DAWN OF THE NEW MAN

About the Book

DR. PHILIP DERON is a twenty-first century scientist with a very unique personality and outlook on life, who volunteers as the subject of an experiment in suspended animation. He awakens three-and-half centuries in the future, where he is confronted with two societies at opposite ends of the sociological, economic and political spectrum: Terra and FWF. They both evolved from the ashes of a Last War, which brought mankind to the brink of extinction, and marked the transition of the Old Era into a New Era of technological wonders that can mediate benevolent as well as ominous social tools, habits and institutions.

In Terra, Philip is confronted not only with this technological progress, but also with new customs, new values, and a totally new outlook on life. And, for the first time in his life, he falls in love. And not with just one, but with two enchanting Terran women––Nina Fauré, a psychologist, and Judy Bjork, a geneticist––both of whom reciprocate his feelings in a, to his Old Era mentality, most unorthodox manner. And just as he finally begins to cope with this, by the standards of his own times, most unusual and intriguing situation, he unwittingly becomes involved with a woman most exceptional even by Terran standards––Anita Brandt, a paranormal possessing extraordinary attributes and talents.

Anita introduces Philip to Parapsychic Transcendentalism––a school of thought which strives to realize man’s spiritual potential by developing his latent psychic abilities, which enable mental mergers and empirically strive to establish the existence of a Cosmic Consciousness intrinsic in the writings of some Old Era philosophers and thinkers.

Further stimulated by the inquiring minds of Anita, Nina and Judy, Philip launches into an investigation of other Terran transcendentalist movements. They reveal to him an entirely new world of philosophical ideas and scientific achievements that attempt to provide answers to questions that have preoccupied thinkers since the dawn of civilization.

Having been brought up, however, in the Old Era, Philip realizes how vulnerable the ultra-pacifistic Terran civilization is to the aggressive tendencies of FWF––the only other country with which it shares the planet Earth since the Last War that has annihilated most of mankind. As opposed to Terra, in which the computer-assisted techniques of coordinated group decision making have eliminated the need for any form of government, FWF is ruled by an oligarchy that has mentally enslaved most of its population by taking advantage of the same technology that in Terra is used to liberate the human mind and stimulate the human spirit. Lulled into social inertia by mind-numbing Tri-Di shows and the psychologically addictive pleasures of Joy Caps––which induce states of ecstasy by the direct stimulation of brain centers as reward for efficiency at work––the FWF masses are the obedient subjects of their political and economic masters.

Outraged by some of the manifestations of the subliminally induced mental and spiritual lethargy of these masses, Philip embarks on a risky and prolonged struggle to change the mentality and the social conditions prevalent in FWF. Ultimately, his confrontation with the FWF establishment endangers his life as well as that of Nina and Anita––the two courageous and exceptional Terran women with whom he had developed a most unusual and unique relationship.

ON A MORE FUNDAMENTAL LEVEL, Dawn of the New Man is a novel about the aspirations of mankind, and about spiritual and social growth: the spiritual growth of its protagonist, Dr. Philip Deron––an intelligent and highly educated scion of a superrich family, but largely a product of the contemporary Western social milieu––into a sensitive and empathetic member of the ethically and socially advanced Terran society, in which humanistic values are not just preached but also routinely practic

About the Author

EDUARD PRUGOVECKI is a scientist who acquired his Ph.D. from Princeton University. While a professor at the University of Toronto he published a host of research papers and four monographs on quantum physics. After his retirement from academic life he completed his first futuristic novel Memoirs of the Future (Cross Cultural Publications, 2001). He now lives in Chapala, Mexico, and is working on a new futuristic novel.