''Calculating God'' is a 2000
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...
novel by
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
writer
Robert J. Sawyer
Robert James Sawyer (born April 29, 1960) is a Canadian science fiction writer. He has had 24 novels published and his short fiction has appeared in ''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'', ''Amazing Stories'', ''On Spec'', ''Nature'', and numerous ...
. It takes place in the present day and describes the arrival on Earth of sentient aliens. The bulk of the novel covers the many discussions and arguments on this topic, as well as about the nature of belief, religion, and science. Several planetary civilizations illustrate the logical conclusion of the
Fermi paradox
The Fermi paradox is the discrepancy between the lack of conclusive evidence of advanced extraterrestrial life and the apparently high a priori likelihood of its existence, and by extension of obtaining such evidence. As a 2015 article put it ...
.
''Calculating God'' received nominations for both the
Hugo and
John W. Campbell Memorial Awards in 2001.
Plot summary
Thomas Jericho, a
paleontologist
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of foss ...
working at the
Royal Ontario Museum in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...
makes the first human-to-alien contact when a "Forhilnor", a
spider
Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species d ...
-like alien from the third planet of the
Beta Hydri system arrives on
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surf ...
to investigate Earth's evolutionary history. The alien, Hollus, has come to Earth to gain access to the museum's large collection of
fossils
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
, and to study accumulated human knowledge in order to gather evidence of the existence of
God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
. It appears that Earth and Hollus' home planet, and the home planet of another alien species traveling with Hollus, all experienced the same five
cataclysmic
Cataclysm is derived from the Greek (), 'down, against', and (), 'wash over, surge'. It may refer to:
Common meanings
*Generally, any large-scale disaster
*Deluge (mythology)
*Doomsday event, see hypothetical risks to civilization, humans, and ...
events at roughly the same time. Hollus believes that the universe was created by a god, to provide a place where life could develop and evolve. Thomas Jericho is an
atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
who provides a balance to the philosophical discussion regarding the existence of gods.
At the end, the star
Betelgeuse
Betelgeuse is a red supergiant of spectral type M1-2 and one of the largest stars visible to the naked eye. It is usually the tenth-brightest star in the night sky and, after Rigel, the second-brightest in the constellation of Orio ...
goes
supernova, threatening all life within hundreds of
light-years
A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 101 ...
with
radiation
In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or through a material medium. This includes:
* ''electromagnetic radiation'', such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared, vi ...
. One of several dead civilizations discovered by the explorers may have deliberately induced the
supernova in order to
sterilize the stellar neighborhood. This was presumably done in order to protect the
virtual reality
Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), e ...
machinery which now housed all of their planet's personalities. According to a theory of Thomas's, several worlds exist where the inhabitants uploaded themselves into machines instead of exploring the nature of the universe and gods.
Although the supernova explosion occurred over 400 years before the events of the novel, the radiation is first reaching
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surf ...
at the present time due to its distance from Earth. However, the alien ship's advanced
telescope
A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to obse ...
in
orbit
In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such a ...
then sees a large black entity emerge from space itself and cover the exploding star. This is final proof that a controlling intelligence is guiding and preserving some life-forms in the universe.
In the final chapter, the scientist, who is dying of
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal bl ...
, travels to the entity on the alien ship, where a
fusion of
genetic materials from human and alien sources produces a new life form that the aliens conjecture will create the next cycles of the universe.
Notes
References
*Cassada, Jackie. "Calculating God (Book review)." Library Journal 125.7 (15 Apr. 2000): 126.
*Flynn, Tom. "SCIENCE FICTION GOES ANTHROPIC." Free Inquiry 22.1 (Winter2001/2002 2001): 62.
*"Forecasts: Fiction." Publishers Weekly 247.12 (20 Mar. 2000): 75.
*Johnson, Roberta. "Adult Books: FICTION." Booklist 96.16 (15 Apr. 2000): 1534.
*Seidman, Barry F. "Using Science Fiction to Promote Creationism." Skeptical Inquirer 26.2 (Mar. 2002): 53–54.
* Elmore, Jonathan
Fiction and the Sixth Mass Extinction: Narrative in an Era of Loss Chapter 8. (Google Books).
See also
*
Fermi paradox
The Fermi paradox is the discrepancy between the lack of conclusive evidence of advanced extraterrestrial life and the apparently high a priori likelihood of its existence, and by extension of obtaining such evidence. As a 2015 article put it ...
External links
* {{isfdb title, id=21443, title=Calculating God
Calculating God on sfwriter.comCalculating Godat Worlds Without End
2000 science fiction novels
Fiction set around Beta Hydri
Fiction set around Betelgeuse
Novels by Robert J. Sawyer
Novels set in Toronto
Religion in science fiction
Fiction about supernovae
Tor Books books