Well, it is too long. But Andreas Eschbach’s science fiction novel, Lord of All Things, is nevertheless a good read. The basic premise is pretty standard: What if someone could discover a technology that would end the need for technology. A molecular assembler, like the Star Trek replicators, that rearrange atoms. Eschbach turns that conceit into a nice searchquest, with a variety of villains (who are human) and a band of helpers for the lonely hero. Everyone is fairly real, rather than a cartoon. Some of the intended and unintended consequences of the technology are explored, and there are numerous digressions into the philosophy/economics of abundance and scarcity. Nothing mind-shattering, but also not too boring. There is a decent sub-mystery that never really has any implications. Some of the plot devices (Charlotte’s para-normal history reading) do not make any sense. A good editor would have encouraged Eschbach to twist the novel a little more (I would have liked Charlotte and Hiroshi to have been nano-ized themselves, which would have then tied things neatly together, and James Bennett III could have been a nano-ized failsafe or something like that).
-
Recent Posts
- AI as an existential threat – Kevane preliminary draft
- “What can it do?” A living list of computational problems that deep learning/AI/neural nets can or seems likely to “do” (at varying cost and efficacy)
- Reading August-September 2025
- The typical popular sci-fi version of AI posing an existential risk?
- AI productivity growth and “the economy”
Archives
Categories
Friends of African Village Libraries (I post regularly here)- Visite du centre de lecture et d’étude de Béréba (CLEB)
- Don de livres par ABVBF à l’école primaire publique de Waly
- Sortie de la BMP: Ste Thérèse de Houndé, Burkina Faso
- Distribution des livres CMH aux élèves de l’école B de Koumbia, Burkina Faso
- Night activities at Sumbrungu Community Library, Ghana
- Gowrie-Kunkua night reading, Ghana
- Initiation aux jeux de mots croisés de 02 élèves du primaire à la bibliothèque de Koho
- Jeux de cartes des élèves de l’école franco-arabe de Koho, Burkina Faso
- Animation d’une séance de lecture à la bibliothèque de Karaba, Burkina Faso
- Rapport de l’organisation d’une séance de jeux à la bibliothèque de Boni