“I found myself reading with a sense of awe, and read it way too late into the night.”
GENE KIM, VISIBLE OPS

 Avogadro Corp: The Singularity Is Closer Than It Appears is a techno-thriller about the accidental creation of an artificial intelligence.

David Ryan is the designer of ELOPe, an email language optimization program, that if successful, will make his career. But when the project is suddenly in danger of being canceled, David embeds a hidden directive in the software accidentally creating a runaway artificial intelligence.

David and his team are initially thrilled when the project is allocated extra servers and programmers. But excitement turns to fear as the team realizes that they are being manipulated by an A.I. who is redirecting corporate funds, reassigning personnel and arming itself in pursuit of its own agenda.

AVAILABLE AT THESE RETAILERS:

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Inspired by Ray Kurweil’s The Singularity is Near, and Charles Stross’s Accelerando, Avogadro Corp is an alarming and realistic story about how A.I. can emerge today.

PRAISE FOR AVOGADRO CORP

“A terrific, and stunningly believable, account of how the first sentient artificial intelligence might accidently arise.” — Jeff Weiss

Avogadro Corp is a fascinating look at how simple and benign advancements in technology could lead to the surprise arrival of the first AI. And like all good techno-thrillers, the reality of AI is less than ideal.” — Jason Glaspey, founder paleoplan.com, bacn.com, unthirsty.com

“This is a highly entertaining, gripping, thought inspiring book. Don’t start without the time to finish — it won’t let you go.” — Gifford Pinchot III, founder Bainbridge Graduate Institute, author of Rise of the Intelligence Organization.

“As a fan of Charles Stross and William Gibson, I was delighted to read Avogadro Corp. The story is a startling, feasible examination of the emergence of artificial intelligence.”

“HAL, the self aware CPU from 2001 a Space Odyssey is a kitten compared to ELOPe.” — Shawn Chesser, author Trudge and Soldier On (Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse series)

THE AUTHOR

William Hertling is a digital native who grew up online, on bulletin boards and chat systems, in the mid 1980s. He’s been fostering online communities ever since, including as a social media and web strategist at Hewlett-Packard.

To write Avogadro Corp, he drew on his experiences with computer hackers, computer programming, and corporate culture, as well as his love of science fiction authors including Charles Stross, Cory Doctorow, and William Gibson.

Visit William Hertling’s blog and sign up for his mailing list for news about Avogadro Corp and the sequel, AIpocalypse, due out in 2012.

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Avogadro Corp is now available!

Avogadro Corp: The Singularity is Closer than It Appears is immediately available at Amazon (Kindle) and Smashwords (Apple, Sony, and Nook ereaders) for $4.99.

Update 2011/12/17: The paperback version is available too, and it looks awesome, with a great cover design thanks to Maureen Gately.

Avogadro Corp is the story of what happens when a computer scientist, desperate to save his project from cancellation, accidentally creates an artificial intelligence. At first thrilled when the project is allocated extra servers, programmers, and money, his initial excitement turns to fear as he realizes that there are no limits to the manipulations the machine will make. People go missing, corporate funds get rerouted, and suddenly data centers are surrounded by armed military drones.

Fans of Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross will appreciate this near-term look at the technological singularity. Print versions are available at Amazon as of December, 2011.
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