Candle 52
| Candle | |
| author | John Barnes |
| pages | 230 |
| publisher | Tor Books |
| rating | 7 |
| reviewer | Duncan Lawie |
| ISBN | 031289077 |
| summary | An original approach to the augmentation of human nature with technology, thoughtfully told. |
John Barnes has written 11 novels and 2 trilogies since his first publication in the mid 1980s, often delving into the political science (in which he earned his MA) and themes of social engineering, whether set on alien planets or our own. These "soft" ideas are combined with hard science fiction to realise credible environments and compelling stories. The variety of narrative style and subject matter across his career has kept his work fresh while his inventiveness and the quality of his writing continues to draw in readers.
The framing story of Candle opens with the narrator, Currie, being called out of retirement. He lives in a world where those who do not run the client software of the omnipresent meme are unacceptable outlaws. Currie, whose final career was to hunt down such renegades, is reactivated to capture what might be the last "cowboy" and is soon tramping and skiing in the Rocky Mountains. The calm, glowing descriptions of the mountains in winter provide a spectacular vision of a world in the process of renewal. At the same time, the unemphasised detail of how Currie lives his life and the high-tech tools and equipment which he uses shows that the human world has changed. Having piqued the readers curiosity, the story maintains the gentle flow of the narrator's voice as he pursues his search. Despite the potential danger, this almost slips into longeur before the story changes pace. With an adjustment to the narrative focus, Barnes uses the Arabian Nights technique to reveal the underpinnings of Currie's world. The book is subsequently woven around the tales of two old soldiers who ended up on opposite sides in the Meme Wars, generating a patina of inevitability in the world changing events and softening the horror which permeated their early lives.
Barnes' concept of the Memes originates with the computer viruses of our own time, combined with the idea that ideas have an existence of their own. In Candle, Memes have jumped the sentience gap from hardware to wetware, allowing them to run within the human brain, placing beliefs directly and absolutely in the mind, incontrovertible except by the destruction or replacement of the meme itself.
The grim days of the early 21st century decay into the horror of the Meme Wars as the competing belief systems make a promiscuous advance across the minds of the planet until they come into open conflict, using humans as puppets or mercenaries. Beyond human life and death, the memes themselves evolve, becoming their own entity. The mind-viruses, the unfolding war and the effects of final victory on Earth for a single meme are all well developed and ably related.
Even so, Candle is more a novel of ideas. Perhaps it is inevitable that humanity will inflict itself with pain and horror; it may be that an ultimately rational overseer can lead each individual life to cause less pain and align fully to the greater good of humanity and the natural world. The book suggests that a governor inside the mind which could override and overwrite, "clearing" the psyche of its stains might allow us to be the best we can be. Such a position calls into question the value of free will and the meaning of human nature. The resulting debate between the logical and the visceral in which rational propositions are countered with emotional responses, produces an unbalanced and incomplete discussion. Nevertheless, Barnes is a good enough author that he shows the final outcomes of the arguments through their effect on society.
Candle has sufficient structure and purpose to carry the weight of its reflective elements, displaying originality in its approach to ideas as old as philosophy itself.
Purchase this book at FatBrain. It's out of stock at the moment, but they have been able to obtain out-of-stock books before, given enough interest.
Why buy it... (Score:1)
Re:Hmmm... Meme virii... (Score:1)
story (Score:1)
-rr
MAME for the BRAIN (Score:1)
I have read this... (Score:1)
Re:Groan (Score:1)
Yes, it is. However, Barnes is not trying to explain what memes are ca 2000, but what they are in his fictional future (actually, it's an alternate history, since the prequel to this book starts in the 1980's, and it ain't our 1980's). In any case, language changes, and this is supposed to be the late 21st century of a world where Yeltsin was shot in 1991.
Diff-er-ent. :)
Randall.
Sounds familiar... (Score:2)
So how do you feel about the war on drugs?
Re:I have heard this Idea before. (Score:2)
As for "memes as religions", books on memetics usually use religions as examples of numerous memes, meme complexes, self-propogation, destructive memes, and all sorts of other stuff. Most propaganda works the same way. As for a literal physical virus, it might be helpful but, to my thinking, the scarier thing is memes as they exist today - they do control minds (religious fanatics? Republicrats?) and they do propagate (AOL Time Warner? The Demoblican National Party?).
