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The World of NullA A E Van Vogt 9780425018026 Books

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The World of NullA A E Van Vogt 9780425018026 Books

A E van Vogt's The World of Null-A, although regarded as a sci-fi classic from the pre-Hugo award era, fails to follow through in its execution. The "world" is a future where humanity has advanced to a society that offers essentially a mediocre utopia to the population of Earth which is overseen by a master computer. Null-A refers to non-Aristotelian logic that is a type of fuzzy logic that "gestalts" decisions. Human who demonstrate this ability are rewarded with relocation to Venus which provides for an upgrade to utopia. The "hero" is an individual without past memories and thrust into the middle of a conspiracy of unknown dimensions. At this point, everything goes off the rails. His false memory of a dead wife turns out to the daughter of the Earth's president who he runs into one night seemingly homeless like him. He then ends up dead, but is reanimated on Venus getting help from the master computer there that basically just tells him to be captured again. Alliances are constantly shifting and unclear throughout. Finally, a human extrasolar power is intent on invading and conquering both Earth and Venus.

The basic problem with the story is the lack of any context. Little about the society, how it functions and how it came to be is provided. The desirability of migrating to Venus is never articulated and other than living in tree roots, seems to offer little. The motives of various player around the hero, the president, his daughter, their collaborators who seem to be playing both sides of the fence, a psychiatrist, and a random hotel worker are never adequately outlined. Finally, the rationale for an invasion (why take over Venus?) or the background on how advanced humans capable of mounting an interstellar invasion even came to exist is never described.

The various sci-fi contrivances are a bit strained. While the master computer running everything seems reasonable at least, the mind shifting trick from body to body seems like it would have been of general interest, rather than developed specifically for a conspiracy. The extra brain bit was also billed as a one-off. If it really was as powerful as advertised, why give it to someone who has to figure it all out? Lastly, transporting by brain power alone from Earth to Venus seems a bit far-fetched. Overall, there wasn't so much as a master strategy as everyone making stuff up as they went along.


Tags : ,A. E. Van Vogt,The World of Null-A,Berkley,0425018024,Science Fiction

The World of NullA A E Van Vogt 9780425018026 Books Reviews

In 1933 Polish mathematician Alfred Korzybski published a remarkable book,"Science and Sanity", available in this country through the Institute of General Semantics, Lakeville Connecticut. In it Korzybski advanced a number of controversial ideas. The most striking of which was that the Aristotelian method of understanding the world is wrong and the way to scientific advancement and a correct understanding of the universe must rely on non-Aristotelian methods (null `A'). Korzybski also maintained that human cognition was a function of balance between the cortex and thalamus sections of the human brain.

Clearly Van Vogt was familiar with Korzybski's ideas and incorporated them very entertainingly in his "null-A" themed science fiction. This book was originally published as a three part serial in John Campbell's wonderful SiFi magazine "Astounding Science Fiction" (now "Analog"). Its protagonist is Gilbert Gosseyn (the man with `two brains') is a dedicated non-Aristotelian who is central to protecting the Earth, its null-A paradise, Venus and its null-A world view from a ruthless inter Galactic Empire bent on incorporating the solar system into its empire and destroying the null-A mindset. In the end the Aristotelian way of doing business is defeated by the logic and sanity of the null-A forces.

Now this book was written in the 1940s so much of its terminology will undoubtedly appear quaint to 21st Century readers ("atomic torpedoes"). However underlying this is a very serious and very interesting argument in favor of Korzybski's ideas on both science and sanity. In a very real sense Van Vogt was concerned with ideas much more than gadgets in most of his work and certainly this was the case in this book. It is still a fun read that might even precipitate some serious thought.
A E van Vogt's The World of Null-A, although regarded as a sci-fi classic from the pre-Hugo award era, fails to follow through in its execution. The "world" is a future where humanity has advanced to a society that offers essentially a mediocre utopia to the population of Earth which is overseen by a master computer. Null-A refers to non-Aristotelian logic that is a type of fuzzy logic that "gestalts" decisions. Human who demonstrate this ability are rewarded with relocation to Venus which provides for an upgrade to utopia. The "hero" is an individual without past memories and thrust into the middle of a conspiracy of unknown dimensions. At this point, everything goes off the rails. His false memory of a dead wife turns out to the daughter of the Earth's president who he runs into one night seemingly homeless like him. He then ends up dead, but is reanimated on Venus getting help from the master computer there that basically just tells him to be captured again. Alliances are constantly shifting and unclear throughout. Finally, a human extrasolar power is intent on invading and conquering both Earth and Venus.

The basic problem with the story is the lack of any context. Little about the society, how it functions and how it came to be is provided. The desirability of migrating to Venus is never articulated and other than living in tree roots, seems to offer little. The motives of various player around the hero, the president, his daughter, their collaborators who seem to be playing both sides of the fence, a psychiatrist, and a random hotel worker are never adequately outlined. Finally, the rationale for an invasion (why take over Venus?) or the background on how advanced humans capable of mounting an interstellar invasion even came to exist is never described.

The various sci-fi contrivances are a bit strained. While the master computer running everything seems reasonable at least, the mind shifting trick from body to body seems like it would have been of general interest, rather than developed specifically for a conspiracy. The extra brain bit was also billed as a one-off. If it really was as powerful as advertised, why give it to someone who has to figure it all out? Lastly, transporting by brain power alone from Earth to Venus seems a bit far-fetched. Overall, there wasn't so much as a master strategy as everyone making stuff up as they went along.