The contest will begin on May 1st, 2024. Please read more below.
If The Song of Kiri turns out to be wildly successful, and I am finally able to purchase a large beachside Hawai’ian estate, you won’t hear me complaining. That said, my prime motivation in writing the novel was to allow readers across the globe to consider new paradigms that might possibly nudge humanity away from the tribalism, territoriality, and tool-use convergent neural pathways tread since at least A. anamensis. Even if several of the proposed paradigms are later shown to be wrong (and as a firm believer in the scientific method, I have no doubt some will), the very act of others manipulating them in the mind might lead to even better modes of thought that result in positive change, … and a better world for my little guy to grow up in.
After all, … all that we are, … is that which we give away to others.
I’ve always enjoyed works that require more than one reading, where no one, … no matter how intelligent, … gets everything in the first pass. I am fond of books containing puzzles or in-jokes buried within them. Mingled within The Song of Kiri at levels both superficial and deep are more than 400 jokes, smaller Easter eggs, and references to other famous works of literature, TV, and film (mainly works of science fiction). Buried below these nuggets are some unusual discoveries and scientific results which may surprise many.
Buried below all these jokes, clues, names, and revelations is a golden Easter egg that will change the world. Something wonderful, unique, and unknown to mankind. The first person to discover it will know it clearly for it is not ambiguous. The first person to discover the egg and submit their discovery on the digital form below will win $205,873 U.S. dollars (a curious total this, … and for a reason). (It is my hope that if no one claims the egg in the first few years that this reward will eventually rise to one million dollars, the same prize offered by the Clay Mathematics Institute for solving one of the remaining six Millennium Problems.)
A forewarning though, … the Easter egg is not something that can be uncovered by running the text of this work through statistical analysis programs that search for patterns. The same applies to using artificial intelligence to uncover various trends throughout the work. Discovery of the Easter egg will require something that A.I. cannot currently emulate. I did this to preempt all the software engineers in Palo Alto, Tokyo, Tel Aviv, Bangalore, Hong Kong, Austin, and London. A clever and kind housewife in Iowa has just as much chance as a U.C. Berkeley professor of artificial intelligence or a senior NSA cryptography analyst. The deeper revelations and Easter egg are not cryptographic in nature and number theory techniques used to solve such problems will not work here.
Also, with no disrespect intended, if you send in an answer to the Easter egg and it is incorrect, then I will probably not be able to get back to you (simply because of time constraints). Once the correct answer has been submitted, the discoverer will be identified (if he/she wishes it) and the response posted here. It is my hope that readers find as much enjoyment searching for the Easter egg as I had embedding it.
Good luck with the challenge I have laid before you!
(The digital form to officially enter the contest will appear on this webpage around May 1st, 2024. You may enter the contest once per month per individual. Because my work is published in the United States and because there are idiotic people in my country who order hot coffee from a restaurant, spill it on themselves, and then feel entitled to sue for millions of dollars, there will be very exacting legal stipulations for entering the contest as well.)