As for the ideas of free will, I'd be interested in how this book compares to Clockwork Orange - both the book and the film. Are you really "good" if you have no choice in the matter? In Clockwork Orange, for Burgess, this is tied up in religion. But, interestingly enough in a memetics context, the answer to the question is "no" if you run with the standard Christian meme complex/religion - "God gave us free will so we could choose to love Him."
Sounds like an interesting read one way or the other.
Re:Interesting depth or too much caffeine? (Score:1)
Obviously, ideas (memes) shape our understanding of our surroundings and how we view everything. We each have our one memetic filter. You can't convince a staunch Democrat to vote for GWB, just like you couldn't convice Buchanan to not be a Nazi-esque thug. (My opinions, of course, which are coloured by my own memes.)
So, in a sense, we are within a meme. Our ideas and viewpoints colour how we see everything. But a meme within a meme? No. Underneath our own perceptions of the world around us, the world still exists. It itself is not a meme. A rock is not changed into something else just because something thinks it is a beach ball. Our perceptions shape how we view reality, but they do not shape reality itself. For that, go play Mage: The Ascension.
Kierthos
Re:Sounds like a good book. (Score:2)
Now, I realize that without the rebel, the concept would be pretty boring. ("What do you want to do today, Brain? The same thing we do every night, Pinky, work for the good of the controlling power that has our best interests at heart.)
I have to ask anyone who'd had a peek at the book. Does the 'main character' the hunter of the rebel, become a rebel himself? Does he ever question the authority or validity of his own position? Frankly, I have problems with books where the character stays exactly the same throughout the whole book. I don't like cardboard characters.
I also have to question whether the controlling meme in this case would count as a religion. I didn't get the impression from the synopsis that the meme is worshipped by anyone. Rather I see it as the entity which has 'absolute' control. More of a dictator then an icon. (More of a "The Meme is the Boss." then "The Meme is the One True Way." kind of thing.)
I'm not saying it's going to be a bad book. Frankly, I think it's going to be quite good. But I have to question whether or not we really need another book like this?
Oh well, it could have been worse. It could have been another neo-Luddite vision of the present or future like Dean Koontz is so fond of.
Kierthos
Re:Sounds like a good book. (Score:1)
The idea behind the 666 mark is that there is something about accepting the "mark" that explicity means that you reject your religion in taking it. I don't know what that is, but it doesn't seem all that likely that there would be a compulsory mark in order to perform day-to-day living for a while yet. The closest is the Social Security number, but not having a number doesn't mean I can't buy things, although I need one to get a legal job.
Although it might not be a great analogy, I think I might liken it to Germans wearing Swastikas in joining the Nazi party, as you'd be hard pressed to come up with a _legitimage_ interpretation of a true religious text that condones some of the activities and platforms of that party.
But to answer the original thread, there are people that live just fine without the internet. So what if they aren't "connected"? Many of those people are more connected to the community than most "wired" people will ever be.
Maybe he got the idea of memes from Dawkins? (Score:2)
>or replacement of the meme itself.
Let's give credit where credit is due. Memes where invented by Richard Dawkins (an eveolutionary biologist). The first appearence of the term, in a book, was the Selfish Gene. I'm not sure if there were any prior uses of the term in other literature(journals, etc.). Meme is just a word that sounds like gene, but sounds related to the mind.
Memes get to move from mind to mind, and in things like books, painintgs and computeres, and all the things that apply to genes apply to them, except that no one has ever seen them...
Philosophers of Mind, especailly those of the Dan Dennett (see his book Consciousness Explained) variety, have been happy to use memes, as well as lots of other unfounded pseudo-scientific speculation, to make all sorts of claims about the mind and AI. For agood overview, try Dale Jaquettes Philosophy of Mind book.
Not everything is related to computers...
Re:Sorry! (Score:2)
Not true. There is NO LAW that REQUIRES a person to have a SSN/SIN to legally have a job.
It IS possible to work without one.
--
"The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite." - Thomas Jefferson
Re:We're already there. (Score:1)
The Borg already exist.
Have you not heard of the borg collective known as the Evil Empire [microsoft.com]
Re:Groan (Score:1)
"Most "mind upload" or "brain reprogramming" representations are much closer to mysticism than technology; waving a few buzzwords is not science fiction"
Yes, that is very true. I think you didn't make your point particularly clearly in your previous post .. sounds about right now.
social conventions (Score:1)
If you don't conform in these areas, that's your problem, and you'll probably get into a lot of trouble.
