CSFF Blog Tour: "The God Hater" Day Three

So in my odd first day rambling review, I mentioned that I thought that The God Hater by Bill Myers was a bit timely. Here's the reason why:


While the kind of artificial intelligence that Myers describes is probably a ways off yet, we just saw a computer trounce two Jeopardy champs on national TV. And while Watson got flummoxed a few times by the questions, it definitely was a step toward true artificial intelligence. Obviously Ken Jennings understood that as well:


Most telling for me was the fact that as I was watching the episodes with my family, I kept referred to Watson as a "he," not an "it."

This was also kind of creepy since TIME magazine's cover story a few weeks ago covered the Singularity movement:

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, the Singularity Movement is the belief that soon and very soon, humanity will be able to create a computer system that will actually surpass the combined intelligence of every human everywhere. The date they're predicting? 2045. Yikes.

But let's be honest here, some of what Myers describes is already happening. I mean, I already have a virtual community of computerized people living on my hard drive, and I know I'm not the only one:


Now granted, the Sims aren't as sophisticated as Alpha and the rest of the crew in The God Hater, but again, it's a step in that direction. Very soon, we're going to need to start asking a difficult question: can a computer program be considered "alive" in the same way as a human being? Can a group of scientists build a soul?

If I'm honest, I'd have to say I don't know. For a while, I was firmly in the "no" camp. But the more I think about it, I wonder if it isn't possible. After all, human parents create beings with a soul all the time. Does soul-giving have to be biological? I'm guessing it would take a lot of work to create the first truly sentient computer program, probably as much as it takes for a human being to gestate and be born. Does the fact that scientists are involved and that each step of the process is deliberate and thought-out negate the soul-giving?

It's a hard question and, like I said, one we may have to tackle in the near future, along with others like it. For instance, if AI programs are truly "alive" and have souls, how does original sin factor in? Does it at all? Does what Christ did on the cross apply to them if it does?

Wow. Too much for one day. But I know I'm not the only one who'd like to know if machines can have souls. This guy would too:



Go and see what the other tourists have to say:

Noah Arsenault
Red Bissell
Thomas Clayton Booher
Keanan Brand
Kathy Brasby
Rachel Briard
Beckie Burnham
Morgan L. Busse
Carol Bruce Collett
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
CSFF Blog Tour
April Erwin
Amber French
Andrea Graham
Tori Greene
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart
Joleen Howell
Bruce Hennigan
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Becca Johnson
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Emily LaVigne
Shannon McDermott
Matt Mikalatos
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
MollyBuuklvr81
Sarah Sawyer
Chawna Schroeder
Andrea Schultz
Tammy Shelnut
Kathleen Smith
James Somers
Donna Swanson
Jessica Thomas
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Nicole White
Dave Wilson

CSFF Blog Tour: "The God Hater" Day Two

Okay, yesterday was not fun. Six hours in the car driving through the wreckage of Snowmageddon 2.0, then shoveling out a driveway filled with snow. My back was killing me. But never fear, my fellow tourists, I am back and I am ready to continue my discussion about Bill Myers's The God Hater. Thank you to everyone who liked my video review. Sorry, this isn't another one. My webcam is not nearly as good as my dad's, so you'll just have to put up with this old school post. Maybe if I have some money to burn and can splurge on a better one, we'll see.

Anyway, like I said yesterday in the video, I thought I'd touch on the theology of the book a little. I did appreciate what Myers said in his initial Author's Note, that if something stuck in my craw, I could always go and read the original source material. And while nothing made me go fleeing to Scriptures for refuge, there were a few things that left me scratching my head.

For example, there was the fact that the cyber-Nicholas became more and more disfigured with each healing. Now I realize that this was a fanciful reading of Isaiah 53. But what left me a little flummoxed was the fact that Travis had to steal power from the surrounding world to facilitate the miracles. I'm probably splitting hairs here and this was done for dramatic effect, but there you go.

More problematic for me was the fact that Alpha 11 remembered a sin from a previous simulation. Maybe things work differently in the virtual world, but that smacked just a bit of reincarnation and made me a little uneasy.

