BOOK REVIEW: CLARKE & POHL, THE LAST THEOREM

Arthur C. Clarke and Frederik Pohl, The Last Theorem, Del Rey, $27, 303 pp. (ISBN: 978-0-345-47021-8). Publication date: August 2008.


The late Arthur C. Clarke fell in love with Sri Lanka many years ago and for many years made his home there. Among the many novels that endeared him to readers everywhere--not just science fiction readers--was Fountains of Paradise (1979), which centered on the construction of a space elevator. It is thus perhaps no surprise that his last novel should revisit the latter in his beloved home setting.

Together Clarke and the almost equally famed Frederik Pohl have penned The Last Theorem. The central character is Ranjit Subramanian, son of a temple priest, who has gone off to university. He's a clueless 16-year-old, very smart, very self-centered, and already enchanted by the tale of India's number-theory genius, Srinivasa Ramanujan. He doesn't see the point to many courses, is enthralled by astronomy 101, and is obsessed by Fermat's Last Theorem, which insists that there is a compact proof that although two squares can sum to another square (the Pythagorean Theorem), no two cubes can sum to a third cube (indeed, for n > 2, a^n + b^n cannot equal c^n). He muddles along until one summer he stumbles into a mess: People he thought were okay turn out to be involved in piracy, he is trapped into a ship hijacking, and to save his life he cooperates with the pirates, only to be caught up as a suspected pirate when the military attack. A victim of harsh interrogation and extraordinary rendition, he winds up in an isolated cell where he has nothing to do but think about Fermat's famous theorem, and he solves it.

When, thanks to friends in high places, he is rescued and returned to friends and family, his solution makes him famous. But there is a poignancy to his situation. He has fame and true love, but the world is going to hell in its usual way, and the electromagnetic blasts sent into the universe by the first (and subsequent) atomic explosions have attracted the attention of the Grand Galactics, who do not approve of infant races who insist on playing with such toys. In fact, they approve so little that they have dispatched one of their client species, the One Point Fives, to sterilize the Earth. They won't be here for awhile, but they and doom are on the way. Meanwhile, another client species, the Nine-Limbed, is keeping an eye on us.

Also meanwhile, a secret operation on behalf of the UN, in which Ranjit's childhood best friend is deeply involved, is deploying measures that reduce combative nations such as--first--North Korea to powerlessness before rebuilding them on a more peaceful model. Known as Pax per Fidem, short for the Latin for Peace through Transparency, it is soon making the world a much better-behaved place. Perhaps, thinks the reader, the Grand Galactics will have second thoughts?

Also meanwhile, a space elevator is rising from Sri Lanka, the Moon is being outfitted for an Olympics in which Ranjit's daughter Natasha will star, after which she will attempt to compete in a solar sail race but vanish catastrophically only to reappear as a sort of puppet for alien voices. The Subramanian family, constantly on center stage, thanks to Ranjit's initial success with the theorem, must struggle to avoid falling victim to assorted political machinations (Pax per Fidem stops war, not politics).

In another echo of Clarke's career, the end hints of transcendence, but that is not why anyone should read the book. Rather, here is a warm and hopeful tale very much in the Clarke tradition. It's not action-adventure, not space-opera, but it's well worth the attention of everyone who enjoys thoughtful fiction and loving optimism.

NEW BOOK COMING--ENERGY ISSUES

I already do three textbook anthologies for McGraw-Hill:

Classic Editions Sources: Environmental Studies,
Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Environmental Issues, and
Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Issues in Science, Technology and Society

As of this afternoon, a fourth one is scheduled for December 2008, just in time for Spring 2009 courses:

Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Energy and Society

It will cover peak oil, fuel efficiency, clean coal, global warming, nuclear power, wastes, and reprocessing, alternative energy, and "free energy."

The reason for the book is simple: Energy issues are of huge importance to society, related problems such as global warming desperately need attention, and this year rapidly rising oil and gas prices are bringing "energy" home to more and more people. Energy & Society courses are out there, but they use a mixed bag of texts and other readings. This book will provide a compact, affordable package of important readings. If you teach such a course, watch for McGraw-Hill's offer of examination copies. (You can also request a copy of the table of contents from me.)

