H.L. Wegley: Behind the Story of Virtuality

Guest Blogger H.L. Wegley: Behind the Story of Virtuality

Before retiring, I spent my last two
decades working in computer technology, developing large-scale computing
systems for Boeing. Consequently, I subscribed to several IT publications and
ezines which I’ve continued to receive. These publications provide good fodder
for stories that deal with issues we face both as a society and as individuals—virtual
reality, artificial intelligence and robotics.

 

Virtuality deals with technology that exists today and which can be used for a variety of nefarious purposes. The story digs deeply into what it means to be made in the image of God. It illustrates that, at our essence, we are not material, but spiritual. Our identity, i.e. our self-awareness, and our will, does not depend on a physical brain. Our real self doesn’t even depend on a human body. If it did, how could we be, as the Apostle Paul said, “absent from the body and present with the Lord?”

We only have a finite, incomplete
understanding of what God actually did when He designed and formed us. But I
view the brain as the interface to the real us, an interface necessary for us
to interact in a human way with our physical body and thus with the world. And
that implies strongly that we should, as Solomon admonished, guard our hearts
because, through the brain, the physical can reach through to the spiritual and
impact it for good or for evil.

One thing I’ve observed is that, If
there’s a way to profit from man’s proclivities, people will take advantage of
it. As Thoreau said about man’s inventions, “They are but improved means to an
unimproved end …” Virtuality
illustrates this truth by spotlighting a dangerous direction that adult
entertainment technology is headed. In so doing, it illustrates how next-generation
virtual reality can deceive the human brain by using other parts of our nervous
system to create virtual worlds so life-like and addictive that people will
prefer them to the real world. Statistics already show this trend in current
video-game technology which is far less realistic and less insidious than
what’s coming.

Rather than spoil the story, I’ll stop
at this point. To get the details, you’ll have to read this action-packed
story. Here’s an excerpt from chapter 1:

Excerpt
from Chapter 1:

Though the water was only three-feet deep, the current’s
relentless pull on Vince’s body overpowered him. It ripped at his legs and
hips.

Vince’s feet slid along the river bottom as the torrent shoved him
downstream. He pushed his shoes deeper into the rocks and gravel. If he lifted
a foot to try stepping toward shore, in an instant, the current would sweep him
away.

He buried his fingers more deeply into the fabric of Jess’s tank
top and burrowed his feet more deeply into the river bottom.

Jess’s body in the water was the biggest problem, the greatest
drag pulling him downstream. But his freezing, spent arms couldn’t lift her out
of the water.

Vince slid several more inches downstream.

The dim light from the lodge across the river revealed their
location. Ten feet in front of him, the entire Snoqualmie River plunged into a
black void that roared its fury at them.

And the ferocious current continued to push him inexorably toward
the blackness.

Vince squeezed on Jess’s tank top with all the strength he had
left and pulled. But what he had left was like Vince van Gordon, the man …  simply not enough.

He had failed Jess. He had failed to fulfill his promise to his brother,
Paul, to protect Virtuality and its dangerous technology. Vince’s only
consolation … it would be his last unhappy ending, either written in his
second-rate novels or lived out in Vince’s second-rate life.

I’m so sorry, Paul … I love you, Jess.

Bio:

H. L. (Harry) Wegley served in the USAF as an Intelligence Analyst and a Weather Officer. In civilian life, he served as a Research Scientist in Atmospheric Physics. After earning an MS in Computer Science, he jumped ship to build computer systems for Boeing for 20 years before retiring near Seattle, where he and his wife enjoy small-group ministry, their grandchildren, and hiking on Olympic National Park beaches. He’s an award winning author of 12 inspirational thrillers and romantic-suspense novels and has more on the way.

Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07K2JJ75V/

My
Web Links:

Website: https://www.hlwegley.com    

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/H.-L.-Wegley/e/B00B1XMR56
  

Twitter https://twitter.com/hlwegley    

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4460203.H_L_Wegley
 

Facebook author’s page: https://www.facebook.com/HLWegley
  

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use my FB profile page:

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Book Blurb:

What would you
do with innovative technology that could make you the next Bill Gates but could
unravel the fabric of civilized society?

“Don’t sell Virtuality. Jess
can help you.” His brother Paul’s dying words to Vince van Gordon, a
struggling author who can’t write happy endings, inherits controlling interest
in Virtuality, a growing high-tech company with a mysterious product the US
Army classified Top Secret. Paul’s last words force Vince to return home to
Seattle to run Virtuality and face the girl he walked away from seven years
ago. Can Vince, once again, endure being eclipsed by Paul’s larger-than-life
shadow, a shadow that cost him the woman he loves?

Jessica (Jess) Jamison is a genius,
a beautiful, highly introverted, young woman who can count her friends on her
thumbs. Seven years ago, Vince left, shattering her heart. Now Jess has a
Computer Science degree and still prays her childhood soulmate will come home.
If he’s willing to reconcile their relationship, Jess can help Vince take the
reins of Virtuality. But why is someone trying to kill Vince and her? And could
Professor Scoggins be right–that, in the wrong hands, Virtuality’s technology
could shred the fabric of civilization, and that stopping it may literally take
an act of Congress?

Virtuality is a character-driven thriller with romance
about dangerous technology lurking on the near horizon–a story of love and
sacrifice, illustrating that there are no shadowed, worthless people in God’s
economy.