RALF is an enthralling technological spy-story awarded in 2021 with the Vegetti Prize, as the best Italian science fiction novel. The story is set in the very near future, in university research environments. Although the plot is thrilling and fast-paced, with events and situations typical of a spy story, behind the book lie some fascinating theories which make it more interesting than a pure volume of Science Fiction. From a narrative point of view, the novel tells two parallel stories which take place in two different universities, one is in Italy and the other is in the United States, bound together by a common denominator. Both research groups are performing experiments on Artificia...