BOOK REVIEW, EDWARD LERNER, FOOLS' EXPERIMENTS Edward M. Lerner, Fools' Experiments, Tor, $25.95, 447 pp. (ISBN: 978-0-7653-1901-2). Publication date: November 2008.We used to think that living things were very different from nonliving things. They had something special--the breath of life, the touch of God, the élan vital--that made them able to move and feel and reproduce. "Artificial life" or a-life researchers, however, think of life in terms of what it does, not just what it is. In the Tierra software developed by Thomas S. Ray, Professor of Zoology and Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, a-life entities are small programs that absorb and use environmental resources (they eat and metabolize), respond to environmental events, reproduce, and die. They have been used to study natural selection and the development of social systems (among other things). Some people object that there is no way they can be considered alive, but others, including Professor Ray, think that they fit the definition of life in that they eat, reproduce, react to their environment, and die. To call them "alive" requires only that we do not restrict the definition of life to squishy things made of chemicals. So far a-life "creatures" are pretty crude things. But they can evolve and develop new abilities, such as the ability to eat or parasitize other a-life creatures. Some researchers find the ability of software to evolve interesting not because of its connection to a-life but because it offers ways to come up with solutions to difficult problems. They work with "genetic algorithms," which begin with a rough attempt at a solution, generate many random variations of that solution, choose those that represent improvements, and then repeat the process. After a few rounds (or generations) of random variation and selection, the solution can be much improved. It has been used to design lenses, circuits, and antennae. New designs can be "evolved" in as little as a day.How far might a-life develop or evolve, given time? No one knows. But some a-life researchers speculate that in a big enough computer, with loads of memory "space" for these things to inhabit, they might achieve intelligence. If that ever happens, we will be faced with some powerful and fascinating questions: What do a-life beings think about? Do they share any concerns with us? Can we talk to them? (What if they don't want to talk to us?) Are they friends? Are they enemies? Since they live in our computers, are they a threat? What if they get loose?This is where Edward M. Lerner begins with Fools' Experiments. His near-future world is sore afflicted by computer viruses. In this world reside neural interface technology (NIT) researchers such as Doug Carey. Doug's motivation is straightforward: he must wear a prosthetic arm, and his research is aimed at making that prosthesis as nearly natural in function as possible. He's done very well so far.There is also AJ Rosenberg, who is working with a-life. He began with a very crude maze-solver, generated a thousand copies with random mutations, and gave them a maze. The ten most successful ones were multiplied to try again. The rest were erased. After a few generations he had an "entity" that could solve any maze given it in seconds. It had also figured out it was in a box, it and its cousins were being tormented and culled, it was pissed, and it wanted out. He was trying to develop a general problem solver, and he just about has it, though he doesn't know it. He doesn't think he has anything to worry about, since the computer that is the entity's box isn't connected to the network.Meanwhile, NIT researchers are dying in a variety of gruesome ways. The survivors seem to be fixated on the message carried by a particularly versatile computer virus. Doug and Cheryl--he still hasn't gotten over memories of his wife's death, and she's career-oriented, but you just know what's going to happen in due time--figure out that NIT helmets let the virus get to the brain.Meanwhile AJ has made the mistake of hiring a slacker student because of fond memories of his star brother. In due time, he has to can the boy, and that's when the stuff hits the fan. Slacker boy sneaks into the lab to play games on the computer and makes a network connection. And the entity is out. Recall that it's pissed. Soon it's found the controls for dam floodgates, power plants, and a great deal more. It's crashing the system, people are dying, and the government is trying desperately to keep it locked inside North America.Fortunately, Doug's a smart fellow. He has some ideas, and as soon as they let him he takes care of the problem by destroying the entity. Not that that's the end of the story. There's a mess to clean up, and one of AJ's just-graduated students is working on training a tame version of the entity. Her technique she likens to that of a lion tamer, and if you ever wondered what the lion thinks of those whips and guns and chairs… Another pissed-off a-life critter, and the world is very fortunate that it doesn't stay pissed-off as long as the first one. You'll love it. But I hope you don't find it inspiring. Playing with a-life doesn't take genius-level coding skills, and we really don't need a bunch of geeks trying to see if what Lerner describes would actually work.

Edward M. Lerner, Fools' Experiments, Tor, $25.95, 447 pp. (ISBN: 978-0-7653-1901-2). Publication date: November 2008.

We used to think that living things were very different from nonliving things. They had something special--the breath of life, the touch of God, the élan vital--that made them able to move and feel and reproduce. "Artificial life" or a-life researchers, however, think of life in terms of what it does, not just what it is. In the Tierra software developed by Thomas S. Ray, Professor of Zoology and Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, a-life entities are small programs that absorb and use environmental resources (they eat and metabolize), respond to environmental events, reproduce, and die. They have been used to study natural selection and the development of social systems (among other things). Some people object that there is no way they can be considered alive, but others, including Professor Ray, think that they fit the definition of life in that they eat, reproduce, react to their environment, and die. To call them "alive" requires only that we do not restrict the definition of life to squishy things made of chemicals.

So far a-life "creatures" are pretty crude things. But they can evolve and develop new abilities, such as the ability to eat or parasitize other a-life creatures. Some researchers find the ability of software to evolve interesting not because of its connection to a-life but because it offers ways to come up with solutions to difficult problems. They work with "genetic algorithms," which begin with a rough attempt at a solution, generate many random variations of that solution, choose those that represent improvements, and then repeat the process. After a few rounds (or generations) of random variation and selection, the solution can be much improved. It has been used to design lenses, circuits, and antennae. New designs can be "evolved" in as little as a day.

