The Gods Themselves: Isaac Asimov’s Novel of Free Energy, a Parallel Universe and the Moon
Asimov conceived The Gods Themselves (1972) as an academic thriller in three parts. It raises questions about environmental sustainability and progress and, through science fiction, presents the structural model of the psyche developed by Sigmund Freud. The first part takes place on Earth, the second on a planet in the para-universe that exchanges matter with Earth, and the third on the surface of the Moon.
Author: Isaac Asimov (1920–1992)
Title: The Gods Themselves (1972)
Format: English paperback (Gollancz SF Masterworks), 288 pages
Awards: Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/0575129050 (ASIN 0575129050)
Against Stupidity
It all begins when a mediocre scientist comes across a strange isotope, plutonium-186, that should not exist under the laws of our universe. It leads to the discovery of a parallel universe where physics is slightly different. Thanks to those differences and an invention called the Electron Pump, an exchange of matter begins between the two worlds that produces clean, cheap and apparently endless energy.
The first section follows Lamont, a self-obsessed scientist, as he tries to undermine Hallam, the egotist who claims to have solved all of humanity’s energy problems. Lamont sets out to prove that the Pump will in fact destroy the Earth: the exchange will eventually cause the Sun to explode. He knows the truth, but who will listen?
The Gods Themselves
In the second section Asimov takes us to the para-universe that supplies all this free energy. On a dying planet live the ’soft ones’ and the ’hard ones’. A minority of hard ones rules the planet and runs the Pump. Each triad of soft ones consists of a Rational, a Parental and an Emotional, exactly like the ego, superego and id of Freud’s model. The Rationals study alongside the hard ones; the Parentals make sure the triad fits society’s rules and raise the young; the Emotionals are the engine of sex and instinct. Each triad produces three offspring and, once its natural work is done, becomes a new hard one.
There are long passages on the aliens’ mating habits, customs and ideas about life and death. Asimov describes a completely new world with great curiosity and fascination; for many readers, including me, this is the best part of the book.
A Line From Schiller
The title comes from a line in Friedrich Schiller’s play The Maid of Orleans: "Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain", which Asimov divides between the three parts of the book. Asimov said the novel grew from a casual remark by his fellow writer Robert Silverberg, who mentioned plutonium-186 as an example of an isotope that could not exist. Asimov took up the challenge and imagined a universe where it could. The book is also his answer to critics who complained that he never wrote convincingly about aliens or about sex: the middle section deals with both, and Asimov considered it among the best things he ever wrote.
Do They Struggle in Vain?
The third part brings us back to our universe, to a lunar colony where the fight against stupidity and the dangers of the Pump continues. The descendants of Earth’s settlers have adapted so well to the Moon that their muscles could no longer bear Earth’s gravity, and they have begun to drift away from their origins. A Moon-born intuitionist senses the coming destruction of the Sun.
Asimov builds a story of research and mystery around a complicated scientific hypothesis, and from his humanist point of view delivers a critique of uncontrolled progress and a warning for the survival of the human race. Five decades later the book has lost none of its relevance: the search for energy to feed industrial progress can bring about the twilight of the planet.
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