The Fall of Hyperion

Simmons, Dan. The Fall of Hyperion. New York: Doubleday-Foundation, 1990. Sequel to Hyperion, or, more exactly, the second volume of a two-volume novel, developing and resolving issues from the first volume. Volume 2 of the Hyperion series (4 books as of July 2017; see also Endymion and The Rise of Endymion.

A treasure-trove of variations on the themes of the mechanical god—more exactly cybernetic gods and messiahs (and some serious theological speculation)—high-tech and cyberspace worlds bordering on the magical, computer take-over threats by highly advanced AIs, and relationships among the organic, arachnid, cybernetic, monstrous, human, and divine. See for the threat of a literalization of the figure of speech of humans' enslaved to our technological conveniences, humans penetrated literally and virtually (as in VR) by cybernetic devices, and for the threat and promise of competing human and machine attempts to make immediate the evolutionary theology of Teilhard de Chardin (alluded to passim and mentioned explicitly on 337; see also 484, for "The new Pope, His Holiness Teilhard I" [chs. 36 and 44]). For a concentration of themes, see chs. 43-44, with references to "spiders in the web" for AI's (450), "Man god and machine god" (451), "god machine" (479), and the possibility that "Sometimes […] dreams are all that separate us" humans "from machines (474). See ch. 33 for a "Grand Inquisitor Scene" with a human and John Keats "cybrid" figuratively flying in the cyberspace of "the megasphere" and beyond—analogized with cities and ecologies of data—and meeting an AI who will reveal secrets and great mysteries.

TEXTUAL WARNING: If using the 1990 Doubleday edition, be sure there's an errata sheet giving p. 305. (RDE, 2006)