From: Phil Osborn (philosborn2001@yahoo.com)
Date: Sat Sep 07 2002 - 15:50:16 MDT
I recently finished "The Light of Other Days," by
Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Bax. Quite a lot better
than I expected, currently available at Barnes &
Noble, I believe, in their discount hardback section
for about $5.95. The VR is nicely done, but the main
theme, as I mentioned earlier in this thread, is
elsewhere, and centers around using quantum tunneling
to create wormholes for instantaneous communications.
I figured out before I had read more than the dust
jacket that of course if you could tunnel out, you
could tunnel back, so this represented a potential way
to directly view the past.
So far, so good. The novel is quite clever in the
various ramifications that it explores in that
possible technoloy, but most of it the typical
Extropian on this list could figure out more quickly
than reading the novel. The plotting and style are
not bad, but nothing really exceptional. The end,
however, is cool. It took me completely by surprise,
I laughed for a minute - even though the implications
were there all the time, and it bears directly upon
Extropianism/Transhumanism.
I am dubious about some of the technology discussed,
for technical physics problems involved as well as
problems of time paradox, which I don't see how could
be avoided, and which probably make the technology
itself impossible. Still, worth looking at.
Bottom line - READ THIS BOOK!
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