Book 23 of 26 books for 2024! I managed to sneak in one more for 2024; next year, I’m aiming for 30.

I’ve written a lot about Michael Faraday on this blog, and one of my favorite anecdotes is the conversation he had with Humphry Davy when he first accepted a job from him. Faraday, trained as a bookbinder, thought that the trades were “vicious and selfish” and that the sciences were “amiable and liberal.” Faraday told this to Davy, and recalled his response:

He smiled at my notion of the superior moral feelings of philosophic men, and said he would leave me to the experience of a few years to set me right on that matter.

The reality is that scientists can be mean and petty and science can be incredibly politicized and wander far from a noble pursuit of truth, as can humanity as a whole — even when the consequences can be catastrophic. This is largely the theme of Isaac Asimov’s classic 1972 novel The Gods Themselves. Somehow, I’ve had this book on my shelf for years and think I actually started reading it at one point but got distracted with other things: while wandering my bookshelves, I came across the long-neglected copy and decided it was time to read it. And I’m glad I did!

In the novel, humanity has discovered a new, effectively unlimited, source of energy by swapping matter with an alien universe. But when a few scientists suspect that this exchange may have unforeseen catastrophic consequences, they find that their attempts to warn people are thwarted at ever turn by human nature.

The title comes from the (translated) quote by Friedrich Schiller in his 1801 play, The Maid of Orleans: “Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.” And there is plenty of stupidity, pettiness, and selfishness to go around throughout the novel! The book consists of three parts: “Against Stupidity,” “The Gods Themselves,” and “Contend in Vain?” These were first published in magazines and later combined into one complete novel.

The book begins in a somewhat quirky way, which made me suspect that it is intended at least in part to be read satirically: the first chapter that appears is Chapter 6, which is overtly acknowledged in a footnote to not be an error: Asimov started his saga in the beginning of the story, and we are presented with the background of the story in Chapters 1-5 soon after, intermixed with “continued” parts of Chapter 6! In the background of the story, we learn that Radiochemist Frederick Hallam has discovered that the contents of a sealed glass container of Tungsten-186 appears to have been replaced. He accuses his coworker and rival Benjamin Dennison of making the switch, and the latter man dismisses him sarcastically. This leads Hallam to extensively test the sample in question, leading to the discovery that it has turned into Plutonium-186, an element that cannot exist in our universe! Already we have a scientist who is not driven to do research out of noble intentions, but out of spite; it will not be the last time. From this discovery, it is realized that this impossible element, if trade is continued, will provide an unlimited source of energy for both universes, ours and the para-universe that initiated the exchange.

The physical explanation that Asimov gives for how this works is science fiction brilliance. Most people are familiar with the principle of conservation of energy, in which energy cannot be created or destroyed. But that fails if one is talking about universes with different physical constants. In particular, the para-universe has a strong nuclear force that is, well, significantly stronger than ours. This means that Plutonium-186 is stable in their universe, but is extremely unstable in ours, and becomes a powerfully radioactive over time, as the laws of its home universe are supplanted by the laws of the transplanted universe. It emits positrons until enough protons have turned into neutrons to make it Tungsten-186 again. In the para-universe, the Tungsten is unstable, with too many neutrons, and it emits electrons until enough neutrons have turned into protons to become Plutonium-186. In this way, both universes get energetic sources. As a physicist, I was practically drooling over the cleverness of these ideas.

Curiously, this process, according to Wikipedia, was the genesis of the story, when Asimov was having a conversation with Robert Silverberg and he was asked to name an isotope. Silverberg named Plutonium-186, which Asimov noted does not exist, and Silverberg challenged him to write a story about it. It is worth noting that this back and forth mirrors, in a sense, the argument between Hallam and Dennison at the beginning of the novel!

In the book, it is realized that not only the elements, but some fundamental laws of the universe are transferred in the inter-universe cooperation: the strong force gets stronger in our universe and weaker in the para-universe. However, it is argued that this change in the fundamental physical constants is diffused through the universe and cannot have any significant effect over the entire possible span of human existence. But there are those who question this.

Physicist Peter Lamont has a grudge against Hallam, and becomes convinced that there is some fundamental flaw with the process that becomes known as the “electron pump.” He suspects that there is “no free lunch,” so to speak, and wants to communicate his concerns to those in the para-universe. In that quest, he enlists archaeologist Myron “Mike” Bronowski to attempt to bridge an impossible language gap. They finally start receiving crude and ominous messages back — but will anyone on Earth listen to them when they go against the highly revered father of the electron pump, Hallam, and the promise of infinite free energy?

And then the second part of the book starts, and we see the perspective from the side of the para-universe…

Part two of the book is quite an abrupt change, and we must learn all about a society and species completely alien to our way of thinking. This section has quite a few surprises in it as well, though the abrupt change is a little daunting to fight through at first; I suspect that this is where I put the book down the first time I read it. In part three of the book, the action returns to our universe, albeit in a very unexpected venue, and a small group of scientists race to stop the destruction of our solar system…

Throughout the book, in both universes, we see characters motivated by their own personal ambitions and grievances. Lamont is motivated by being snubbed by Hallam and his belief that Hallam is not the brilliant “inventor” of the electron pump; Hallam himself is motivated by the fear that he will be found out in this. Bronowski, notably, also is motivated to a significant extent by pettiness, as are basically all the characters in the book. The book is a refreshingly cynical look at how the ideals of science are often supplanted by very human emotions, for good and ill. The characters themselves have significant discussions of whether their scientific beliefs are motivated by their reason or their emotion, and the impact it has on their validity.

A personal anecdote: one paper that I wrote in graduate school was inspired by a senior scientist telling me that an idea I had was not possible, so I did the research to prove that it was!

The Gods Themselves is eerily prescient to modern troubles, as well. When Lamont goes to visit a senator to explain his concerns, he is strongly rebuffed by the politican:

“It is a mistake,” he said, “to suppose that the public wants the environment protected or their lives saved and that they will be grateful to any idealist who will fight for such ends. What the public wants is their own individual comfort.”

In short: tell people that they must accept a temporary inconvenience in the present to prevent great catastrophe in the future, even the near future, and they will refuse to accept the inconvenience. This is reminiscent of so many things in modern times, society’s slow acceptance of the climate crisis to its refusal to take rudimentary steps to prevent the spread of deadly pandemics.

The final third of the book, is, in my opinion, a little anticlimactic and leaves a number of open questions. Nevertheless, it does bring the saga to a satisfying conclusion; I just wish that there was a little more detail to wrap things up!

I’m glad I finally got around to reading The Gods Themselves! It is a stunningly clever novel that shows a true master of science fiction at work, and it is a compelling read. I read the whole thing in under 24 hours!