Old World Book Club 1st Post !
One experience I think we all have in common is to have felt curious about the old world at least once in our lives.
Maybe when visiting a museum or on a school trip to the A.R.C. Headquarters or because you follow the right person on iM cough @conneRConneR cough. There is a certain charm about the bits and pieces of ancient history and culture we managed to piece together that is hard to describe.
I myself, have fallen in love with the study of the Old World on my first school visit to the A.R.C. All the wondrous and sometimes incomprehensible artifacts just waiting to be deciphered by the most curious and intelligent among us.
But an aspect of the old world that I think is not known widely enough, is it's literature.
An immeasurable amount of it has been lost forever, but still, every day works are recovered by explorers and uploaded to the A.R.C.'s public database.
I have been reading books from that database for a very long time now, and the look into ancient humans lifestyles, their society, their hope for the future and their fiction is fascinating!
So to spread awareness of these amazing pieces of our collective history, I'm starting the Old World Book Club !
Every two weeks (or 1 month if more interval is needed), I will recommend a few of my best book finds in the A.R.C. database and I encourage you to read them.
We can then talk about them in the next post and I would be delighted if you would also share your best finds !
I will recommend books of different genres each time but I will limit myself to works from the 19th to the 21st century.
For our 1st Post, the topic will be "Sci-fi" !
I have 4 recommendations today.
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The first is the "Culture Series". According to an informational section in the books, they were written by a man called Iain Banks, originating from "Scotland" (very likely an old world country, somewhat similar to a node), towards the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century.
The books center around the "Culture", a spacefaring civilisation, technologically far beyond even the most incomprehensible old world artifacts we've discovered.
The academic consensus is that these books are most likely fiction, since no evidence has been found of the "Culture" having existed.
This fictional civilization consists of humanoid species (that don't seem to necessarily be humans as we understand them) and sentient artificial intelligences, "Drones" and "Minds", living in harmony in a near utopian society. The conflicts in the story mainly concern how the Culture interacts with other civilisations. The moral dilemmas of if and how they should interfere with less advanced societies without robbing them of their self-determination or destroying their culture by accident through to much interference.
In a bit of an opposition to other Old World works of sci-fi, the Culture mostly decides that interfering is the best option available to better the most sentient lives possible and make the universe a less cruel place. That does not mean that they are not extremely careful while doing so.
The Culture also has a very interesting representation of artificial intelligence, that could have been an influence in the creation of the mysterious Architects.
The most prominent A.I.s in the story are the "Minds". They are unimaginably powerful and intelligent, operating and living at speeds far higher than the speed of light (the current scientific consensus is that such a feat is likely impossible but maybe the old world knew things we don't). They take care of operating most spaceships and orbitals (artificial living platforms in space) and producing what their society requires.
The most interesting part of these books for me, is that they seem to attempt to show us what a society that does not operate under capitalism could look like.
And that is still very relevant today, especially in node 8.
One last important addition is its interpretation of transhumanism and posthumanism, which is especially relevant today with the rise of prosthetic limbs and body modification.
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The next book series I would recommend is the "Imperial Radch space opera trilogy" written by Ann Leckie in the beginning of the 21st century.
Like the last books, it is very likely a fictional story.
It also has a very heavy emphasis on artificial intelligences, as it's protagonist is the last remnant of a far larger A.I., stuck in a human body, that was destroyed/killed after being betrayed. The protagonists main objective is to avenge the parts of itself that were destroyed.
The books main point of interest is it's representation of the Radch Empire, an imperialist and expansionist society where gender has no meaning. This is represented in the text by never giving any indication about what a characters gender could be and by referring to everyone with neutral pronouns. The main character was the A.I. of a Radch warship and they are sometimes confronted with gendered societies and it is shown very well how confusing and strange it appeares for them.
It was a bit confusing to read at first, but I got used to it pretty quickly.
This book series represents another fascinating interpretation of A.I. that can still inform and inspire us today. I think it is especially relevent today with the commercialisation of emotional A.I. bots by the A.R.C.
The unusual representation of gender in the story is also sure to ruffle some feathers but I believe it can be very stimulating to engage with something we are not used to or can make us a bit uncomfortable.
The third recommendation is the "Frontlines Series" writte by Marko Kloos the beginning of the 21st century.
From biographical information in the books, it is believed Marko Kloos originated from a country called Germany where he enlisted in the countries armed forces (also called military) but later emigrated to the United States of America. Some of you might remember its acronym "U.S.A." from Old World classes. It is believed the "U.S.A." were the main military world power from the end of the 20th century to the middle of the 21st century.
From Marko Kloos' experience in the armed forces of his country of birth, it is believed his works can, with some precaution, be used to get an idea of how armed forces in the Old world operated and what their culture was like. Of course, this has to be done with caution since his books are still works of fiction.
In opposition to the previous works, the "Frontlines Series" is set in a relatively close future to the time of it's publication.