Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
This forum is in permanent archive mode. Our new active community can be found here.
Book Recommendation
I just finished Rollback by Robert Sawyer. It's not very long and it's very interesting so it's a really quick book. I finished it in less than a day.
There are some nice ideas in Rollback. The basic plot is that aliens from Sigma Draconis contacted us in 2009. The astronomer who actually figures out what their message means works on a reply and is still alive (but just barely) when the Draconian's counter-reply is received in 2048. She's offered a "rollback", a medical rejuvanation procedure that will result in her having a 25 year old body instead of an 89 year old body so that she can work on the new message. She insists that her husband get the procedure as well. Then something goes wrong . . .
There's at least a couple of subplots, but probably the most interesting is the ongoing flashback that follows the process of figuring out the first message, which ends up being a sort of morals/ethics questionnaire. The characters discuss the moral/ethics questions quite a bit and there's this nice tidbit about halfway through:
Character A: You realize, don't you, that, as a society, we're on the verge of creting a virtual world so real that it would be indistinguishable from reality, sorta like The Matrix.
Character B: Okay, I'll give you that.
A: Also, we're doing high energy physics experiments that may result in the creation of "pocket universes". . .
B: Still with you . . .
A: If we then created a virtual reality on the order of The Matrix, or created a pocket universe in a particle accelerator, we'd be gods, wouldn't we?
B: Maybe. . .
A: We'd have to grapple with the questions of what obligation we owe to our creation, and what obligations our creations might owe to us.
B: Okay. . .
A: Isn't it hubris then, if we can imagine ourselves as gods, that we categorically deny the possibility that we've been created?
Certainly not a proof, but more satisfying than the "you can't dis-prove it so it must be so" argument. Also, a nice little idea. The book is full of those. I heartily recommend this book. It was great fun and didn't take very much time. Please read it.
Also, I just finished A Meeting at Corvallis, the latest in the Dies the Fire series. It was pretty long and very nice if you think you'd like to read long descriptions of post-apocalyptic neo-medieval battles using catapults powered by truck suspensions and arrows with credit card flechettes. The only thing I don't like about this series are the interminable descriptions of Wicca ceremonies. I've learned much more about Wicca than I ever wanted to know by reading these novels. Not that there's anything wrong with Wicca, but I can't abide ceremonies in real life, so I don't want to read ten pages of cereomony in a story. Other than that, I'd recommend this series as well.
There are some nice ideas in Rollback. The basic plot is that aliens from Sigma Draconis contacted us in 2009. The astronomer who actually figures out what their message means works on a reply and is still alive (but just barely) when the Draconian's counter-reply is received in 2048. She's offered a "rollback", a medical rejuvanation procedure that will result in her having a 25 year old body instead of an 89 year old body so that she can work on the new message. She insists that her husband get the procedure as well. Then something goes wrong . . .
There's at least a couple of subplots, but probably the most interesting is the ongoing flashback that follows the process of figuring out the first message, which ends up being a sort of morals/ethics questionnaire. The characters discuss the moral/ethics questions quite a bit and there's this nice tidbit about halfway through:
Character A: You realize, don't you, that, as a society, we're on the verge of creting a virtual world so real that it would be indistinguishable from reality, sorta like The Matrix.
Character B: Okay, I'll give you that.
A: Also, we're doing high energy physics experiments that may result in the creation of "pocket universes". . .
B: Still with you . . .
A: If we then created a virtual reality on the order of The Matrix, or created a pocket universe in a particle accelerator, we'd be gods, wouldn't we?
B: Maybe. . .
A: We'd have to grapple with the questions of what obligation we owe to our creation, and what obligations our creations might owe to us.
B: Okay. . .
A: Isn't it hubris then, if we can imagine ourselves as gods, that we categorically deny the possibility that we've been created?
Certainly not a proof, but more satisfying than the "you can't dis-prove it so it must be so" argument. Also, a nice little idea. The book is full of those. I heartily recommend this book. It was great fun and didn't take very much time. Please read it.
Also, I just finished A Meeting at Corvallis, the latest in the Dies the Fire series. It was pretty long and very nice if you think you'd like to read long descriptions of post-apocalyptic neo-medieval battles using catapults powered by truck suspensions and arrows with credit card flechettes. The only thing I don't like about this series are the interminable descriptions of Wicca ceremonies. I've learned much more about Wicca than I ever wanted to know by reading these novels. Not that there's anything wrong with Wicca, but I can't abide ceremonies in real life, so I don't want to read ten pages of cereomony in a story. Other than that, I'd recommend this series as well.
Comments
The possibility of intelligent and/or powerful beings is in no way contraindicated by reason: only specific, unfounded beliefs regarding them are.
More to the point, at what point do we have to care? At what point does setting my Sims on fire in a world where all houses are made of wood move from harmless fun to godly torture? How realistic does the hostage AI in CounterStrike have to be before I should feel the need to avoid tossing a grenade into the room just to get that last terrorist?
Of course, you might be able to legitimately argue that humans are not true intelligence either -- that our ability to evolve is written into our genetic programming. You could also say that the concept of free will is illusory, and that all of our decisions are deterministic; they are just based on more input than we can consciously decipher.
Wasn't the Heechee series by Fred Pohl?
I do have a nice copy of The Forever War, though.
In regards to books, I'm making a list and I'll hit up the bookstore tomorrow. Read Elks Run today by the way, fantastic.
That is a very good book. I've heard bad things about the rest of the series, though.
It's defiantly a book you have to re-read. Several dozen times.
Shadow Divers
Bringing Down the House
For a slightly more meaty read, I suggest the first 4 books of The Homecoming Saga by Orson Scott Card. The fifth book is basically a really long epilogue. In short, it takes the Mormon mythology and puts it in a fantasy/sci-fi setting. OSC can write a decent story, but he has issues ending it well. See the (original) Ender Saga for details .
(The Worthing Saga is the best standalone OSC book. In fact, it's one of a rare few standalone books he's ever written.)
Thank you! I've taken your recommendation on both Eva and Horatio to much enjoyment.
I also recently read The Execution Channel, Halting State, and Baltimore. None of those were very good.