My Goodreads and Amazon review of Playground by Richard Powers (Rated 5) – Tug-of-War. In Playground by Richard Powers, the characters choose their fields of play and master their respective games. The fields inhabit three domains. At the lowest level, oceanographer Evelyn Beaulieu cavorts with teeming sea creatures. In the middle tier, land-dwelling philosopher Rafi Young writes while artist Ina Aroita makes monumental sculptures with trash washed up on the shore. Hovering above, in the cloud, Todd Keane develops the ultimate game — the book’s title — with the planet’s most sophisticated AI. Yet the novel is far from playful. No environment escapes the wreckage of human meddling. As a writer myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page, my primary focus is the arc of human nature. However, character development is not why one reads Powers. Rather, his interpersonal conflicts embody bigger social tensions: environmental and human degradation; discontent and death. This tug-of-war is epitomized in a decision that the Pacific island residents of Makatea must make about whether to approve a plan to develop offshore floating cities, bringing promised wealth to their impoverished home while possibly destroying its already fragile ecosystem. The plan was masterminded by Todd, creator of the ultimate AI application, Profunda. The answers Profunda offers the divided islanders raise more questions, much like advances in today’s technology generate both awe and an endless of web of further questions about its potential benefits and dangers. “Death is the mother of beauty,” Rafi quotes a long-dead philosopher. Mortality goads us to appreciate the time we have. Powers asks: If AI defeats death. does it kill beauty? Or, does the infinite game of creation play on?
A cautionary tale
Why writers read: “People without hope don’t read novels. The way to despair is to refuse to have any kind of experience, and the novel, of course, is a way to have experience.” – Flannery O’Connor
