The Holy Machine

Work Title: The Holy Machine
Medium: Novel
Episode Title:
Year: 2004
Writer(s): Chris Beckett
"Original" Writer: Yes Own work?: No
Summary:

The Holy Machine (2004) (novel) By Chris Beckett; "A book that has it all love, sex, mind, matter, body, soul, religion, and science ... / "In the world described in The Holy Machine," started Beckett, "there has been a massive upsurge of anti-science religious fundamentalism across the globe. Scientists fleeing from persecution have set up their own city-state in the Balkans called Illyria and it is here that the story begins. In the area around Illyria - the 'Outlands' - various small theocratic states have formed. They all hate Illyria but are too weak to challenge it, and they're prone to fighting each other instead. / "One thing everyone in the Outlands abhors is robots, but in Illyria humanoid robots are regarded as safer and more reliable for doing the dirty work than the alternative - migrants from the Outlands. The difficulty is that robots have a habit of developing minds of their own and becoming as unreliable as humans. / "In the Outlands, robots are routinely lynched. But gradually a strange new religion emerges in Dalmatia whose prophet is (allegedly) a robot. / "George is by profession a translator. His parents were both scientists but his father died some years before the story begins. His mother is a refugee from America, traumatised by persecution there. Ruth is terrified of life generally and retreats as much as possible into a virtual reality world called SenSpace. / "George also begins the story as a very cowed and isolated individual who takes solace in the arms of a 'syntec', a kind of robot prostitute, called Lucy. One day he realises that Lucy has, in some way, 'come alive'." / There are clearly two points of view being examined in The Holy Machine - science and religion. "Yes," Beckett said, "intolerant fundamentalist religion is pitched against an intolerant, narrow reductionistic kind of science. I'm a rationalist by nature and I'm at home with science, but I understand the pull of religion and the longing for magic and mystery and meaning. I was quite at home with both sides of this (that's the nice thing about writing fiction: you can take contradictory positions) and tried to explore some of the ground in between though the holy machine itself. But in a way we are all holy machines, trying make sense of the fact that we are physical, material beings but also possess this strange awakeness which religious people call a 'soul'. / "Mind and matter, body and soul, are also themes of this book, and I explore many permutations: the sentient robot, the disembodied world of SenSpace and remote-controlled robots called Vehicles which allow a person to walk in the streets while simultaneously being safe in their own home. / "Another important theme is sex and love: the fact that our attraction to others is based both on material, physical things and on non-physical things, and the way we get confused about where one begins and the other ends. This for me is an instance of the way that we get confused about body and soul. ..." (from http://www.thealienonline.net/ao_030.asp?tid=1&scid=1&iid=2215)

Era/Year of Portrayal: distant_future
Distinctive characteristics of the world in portrayal:

A series of civil war, between the religious and the not religous took place a generation ago. Now, all countires are governed some form of a theocracy, including America, and returned to the midevil times, in terms of technology. All technology has been fogotten, except in the terrirotory of Illyria, where all the scientists have been exiled to and settled.

Technology

  • Name of portrayed presence-evoking technology: SenSpace
  • Description of the technology: SenSpace is a highly refined virtual reality, very vivid and real. The user is in a special suit and helmet, suspended in a room by wires. Once in SenSpace, a user could choose to hire a vehicle, a robot, the user would contorl in SenSpace while the vehicle is outside, in the real world. SenSpace is very vivid and seems very real.
  • Nature of task or activity: Everything/anything can be done in SenSpace.
  • Performance of the Technology: Generally, very well. There are a few glitches, but not that frequently or big.
  • Description of creator(s): unknown - but definitely Illariyan scientists.
  • Major goal(s) of creator(s): i would assume for entertainment, although that's not made clear in the story.
  • Description of users of technology: everyone can use SenSpace. Ruth, a major character, has a SenSpace hook up in her apartment, although workers/proletariot use SenSpace arcades.
  • Type(s) of presence experience in the portrayal: both
  • Description of presence experience: A world where everything is of the users design. There is a virtual city, where everyone can have thier own house, designed to their specifications, if he/she wants. There are also 'extras', virtual people created for ambiance, to add to the vivid quality. Additionally, there are virtual people, operated by someone at SenSpace headquarters, who become friends with the users.
  • User awareness of technology during experience: Yes.
  • Valence of experience: They generally find it very pleasant, although after Ruth can only live in SenSpace, she wants out.
  • Specific responses: N/A
Long-term consequences:

The long term consequences are negative. Ruth only has contact with virtual people and the virtual world. She becomes bored with it, but cannot go back to reality due to medical reasons. She has been altered to only be able to exist in SenSpace. Therefore, she chooses death over living more years in SenSpace.

Other:

This book also has many robots in it - another form of presence. In this book, as typically in others, the robot featured is a beautiful prostitute robot.

Coder name: Amanda Scheiner
Coder email: amandags@temple.edu
Coder affiliation: Temple University