Science Reality

For as long as historical records have existed, authoritarian regimes have tried to rewrite history to suit their purposes, using their dictatorial powers to create myths, spread propaganda, justify decisions, erase opponents, and even dispose of crimes. Today, as America’s Republican Party becomes increasingly radicalized, it’s not surprising to see the GOP read from a similarly despotic script. Indeed, the party is taking dangerous, aggressive steps to rewrite history—and not just from generations past.

Devilishly clever, Next blends fact and fiction into a breathless tale of a new world where nothing is what it seems, and a set of new possibilities can open at every turn. Next challenges our sense of reality and notions of morality. Balancing the comic and bizarre with the genuinely frightening and disturbing, Next shatters our assumptions and reveals shocking new choices where we least expect.

The world we live in presents itself as orderly, predictable, and governed by consistent rules—gravity pulls downward, the sun rises in the east, and time moves steadily forward. Our daily experience, guided by logic, memory, and sensory feedback, creates a sense of permanence and coherence that we seldom stop to question. We trust in this continuity because it is the foundation upon which our understanding of reality is built. But what happens when, for the briefest of moments, reality falters?

What if you could 10x your achievements in health, wealth, and relationships? What if you were only months away from launching a new business, getting six pack abs, or falling deeply in love? New York Times best-selling author Kevin Kruse presents the secret science of goal-setting practices (and no, it has nothing to do with smart goals). Based on hundreds of scientific studies and interviews with self-made millionaires, athletes, top sales professionals, and straight-A students, Kruse answers the question: how do the most successful people set and achieve their goals?

From iconic books like Neuromancer to blockbuster films like The Matrix, virtual reality has long been hailed as the ultimate technology. But outside of a few research labs and military training facilities, this tantalizing vision of the future was nothing but science fiction. Until 2012, when Oculus founder Palmer Luckey - then just a rebellious teenage dreamer living alone in a camper trailer - invents a device that has the potential to change everything.

The Great Guilds, fearing the loss of their control of the world of Dematr, have gathered their power and joined it with the relentless legions of the Empire. The full might of that host will fall upon the fortress city of Dorcastle. If Dorcastle falls, the revolt led by Master Mechanic Mari and Mage Alain will fail, and their world will soon descend into chaos.

A collection of articles published between 2013 and 2023 on the topics of discernment, illusion and deception by Frederick Dodson at realitycreation.org

Data and Reality gracefully weaves the disciplines of psychology and philosophy with data management to create timeless takeaways on how we perceive and manage information. Although databases and related technology have come a long way since 1978, the process of eliciting business requirements and how we think about information remains constant.

Embark on a mind-expanding journey through the nature of reality itself! Is our universe one of many? Are we living in a simulation? What does quantum physics tell us about the fabric of reality? "The Beginner's Guide to Reality" breaks down these profound questions into three fascinating, accessible books that will forever change how you view existence.

The aggressive invaders from another galaxy cannot be stopped. The Composite keeps capturing system after system wiping out everything in its path, and there is no sign of a force capable of standing up to it. In the search for allies, Gnat embarks on a long journey aimed at uniting the various branches of the human race. And though the potential for alliance is there, how can he convince them to set off to fight a suicidal war with such a disastrous balance of forces?

What the MECH is going on here?In a future where the line between man and machine blurs, the fate of humanity rests in the hands of a daring mech pilot and his ragtag band of rebels. Amidst the unforgiving landscape of the Rocky Mountains, they wage a desperate war for survival and freedom against the relentless march of AI overlords. Enter a world ravaged by technological tyranny, where Hunter, once a noble defender of the people, now navigates the treacherous pathways of rebellion. Joined by Lee, a brilliant tactician with a knack for unraveling AI deceit, and Jester, the wildcard pilot ...

It's Zinnia Gray's 21st birthday, which is extra-special because it's the last birthday she'll ever have. When she was young, an industrial accident left Zinnia with a rare condition. Not much is known about her illness - just that no one has lived past 21. Her best friend Charm is intent on making Zinnia's last birthday special with a full sleeping beauty experience, complete with a tower and a spinning wheel.

Peter Pomerantsev takes us to the front lines of the disinformation age, where he meets Twitter revolutionaries and pop-up populists, "behavioral change" salesmen, Jihadi fanboys, Identitarians, truth cops, and many others. Forty years after his dissident parents were pursued by the KGB, Pomerantsev finds the Kremlin re-emerging as a great propaganda power. His research takes him back to Russia - but the answers he finds there are not what he expected.

Former Queen’s Enforcer Mal Kendrick doesn’t think his life could get any worse: He’s been exiled from Faerie with a cursed and useless right hand. When he’s not dodging random fae assassins in the Outer World, he’s going toe-to-toe with his tree-hugging neighbor. And when he discovers that the tree hugger is really a druid, he’s certain the gods have it in for him - after all, there’s always a catch with druids. Then he’s magically shackled to the man and expected to instruct him in Supernatural 101.

Material Girls is a timely and trenchant critique of the influential theory that we all have an inner feeling known as a gender identity, and that this feeling is more socially significant than our biological sex. Professor Kathleen Stock surveys the philosophical ideas that led to this point, and closely interrogates each one, from De Beauvoir's statement that, 'One is not born, but rather becomes a woman' (an assertion she contends has been misinterpreted and repurposed), to Judith Butler's claim that language creates biological reality, rather than describing it.

Thomas Hunter, supreme commander of the Forest Guard, has seen a great evil decimate much of his beautiful world. With a dwindling army and an epic threat, Thomas is forced to supplement his fighters with new recruits ages 16 and 17. From thousands, four will be chosen to lead a special mission. Unknown to Thomas, the chosen four are redirected to a different endgame. They must find the seven lost Books of History before the Dark One.

Who are we, and how do we relate to each other? Luciano Floridi, one of the leading figures in contemporary philosophy, argues that the explosive developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is changing the answer to these fundamental human questions. As the boundaries between life online and offline break down, and we become seamlessly connected to each other and surrounded by smart, responsive objects, we are all becoming integrated into an "infosphere".

Millions of people go to enormous lengths to achieve fame. Fame is woven into our lives in ways that may have been unimaginable in years past. Mining decades of experience, writer, director, producer, and actress Justine Bateman writes a visceral, intimate look at the experience of Fame. Combining the internal reality-shift of the famous, theories on the public’s behavior at each stage of a famous person’s career, and the experiences of other famous performers, Bateman takes the listener inside and outside the emotions of Fame.

In the year 2038, there’s only one destination that can play host to the world’s wealthiest adventure seekers: the Pengalaman Island Resort and Virtual Reality Theme Park. Located on a private South Pacific island, guests here live out their wildest fantasies in custom-made virtual reality simulations while also enjoying the usual amenities of an exclusive five-star getaway. All is relatively breezy until famed billionaire and avid guest, Mr. Wagner, goes missing within a virtual simulation. His only hope? A daring rescue led by Derek Ambrose and his ragtag search party.

A Storm that will wreck a world threatens Dematr. Only Mari, one of the Mechanics who control all technology through their Guild, has a chance to stop it. She and Mage Alain have survived numerous attempts to kill them and have gained many more followers, but the Storm of chaos, born of centuries of enslavement, grows ever closer.