Notes
Waiting to see how this turns out before I post any further annotations; I'm deep into spoiler territory now.
Arsibalt's explanation of "Sconic thought" is a decent enough summary of some of the problems explored by Kant in the Critique of Pure Reason, regarding both the fact that we cannot directly access knowledge concerning the world outside our heads, and the fact that certain questions are, by their nature, unanswerable by human reason.
This also ties in once again to twentieth-century work related to the demarcation problem, which attempted to put all such metaphysical questions "out of bounds".
Arsibalt's lecture here brings to mind philosophical debates about the metaphysics of propositions namely whether they can be said to exist regardless of the tokens (words, symbols, etc.) used to express them.
Which returns to the problem of universals, and the symbol/symbolized distinction.
Of related interest is the field of exolinguistics and the problems arising from our attempts to create things which could be understood by extraterrestrials.
And we get into spoiler territory again: this sort of thing has actually been theorized about, as part of the first and now-defunct Project Orion.
Familiar ground; Stephenson is wandering near to a lot of material I covered when I was doing my thesis. Since I could talk for days about this stuff, I'll compensate by keeping my notes here extremely short.
The arguments for and against "design" in the universe have recently been picked up by physicists and cosmologers, and Jesry's explanation based on a many-worlds interpretation (see previous note) touches, in a nutshell, some of those arguments, specifically those centered around the anthropic principle.
The many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics posits that there is essentially a huge number of "universes", one for each possible outcome of each collapse of each quantum waveform throughout history (more colloquially expressed as the idea that "everything which can happen, does happen, somewhere").
In the twentieth century, the branch known as philosophy of science became increasingly concerned with the problem of demarcation, separating things which were science from things which were not. Mainstream English-speaking philosophy picked up on this as well, and a movement arose to cast out metaphysics from philosophical discussion on the grounds that such questions could not be meaningfully tested, nor could their answers be meaningfully verified.
Description edit
Anathem, the latest invention by the New York Times bestselling author of Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle, is a magnificent creation: a work of great scope, intelligence, and imagination that ushers readers into a recognizable—yet strangely inverted—world. Fraa Erasmas is a young avout living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the outside "saecular" world by ancient stone, honored traditions, and complex rituals. Over the centuries, cities and governments have risen and fallen beyond the concent's walls. Three times during history's darkest epochs violence born of superstition and ignorance has invaded and devastated the cloistered mathic community. Yet the avout have always managed to adapt in the wake of catastrophe, becoming out of necessity even more austere and less dependent on technology and material things. And Erasmas has no fear of the outside—the Extramuros—for the last of the terrible times was long, long ago. Now, in celebration of the week-long, once-in-a-decade rite of Apert, the fraas and suurs prepare to venture beyond the concent's gates—at the same time opening them wide to welcome the curious "extras" in. During his first Apert as a fraa, Erasmas eagerly anticipates reconnecting with the landmarks and family he hasn't seen since he was "collected." But before the week is out, both the existence he abandoned and the one he embraced will stand poised on the brink of cataclysmic change. Powerful unforeseen forces jeopardize the peaceful stability of mathic life and the established ennui of the Extramuros—a threat that only an unsteady alliance of saecular and avout can oppose—as, one by one, Erasmas and his colleagues, teachers, and friends are summoned forth from the safety of the concent in hopes of warding off global disaster. Suddenly burdened with a staggering responsibility, Erasmas finds himself a major player in a drama that will determine the future of his world—as he sets out on an extraordinary odyssey that will carry him to the most dangerous, inhospitable corners of the planet . . . and beyond.
Additional information
- Pages: 960
- ISBN: 0061474096
- EAN: 9780061474095
- Dewey: 813.54
- Binding: Hardcover
- Publisher: William Morrow