What it all boils down to for me is this: the incarnation is a tricky thing to wrap our minds around. Oh, sure, we can understand academically that the Second Person in the Trinity emptied Himself of His glory and majesty and took on frail human flesh, becoming a slave, and becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross (quick! What verse am I referencing?). But to truly comprehend what this is, how it worked, what it all means, well, that can fill several large volumes of theology that usually resorts to lots of Latin phrases (I know; I have a few of them on my office shelves). So while some of Myers's story doesn't quite correspond one-to-one with reality, that's okay. I appreciate the effort that Myers made in telling the story the way he did.

I will also say this: I really appreciated the fact that the "law" given to the virtual world was to love each other. This shows a great understanding of what the Christian ethic is all about. I did question whether or not the virtual inhabitants would come up with a whole codified system of morals that so closely hewed to the Judeo-Christian one, but maybe I'm just nitpicking now.

Go and check out what the rest of the tourists have to say this month:

Noah Arsenault
Red Bissell
Thomas Clayton Booher
Keanan Brand
Kathy Brasby
Rachel Briard
Beckie Burnham
Morgan L. Busse
Carol Bruce Collett
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
CSFF Blog Tour
April Erwin
Amber French
Andrea Graham
Tori Greene
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart
Joleen Howell
Bruce Hennigan
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Becca Johnson
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Emily LaVigne
Shannon McDermott
Matt Mikalatos
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
MollyBuuklvr81
Sarah Sawyer
Chawna Schroeder
Andrea Schultz
Tammy Shelnut
Kathleen Smith
James Somers
Donna Swanson
Jessica Thomas
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Nicole White
Dave Wilson

CSFF Blog Tour: "The God Hater" Day One

Well, this should be different . . .



Go check out what the rest of the tourists have to say:

Noah Arsenault
Red Bissell
Thomas Clayton Booher
Keanan Brand
Kathy Brasby
Rachel Briard
Beckie Burnham
Morgan L. Busse
Carol Bruce Collett
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
CSFF Blog Tour
April Erwin
Amber French
Andrea Graham
Tori Greene
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart
Joleen Howell
Bruce Hennigan
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Becca Johnson
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Emily LaVigne
Shannon McDermott
Matt Mikalatos
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
MollyBuuklvr81
Sarah Sawyer
Chawna Schroeder
Andrea Schultz
Tammy Shelnut
Kathleen Smith
James Somers
Donna Swanson
Jessica Thomas
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Nicole White
Dave Wilson

Father Elijah

I don't remember exactly where I first heard about Father Elijah by Michael D. O'Brien. But I do know that my interest was piqued. The person (or persons) who told me about it described it as a sort of Catholic Left Behind book, an End Times novel told from a Catholic perspective. That certainly got my attention. Those who have read my blog know that I'm not the biggest fan of Left Behind's dispensational premillenialist theology. I'm still to this day an ardent amillenialist and I'm sometimes upset by the sheer volume that the premillenialists have in the Christian marketplace. So when I discover a book (such as Chris Walley's excellent postmillenialist Lamb Among the Stars trilogy) that bucks that trend, I'll usually check it out.

And since Lutherans and Catholics are both amillenialists and we are pretty close together in terms of theology, I figured this might make for an interesting read.

It's the story of a man named Father Elijah, a Jewish convert to Catholicism. He is called from his sanctuary on Mount Carmel for a special mission by the Pope. He's asked to go speak to the President of the Federation of European States, a man that the Pope fears could be the coming Antichrist. Elijah does as he is told, but in the process, he winds up being pulled into a drama being played out on the grandest of stages, one that will irrevocably change the world.

In many ways, I was surprised by this book. Not by the sheer volume of Catholic dogma; I was prepared for that and took it in stride (I mean, Lutheran pastor here). No, what surprised me was how similar O'Brien's version of the Antichrist was to the Left Behind version. I wasn't quite ready for that, but it certainly made for an interesting read.

That said, I was a little disappointed with this book and it took me a while to figure out why. The problem is that it's mostly just dialogue, people talking to each other. Lots of philosophical and theological discussions or sharing of memories. As a result, not a lot happens in this book. Oh, sure, there's some great action off-stage, so to speak, but the only way we learn about it is when someone tells someone else about it in even more dialogue. So while some of the discussions were interesting, the book dragged.

Maybe I was expecting the wrong sort of thing from this book, but in the end, it satisfied my curiosity. Pity it wasn't more than just an intellectual exercise. It could have been a lot more.

