I’m reading Ken MacLeod’s Dark Light<\/i>, the middle of a trilogy begun in Cosmonaut Keep<\/i> and to conclude in Engine City<\/i>. (I first re-read Keep<\/i>; it was easier to follow the second time.) “Octopodia” as “the key insight,” how cheeky! But shouldn’t it be dekapodia?<\/p>\n
Some quotable bits: <\/p>\n
“All that twenty-first-century state-of-the-art information that got downloaded from the ship and printed off and shipped from Mingulay two hundred-odd years ago – it’s still<\/em> being reprinted, in big leather-bound volumes. . . . The different encyclopedias have become the basis of fucking schools of thought<\/em>. Grolierists and Britannicists at each other’s throats in the faculties, with a strong faction of Encartists among the students and junior staff.” <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
and <\/p>\n
“Drawing lots is fair<\/em>, even if it sometimes throws up a freak result. With elections you’re actually building the minority problem right in at every level, and lots more with it – parties, money, fame, graft, just for starters. What chance would that leave ordinary people, what chance would we have of being heard or of making a difference? Elections are completely undemocratic, they’re downright anti<\/i>democratic. Everybody knows that<\/em>!” <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Each of Ken’s previous books (The Star Fraction<\/i>, The Stone Canal<\/i>, The Cassini Division<\/i>, The Sky Road<\/i>) ends with a genocide of AIs by humans. In Dark Light<\/i> a god is murdered (by other gods) two-thirds of the way along. But I haven’t given up hope that this (treating the trilogy as one) is the book in which humanity and the transcendent minds find a way to live in peace to their mutual benefit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’m reading Ken MacLeod’s Dark Light, the middle of a trilogy begun in Cosmonaut Keep and to conclude in Engine City. (I first re-read Keep; it was easier to follow the second time.) “Octopodia” as “the key insight,” how cheeky! … Continue reading