The Church of the Long Now

I'm usually not one for the reading of fiction. If I want narrative I'll soak myself in a nice multi-arc TV show (although I'll be damned if I'll actually watch it on TV). As my reading habits to the left will attest, I have fairly specific tastes and I try not to veer too far from them. However, I am willing to make exceptions, especially when Neal Stephenson has a new book out. I've read a few of his previous books – Snow Crash and The Diamond Age – blew me away. I happened to pick them up at the right time and they magically tapped into whatever train of thought had been playing in my mind that month. His latest is no exception. Growing out of a few sketches for the Long Now Foundation resulted in a novel that asks the question: What if we lived in a world that took long term thinking seriously? 

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.

With this fantastic inversion, the Saecular world consist of those caught up in day to day fashions and the latest explosions on TV, while the Mathic world live in closed off monasteries that are only allowed outside of the gates once every ten, 100 or 1,000 years depending on their assigned caste. This allows them to remain unchanged by the speed of day to day and minute to minute living. 

But the plot nor the world isn't the star. The real beauty of the book is it's constant homage to Western philosophical and mathematical traditions, constantly played out as dialogues (reminiscent of Plato's The Republic and many more in the tradition). While set on another world, using different names, the book spans through Thales, Pythagoras, Plato, Leibniz, Kant, Husserl and Godel to name a few. He even touches on Post-Modernism through the use of a particularly annoying character who just won't shut the hell up about semiotics. The question of whether eternal truths exist and would they exist on different planets is played out to near perfection; the value of pi, Pythagorus' theorem and most importantly the Platonic theory of forms. The discussions concerning these quickly became the centerpiece of the novel and had me most excited and yearning for more. 

The 900 pages of the book is testament to the long term thinking imbued throughout the book. This slowly converted my brain to slow down it's processes, forcing me to think slowly and with a long view in mind. Since I finished a few days ago everything outside of the book has seemed unimportant, not grand enough. Having come out of a two month marathon of constant news leading up to the US election, it's seemed completely irrelevant since I put the book down. It almost makes me sick just looking at the news and I've pretty much sworn off it as a result. My impatience with short sightedness and short term thinking will hopefully echo for the next few months. 

It was then with great serendipity that mondays TED video was Stewart Brand talking about the Clock of the Long Now, the very thing that inspired the novel. If you haven't heard of the Long Now Foundation, I highly recommend it. 

The Long Now Foundation hopes to provide counterpoint to today's "faster/cheaper" mind set and promote "slower/better" thinking. We hope to creatively foster responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.

Their monthly seminars have the most fascinating people talking, and provide a lovely addition to like minded podcasts. 

If the video doesn't work you can always look here.