Unsong is a book about evil. Like Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, it deals with places of unlimited suffering. It also combines Jewish Mysticism with Bay Area Tech culture, with a main character that’s a Kabbalist (software engineer), who was kicked out of one of the big tech companies for using names of god (software) in a way he’s not supposed to. Interesting in how soulless it depicts everyday software engineering as (not too far from the truth).
Open source Names of God (software)
The way UNSONG is depicted initially is as an absolute enemy. The Names of God (software) are freely distributable, yet so much is spent hunting people down who use them unauthorized. Malia Ngo’s character sheds some light on this - she’s born from evil, but wants to do good - UNSONG is perfect for her.
The Comet King - Jalaketu West
Divine duty and prophecy - his story relates to determinism.
Uriel
Probably my favorite character - a pure being of rationalism.
Love, Hate, and Indifference
The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference? It’s like -1 0 and 1 - ternary not binary. The opposite of song is not silence, but unsong.
Acher and eating meat
The story of Acher - why are some evil things acceptable and some non-evil things unacceptable? Or more relevant to today, why are some evil things completely acceptable, when some similarly evil things are completely unacceptable?
The book of Job
The core of the book’s grappling with Theodicy. Why does God put Job through all of this stuff only for him to not understand? Is the idea of unknowability the core of it?
The grandness of the ending - the entropy of evil and good - there must be difference to have more overall goodness. There’s only one way to have singular goodness.