Publisher's Synopsis
Dr. Peccary and Staghorn have a digital computer at their hands, known as the Humanac, that can show extremely accurate predictions of future events. It is not a time machine, but simply made up of algorithms, and code. The two men feed the computer all sorts of information, such as books, and historical information, to get as accurate an image as possible. Dr. Peccary has a hormone, known as 'hormone Y', that can stave off aging. He's tested it on animals, such as kittens and puppies in the lab, with great success. Soon, he will put it out on the market for humans. They decide feed hormone to the computer, to see its effects. The two men are appalled by what they see on the computer's video screen. The Humanac shows them a hundred years into the future - and it's a desolate, dystopian world - with ruined buildings, and people living in rags. Surprisingly, Dr. Peccary recognizes one of the people on the computer screen - a twenty-year-old woman named Jenny Cheever, whose father runs the variety store! But how could that be? She didn't look a day older, even though it was a hundred years into the future! It must be because of the hormone. And they witness a young boy in town, whose schoolteacher is terrified of him playing on the playground equipment, and quickly ushers him indoors. And even worse, the two men witness the young boy gets kidnapped by strange men who call themselves the Atavars. Dr. Peccary and Staghorn decide that the best way to understand what's going on, is to connect Dr. Peccary's consciousness to the computer, and to go in and talk to the locals in person. And so, he quickly attaches himself to the computer, and he is quickly transported to the dystopian town.
