Chapter 1…
Alan is a web developer with a degree in music composition. His wife, Katherine, is a neuroscientist researching computer-brain interfaces. During his free time, Alan dabbles in computer-generated music: he writes progressively higher-abstraction algorithms that generate symphonies. With time, his music tends towards algorithms with more symmetry and recursion that generate ever-more beautiful music.
One day, he comes up with the most elegant algorithm yet. It takes a pattern as an input, and outputs a symphony based on it. That same day, his wife announces a breakthrough at work: the ability to capture the unique characteristics of the brain; the soul, as it were, using the latest brain scanning technology. Intrigued, they use her brain scan as an input to the algorithm to produce a symphony. Their computers take all night and most of the next day to process the scan through the algorithm. They leave for work the next day with the symphony still in process.
That evening, when Alan comes home, he finds his wife blissfully relaxing on the recliner… until he realizes that she is in a coma. The doctors say that they cannot find anything wrong; it’s as if her brain decided to just stop being awake or conscious. He suspects it has something to do with the symphony. At first, he is afraid to listen to it, but in the end, curiosity and desperation to know what happened wins over…
