Welcome to the Bobiverse Wiki[]
- Book 1: We Are Legion (We Are Bob),
- Book 2: For We Are Many
- Book 3: All These Worlds
- Book 4: Heaven’s River (With Audible for Production)
- Book 5: Not Till We Are Lost (is set to Sept 5 2024)
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 cryonically 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. He wakes up 117 years later to find that he has been harvested from his frozen head and installed as simulation in a computer matrix to be an artificial intelligence. The series follows Bob as he is installed into the first Von Neumann Probe, to explore and replicate across the galaxy.
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 cryogenically frozen people have been declared dead and to be without rights. He is now the property of the state, a government called FAITH. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI for 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.
For We Are Many Book 2 (released on April 18, 2017)[]
Bob Johansson didn’t believe in an afterlife, so waking up after being killed in a car accident was a shock. To add to the surprise, he is now a sentient computer and the controlling intelligence for a Von Neumann probe.
Bob and his copies have been spreading out from Earth for forty years now, looking for habitable planets. But that’s the only part of the plan that’s still in one piece. Back in Sol, a system-wide war has killed off 99.9% of the human race with a nuclear winter slowly making the Earth uninhabitable and a radical group that wants to finish the job on the remnants of humanity. Out in the galaxy, the Brazilian space probes are still out there, still trying to blow up the competitions, Bob has become enmeshed in a primitive culture's struggles with extinction, and the other Bob clones have discovered a spacefaring species that considers all other life as food.
Bob left Earth anticipating a life of exploration and blissful solitude. Instead he’s a sky god to a primitive native species, the only hope for getting humanity to a new home, and possibly the only thing that can prevent all life in the local sphere ending up as dinner.
All These Worlds Book 3 (released on August 8, 2017)[]
Being a sentient spaceship really should be more fun. But after spreading out through space for almost a century, Bob and his clones just can't stay out of trouble.
They've created enough colonies so humanity shouldn't go extinct. But political squabbles have a bad habit of dying hard, and the Brazilian probes are still trying to take out the competition. And the Bobs have picked a fight with an older, more powerful species with a large appetite and a short temper.
Still stinging from getting their collective butts kicked in their first encounter with the Others, the Bobs now face the prospect of a decisive final battle to defend Earth and its colonies. But the Bobs are less disciplined than a herd of cats, and some of the younger copies are more concerned with their own problems than defeating the Others.
Yet salvation may come from an unlikely source. A couple of eighth-generation Bobs have found something out in deep space. All it will take to save the Earth and perhaps all of humanity is for them to get it to Sol — unless the Others arrive first.
Heaven's River Book 4 (released on September 24, 2020)[]
More than a hundred years ago, the Bob clone named Bender set a course to explore far beyond where the other Bobs were spreading and was never heard from again. There has been no trace of him despite numerous searches by his clone-mates. Now Bob is determined to organize an expedition to learn Bender’s fate—whatever the cost.
But nothing is ever simple in the Bobiverse. Bob’s descendants are out to the 24th generation now, and replicative drift has produced individuals who can barely be considered Bobs anymore. Some of them oppose Bob’s plan; others have plans of their own. The out-of-control moots are the least of the Bobiverse’s problems.
Undaunted, Bob and his allies follow Bender’s trail. But what they discover out in deep space is so unexpected and so complex that it could either save the universe—or pose an existential threat the likes of which the Bobiverse has never faced.
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.
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.
Riker: One of the Bob's first clones. Sent back to Earth to investigate why communications were cut off during Bob's first interstellar transit.
Bill: One of Bob's first clones. Settles in Epsilon Eridani and becomes dedicated to researching technologies for the Bob collective. Invents faster than light communication (SCUT), a variety of useful drones (to include an android body design for Bobs to inhabit), and the ability to scale up the SURGE drive to control the motion of celestial bodies without directly modifying the object.
Minor Characters[]
- Rudolf Kazini: A replicant in charge of most of the mining equipment used by FAITH
- Carol, Carl and Alan: Original employees of Robert Johansson's company InterGator Software
- Andrea and Alaina: Robert Johansson's sisters.
- Dr. Doucette: Female assistant to Dr. Landers who works with Bob (v2) when Dr. Landers is unavailable.
- 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 []
Whoops
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 Non-Bob Replicants.
On April 7th, 2017, 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!
