Specifications
Clark, Arthur, 3001 The Final Odyssey,
Ballantine Books, New York, 1997.
Reading
This was read from 01/01/2007 to 01/11/2007. The book was from
the library.
Review
This book is the last of Arthur Clark's series that started with
2001 in 1968. To be honest, I am somewhat disappointed in this book,
which is saying a lot because I like most of Arthur Clark's book up
through Rama.
This book is really three pretty much
independent stories combined in one book. The first story is about
finding Frank Poole in 3001. (It should be noted that the 2001
series of events is transferred to a later date. That is, Frank
Poole is given a birth date in 1997.) Then the story continues with
his adaptation to the society in 3001.
He has two things to adapt to. First,
the changes in society, and technology. Second, the fact that he is
viewed as a relic of a former era, a really bad era at that. The
real problem with this part of the book is that it gets too caught up
in the technological differences, and doesn't concentrate on story.
The result is rather boring. I get the feeling that Clark felt the
same way, so he ended it and started into part two.
I disagree with some of the technology
changes, because he fails to take into account limits on technology.
For example, he pushes the orbital elevator idea, which is great on
paper, but I doubt anything will ever exist that could withstand the
pressures - both that which would be needed for the building
(imagine a rope 23,000 miles long - it would be too long to hold
together.) Also, the "braincap" which he presumes could be used.
Yet, placing anything on the surface of the brain to try to
determine what is going on inside has been compared to trying to spy
on a top secret computer installation by holding something outside
the outer fence. He also talks about an energy source which gets it
energy from the instantaneous creation and destruction of
electron-positron pairs. I disagree with a the theory, therefore the
technology. It sounds good on paper, but is not so good in practice.
He also assumes a monotonic improvement
in technology. I think, and I know that Alvin Toffler has said it as
well, that the age of technology is coming to an end. That is, we
are at a state where the forces which appose technological progress
are outweighing those which advance it. That is part of the reason I
don't have a job right now.
Also, Clarke comes out with a very
anti-religion stance. Yet one cannot escape religion - even those
people who say they have none have a religion, since religion
basically is the starting point of logic. There is no logic without
axioms, no life without religion.
The problem of religion is that it has
been used in the past to promote ignorance, and to enslave the
masses. I'm not sure but what that might mostly be a western
phenomenon, however. Also, I have some question about whether this
is really an aspect of religion, or of human nature. That is, if the
idiots that use religion to placate the masses (by the way, Communism
is a religion) would have used any tool available to accomplish that
task. Similarly, wars that are undertaken for "religious"
reasons.
In part two, Poole goes to Ganymede, a
moon of Jupiter, now called "Lucifer." One fact I find
questionable is why the name was changed, and why the people of 3001
have any trouble with it. Poole could, but people in 3001 know what
Jupiter refers to. Of the three stories, this is the best.
Basically, it consists of Poole going to Ganymede, then Europa, where
an alien life form is living. Poole gambles that Bowman, or what was
Bowman, would allow him to land, where it had not allowed others. He
lands, and explores a bit of what happened to Bowman, and Hal, who
are now simulations in the gigantic computer that is the monoliths.
The book would have been improved if
this part had been expanded, and the first part contracted. This
doesn't spend so much time speculating on what the future will be
like, but more time on the story.
The third part is about a "war."
Here it is revealed that the "headquarters" for the monoliths is
450 light years away. The distance is significant. The monoliths
themselves are automatons, with no independent thoughts. They are
starting to fall apart, having been here for millions of years. The
problem is that the creatures that created the monoliths have seen
what happened in the book 2001 (now probably taking place more like
2050) and the response is just now reaching the Solar system. This
is some thirty years after the first two parts. Poole and the other
people who monitor the Europa situation are made aware of the danger
because of Bowman. Bowman expects the worst - that the masters
will try to terminate their experiment.
I don't think Clark could think of a
good response, after all, how does one attack the unattackable.
Therefore, he has them getting old computer viruses from the late
twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Being a computer expert,
he shows a misunderstanding of computers. That is, a computer virus
will attack only Windows computers. Certainly one that works on
Windows will not work on Linux, etc. (Although the one that brought
down the Internet in 1987 was set up to work on three machines - it
actually had a bug in one, so it only worked on two types of
computers.) The point being that the viruses would not work on the
computer in the monolith because it wouldn't be set up to run the
code. Similarly, he has mathematicians trying to create viruses that
get a computer into an infinite loop trying to do something (akin to
when Captain Kirk [or was it Spock] disabled the computer on the
Enterprise by telling it to calculate PI exactly). The problem is
that computers since the 1960's have been set up to kick off programs
that take too long, or that use too many resources. True, Windows,
and even Linux doesn't worry about it too much right now, but Linux,
at least, could.
I think the third story has some
potential, but I don't think it is realized.
| |