How far might a-life develop or evolve, given time? No one knows. But some a-life researchers speculate that in a big enough computer, with loads of memory "space" for these things to inhabit, they might achieve intelligence. If that ever happens, we will be faced with some powerful and fascinating questions: What do a-life beings think about? Do they share any concerns with us? Can we talk to them? (What if they don't want to talk to us?) Are they friends? Are they enemies? Since they live in our computers, are they a threat? What if they get loose?

This is where Edward M. Lerner begins with Fools' Experiments. His near-future world is sore afflicted by computer viruses. In this world reside neural interface technology (NIT) researchers such as Doug Carey. Doug's motivation is straightforward: he must wear a prosthetic arm, and his research is aimed at making that prosthesis as nearly natural in function as possible. He's done very well so far.

There is also AJ Rosenberg, who is working with a-life. He began with a very crude maze-solver, generated a thousand copies with random mutations, and gave them a maze. The ten most successful ones were multiplied to try again. The rest were erased. After a few generations he had an "entity" that could solve any maze given it in seconds. It had also figured out it was in a box, it and its cousins were being tormented and culled, it was pissed, and it wanted out. He was trying to develop a general problem solver, and he just about has it, though he doesn't know it. He doesn't think he has anything to worry about, since the computer that is the entity's box isn't connected to the network.

Meanwhile, NIT researchers are dying in a variety of gruesome ways. The survivors seem to be fixated on the message carried by a particularly versatile computer virus. Doug and Cheryl--he still hasn't gotten over memories of his wife's death, and she's career-oriented, but you just know what's going to happen in due time--figure out that NIT helmets let the virus get to the brain.

Meanwhile AJ has made the mistake of hiring a slacker student because of fond memories of his star brother. In due time, he has to can the boy, and that's when the stuff hits the fan. Slacker boy sneaks into the lab to play games on the computer and makes a network connection.

And the entity is out. Recall that it's pissed. Soon it's found the controls for dam floodgates, power plants, and a great deal more. It's crashing the system, people are dying, and the government is trying desperately to keep it locked inside North America.

Fortunately, Doug's a smart fellow. He has some ideas, and as soon as they let him he takes care of the problem by destroying the entity. Not that that's the end of the story. There's a mess to clean up, and one of AJ's just-graduated students is working on training a tame version of the entity. Her technique she likens to that of a lion tamer, and if you ever wondered what the lion thinks of those whips and guns and chairs… Another pissed-off a-life critter, and the world is very fortunate that it doesn't stay pissed-off as long as the first one.

You'll love it. But I hope you don't find it inspiring. Playing with a-life doesn't take genius-level coding skills, and we really don't need a bunch of geeks trying to see if what Lerner describes would actually work.

BOOK REVIEW: NANCY KRESS, DOGS

Nancy Kress, Dogs, Tachyon Publications, $14.95 (TP), 288 pp. (ISBN: 978-1-892391-78-0).

Terrorism is the big fear of the 21st century. Next to that is the specter of biological weapons, diseases that strike through all defenses to kill without discrimination. Both have genuine roots, the one in 9/11 and the other in new diseases such as ebola.

Ebola is one of potentially many diseases which have not affected people in the past simply because they persisted in areas where people didn't go, so that people did not meet them. But as populations have grown around the world, the human presence--in pursuit of timber, firewood, bushmeat, and more--has pushed into new areas. People have been exposed to new diseases, but what is new is the exposure, not the disease.

If you want a new disease, consider the potentials of genetic engineering. No one has yet crafted a new and horrific bacterium or virus, but the basic technology is developing rapidly, and using may not take the kind of sophisticated equipment and thousands of personnel that an effort to build nuclear weapons takes. In fact, you can buy gene-sequencers on eBay! It may only be a matter of time.

Meanwhile, new diseases, whether run into in the backcountry of Africa or manufactured by an evil-hearted gene tweaker, are the stuff of science fiction. Nancy Kress, rightly renowned for her past work, give us Dogs, in which the sleepy little town of Tyler, Maryland, wakes up to terrifying ferocity. Beloved family pets are suddenly turning vicious and attacking adults and kids. It doesn't take long for the local animal control cop, Jess Langstrom, and the police and medics to call the CDC, nor for Washington to send in FEMA, as ham-handedly clumsy as the worst of its post-Katrina rep. Meanwhile Tessa Sanderson, an ex-FBI agent whose late husband was (horrors!) an Arab, is being told by her ex-bosses that her name and her husband's are coming up in traffic. She's also getting strange emails, and when she starts investigating, she runs into a weird character from her husband's past who seems to think she's his now. And he keeps mentioning dogs.

Meanwhile, back in Tyler, the town is quarantined. The dogs are going wild. The CDC finds a virus attacking rage centers in the brain. FEMA is collecting all the dogs, and people are getting their backs up, crying that "No one messes with my dog!" Some are cleaning their guns and checking the shed out back for old dynamite. Others are saying all the dogs should be killed, right away. A few infected dogs are showing up outside the quarantine cordon. And people who have been bitten are going into comas.

Kress ratchets the tension up and up in a grand display of writerly talent. If you like suspense, you're gonna love this one!