The Infinitive of Go

by John Brunner

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345284976
• ISBN13: 9780345284976
• Release Date: January 1980
• Publisher: Del Rey Books
• Length: 154 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Physics meets philosophy

Here's the premise: a teleportation machine is invented that turns out to have an unexpected side effect; when the teleportee emerges at the other end, he discovers himself in a slightly different universe (and those occupying his revised destination find themselves greeting, from their perspective, a traveller whose behavior seems slightly off). The farther the distance covered, the more divergent the starting and ending universes. And...well, that's it. For most of this slim work is given over to the protagonists puzzling out an explanation of the phenomenon, which is slightly boring (because of reliance on technobabble that saves the author and characters the trouble of explaining things that really aren't explainable anyway) and slightly amusing (because the characters are forced to try and understand the calculations, reasoning patterns, and actions of computers that they themselves programmed). Much attention is also paid to the philosophical implications of such a device and its effects, and we are given glimpses of the feelings of alienation that travel via the device instills in its subjects. But this is very much a concept novel, and so very little actually happens. This is not necessarily a criticism; merely fair warning that physics and philosophy take center stage here, and that this is less a novel than a single drawn-out thought experiment. It is enjoyable, but only when accepted on its own terms.