Rajaniemi tips the wink to the inspiration for this story by dedicating the story to Italo Calvino, and a quick Wikipedia Enlightenment leads the reader to his Invisible Cities novel.
Rajaniemi follows the conceit of a conversation between two people, but his characters are spaceship AIs, and their conversation around inhabitants of various planets leads to a reflection on humanity. It’s a good read, and I wonder, what this Calvino’s book being ‘structured around an interlocking pattern of numbered sections, while the length of each section’s title graphically outlines a continuously oscillating sine wave, or perhaps a city skyline’ and with Rajaniemi being one of these clever bods who knows about String Theory, whether there’s something very clever and mathematical hidden in the story.
More from ‘Reach for Infinity’ here.
