a + enovel by Kevin Closs
August 1, 2022
— contents —
~ novel
~ press
~ story
~ praise
~ music
book: Omagee
genre: science fiction
author: by Kevin Closs
date: 2018
This book is available at quality book-sellers.
Amazon | Barnes + Nobel | Books-a-Million | IndieBound
story |
publication: the Sudbury Star
story: The singer + song-writer and author Kevin Closs explores high cost of immortality.
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story |
After 6 years, famed singer + song-writer Kevin Closs released his first novel. He’s best known as a talented musician.
Since 1988 he’s released 11 albums — and toured widely. Now he’s applying his creativity to writing.
His debut fiction is titled Omagee. The story is about a character named Lia, who’s 72 years-old — and learning about life for the first time.
After decades spent dreaming in the care of an artificially intelligent computer program called iLIFE — Lia has un-docked.
But then something happens while she’s disconnected from the network. The nano-bot colony that keeps her alive fails. She’s stranded in a world she’s never known.
images | above + below
Photo portraits of Kevin Closs. And the illustrated cover art of his novel.
credit: Stacey Lalande of Mirth Photography | visit
The human choice.
Now Lia must make a choice — find a way to re-boot her immortal iLIFE existence. Or stay in real life called bioLIFE — and discover if she has what it takes to become truly human.
Kevin Closs said the story’s about trying to imagine an immortal existence of desire without limits. He borrowed ideas from his favorite sci-fi stories and tropes. And he hopes to carry the story’s question through to the end.
Inspiration from futurist Ray Kurzweil.
Closs said the inspiration for his novel came from reading the non-fiction book titled the Singularity Is Near — by Ray Kurzweil. In his many books and talks, Kurzweil promotes the theoretical event called technological singularity — a time in the future when computer software advances in intelligence to the point of matching + surpassing human ability.
Kurzweil is a futurist, inventor, entrepreneur, and best-selling author. He argues that in the near future — he suggests year 2045 — computers could perhaps become sentient. Beyond this singularity, Kurzweil says it’s impossible to predict anything. But he imagines a world where people no longer need their biological bodies — and can live forever as minds inside virtual worlds of their own imagining.
Having grown-up in the Roman Catholic christian religion — Closs said he’s mused about immortality. But it always strikes him as being impossible to comprehend a thing beyond reality as we know it.
quote |
name: by Kevin Closs
bio: singer + song-writer and author
The book the Singularity is Near was compelling. It suggested a technological immortality. Rather than living a mortal life, dying, then passing into an unknowable spiritual realm. Kurzweil says we’ll simply transfer our minds + personalities into powerful computers. And create our own deathless — but intelligible — realities.
Ray Kurzweil’s post-singularity world implies an immortal realm still fettered by mortal desires. Paradise, Nirvana, Tian, Moksha — whatever you call it — has always been described as being beyond desire. But Kurzweil suggests that — instead of leaving our mortal desires behind — we’ll fulfill them, multiply, and expand them. Riding the might of infinitely powerful computers.
The idea that we’ll soon be able to trade a mundane existence — along with disease, suffering, death — for a new, unlimited life of desire brings-up many incredible questions. Will we have access to our friends + families in this new reality. Will we be alone. Will there be an age of consent for immortality. Or will newborn babies be transferred directly to iLIFE.
— Kevin Closs
Thinking about bio + non-bio immortality.
Ray Kurzweil’s book challenged an idea Kevin Closs had always held dear — life, including death, is meaningful. Our mortality somehow defines us — or at least places us in a comprehensible universe.
quote|
name: by Kevin Closs
bio: singer + song-writer and author
Will we need biological life experience to imagine this new death-less reality. Or will we borrow other life experiences. Or will our experiences be constructed for us. Will we move back + forth between worlds — or will we have to leave our bodies behind.
If everything I ever desired could soon be only a thought away, I realized that Kurzweil’s book was about choice. Do we roll the dice — and live the brief lives the universe gives us. Or do we leave our flesh behind, and live forever in a dream world of our own choosing — where anything is possible. What is the ultimate meaning of bioLIFE — and what is the cost of iLIFE.
— Kevin Closs
praise |
From the opening line — to the opening of the dock’s door into bioLIFE — the novel Omagee directs the reader’s attention inward + outward. The book is a meditation on our connected lives, and the speculative future of AI + bio-tech.
Author Kevin Closs has created a unique + interesting window into human life. He raises questions about personal identity, the environment, and innovation. The story is a fresh look at who we are — and what we might become. A compelling take on tech, climate change, and personal struggle.
— Emmett Turkington
name: Emmett Turkington
bio: writer
bio: teacher ~ Laurentian Univ.
bio: founder ~ Sulphur
publication: Sulphur
web: home
banner: poetry + prose
about |
Sulphur is the literary journal of Laurentian Univ.
listening
music | by Kevin Closs
1. |
track: A blue whale’s lament.
album: in Deep | visit
written + performed: by Kevin Closs
2. |
track: The song of Svalbard.
album: in Deep | visit
written + performed: by Kevin Closs
music artist |
name: Kevin Closs
bio: singer + song-writer + musician
bio: author
web: home ~ channel ~ novel ~ music
— notes —
a + e = arts + entertainment
AI = artificial intelligence
feat. = featuring
univ. = university