Summer sci fi: An AI arms race and an elevator to space
By Ari | Jul 15, 09 04:31 PM
The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke
I'm a fan of Buckminster Fuller's world-changingly-big ideas for future human housing and transportation, so this book was right up my alley. Arthur C. Clarke tells the story of the construction of a "space elevator" and couches his suspenseful, fun narrative in a rich, invented history that has so many parallels to our own it's positively believable. Clarke seems to fall in the atheist camp, but the story playing with the "Tower of Babel" concept and the idea that engineering projects of this scale bring us into conflict with the gods - whether we've invented the gods, or they invented us.
Peace on Earth by Stanisław Lem
Lem's story of the arms race crossed with artificial intelligence is a wry, witty, imaginative page-turner that brings us from a futuristic earth to the surface of the moon, where fantastical robots baffle the narrator with their technological innovations. The characters aren't very likable but they're very funny and well-written; the ending fell a little flat but was ultimately satisfying.
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