Destination Void
by Frank HerbertSign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of this book.
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Read in March, 2008
This books manages, despite significant flaws, to engagingly mix a golden age of sci-fi "engineers solving a technical problem" kind of plot with wild philosophizing and thriller elements.
It rests on a somewhat wonky premise (I'm not spoiling anything btw - the following is all revealed early on). Apparently, in the future, the most effective and cost-efficient way to research artificial consciousness is to build a huge colonization ship and launch it towards Tau Ceti with its self...more
It rests on a somewhat wonky premise (I'm not spoiling anything btw - the following is all revealed early on). Apparently, in the future, the most effective and cost-efficient way to research artificial consciousness is to build a huge colonization ship and launch it towards Tau Ceti with its self...more
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Read in November, 2007
dont read this book! on a whim, i bought this and the subsequent 3 sequels, thinking that they would be good since i heard good thing about these books on some online forum. nope. truthfully, i dont know how good the sequels are. they were co-written with another author, so maybe he told frank that his ideas in destination: void were awful. i think this was herberts attempt at a hard scifi that focuses more on the science than the characters. it just seemed like reading a theoretical science boo...more
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This isn't your usual "Herbert", in that the philosophical part is more intense than in other books by him I've read, and the language is less simple too. But if you manage to lift the shroud of complexity it's a very interesting book, dealing mainly with intelligence and consciousness, whether human or artificial. The rest of the series has some connections to this book, but don't expect any more philosophical treaties. Don't worry, you'll probably need to reread this one several time...more
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An incredible Herbert book. It was written long before the personal computer or much of the modern computing hardware/theory. Because of that, Herbert had to create a whole computing theory on his own to make the work on the AI credible. It speaks more about AI theory and the implications behind it, and not so much the technological aspects (since they are so arbitrary). The religious aspects that creep in add to the debate are very pertinent, and never get preachy.
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the first in the series. it's been a long time, but humans leave earth to colonize, their ship powered by an organic mental core. they have 2 spares, although failure is not seen as a possibility. that's what happens, though, to all 3 brains, and the humans are forced to create an artificial conscious being to pilot the ship if they are to survive.
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Read in January, 1994
Preachy, aged poorly, silly mathematical computations, but such an interesting premise I couldn't put it down.
New science fiction bores me. For some reason I like the old stuff. I could fill this entire bookshelf with Herbert books with almost this exact same review.
New science fiction bores me. For some reason I like the old stuff. I could fill this entire bookshelf with Herbert books with almost this exact same review.
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Crazy book. Kind of technical. This crew of people on a spaceship pretty much has to create an artificial consciousness or they will die. Lots of talk about what consciousness is.
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Herbert wrestles with philosophy, language, and social engineering while careening through space. The title describes the outcome, but the journey stretches your mind.
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If you like to read about/listen to computer nerds talk about artificial intelligence and system hardware then this book is for you.
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