TedChiang has some very imaginative and thought provoking stories in his volume Stories of Your Life and Other Stories. We can see Borges’s influence in stories such as “Tower of
Babylon,” “Division by Zero,” “Seventy Two Letters” and “Hell is the Absence of
God.” “Seventy Two Letters” also reminds us of stories by Umberto Eco. Chiang’s
science fiction gives due to science but he creates worlds based on pseudo
sciences and forces the reader to think hard about their implications.
Tower of Babel
“Division
by Zero” is a fascinating inquiry into the incompleteness of mathematics
(Gödel’s Theorem). What happens when a mathematician finds out that the system
of mathematics isn’t consistent, that the foundation of everything just gives
way?
“The
Story of Your Life” dwells into the nature of time via relativity: that time is
just another variable like x, y, and z. What if we can perceive the span of
time (as a continuous segment rather than discrete points) as we do in space
(as a span of space rather than a single point)? Something like Henri Bergson’s continuous time.
In
“Seventy Two Letters” a scientist and an inventor try to save the human race
using artificial insemination and the power of name to animate or give life
(like the breath or word of God). Chiang added an assassin and a cabalist just
for fun.
Space-Time Curvature
“Hell
is the Absence of God” is a thoughtful study of suffering and devotion. How
would we respond to various blessings and misfortunes? After a misfortune, one
turns to God while another away. One is troubled when she is healed and could
no longer evangelize. Another wants to be the mouth of God but he receives
neither blessing nor misfortune, as if he doesn’t exist. Then Neil Fisk,
“though it’s been many years that he has been in Hell, beyond the awareness of
God, he loves Him still.”
In
“Liking What You See: a Documentary,” students in a school vote to decide
whether to mandate a device to eliminate the appreciation of physical beauty.
Is it fair or unfair to put everyone on a “level playing field” where beauty
has no advantage? What about other attributes such as mental and physical
skills?
