So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Now 5 cantos into Paradiso, in the Divine Comedy.

Today, with decades of experience building mindless mechanical servitors, it seems that the more we learn about endowing an artificial construct with even a common lizard's level of free will, the more daunting that task seems.

And so it truly amazes me that, in the early 14th Century, before anybody in Western Civilization had even built a steam engine capable of useful work, centuries before anybody built a mechanical contrivance capable of moving under its own power, at a time when the only mechanical contrivance capable of making a decision was the lock-and-key, Dante could have realized that God's greatest gift is free will. And yet, there it is, in Canto V of Paradiso. The reason why vows are taken so seriously in the Bible, and why foolish vows (like the one Jephthah makes in Judges 11) are so roundly (and so rightly) deprecated: because by their nature, they involve surrendering some portion of free will.

Dante nailed the immense value of free will without ever seeing how much easier it is to construct a mindless servitor.

Now 9 cantos in.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

An Amish Widow's Promise by Winnie Griggs

 

[JD]

Once I finished up the Past Life, I decided to take a break from SCE and I read the newest issue of the Star Trek: Lower Decks ongoing comic #6, the first book by a new creative team, writer Tim Sheridan and artist Robby Cook. The new team is off to a great start, this issue was just as much fun as the original team's, it was cool getting to see Ensign Freeman with her own little Lower Decks gang. After that, I started Book I of DS9 Millenium Trilogy, The Fall of Terok Nor by Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens. I've actually had Millenium books since they first came out, but haven't read the whole thing. I read up to the third book back when I first got them, but at the I found all the stuff with the different time periods confusing and quit pretty quickly. I've gotten a lot more used to that kind of stuff in the last 25 years, so I don't think that's going to bother me this time around.

 

[Smiley]

@JD

I still find Inferno a bit complex and confusing. However, the character work is so good that I let the intricacies of the plot and science wash over me and put my faith in the authors that it all hangs together.

Alongside Live by the Code, I have also started the prequel to the Saga of Seven Suns, Veiled Alliances.

 

[TalkaboutTrek]

I had a great time with Diane Carey's "Red Sector" this past week. I was surprised by a story featuring a great original character and a new type of ship not seen in Trek yet, the CST (Combat Support Tender).
This series has been great and this is my favorite so far. Works fine as a standalone book as well.