If you don't watch television and movies, you'll also be left out of a lot of social interaction ("Was't the X-files awful yesterday"? "What did you think of the Oscars?").
A well-functioning society needs conventions for how people communicate and interact, and of course that will make its way into information technology. The best we can do is to make sure that the standards we choose are open, long-term, and well-defined, rather than proprietary, short-term, and tied to the profits of a single company.
The troll meme (Score:1)
Re:Sorry! (Score:1)
It seems every form that comes in front of me has that. I think some of it might be in reference in using that number to identify you rather than let them confuse you with someone else's with same spelling.
Re:Sounds like a good book. (Score:1)
I've never heard of a "law" under that name... I think you might mention what it is in reference to? I have a guess... Is it because I mentioned Nazi, therefore the discussion is moot?
I think it's about as dangerous to apply what appears to be a rule of thumb to every situation as generalizations aren't.
The reviewer (or the author) misrepresented memes. (Score:3)
Sounds like these "Memes" are religions. The author has take the idea of absolute beliefs (religions) and given it a new carrier (a virus) instead of being passed through tradition.
You have heard it before and are reminded of religion because the reviewer's description of memes misrepresents meme theory. (I haven't read the book yet, so I can't tell whether the misrepresentation originates with the reviewer or the author.)
Memes are not something that just happened. Instead, "meme" is a recent term for an ancient phenomenon - probably as old as sentience, certainly as old as tradition.
The term was used in an analysis of the spread of ideas between people. The analysis that showed that an idea system had many of the characteristics of a lifeform, specifically: a virus.
Like other lifeforms that infect another species and modify its behavior, such idea-based lifeforms can be beneficial (improving the host's health, survival potential, ability to manipulate its environment, etc.), harmful (converting the host into a machine for propagating the infection to others, often at enormous cost), or some mix of the two. Like other lifeforms, what matters is that it does spread faster than it dies off (not whether some or all of its component ideas is "true"). Like other lifeforms it changes as it spreads, or even as it ages - with the more infective variants being more likely to propagate. And like other lifeforms it finds ways to defend its territory from other, similar-but-distinct, competitors.
So all the idea systems of history - philophies, religions, nationalisms, ideologies, scientific theories (and the scientific method itself), schools of medicine, schools of art, political movements, etc. - can be analyzed as species of meme. This allows the bulk of human history - including all the social movements, most of the wars, and the bulk of the misery of "the human condition", to be analyzed as epidemics of meme infection, evolution of distinct species of memes, battles for "ecological niches", inter-meme parisitization, and so on.
Which says nothing about the rightness or wrongness of any of the idea systems, of course, whether religious, scientific, political, or whatever.
So religious wars can indeed be analyzed as "meme wars". Particularly successful religious or philosophical memes can easily produce generations of (relative) social unity (or brainwashed zombism, depending on your point of view) among large fractions of the human population. (Recent examples: Confuscianism, Islam, the Christianity of the middle ages, Communism, etc.) But their rise (or fall) can be accompanied by enormous battles (the Crusades, Jihad, assorted revolutions, the World Wars) as they displace or are displaced by their competitors, and their unity requires maintainence as those with other ideas or who otherwise don't fit are converted, often forcibly, or eliminated (Pogroms, Inquisition, "self-criticism").
Right now much of the English-speaking world (and some of the rest) is blessed with a small number of prevalant meme-sets that include religious tolerance and the suppression of violent religious conflict, and political mechanisms that subvert meme conflict from war into elections and lobbying. There's a major meme battle going on in the United States (between what I call the "American Pluralist" culture and a newer one that labels itself "Progressive"), but its battles occur mainly in schools, legislatures, and bureaucracies, rather than on the streets.
But there's no reason to believe that the memes that keep the battles sanitized will survive indefinitely. So the future might also be a scene of religious/philodophical shooting wars and inquisition-ridden Paxen.
And as "artificial intelligence" databases and other computer programming begins to approximate human thought patterns, or even as it becomes more integrated with human activity, forming an intelectual system with components on both sides of the hardware/meatware boundary, the boundary between a meme and a computer virus blurs, and may eventually disappear.
Perhaps it already has: Look at internet rumors and chain letters for examples. B-)
Re:Sorry! (Score:1)
IANATheologian, but the number 666 has an interesting etymology. The number 7 is used several times in the Bible as a symbol of completeness. ("How many times should I forgive my brother?" "Seventy times seven.") In the early parts of Revalation, God is associated several times with the number 7, so in a sense, it's a "holy" number, at least for the duration of the book.
