Father Dure was a disciple of Teilhard de Chardin, a controversial Jesuit priest from the XX century. Teilhard’s God is not a mystical concept, but a cosmic one. He proposed that the cosmic body of Christ "extends throughout the universe and comprises all things that attain their fulfillment in Christ .. the Body of Christ is the one single thing that is being made in creation."This process of God expansion and evolution will continue, it is proposed, until its full realization at Omega, a point which coincides with the fully realized Christ. It is at this point that God will be "all in all”.

Teilhard’s God

The novel picks up where it left off, with the pilgrims entering the Shrike Valley. They find themselves caught up in a war between the Hegemony and the Ousters, a group of humans who have rejected the Hegemony's rule.The AI plays a major role in this novel as it’s goals and relationship with humanity are explored in depth. They had something to do with the Shrike and the upcoming war. Hint hint!

The Story of the Fall of Hyperion

Mobs have passions, not brains.

Sol understood at the end, why Abraham had agreed to sacrifice Isaac, his son, when the Lord commanded him to do so. It was not obedience. It was not even to put the love of God above the love of his son. Abraham was testing God. By denying the sacrifice at the last moment, by stopping the knife, God had earned the right—in Abraham’s eyes and the hearts of his offspring—to become the God of Abraham.

The Abraham Problem Resolved

As the AI was working on becoming God, the humans are struggling with accepting one:<ul><li>Sol, a Jew scholar who's daughter is aging backwards, rejected him for cruelty and demand for obedience: “Abraham’s path of obedience can no longer be followed, even if there is a God demanding such obedience.”</li><li>Father Dure, a Jesuit priest who was revived by a mysterious crucifix, was struggling with God as a clever algorithm. Not accepting that some things are beyond intellect.</li></ul>

Accepting God vs Creating God

The Technocore is the sentient AI civilisation in Hyperion. Less is known about its purpose but we know there are 3 factions: <ul><li>The Stables - wishing to keep the human-machine symbiosis</li><li>The Volatiles - wishing to end humankind</li><li>The Ultimates - wishing to transcend towards an Ultimate Intelligence</li></ul>The Ultimates are the most forward looking. Their goal is to evolve into Ultimate God-like being, existing outside space-time.

The Goals of the AI

“Are we so sure that Christ always knew what to do next? He knew what had to be done. It is not always the same as knowing what to do.”

“Declaring war against the AI Technocore would be like … like a fish declaring war against water”

As the Technocore AI civilisation was evolving into an ultimate form it met the Human Ultimate. It met God. What they realized is that God’s trinity is made of:<ol><li>the Void Which Binds</li><li>Intellect</li><li>Empathy</li></ol>The machines did not poses Empathy so:<ul><li>they tried to bait the Human God using empathy as its weakness. This is the role of the Shrike.</li><li>they worked on developing empathy by trying to understand poetry. It's why they focused on reviving John Keats. To understand the human spirit through poetry.</li></ul>

The Ultimate Fight between the AI God and Human God

Took me a month of thinking about the themes of this book to write some ideas down. Very complex plot with lots of religious themes. Loved it. 

“State of the art science fiction . . . a landmark novel.”—Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine Now, in the stunning continuation of the epic adventure begun in Hyperion, Simmons returns us to a far future resplendent with drama and invention. On the world of Hyperion, the mysterious Time Tombs are opening. And the secrets they contain mean that nothing—nothing anywhere in the universe—will ever be the same. Praise for The Fall of Hyperion “One of the finest SF novels published in the past few years.”—Science Fiction Eye  “A magnificently original blend of themes and styles.”—The Denver Post

MONSIGNOR EDOUARD TALKING TO FATHER DURE

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