The Finite Order
The Finite Order Cover - Painting by Ruta Rose
I’m back in the blog saddle after a two-year absence. Early in 2020, D’Lane and I responded to the pandemic by switching our psychology practice to telehealth only. After debating retirement, we instead moved our telehealth practice into our home in late 2021, where we practice two or three days a week, balancing our enjoyment of psychotherapy with other pursuits. During the pandemic, our travel and live music/dancing evaporated, while landscaping, boating, cooking at home, and other less social activities accelerated. Max vaxed, we recently returned to our travelling ways with a three-week trip to Scandinavia. We heartily recommend Stockholm, Oslo, and Copenhagen for every bucket list!
Those “other pursuits” include the Amazon publication this week of The Finite Order, a novel I have been writing, shelving, and renewing for three decades. Let me set the stage. The year is 2050. Robotics, nanotech, and the digital transformation of society have advanced at warp speed. But their complexity breeds confusion even amongst the educated, yielding a resounding call for simplification. His Holiness Pope John XXIV meets with anxious papal statisticians. They note the sharp escalation of mortal and venial sins and crime in recent decades. Ominously, they predict critical mass, the imminent descent of human civilization into chaos. The pope prays to the Almighty Lord for less complexity in the universe. His prayers are immediately answered; God issues the Finite Order.
In Milwaukee, Dylan is a misplaced atheist exploring spiritual alternatives at a Catholic university. He detests the big lies of religion, but feels a spiritual void, and is searching. On the Golden Eagle Hockey Team, he befriends Paul, a candidate for the priesthood, whose “One God, Many Faces” article in the Marquette Tribune is unintentionally provoking the archdiocese. Off the ice, Paul and Dylan joust over reality and religion, share their struggles with girlfriends, and seek common ground. Roxi is a 49Q Maxwell robot, created in the era in which robots are simulating human appearance and sexuality, while developing individual identity, self-determination, and group consciousness. Then she runs into Dylan.
Elsewhere, on Justicia, the supernatural planet harboring both Heaven and Hell, God notices a decline in his mighty powers, dreadfully realizing the infinite implications of his Finite Order. Further south, at the sweltering equator, Satan has lost some speed off his fastball in the Hades Softball League, but he is excited by news that God’s omnipotence may have been compromised. Satan realizes that he has a few billion psychopaths in his camp, many with military experience and a fuse to light. A collision is imminent. Dylan, Paul, and Roxi each face choices, forging their own futures as the world turns upside down during the First Supernatural War.
Along the way, we find Sergeant Daniels of the Milwaukee Police Department hot on the trail of renegade, noncompliant robots. As an atheist alien, Dylan struggles to succeed with Catholic girls, and clashes with his dogmatic Catholic father. Paul attempts to reconcile his priestly aspirations with his romantic commitment, and he asks if religious wars could be ended if all faiths could agree on a single God with many cultural faces. How can women compete with the sexual allure being built into female robots, and how do the bots cope with tinkering by their male coders? What happens when fundamentalist Christians and Muslims unexpectedly unite to form the United Fundamentalist Church? What could Santa Claus have possibly done to be condemned to Hell? What happens to the suicide bomber when he comes to collect his 72 virgins in Paradise? Can Casanova possibly conquer the most powerful she-devil in the land, operating from his posh pad in Hell? Donning satanic black wings, can Hermann Goring teach his impulsive Fuhrer to fly, and what could Adolf do with nukes hijacked from the Putin Nuclear Facility in Siberia? Could Donald Trump build a bingo empire in Suburban Heaven? Can the Trinity cope with existential anxiety and diluted omnipotence? Does the end justify the means when Saint Peter and the Archangel Michael are trying to save the supernatural world? Will the deployment of robots make the difference for the Army from Hell? Can atheists be moral, or is morality anchored in God’s love and wisdom? Are there boundaries to be set on artificial intelligence? Can robots be spiritual? Questions abound as we transit the bridge connecting the natural and supernatural domains.
D’Lane and I joke that my Rorschach Inkblot Test 50 years ago contained an unusually high number of “W” responses: “whole” responses that try to incorporate all portions of the inkblot. And here I am a half-century later, completing a novel that incorporates both the natural and supernatural worlds, while investigating the options for religious, secular, and even robotic spirituality. My head is truly in the clouds, but it’s a nice view. If you care to join me, check out Edward Chandler, The Finite Order, on Amazon.