Now God is sometimes referred to (by Christians, anyway) as the Trinity: Father, Son, Spirit. So you could make a case for 777 being a holy number. Since 6 is one less than 7, it carries a sort of "less-than-holy" connotation. Therefore, the number 666 is vaguely blasphemous.
At least, that's what I remember from Sunday school. I have a history of being way, way off.
Re:Sounds familiar... (Score:1)
Of course it's old stuff. Memes have existed and have been replicating and evolving for thousands of years. I think the point of the book is what happens because of this. If memes are truly competing and evolving as time goes by, aren't they gradually becoming more and more powerful? What happens because of this? At some point, does free will become a think of the past, as these memes become more and more powerful? The book wouldn't make any sense unless your observation was true...
--
I have heard this Idea before. (Score:2)
Does sound interesting and I plan to check it out if I can find time to go to the store and buy it let alone find time to read it. Anyone got a copy I can load on my palm for something to do at those borring meetings I have to attend.
Interesting depth or too much caffeine? (Score:1)
Is all that we think or seem but a Meme within a Meme?
{ Candle = book | book E { 451 U 1984 } } (Score:1)
We're already there. (Score:2)
The memes (lowercase) are bad enough! (Score:4)
Who needs Memes/the-escaped-computer-software for that? We already have memes/regular-old-ideas for that, and they can cause enough chaos as is.
The part about software jumping the computer and landing in peoples' heads like a virus? That is science fantasy (or paranoid delusion if you look beyond Bill Gates' plans for
But people getting wrong ideas into their heads and acting on them as if they were true? That's entirely too hard to believe.
We live in an age where a lie, told sincerely enough [yesibelieve.com], takes on a life no truth [salon.com] can hope to match. That high-pitched whirring sound is Mark Twain, in his grave, spinning like a dentist's drill.
It doesn't have to be some sort of mutant freak of programming to be absorbed -- if people like the tune coming from the bandwagon, they'll jump on even if it's being drawn by a jackass.
I'd like to blame television for this, but deep down, I know the problem is just people being lazy. They don't understand the news, they don't read the news, they hardly even skim it. Someone reads it to them on the radio in the morning, or they hear appetizing bits around the water cooler, do a little half-assed research, and decide, "Well, that's good enough for me!"
Those memes also use their hosts as armor; try to attack a meme like that, and the person holding it will take it as an assault, and fight back.
And memes mutate quickly. To follow up the bandwagon metaphor above, once people jump on, they'll start belting out the theme they think they hear. Ever play 'Telephone'? You whisper something to one person, then watch as it gets sent around, and when it comes back, it's been mangled beyond recognition. Memes (uppercase) are I assume perfectly self-replicating, but memes (lowercase) rely on peoples' powers to emote, speak, hear, and comprehend. They change en route not because they want to, but because the transmission vector is faulty.
The book gives the phrase "How do you fight an idea?" a sinister twist, but doesn't provide a solution to handling the real-world problem of bad memes.
---
huhhuhuhuhuhuhhhhuhuhuuuhhu (Score:1)
Sorry! (Score:1)
Every culture's religious fears are reflected in their entertainment.
The idea behind the 666 mark is that there is something about accepting the "mark" that explicity means that you reject your religion in taking it. I don't know what that is, but it doesn't seem all that likely that there would be a compulsory visible mark in order to perform day-to-day living for a while yet, as the ACLU would probably be in an uproar with everyone else (plus fasion designers and societies for the advancement of good looking people). The closest is the Social Security number, but not having a number doesn't mean I can't buy things, although I need one to get a legal job.
Although it might not be a great analogy, I think I might liken it to Germans wearing Swastikas in joining the Nazi party, as you'd be hard pressed to come up with a _legitimate_ interpretation of a true religious text that condones some of the activities and platforms of that party.
But to answer the original thread, there are people that live just fine without the internet. So what if they aren't "connected"? Many of those people are more connected to the community than most "wired" people will ever be. The internet is just a tool to me and many people, IMO it isn't life, nor should it be.
Re:I hate memes (Score:1)
Don't forget their damn MEME-encoded emails that don't show up properly in any decent mail or news reader (read: mutt and tin).
Fsckers.
--Mando
ISBN number is wrong (Score:2)
Porting Windows to the human brain (Score:1)
This will be your brain:
Warning from brain.dll!
your neuron cells have detected an erection, please restart it so those changes can take effect.
