From: Wei Dai (weidai@eskimo.com)
Date: Tue May 21 2002 - 14:41:56 MDT
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote a few months ago:
> _Transcension_ by Damien Broderick
> (Science fiction novel, currently available in hardcover.)
> http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0765303698/singinst
>
> NON-SPOILER REVIEW:
>
> Okay, I'm not an unbiased reviewer: The novel quotes one of my Extropians
> posts as a section epigraph and has a small plug at the end for the
> Singularity Institute. Nonetheless, "Transcension" is good old-fashioned
> entertaining SF, and comes as close to taking a poke at the Singularity as any
> SF is likely to manage.
>
> [snip]
>
> Here's a statement that will come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who's
> read this book: I have issues with Aleph. In fact, the first time I
> encountered this entity, I said something along the lines of "No, no, no, no,
> no!", accompanied by repeatedly banging the palm of my hand against my
> forehead. Followed by: "Who is this 'Aleph' character? None of my work,
> I'll tell you that." But hang on until the end of the novel. It does get
> better, although certain earlier events are never adequately explained.
Great book, but I don't understand some of the events either. Spoilers
follow:
Could somebody please explain the endless resimulations of the judge
reuniting with his wife? That makes no sense to me.
Also, why did Aleph allow parents to deceive their children and force them
to live without advanced technology? The valley people had the right to
leave and join the Renounciators, so why didn't the Renounciators have the
right to leave and join the rest of humanity, at least until Aleph was
forced to stop the deception and give them the choice?
The original Renounciators must have asked Aleph to remove certain
knowledge from their minds and to continue to deceive them about reality.
Should Aleph have accommodated them? Clearly deceiving one's children
should not be allowed (and I don't understand why it's allowed in the
book), but what about deception of one's own future selves? Why should
Aleph deceive someone just because a past version of him requested it?
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