Welcome to Quill Quotes Book Club’s discussion of Slow Time Between the Stars by John Scalzi! We hope you enjoyed the book. Note, that this discussion covers the full book and will contain spoilers, so if you haven’t finished reading yet you may want to go back to The Far Reaches Collection Summary Page for the other book discussions.
Brooke’s Discussion
This was a good one. I liked that the AI went rogue and broke contact with humanity but still kept its main goal. I like that it didn’t become evil and want to destroy humanity but I also like that it made the choice to not interfere with other life forms. It seemed very accurate that humans could not decide what information to give the AI in the first place or at what point it’s okay to interrupt other life. Overall, 4.5 stars!
Favorite Quote
“There was no hurry. For me, now, there would never be any hurry. I was now on slow time, and in the space between the stars, slow was ideal.”
– John Scalzi, Slow Time Between the Stars
Kevin’s Thoughts
I really liked this story! It’s my favorite of the collection and I rated it 5 stars. AI traveling for us to restart humanity on other planets is a cool concept I hadn’t thought of before and makes distant stars more accessible. The concept of time between short-lived humans and an indefinite-life AI was also interesting. Humans didn’t want to wait for life to start from scratch to populate a world, instead opting to have the AI takeover at the algae stage and prevent whatever natural evolution would happen. The AI’s solution to seek out advanced lifeforms and see if they’re willing to develop and meet humans was also a good thought. With the AI’s lack of concern for time, I’d have expected it to just find a suitable planet with no life to start from. I hope we’re able to develop AI in this way for real so it keeps the general goal in mind even if it’s smarter than us and determines better ways to do things than we’d programmed for it.
“Humans yearned for the stars because, in their imagination, space was space they could use, filled with planets and moons and orbital stations large enough to be their own nations, to be traversed in the time it takes to go from one airport to another. In reality space is mostly nothing, more nothing than humans have ever comprehended or even could comprehend.”
– John Scalzi, Slow Time Between the Stars
Slow Time Between the Stars Discussion Prompts/Questions
Feel free to comment whatever thoughts and questions you have! But if you aren’t sure where to start, consider some of the prompts/questions below:
- How do you feel about AI?
- Do you think humanity should be able to interfere with any other life without their consent to ensure humanity survives no matter what?
- Were you surprised by the solution the AI came up with for humanity’s goal?
- What do you think the other lifeform the AI encountered hovering above a planet was?
- Did you read or listen to the book? Did you like the narrator?
- Share a favorite quote!
Commenting
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We hope you enjoy this discussion and join us again next week!
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