Popular delusions (Score:2)
And we haven't learned a lot since.
__
Re:Sounds like a good book. (Score:1)
-jerdenn
Re:The memes (lowercase) are bad enough! (Score:2)
The only real way to fight a meme is with another meme. Or, as Supreme Court Justice Brandeis put it in the landmark Whitney v. California case in 1927: "If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."
The well-known "Godwin's Law" was actually an intentional (and at least partially successful) act of memetic engineering by Mike Godwin. Read his essay about it here. [wired.com]
Re:Sounds like a good book. (Score:1)
We now return you to our regularly scheduled slashdot discussion.
Re:Sorry! (Score:2)
Only U.S. citizens need to fill out all the bureaucratic documents you mentioned.
From the 14th amendment to the Bill of Rights [emory.edu]
[Emphesis mine.]
Notice that you can expatriate, and become a State Citizen.
I only needed to fill out a W8 (and that doesn't have a SSN/SIN
You might want to buy Black's Law Dictionary and research the meaning between "U.S." and "u.S.A"
Cheers
Paperback out in December (Score:1)
Available in PeanutPress eBook form (Score:1)
see http://www.peanutpress.com/book.cgi/0312877005/07
Re:Not Necessarily (Score:1)
Re:Groan (Score:1)
"Ok, maybe someday it might happen, but nobody's gotten it anywhere close to convincingly right yet"
Uh .. and since when was science fiction supposed to be about the stuff that humans has already gotten right? Last I heard, most sci-fi revolved around the stuff that "someday might happen, but nobody has gotten anywhere close to convincingly right yet".
I guess I must've been confused .. will have to throw away a bunch of my Asimov's now ..
We're a long way away. (Score:1)
Re:Groan (Score:1)
/dev/brain (Score:1)
A Unix system with a brain device driver..
/usr/bin/socalise
requires chmod 666
while
so for security you should be
chmod 644
and for brain input
chmod 666
but
So...
www.sourceforge.net/socalsheald
a mind sheald that spoofs socalise
Ohh yeah.. socalise is binary only produced by AoL
Now the forces of AoL rise up agains this source forge mennace... "They are hinding sinsiter thoughts from us.. they must be planning evil things"
socalsheald ends up having to put up a wide range of responces to mimic a real brain.. then a script kiddie fed up with it all issues one simple command
cat
A moment of screams... a moment of terror.. a moment of sillence...
Hmmm... Meme virii... (Score:5)
That implies that one could port Linux to the human brain - or at the very least, whip up a device driver.
So, this is your brain:
/dev/brain
And this is your brain on drugs:
cat
Any questions?
Isn't it a crime now? (Score:1)
I hate memes (Score:3)
I think a meme war would be a good thing, let see them stay silent when they get run over by a tank.
Sounds like a good book. (Score:4)
It's like that whole concept of the "666" mark of the beast in Christianity. Unless you have the mark you can't buy or sell or otherwise take part in society. But if you do take the mark you are somehow damned.
This is a great theme to work with because these "religious" fears are so ingrained that they affect the psyche of even persons who are outside of the traditional realm of Christianity. Hey, just watch "The Omen" I, II and III and see if it doesn't make you a bit uncomfortable.
I think this book will be going on my "to read" list also. It has hit upon one of those "universal themes" that are sure to keep this book current even many years from now.
Re:Hmmm... Meme virii... (Score:1)
Not Necessarily (Score:1)
Groan (Score:2)
First, that's a perversion of the standard understanding of "memes".
Second, any story that involves running programs in human brains, or transferring minds to computers, is invariably lame as the premise is just goofy. Ok, maybe someday it might happen, but nobody's gotten it anywhere close to convincingly right yet.
Thanks for the review. Nice to know ahead of time that the premise is preposterous. It saves me the waste of reading the book.
"Farenheit 451", on the other hand, excellently depicts banning information technology.
Re:Not Necessarily (Score:2)
Although just from the sound of it, a lot of the ideology of this book has been done before.... 1984 is a good example of it...
Frankly, I think ideas do have a 'life' of their own, but the concept of them of treating them as intelligent and able to control people goes a bit far. It's one thing to sink into ideology and a mob mentality, but it's another to say that the ideas took over and control humanity.
It might be a good read, but if I wanted secret masters, I would have stayed in the Illuminati...
Oh, and education can actually stop technologies from being abused, but first you have to get everyone to read and understand the User Manual.
Kierthos