Welcome to the Bobiverse Wiki
- Book 1: We Are Legion (We Are Bob),
- Book 2: For We Are Many
- Book 3: All These Worlds
Future books
- Book 4: The Search For Bender
The Bobiverse Series Summary
The Bobiverse is the story of Robert "Bob" Johansson, who, after becoming financially independent by selling his software company, decides to spend some of his money by contracting to have his head cryogenically frozen by CryoEterna Inc. upon his death. The idea is that his head would be preserved until later, when technology permitted a body to be grown and his thawed head attached to it - thus resuming life. The next day he is unexpectedly killed in an automobile accident, and his contract is activated. He wakes up 117 years later and finds that he has been harvested from his frozen disembodied head and installed in a computer matrix as an artificial intelligence. The world has significantly changed.
Bob is now the property of Applied Synergetics Inc which is in economic competition with Total Cyber Systems to supply robotic servants to society. The lead scientist charged with bringing Bob online is Dr. Landers. Bob's first task is to communicate with a GUPPI interface to interact with peripheral systems. Dr Landers explains the geopolitical history and begins preparation for Bob's mission: an interplanetary expedition as the first Von Neumann Probe.
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) Book 1 (released on September 20, 2016)
Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street.
Bob wakes up 117 years later to find corpsicles declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state called FAITH. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. The stakes are high: no less than the first claim to entire worlds. If he declines the honor, he'll be switched off, and they'll try again with someone else. If he accepts, he becomes a prime target. There are at least three other countries trying to get their own probes launched first, and they play dirty.
The safest place for Bob is in space, heading away from Earth at top speed. Or so he thinks. Because the universe is full of nasties, and trespassers make them mad – very mad.
Robert "Bob" Johansson has recently sold his software development company, InterGator Software, to a rival company, Terasoft, for a significant amount of money. InterGator is a software development company which has developed the leading engineering design and analysis application. While attending a convention in Las Vegas, Robert Johansson is killed when an automobile strikes him in a pedestrian crossing. Bob was on his way to having dinner with the first employees, and now major stock holders, in InterGator Software; Carl, Karen, and Alan.
Bob lives in San Diego. He is emotionally close to his twin sisters Andrea and Alaina and parents who live in Minnesota.
For We Are Many Book 2 (released on April 18, 2017)
The second book of the Bobiverse Series
All These Worlds (released on August 8, 2017)
The third and final (so far) book of the Bobiverse Series
Main Characters
Robert Johansson: The original human (version 1.0) which later becomes artificial intelligence Bob (version 2.0).
Dr. Landers: Bob 2.0's primary contact, Head Applied Synergetics Scientist on the HEAVEN Project which is sponsored by FAITH Ministry of Truth.
Guppy: (General Unit Primary Peripheral Interface or GUPPI), is the computer program which enables Bob to send commands to other devices under his control. In constructing his virtual reality (VR) environment, Bob defined the GUPPI in the image of Admiral Ackbar, a character from the Star Wars movies. As Bob replicated and enhanced his VR environment, Guppy took on certain personality quirks.
Dr. Doucette: Female assistant to Dr. Landers who works with Bob (v2) when Dr. Landers is unavailable.
Colonel Butterworth: Leader of the USE faction, works with RIker, one of Bob's first clone replicants, to establish colony ships for human transport to new planets.
Minor Characters
- Rudolf Kazini: A replicant in charge of most of the mining equipment used by FAITH
- Carol, Carl and Alan: Original employees or Robert Johanssen's company InterGator Software
- Andrea and Alaina: Robert Johanssen's sisters.
- Senior Minister Travis: FAITH minister within the Ministry of Truth sent to evaluate Bob 2.0 after being awoken (given artificial consciousness as part of the HEAVEN Project).
- Minster Cranston: Leader of the remaining FAITH state.
- AIM Candidates for Heaven Project:
- Kenneth Martins - Final AI candidate. Backup was not reinstalled after computer room was destroyed in a second attack on the Applied Synergetics Inc. facility.
- Jiro Tanaka - terminated AI candidate for HEAVEN Project
- Neves Reijnder - terminated AI candidate for HEAVEN Project
- Joana Almeida - terminated AI candidate for HEAVEN Project
- Spike: Bob's VR cat, created from his college days.
- Lucy: Milo's VR pet dog.
Bob Family Tree
Spoiler Alert
Please note: If you have not read to the end of book 3 then you should not view the last portion of this family tree as it contains a spoiler in section No-Bob Replicants.
On April 7th, Dennis E. Taylor released the official Bob family tree as it stands at the end of For We Are Many on his website. The tree contains only the Bobs mentioned in the series. However, by the end of book two there are according to Bill between eight and ten generations of replicants.
Click on a name to learn more about them - or help us by creating or adding to their page!
Bob's with Unknown Lineage
- Steve
Non-Bob Replicants
- Ernesto Medeiros
- Matthias Rahu
- Henry Roberts
- Bridgette Brodeur
List of Terms
50
- '50 Dwarves reference': This is a running joke, referred to in Book 2...
By the time they had diminished from 50 to 8, the other dwarves began to suspect 'Hungry' ..." -- Gary Larson, "The Far Side"
A
- AMI: Artificial Machine Intelligence
D
- DYSON SPHERE:A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure that completely encompasses a star and captures a large percentage of its power output.
E
- ETHER: Estimated Time of Habitable Earth Remaining
F
- FAITH: Free American Independent Theocratic Hegemony
G
- GUPPI: General Unit Primary Peripheral Interface
H
- (Project) HEAVEN: Habitable Earths Abiogenic Vessel Exploration Network
R
- ROAMer: Remote Observation And Manipulation device
S
- SCUT: Subspace Communications Universal Transceiver
- SUDDAR: Subspace Deformation Detection And Ranging
- SURGE: Subspace Reactionless Geotactic Emulation
V
- VAST: Variable Attachment Surface Tension, the system used to enable Roamer bots to climb walls.
- VEHEMENT: Voluntary Extinction of Human Existence Means Earth’s Natural Transformation. Possibly based on the 'real' Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT).
- Von Neumann Probe: an automated interstellar probe that builds “copies of itself as it visits systems”
- VR: Virtual Reality
Species
- Humans
- Deltans
- Pav
- Homo Sideria
- The Others
Space Vessels
Heaven 1.0
Heaven 2.0
Heaven 3.0
Heaven 4.0
Heaven 5.0
Geopolitical Environment (book 1)
- United States of Eurasia (USE): all of Europe and most of western Russia, leaders in AMI technology and financial resources.
- China: Historical China, most of eastern Russia, former Asian satellite countries and the Middle East
- FAITH: all of North America except for Washington state, British Columbia and Alaska
- The Australian Federation
- Republic of Africa
- The Brazilian Empire: takes the most adversarial stance in world politics. Initiates nuclear attack on FAITH.