Wordcount Wednesday

Not a good week for me. I haven't been able to get out of first gear on Hive, it would seem. As of right now, it's clocking in at 2,997 words. Yeah, I really have no excuse. Hopefully over the next week, I can do better.

Huckleberry Finn: The Robot Edition

I'm sure many of you probably heard about the bizarre plan to edit Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn to remove a certain offensive word. Well, apparently two enterprising young people have decided that doesn't go far enough. Observe:



This is genius. And I'm so mad I didn't think of it first. Kudos and bravo. It's not surprising that they've already raised the money they need.

Masked

So a few weeks ago, I was in my friendly neighborhood Barnes and Noble (which isn't actually in my neighborhood, but . . . well, never mind) and I was looking at the sci-fi and fantasy anthologies. Much to my surprise, I found one dedicated to nothing but short stories about superheroes, namely Masked. Seeing as I've written a superhero book myself, I thought it might be fun to see what the authors who contributed had come up with. Like most anthologies, it was a mixed bag. Some of them I liked. Some of them I didn't get. A few were only "meh."

Let's talk about the gems: Cleansed and Set in Gold by Matthew Sturges was a wild ride if a little disgusting. The Non-Event by Mike Carey was an interesting read as well. Message from the Bubblegum Factory by Daryl Gregory was pretty wild too but I really liked it. Thug by Gail Simone was truly awesome, written from the viewpoint of an mostly illiterate henchman. Downfall by Joseph Mallozzi was good too, although I was a little confused by the ending. And the final story, A to Z in the Ultimate Big Company Superhero Universe (Villains Too) by Bill Willingham was really cool. I loved some of the characters Willingham came up with.

But by far, I think my favorite was Avatar by Mike Baron, who sought to write a "realistic" superhero story. No fancy powers. No nothing like that. Just a very troubling story about a very troubled young man.

So definitely worth the read if you're a superhero geek.

Wordcount Wednesday

It's back!

I know, I haven't been very faithful in making weekly reports on my writing. But I decided to resurrect the concept since tonight, I started my newest project, namely Hive. Here's what it's about:

A pregnant teenager flees from her people and those who want to steal her baby.

I've spent the past week doing some foundational work. Last night, I hit "critical mass" on the project and realized it was time to start writing.

So tonight, I wrote the first 925 words. It's an introduction that may not survive the final draft, but it was a good way to "get my feet wet," so to speak.

It'll be an interesting journey, that's for sure.

Another superhero in Tennessee!

It's spreading!

Gnomeo & Juliet

Thanks to the good folks at 365 Things To Do in the Twin Cities, my wife and I just got back from seeing Gnomeo & Juliet at a free advance screening. A friend of mine recently said this about this movie: "it's never a good sign when you know the movie title came before the movie concept." And, after sitting through this screening, I have to agree.

Given the title, you know what the movie is about right away. Two star-crossed lovers try to find a way to save their relationship even though their families are at war. In this case, the two feuding clans are anthropomorphic garden gnomes in neighboring backyard gardens behind a duplex (2B and not 2B Verona Way. Seriously). Gnomeo is a blue gnome, as are all of his kin. Juliet is a red gnome. The coloration of their hats is enough for these two groups as they race lawn mowers in the alley. But then Gnomeo and Juliet meet in a nearby abandoned lot and everything goes south, especially when one of Juliet's kin, a burly gnome named Tybalt, starts making trouble.

So . . . what's good about this movie? Shakespearean Easter eggs. If you know Shakespeare, keep your eyes open for passing references to other plays. And there are a few laugh-out-loud moments along with some interesting casting choices. Hulk Hogan, Patrick Stewart, even Dolly Parton (!) show up from time to time.

But that brings us to the down side. The movie really isn't all that good. Yes, I know, it's a kids' movie, but still. I just couldn't get into it. Part of the reason why is the 3D. There's no reason for this movie to be in 3D. It adds nothing except, I'm guessing, a few extra dollars at the box office. The movie is extremely short, clocking in somewhere around 1:20. The plot seems extremely incoherent and thrown together. There were close to a dozen writers listed in the credits; that's usually not a good sign.

By the end of the movie, I thought that the director had a weird Elton John fetish. Elton John imagery pops up everywhere. Then I saw that Elton John was the executive producer and that little puzzle suddenly made sense. But I'm thinking the be-spectacled one might be better served staying out of kids movies from here on out. Just saying.