Anathem

I recently read Anathem, the new novel by Neal Stephenson. Mr. Stephenson's works tend to be highly thoughtful adventure tales involving scientists. In the past he's treated us to yarns about the founders of the Royal Society (The Baroque Cycle) and the codebreakers of World War II (Cryptonomicon). The New York Times Book Review wrote that he "cares as much about telling good stories as he does about farming out cool ideas."

Mr. Stephenson's latest epic leaves Earth altogether; it takes place on the planet Arbre. Arbre's history parallels our own; there is a suggestion that it is the Platonic Ideal Earth. The people of Arbre had their Socrates and Plato (although for some reason, not their Aristotle), their Roman Empire and its decline and fall, their Age of Exploration, their industrial era (The "Praxic" Age). They even had a late Praxic Age TV show with characters resembling Captain Kirk and Mister Spock.

And they had their world wars. Three of them. The last one was followed by something called "The Terrible Events"- presumably a nuclear holocaust. Whatever these events were (records are a little sketchy), Arbreans blamed their scientists for it. Those who devoted their lives to the pursuit of reason – scientists, philosophers, mathematicians – were locked up in convents called "maths". These maths were inhabited by the most interesting people you'd ever care to be locked up with, but they were restricted in their access to experimental equipment and in their contact with the outside world. The main character, Fraa Erasmus, belonged to a Decenarian Math, which meant he was only permitted extramuros (outside the walls) once every ten years.

Fraa Erasmus's story begins about four thousand years after the Terrible Events. Not much happened in that time. Arbre continued to be a technological society with cars, video cameras, Blackberries, and orbital satellites. But there were very few advances in technology or culture after. The entire civilization was stuck in its equivalent of Earth's twenty-first century.

Then one day the secular authorities orders Fraa Erasmus's math to close its observatory. Fraa Erasmus sets out to solve the mystery of why. When he does, he uncovers a crisis facing his world, a crisis that is so severe the secular authorities must throw open the gates of the maths and enlist the help of the scientists.

Like Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged, Mr. Stephenson presents a case study in the role of reason in human existence. Without it, there is no technological progress and no ability to respond to changing conditions. The Logic Critic gives Neal Stephenson…

4 Blades - Flawless.

Check out http://www.nealstephenson.com/anathem.htm for a cool trailer.