Coming of Age

The story takes place in 2025, in an alternative version of our world. It is a world of triumphant reason and competence. Humanity is divided into Cognitive Orders (Bayes, Popper, von Neumann, Tesla, and others), each cultivating different modes of thinking. The economy is governed by the Great Houses, corporate dynasties that control technology and space. The world lives in peace, prosperity, and exponential growth. Yet some people feel that something is “wrong.” Main characters: Leo Ronnik, an unsuccessful historian from the Order of Bayes, builds models of systemic dynamics. His calculations reveal a paradox: according to all the laws of sociology, humanity should have descended into chaos or nuclear war back in the 20th century. The fact that we survived and are thriving is a statistical anomaly. He searches for “Event X” in 1952, which altered the trajectory of history. Tony Orzo, an eccentric billionaire, and Howard Hurst, a reclusive genius physicist, are searching in the Texas desert for the Fifth Fundamental Interaction. They suspect that the laws of physics themselves behave strangely. Olivia Davids, the “Iron Lady” and director of the World Security Committee (WSC), is responsible for protecting civilization from existential threats.