a + enovel by Kevin Closs

feat. Ray Kurzweil
August 1, 2022


— contents —

~ novel
~ press
~ story
~ praise
~ music


book title: 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



press | about the novel


publication: the Sudbury Star
story title: The author, singer + song-writer Kevin Closs explores high cost of immortality

read | story


presented by

publication: the Sudbury Star
web: home
banner: Trusted, authentic, editorial content.

company: Postmedia
web: home ~ brands
tag line: Exceptional journalism powered by media innovation.


story |

An introduction.

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

Portraits of Kevin Closs.

credit: Stacey Lalande for Kevin Closs | visit


The 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. I’ve borrowed ideas from my favorite sci-fi stories and tropes. But I hope I’ve managed to carry my 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.

Kevin Closs said:

But 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?



Thinking about biological + non-biological 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.

Kevin Closs said:

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?

— end —


praise | for the novel

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


Sulphur | home
tag line: poetry + prose

— about —

Sulphur is the literary journal of Laurentian Univ.



listening


music | by Kevin Closs

1. |

song: A blue whale’s lament.
album: in Deep | visit
written + performed: by Kevin Closs

2. |

song: The song of Svalbard.
album: in Deep | visit
written + performed: by Kevin Closs



webpages 


name: Kevin Closs
bio: singer + song-writer + musician
bio: novelist
web:  home ~ channel ~ novel ~ music



— notes —

a + e = arts + entertainment
AI = artificial intelligence

feat. = featuring
univ. = university