The God Patent - Softcover

Ransom Stephens

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0984260005 ISBN 13: 9780984260003

Publisher: Numina Press, 2009

Synopsis

Sex, drugs, and quantum physics collide with artificial intelligence, faith and free will in this perspective-altering story. The memo said they'd get bonuses for submitting patents, so why not? Money came easily during the dot-com boom. Concealed in engineering jargon, Ryan McNear submits a patent for the soul disguised as a software algorithm and his best friend Foster Reed rewrites Genesis and calls it a "power generator." A few years later, amid the fallout of a ruptured technology bubble, his career ruined and family shredded, a desperate Ryan discovers that a company headed by his old friend Foster is developing his patent. What he thought was a joke is generating stacks of money amid claims that it will provide a source of limitless energy and prove the existence of God. Willing to try anything to rebuild his life, Ryan stakes a legal claim to the patent. He soon discovers a sinister undercurrent in the venture. Racing against time and aided by a motley group of assistants that includes an attorney/conman, a beautiful and passionate physicist and a death-obsessed adolescent math prodigy, Ryan gets caught in a battle between hard science and fundamentalist religion that threatens his sanity, his freedom and his son. Before long Ryan will test the limits of faith and free will, evaluate the nature of desire, and comprehend the human soul in a way that requires a single step, rather than a great leap, of faith.

About this title

About the Author

Ransom Stephens, Ph.D., is a professor of particle physics turned writer and speaker. He has worked on experiments at SLAC, Fermilab, CERN, and Cornell; discovered a new type of matter and was on the team that discovered the top quark. During the tech boom that ended in 2001, he directed patent development for a wireless web startup and, a few years later became an expert on timing noise which is something that you don't care about other than that it paid his bills as he wrote The God Patent.

Ransom lives in Petaluma, California and makes a living by writing novels, giving speeches, producing and MCing literary events, helping engineers solve problems, and teaching writing seminars. He is the author of over 200 articles on impossible subjects like quantum physics, the future of publishing and parenting teenagers.

His first novel, The God Patent, is set in the battle between science and religion over the nature of the soul and the origin of the universe. The story is wrapped around the role of faith in both science and religion and concludes with a surly adolescent math prodigy's discovery of the nature of the eternal soul.

Review

"...classic battle between faith and free will [with] unusually deft infusion of legitimate but accessible science... a narrative that sings of the heart and the scientific method as two parts of the same song." -San Francisco Chronicle (edited by author)

"The God Patent really drew me in, not just because of the hard-charging plot and the vivid characters but also because this story is wrapped around one of the central conflicts of our time: faith in science versus faith in religion. Ransom, to his credit, avoids easy or didactic answers. Instead he pulls readers into a dense and nuanced argument that leaves us buzzing with questions." --Tamim Ansary, bestselling author of Destiny Disrupted

"This book is truly amazing. It combines philosophy, theology, science, humor, and great characters all in one outstanding story. This is that rare book that makes you seriously reconsider and reevaluate your idea of what the universe is all about. It is engrossing and fascinating, the kind of book that makes you sad when it's over and you want to read it all over again." --Miles Dylan, singer/songwriter, philosopher/sage

"This story of life, physics and spirituality will blow your mind. You won't put it down until the last page, and when you look up, you will see the world in a totally different way." --Joe Quirk, bestselling author of Exult.

"When software engineers ruled the world...The heart of this tale is a science-versus-religion battle over a couple of patents that promise to unlock the secrets of the universe and turn the power of God into an ExxonMobil wet dream. On one side is Ryan and a new batch of quirky friends that includes a heartless lawyer (is that redundant?), a dedicated scientist who is sexy enough to lure Ryan back from the dark side and a teenage whiz kid.... The other side includes the usual suspects: the evil government in cahoots with an evil corporation in cahoots with an evil university run by a rightwing religious megalomaniac. Just your typical Houston suburb barbecue crowd. Ransom Stephens skillfully weaves together multiple plot lines and characters in a fast moving story that kept me hungry for the denouement and some baby back ribs. I loved hating the bad guys in The God Patent.... Ransom Stephens got it right. The Petaluma scene. The suspense software. The dark side in all of us that is battling our hardwired angels." --Tim Noun at Book Case, for the Petaluma Argus-Courier

"Every time I finish a really good book, I get depressed because I'm loath to leave behind the characters that I've come to know and love, and the world in which I was immersed. I've had that feeling since reading The God Patent. I feel altered, and I'm sad to leave that world. The book inspires one to seek excellence, to be a better person. To choose life. What more can you ask for?" --Ann Clark, Founder Sacred Wilderness

"...the first debut novel to emerge from the new paradigm of online publishing. What distinguishes this classic battle between faith and free will is its unusually deft infusion of legitimate but accessible science... An ambitious first novel that uses Stephens' experience as a particle physicist, director of patents, public speaker and single father in a narrative that sings of the heart and the scientific method as two parts of the same song." --San Francisco Chronicle

About this edition

• Publisher: Numina Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0984260005
• ISBN 13: 9780984260003
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 298