Emergence

In the mid 21st century, a Swiss cyber-security firm tasked with countering ransomware attacks on major financial institutions exposes a Russian criminal gang supported by a top North Korean hacker. This leads to the discovery of a much more dangerous plot to destroy economic databases, aimed at causing chaos on a global scale. The defence against this threat requires extending the abilities of neural networks run on an advanced quantum computer, creating a form of artificial intelligence which can compromise the cryptography forming the basis of the security of both computer networks and electronic communication. Not only does this tool exceed expectations, it opens a Pandora's Box of other possible applications that could risk destruction of civil liberties and the entire basis of free democracies.<BR>The team use this tool to combat threats from China, the USA and also criminal organisations who are competing to gain control of such power. Inevitably, this leads to inflicting punishments that are comparable with the impacts of conventional warfare. Recognising the dangers of wider access to this technological singularity, they decide to actively limit further developments in this direction elsewhere so that, for the near future, this small group are reluctantly placed in the position of a global oligarchy - with all the responsibilities and dangers that this entails.<BR>

In the mid 21st century, common mode failure results from a huge electro-magnetic pulse from the sun, dwarfing anything seen in recorded history. This destroys all unprotected electrical or electronic equipment which, with 70% of the world's population living in urban areas, effectively removes all services required to support them. Although there is immediate decimation of populations in vulnerable areas, over a longer term the impacts are even greater as urban areas become uninhabitable, the basis for high-tech agriculture and fishing is lost, communication and transport infrastructure vanishes and medical services collapse. This inevitably leads to local breakdown of society, famine and plagues, leading to regional scale conflicts - a true Four Horsemen apocalypse.<BR>The novel focuses in particular on two contrasting situations - a university department located in the Japanese city of Nagoya and the tourist community of Cupecoy in the Caribbean holiday island of Sint Maarten. In both cases, individuals fight to understand what has happened and find solutions to avoid otherwise inevitable collapse into anarchy. This is put in context by vignettes from other locations around the globe.<BR>Initial struggles to survive on a local and regional basis slowly develop into projects to rebuild, with the aim of avoiding the errors of the past. This requires acknowledgement that the over-populated planet cannot be supported by technology that is closer to the early 20th century, so the deaths of billions is unavoidable - made only worse by the impacts of a globally-warmed climate. As if this was not bad enough, those fighting to speed recovery need to fight against others interested only in gaining from the chaos - from the depredations of a new breed of pirates in the Caribbean to attacks on the remaining "nuclear hard" communication system by jingoistic conspirators at the highest level of the US military.

Il rugby ha sempre celebrato il coraggio, ma nessun giocatore ha incarnato questo valore con la stessa intensità di Ian McKinley. Era una giovane promessa del rugby irlandese, uno dei talenti più brillanti della sua generazione, destinato a lasciare il segno. Eppure, un fatidico impatto durante una partita cambiò il suo destino per sempre. In un istante, il futuro luminoso che sembrava già a portata di mano si frantumò: McKinley rimase cieco da un occhio, costretto a dire addio al campo e ai suoi sogni nell'amara incertezza. Ma per Ian, la resa non era un'opzione. Deciso a non piegarsi, si trasferì in Italia, in cerca di una nuova prospettiva e di un modo per restare vicino al rugby. Anche se il ruolo di allenatore gli permise di rimanere con il cuore nello sport, la voglia di tornare a giocare non l'aveva abbandonato. Seconda chance non è solo una storia di sport. È il racconto di un uomo che ha trasformato la tragedia in motivazione, che ha rifiutato di lasciarsi definire da un evento terribile. La sua vita è diventata un tributo allo spirito umano, capace di resistere, di reinventarsi e di superare ogni ostacolo, anche quelli che sembrano insormontabili. Das Urheberrecht an bibliographischen und produktbeschreibenden Daten und an den bereitgestellten Bildern liegt bei Informazioni Editoriali, I.E. S.r.l., oder beim Herausgeber oder demjenigen, der die Genehmigung erteilt hat. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.