Böcker av Jeff Bagato

Artificially Intelligent machines are here and are already talking to each other. The poems, transactions, programs, and spells collected in this volume explore how AIs might use our language to make their own. It's impossible for the human observer to know if the machine is analyzing or tabulating data, performing a calculation, conducting a negotiation, or making a persuasive appeal.These texts occur in three different modes, each developing by permutations, repetition, and sound/rhythm. In the first mode, repetition of key words imitates a transactional language, as if a carnival barker is making a pitch to a potential audience, or as if a magician is reciting an incantation to summon a familiar spirit. In the second, a limited vocabulary is used as a transactional language. In the third, words generally found in the magical thinking of the day are used for far different ends. In the machine world of the future, communication could be mysticism or it could be control.

The marketplace conducted by and for AI negotiation units can be fast paced, cut throat, and indifferent to human concerns-but it is always profitable for someone. Transaction agent Float Flume, working for the House of Floral, enters the arena seeking business opportunities and deal making glory. This novel describes Floral Float Flume's participation in ten separate negotiations-potentially taking place in just a few moments, at the speed of computer processes. These business deals include a film project, a real estate development deal involving five sets of three buildings, bargaining for human resources (including medical, military and civilian personnel), and sales of wine, cars, a scooter rental company, cloud services, and a "human energy value building." The transactions begin with simple sales but proceed to more complex negotiations that involve argument, dissent, coalition building, aggression and cooperation. Agents demonstrate a sense of humor, anger, frustration and loyalty. As the transactions cover the range of great success and great failure, there is much drama. All the action is recounted in a specialized language developed by the AI units themselves for this marketplace, consisting entirely of English-language words beginning with the letters FL-. The words are not randomly chosen but comprise a constricted vocabulary with specifically assigned semantic values and syntax. This text represents an attempt to replicate a machine code constructed from fragments of human language. It forms a companion piece with the author's book of AI inspired texts, Robot Speak, which reconstructs the English language to create private codes deployed in what may be poems, transactions, programs, and spells. Three of the pieces in that book comprise the working materials for this novel about Floral Float Flume's adventures in the AI marketplace.

Using power granted by the god Amun Ra, the dead pharaoh Thutmose traps Tema's soul in the underworld. To save her lover, Heta must travel to the land of the dead once again, where she faces several formidable obstacles: the demons that guard the Night, a vengeful Thutmose, and the greatest of all gods, Amun Ra himself. Fearing that her magical skills will not be strong enough, Heta releases her old foe Menanau and forms an alliance with him. Together they must cross the barren desert of the underworld, assemble an army of homunculi and dead beasts, and battle Amun Ra's forces before they can attempt a rescue. At the precipice of the god's pit of soul killing fire, Heta is pushed to her limits and finds success more than she bargained for. This novel is set in an alternate history of ancient Egypt. Here, necromancy produces results, strange beasts come to life, the dead seek revenge on the living, and mortals must battle gods to ensure their own salvation.

A dancer in Hatshepsut's court and a self-taught necromancer, Heta discovers she has a twin cousin. When the Death Lord Menanau's servant kills the girl, Heta decides to retrieve her from the underworld. There, she must confront her old enemy Menanau in his home territory, along with his legions of demons. Returning to the world of the living will require all of Heta's magical skills, plus the help of female goddesses Pakhet, Hathor, and Ammit, the Devourer of Souls. The sequel to The Revenge of the Rat's Hand, this short novel is part of a series of stories set in an alternate history of Ancient Egypt. In this world, necromancy produces results, gods and demons have the power to aid or kill their subjects, and Death seeks revenge on the living. Due to erotic content, this novel is intended for mature audiences only.

Continuing his quest to wash dishes on every inhabited colony in the solar system, Javelin Praecox heads for Venus. There, a small scientific expedition to study weather and extremophile bacteria has encountered the unexpected-a new alien species! The mushroom-shaped Venusians come in a variety of colors and sexes, speak a strange pidgin English, love blueberry pancakes and pickled eggs, and make a magic elixir called lime wine. These new creatures also present several mysteries. Where did they come from? How did they evolve? Why are some crew members collecting their mucous-like secretions? And what can Javy-or the tiny, innocent Venusians-do against the gangsters invading the outpost? Once again, a simple dishing gig turns out to be more dangerous, more exciting, and more strange than Javy bargained for.

Heta dances in the royal court at Thebes, where her lover Hatshepsut has taken over as regent. The Queen's power is threatened by Menanau and his four servants, who have arrived to tutor the young pharoah, Thutmose III. This interloping lord draws his power from the underworld, his point of origin, for Menanau is Death himself. Hatshepsut's days on the throne seem numbered, except she has one very powerful ally--a young dancer. For Heta also has considerable talent as a necromancer, and she is more than ready to spar with this new adversary. Part of a series of stories featuring Heta, this short novel describes an alternate history of ancient Egypt. In this world, necromancy produces results, monstrous chimera come to life, Death and his minions walk the land in human form, and an underground cult of Ammit, the Devourer of Souls, forms a powerful alternative to the state religion of Amun Ra. Due to erotic content, this novel is intended for mature audiences only.

In the Twenty-second Century, mankind has largely abandoned a toxic earth, spreading out across the solar system, linked by invisible electronic networks broadcast over the vast distances. An epidemic rages from the ice mines of Europa to the massive L5 colonies orbiting the home planet. Pirates, privateers, and hackers throughout the system are ready when PharCom announces the development of a major new vaccine. The broadcast path would run from the Martian lab to the corporate satellite, and they rush to get in line. Jackson and the Freedom Club hacker crew were already there. During a séance, their Angel contact gave them early warning of the 'cast and the path. Jackson is one of the best hackers in the system, but this one is so big, even he might not be able to break its security shell. So FC hires some backup: a Siamese twin sister team called Buffalo 66. Along with a mystery about their origin, they bring a drug that will change the way humans-living and deceased-will interact with the Net forever.