God in the Machine: a short story

The Nine Billion Names of God

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It is obvious that the solutions of plots too should come about as a result of the plot itself, and not from a contrivance, as in the Medea and in the passage about sailing home in the Iliad. A contrivance must be used for matters outside the drama — either previous events which are beyond human knowledge, or later ones that need to be foretold or announced. For we grant that the gods can see everything. There should be nothing improbable in the incidents; otherwise, it should be outside the tragedy, e. Aristotle praised Euripides, however, for generally ending his plays with bad fortune, which he viewed as correct in tragedy, and somewhat excused the intervention of a deity by suggesting that "astonishment" should be sought in tragic drama: Irrationalities should be referred to what people say: That is one solution, and also sometimes that it is not irrational, since it is probable that improbable things will happen.

Such a device was referred to by Horace in his Ars Poetica lines —2 , where he instructs poets that they should never resort to a "god from the machine" to resolve their plots "unless a difficulty worthy of a god's unraveling should happen" [ nec deus intersit, nisi dignus uindice nodus inciderit; nec quarta loqui persona laboret ]. Following Aristotle, Renaissance critics continued to view the deus ex machina as an inept plot device, although it continued to be employed by Renaissance dramatists. Towards the end of the 19th century, Friedrich Nietzsche criticized Euripides for making tragedy an optimistic genre via use of the device, and was highly skeptical of the "Greek cheerfulness", prompting what he viewed as the plays' "blissful delight in life".

But the new non-Dionysiac spirit is most clearly apparent in the endings of the new dramas. At the end of the old tragedies there was a sense of metaphysical conciliation without which it is impossible to imagine our taking delight in tragedy; perhaps the conciliatory tones from another world echo most purely in Oedipus at Colonus. Now, once tragedy had lost the genius of music, tragedy in the strictest sense was dead: Hence an earthly resolution for tragic dissonance was sought; the hero, having been adequately tormented by fate, won his well-earned reward in a stately marriage and tokens of divine honour.

The hero had become a gladiator, granted freedom once he had been satisfactorily flayed and scarred. Metaphysical consolation had been ousted by the deus ex machina. Nietzsche argued that the deus ex machina creates a false sense of consolation that ought not to be sought in phenomena. In Arthur Woollgar Verrall 's publication Euripides the Rationalist , he surveyed and recorded other late 19th century responses to the device. Verrall notes that critics have a dismissive response to authors who deploy the device in their writings.

He comes to the conclusion that critics feel that the deus ex machina is evidence of the author's attempt to ruin the whole of his work and prevent anyone from putting any importance on his work. However, other scholars have looked at Euripides' use of deus ex machina and described its use as an integral part of the plot designed for a specific purpose. Often Euripides' plays would begin with gods, so it is argued that it would be natural for the gods to finish the action. The conflict throughout Euripides' plays would be caused by the meddling of the gods and therefore would make sense to both the playwright and the audience of the time that the gods would resolve all conflict that they began.

This device enabled him to bring about a natural and more dignified dramatic and tragic ending. Other champions of the device believe that it can be a spectacular agent of subversion. Some 20th-century revisionist criticism suggests that deus ex machina cannot be viewed in these simplified terms, and contends that the device allows mortals to "probe" their relationship with the divine.

For example, comic effect is created in a scene in Monty Python's Life of Brian when Brian, who lives in Judea at the time of Christ , is saved from a high fall by a passing alien space ship. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

For other uses, see Deus ex machina disambiguation. Retrieved 23 Apr Mechanism and Machine Theory. Closure and Innovation in Euripidean Drama: Closure and Innovation in Euripidean Drama.

New York, New York: Themes, Works, and Wonders, Volume 1. Lord of the Flies ".

#SciFi: The God Machine (A Free Short Story From The Collective)

William Golding's Lord of the Flies. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Plotting in Chartist and Working-Class Fiction". From the Quintessence of Ibsenism to Heartbreak House ". The Greek Theatre and its Drama. The University of Chicago Press.

A Companion to Tragedy. Malden, MA and Oxford: That means you have two choices. Either continue decomposing slowly or allow us to accelerate the process for you. Please prepare to offload as much Allirium as our cargo subsection can hold. Did I finally have a good plan? The captain pulled himself closer to the console to look at the readouts. What should we expect? After a few algorithms, it would appear the diameter is There seemed to be a ripple for a moment in reality itself and then suddenly there was a huge, nearly moon shaped object filling up a large portion of space.

Mod, get everything back online! Maybe conclude all religious warfare? Directional thrusters fired all over the outside of the ship as is tipped into a lazy barrel roll and continued on a collision course with The Maineline. He tried manual corrections as Mod made as many calculated corrections as possible. I believe I can stabilize the Folding singularity; however, we will most likely crash into The Maineline before that.

I tend to fantasize a lot. Sometimes I write about it.

You just get down there and get the singularity stable before it goes black on us. He watched for a moment as the surface seemed to twist, shift, expand, and contract almost as if it was alive; however, it looked as if it were made of giant mechanical fibers. A few of the cords, at least as thick as The Maineline if not larger, moved out from the mass towards Everen Beta.

They hovered there in space, barely touching the upper atmosphere of the barren planet.

Navigation menu

Let it burn on full to steer us away from this Vent the debris into space afterwards. From what I can tell, the atmosphere, soil content, and liquid bases of Everen Beta are being altered to be more habitable for carbon-based lifeforms. It seems whatever this anomaly is, it has the ability to separate dense elements into the lower ones found in naturally occurring life.

Stabilize the singularity and get us a Folding pattern of our own.

Release details

As the captain watched, numerous ships appeared next to the moon-like object. Adil instantly recognized them as a portion of the UCE fleet.

Five cruisers Folded in around the enigma, each with the same basic but huge design. They appeared to be four equilateral triangles pressed together to make the equivalent pyramidal shape.

A blog about the impact of our most powerful technology: artifical intelligence

One of the sides had a large thruster while the other sides were covered with docking slots that could release a fleet of small, single man fighters within seconds. Adil mouthed as many curses as he could think of as all five cruisers released what seemed like every single fighter they had, roughly five thousand. Every one of them headed towards the anomaly without firing initially; however, once they got close enough, the object reacted by moving more of its cords out. Each cord acted more like a tentacle as they slapped apart the fighters or grabbed them and pulled them into the mass.

Adil covered his ears, trying to not let his eardrums burst. Just then, the giant object shot out another beam of energy to blast apart one of the cruisers. Reality once again bent, but not to the same degree as the anomaly had created. The ship reappeared at the same exact time, roughly twenty light years away in dark space.

Adil leaned back in his chair, breathing heavily. If there is a god over you fleshlings, then it absolutely hates you. I cannot but put to consideration the mechanical structure and seemingly fair plot of this book, kudos to the author. I love the extraterrestrial concept and the storyline it's interesting to say the least.

Even though the story was rather short it portrayed characters in depth. It was a compelling and well written story! Such a cute story! It was a lovely read that I'll definitely go back and re-read. Very nice plotDefinitely sticking around till the end. Great concept and very well written. The plot was so good.

But still it had some problems as grammer that i give minus points. The ending was sad. I think the main male ruler, Travor, shouldnt die. Becuz i feel the story didnt fulfilled a good ending. But thats author idea: Dear author, im looking for your next book. A really good read.

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