his desperate inquiry will lead him to a dark mysterious telecommunications company which has perfected an incredible technology in whose hands the future of millions might be at stake!

TECHNOMANCY is sitting on a dusty drawer or a desk somewhere right now, waiting for me to write it. It is aimed to be a short novel and the main idea is to warn about the "dangers" of quantum technology in the wrong hands, a little bit like Michael Chricton's dinosaurs, with quantum technology in the place of bioengineering. It is my hope that with the pass of days (or weeks, or months or years) the story grows its way up to the light rather than shriveling and dieing.

I won't let it die. That I promise.