Although not as strong as volume 1, this second volume of Le Guin's complete Hainish novels and stories was still a worthwhile read. The works in the Although not as strong as volume 1, this second volume of Le Guin's complete Hainish novels and stories was still a worthwhile read. The works in the second volume were just as strong as in the first on world building and exploring alternate ways of living and being. However, I tend to like a good dose of character development and plot even when I read more speculative fiction, and those aspects were not as strong as in the works of the first volume. That said, both collections have some works that are excellent, others which are merely good, and all of which benefit from being read in the full context of the other Hainish novels and stories. ...more
Like many other reviewers, I really enjoyed the first half of this book. However, the second half lost me. The author made some basic but important wrLike many other reviewers, I really enjoyed the first half of this book. However, the second half lost me. The author made some basic but important wrong turns that made his argument fall flat.
Before I get to the specifics though, I want to make clear that I was totally there for the *idea* of the second half of the book. I do believe that complexity theory has something to tell us about consciousness and that religion, despite its problems when taken too literally, does provide insights into consciousness and being. I was looking forward to someone taking my vague intuitions in this space and making the connections clearer. After reading the first half of this book, I was especially excited to see that done in the author's clear yet rich style.
Sadly, the book failed to deliver. Instead of making a clear path from complexity theory to religion and consciousness, the author took the *vibe* of complexity theory and used that as a tenuous launching point for talking about vague parallels to several religions and then talking about his own version of metaphysics, Fundamental Awareness.
Along the way, he made a couple of choices that made his already hand-wavy argument even more problematic. The big one is that he misinterpreted quantum decoherence, the collapse of the probabilistic wave function of a quantum particle, as requiring *conscious* observation. Even I know enough to know that this is a mistake. Observation doesn't require consciousness, just interaction that constraints the probabilities.
The author's discussion of materialism, panpsychism, and idealism also was unsatisfying because he seemed to be putting a strawman version of materialism up against a hand-wavy sense of idealism. He also spent way too much time talking about the Vienna Circle and vilifying their goals instead of focusing on comparing the ideas.
That said, the first half of this book was one of the most concise and comprehensible discussions of complexity theory I've seen so far. I especially liked the way the middle of the book was structured around exploring how "quenched disorder", the reining in of disorder which keeps a system poised between disorder and mechanical predictability, applies at different levels of existence.
Despite the fact that I would actively warn people away from the second half of the book, the first half was excellent enough that the book managed to get 2 stars from me instead of 1....more
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