00.0122 Dear Reader

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　　Dear Reader

　　What you have on your screen is an epistolary novel that is still under construction.

　　You'll find a (relatively) coherent story plot, setting and characters here. And something new!

　　I've been researching and writing for two novels since 2008. This is one of them. The word count of my research notes probably numbers in the tens of millions.

　　But I got old. Too old. Too soon.

　　About half way through this project my mind started to spit and sputter. (They call it 'Mild Congnitive Impairment' which gradually slides into 'dementia', then Alzheimers. It may take a decade or so.)

　　I'd already written a fair amount of story, which you have here in a very rough draft format.

　　But something interesting happened along the way.

　　I found a tool to augment my otherwise failing mind.

　　I discovered the new infant in the world, called "AI". I ask it amazingly complex, probing 'prompts' (questions) of several hundred words. It gives me stunning, in depth answers within the context of not only the story draft, but also all of my research notes since 2008. (Note: I suspect the long-term effects of AI could be described as 'The printing press meets the steam engine' -- it is a tool which 'amplifies' everything. Watt's steam engine invention replaced animal power and massively transformed our civilization. The AI horse is already out of the barn - way out. There's really not much anyone can do about it. The blade of grass that bends will survive the storm.

　　And it's also illustrated!

BUT...

　　There's more!

　　If you are an author, I invite you to use any or all of this in your work. There's a lot here -- the PDF of this draft is over 1,100 pages. It's about 300,000 words. All I ask is a modest bit of attribution. This is my legacy to my Tribe, The Rubberists. Do something constructive with it if you can, please.

　　And will someone explain what the hell an epistolary novel is, please!

　　Stay tuned...