Bobs with Unknown Lineage
- Steve
- Hugh
- Lenny
Non-Bob Replicants
- Ernesto Medeiros
- Matthias Rahu
- Henry Roberts
- Bridget 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. Effectively this is what is currently called an AI (artificial intelligence). An AI is a computer program (or series of programs) that can be taught and learn from experience. It is differentiated from replicators in the story in its inability to adapt to changing situation, its lack of a sense of self, and that it isn't a copy of a human intelligence. (SPOILER: Although in the Heavens River book this idea is challenged).
- Auto-Factory: A self managing factory, managed by an AMI, constructed of 3D printers of various sizes and maintenance robots. It is capable of processing raw materials and also of producing any solid physical object (not gasses or liquids) and can work at an atomic level of detail. One of the key features of an auto-factory is that it can produce more 3D printers and ultimately more auto-factories. In later stories variations on the original idea of auto-factories are also capable of producing biological forms such as plants or animals. They are primarily produced in space but in some colony planets they are brought to or made planet side. It is a continuing theme of the books that a BOB does not control every aspect of an AF's work leaving the details to the built in AMI; but BOB's often worry over the list and order of jobs they have assigned to AFs.
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.
- Heliosphere: this is a bubble like region of space that surrounds and is created by plasma emitted from the sun. Galactic cosmic rays (fantastic four) are less abundant in the heliosphere.
- Heliopause: the outer edge of the Heliosphere which may finish before the Oort cloud.
K
- Kuiper Belt: A "junkyard" of countless icy bodies left over from the solar system's formation that extends as a flat belt or ring from the orbit of Pluto through the Oort Cloud to the edge of the solar system. In these novels the Kuiper Belt is often mentioned as a place to gather resources for building auto-factories.
L
- Lagrange Point: The point where the gravitational pull between at least two large astronomical bodies (planets, moons, suns) and the centrifugal pull of rotating around a large astronomical body is balanced so that an object is not pulled towards either and remains in a fixed relative orbit to both. This would be a theoretically useful position in space for a space-station or ship because no energy would need to be expended in order to maintain that relative position in space. A similar concept is applied by a kayaker who uses an eddy in a river (where the current bounces of a rock or somethings else and runs in the opposite direction to the rest of the flow of the river creating a whirlpool of static water) to take a break paddling down stream. The James Webb Space Telescope uses Lagrange Point stability to maintain its orbit around the sun,
M
- Maser: This stands for Microwave amplification through stimulated emission of radiation and is a similar idea to that of a laser. Indeed (according to wikipedia) the maser was invented first (1953) and laser research was based on these initial experiments (1960). So far the maser does not have many practical applications and is not as useful as a lasers, which are now a common place part of many devices. Masers potentially shouldn't even be called masers as then can generate any electromagnetic wave; not only microwave frequencies, but also radio and infrared frequencies. In other fiction the word is used as a synonym for energy weapons such as one one used by the Japanese Self Defense Force in Godzilla. Mentioned in For We are Many, chapter 40, "Gotcha": "...the little red farm house sat far to the north of Vehement central. Nothing about it was distinctive. No visible technology, no radio broadcasts, nothing to indicate that this anything other than the home of some elderly recluse. Except for the occasional scatter of maser radiation..."
O
- Oort Cloud : A cloud of billions of asteroids that envelopes the solar system and which starts within Pluto's orbit and and extends to the end of the solar system. In these novels moving into an Oort Cloud from interstellar space is treated as entering a solar system.
R
- ROAMer: Remote Observation And Manipulation device.
- Replicant: A human brain that has been scanned (in a destructive process) in order to copy the personality, memory, knowledge and abilities of that brain into computer storage matrix. The process converts all aspects of existing person into a computer program. The program can be turned off and on and copied; but once activated believes itself to be an individual person. Discussion of what is a person and what is an automata is a continuing theme of the book but with an accepted presumption that all of the instances of BOB are truly different people. The advantage of Replicants over AMIs is that the Replicant program benefits from an large initial boost in abilities based on the initial person they were copied from.
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 or VIRT: Virtual Reality.
Species[]
- Cupid Bugs
- Humans
- Deltans
- Gorilloid
- Pav
- Homo Siderea
- The Others
- Quinlan
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.
Systems visited (book 1)[]
- Epsilon Eridani
- Sol
- Omicron2 Eridani
- Delta Eridani
- Alpha Centauri
- Epsilon Indi
- 82 Eridani
- Beta Hydri