From the Dark Net to the Dark Web: Life Imitates Art in the Battle Against Online Criminals and Terrorists
Reality and the virtual world collide, both in federally-funded development of the Dark Web and the new science fiction novel "The Dark Net."
Greenbelt, MD, September 12, 2007 --(PR.com)-- The fictional online battle between good and evil described in the new science fiction novel “The Dark Net” is on the verge of becoming reality, thanks to University of Arizona researchers developing a system that they call the Dark Web.
Both the novel by physicist James Riordon and the Dark Web research, announced Tuesday in a National Science foundation press release (available at www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=110040&org=NSF), focus on the battle between federal agencies and nefarious groups who have gone online to promote crime and terrorism.
“The Dark Net” follows the adventures of Max Caine, a university technician working on advanced neural networks, and his virtual assistant Betty3.5 as they are swept up in a conspiracy to bring down the Internet and the hyper-connected society that relies on it. The University of Arizona’s Dark Web is being developed to track and defeat online terrorist conspiracies in the global war on terror. “Most of the technology described in ‘The Dark Net’ is still decades away,” says Riordon, “but the virtual struggle I fictionalized is clearly closer than many people realize.”
Riordon wrote his novel in the form of a blog (www.the-dark-net.blogspot.com), with semi-weekly entries over the course ten months. He transformed the entries into podcasts with the TextAloud text-to-speech translation program and posted the episodes on iTunes. “Based on listener feedback,” says Riordon, “people like the artificial narrators. The voices are surprisingly natural, and the whole idea of narrating a cyber-thriller about virtual reality with a virtual person appealed to the fans of the podcast.”
“The Dark Net” is available in print, for download, or for preview through online book-seller Lulu.com at www.lulu.com/content/1120302.
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Both the novel by physicist James Riordon and the Dark Web research, announced Tuesday in a National Science foundation press release (available at www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=110040&org=NSF), focus on the battle between federal agencies and nefarious groups who have gone online to promote crime and terrorism.
“The Dark Net” follows the adventures of Max Caine, a university technician working on advanced neural networks, and his virtual assistant Betty3.5 as they are swept up in a conspiracy to bring down the Internet and the hyper-connected society that relies on it. The University of Arizona’s Dark Web is being developed to track and defeat online terrorist conspiracies in the global war on terror. “Most of the technology described in ‘The Dark Net’ is still decades away,” says Riordon, “but the virtual struggle I fictionalized is clearly closer than many people realize.”
Riordon wrote his novel in the form of a blog (www.the-dark-net.blogspot.com), with semi-weekly entries over the course ten months. He transformed the entries into podcasts with the TextAloud text-to-speech translation program and posted the episodes on iTunes. “Based on listener feedback,” says Riordon, “people like the artificial narrators. The voices are surprisingly natural, and the whole idea of narrating a cyber-thriller about virtual reality with a virtual person appealed to the fans of the podcast.”
“The Dark Net” is available in print, for download, or for preview through online book-seller Lulu.com at www.lulu.com/content/1120302.
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Contact
The Dark Net
James Riordon
301-919-2173
www.the-dark-net.blogspot.com
James Riordon
301-919-2173
www.the-dark-net.blogspot.com
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