It is a science fiction novel written by Arthur C. Clarke in 1953. A wonderful science fiction classic. It has a story in which I found inspirations from Hegel philosophy. Childhood’s End narrates the existence of human and our end. Inside the science fiction, there is a bit of dystopia, a bit of utopia too. Is the existence of human a tragic phenomenon or are we flowing towards a consciousness above everything? The themes of humanity, aliens, and a universal supreme consciousness are impressive. Especially I could not know whether to call that theme of the single human in the universe at the end of the novel romantic or tragic.
Now I will write my thoughts a bit more detailedly. I will finish with a mini summary, the subject of the novel, and the philosophical commentary in my mind. I can say that my purpose of adding this novel to the site is also this “existential theme” it contains. Because throughout the novel, I questioned not only my own existence but also the reality of the universe. When looked from this perspective, it has a tragic story for me. It is a reality that the universal reality we live in exists in a posteriori simulation patterns. The novel, right inside this reality, presents a very emotional story. Of course, I have pushed the subject of the novel quite a lot right now, I know.
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Summary of the Novel
Actually, I had written something about this novel in the post of Science Fiction Classics That I Read And Left A Place In My Memory. Here is a mini summary.
The story starts with the arrival on Earth of an extraterrestrial species called Overlord, in a way that can be considered a turning point in human history. This arrival is peaceful, but humanity is almost taken into a circle. While these alien observers provide great contributions to scientific and technological developments, they also cause humanity to compromise on its freedom at the same time. It restricts technology by taking it under observation.
The Overlords change human and its existence in every sense. Human passes into a different consciousness state. Human, who starts wars, who sees the other as the other, and who possesses high weapons, turns into a “good boy”. While reading the novel, I could not help but question whether this is good or bad. Actually, although the Overlord is peaceful, it is also impossible to go against his judgment.
Communication with the human of Earth is provided through the supervisor named Karellen. Karellen, in the first stage, establishes a connection with the United Nations Secretary-General Stormgren. Its establishing communication with the UN in the fiction is good in terms of neutrality. If there were an America cliché saving the world, it would never be bearable.
Stormgren works in cooperation with Karellen by supporting his peaceful purposes. With the direction of the Overlords, wars are ended, nuclear weapons are eliminated, and crimes are prevented before they are yet committed. However, Karellen’s true intentions always continue to remain as a secret for Stormgren.
In time, generations change and the Overlords finally show their faces to humanity. After this stage, the technological development of humans is limited consciously; because their reaching the stars is not desired.
What is targeted in reality is human’s passing to the next stage of evolution. They will now sustain their lives not as biological entities, but as mind-based entities. The Overmind, which is a superior collective consciousness to which the Overlords are also bound, is the cosmic mind directing all this process.
Humanity has finally completed its “childhood” phase and left its place to a different form of consciousness. The classic human species remains no longer; Jan, who is the last remaining individual, gets lost inside the disappearing Solar System. Together with him, the Homo sapiens species is also erased from the stage of history. Human consciousness and existence have merged with the “Overmind”, with the soul of the universe.
The Philosophy I Understood From the Novel – Commentary and Review
While reading the novel, actually since the very beginnings I had understood that the event would turn and go around towards Hegel philosophy. Clarke narrates the end of humanity not as an “extinction”, but as individual consciousness maturing by evolving into a universal whole, that is, the ending of childhood and becoming adult. This is a very deep narrative. If you are reading the book, look from this eye.
In the novel, there is a supreme mind. Or there is a supreme existence. The existence of human, history, shortly everything flows towards this supreme entity, the Overmind, and realizes itself. Humanity at the very end turns into Geist. Hegel’s Geist becomes the Overmind here. The moment I read it, this came to my mind. I thought whether I am talking nonsense. I had a knowledge about Hegel and his philosophy at the level of philosophy 101. Truly, in many academic novel reviews, in other words professional critics were also commenting in this way. If you are reading the novel as an intellectual knowledge owner, knowing philosophy more or less, believe me you will take much pleasure.
“The purpose of history is the step by step rising of the liberating human consciousness, and at the very end its merging with the universal Absolute Mind (Geist) and finding its own integrity inside it,” says Hegel. I can say that I read this thesis in the novel. Human leaves his childish existence and merges with the universal supreme mind at the very end. Of course, it is very tragic. The desire of wanting to live forever keeps human standing. We all live knowing that we will die one day. However, human psychology and biological evolution have programmed the human brain in such a way that we desire to live continuously. Especially Jan, the last human on the earth surface of the novel, merges with the existence of “Geist” with an end resembling the ending of its hydrogen fuel of his sun and its turning into a Red Giant.
Hegelian Teleology is everywhere in the novel in my opinion. The purpose of history is to disappear in the existence of the Overmind. But this disappearing means merging oneself with a cosmic consciousness. A sorrowful novel…
A Personal Commentary
If you say from where the novel can be read, you can look here. I also loved the novel being 240 pages, I read it quickly. If you say why I added this novel to the site, my answer would be in the form of its harboring philosophy within. Especially the theme of human’s stopping wars, his becoming domesticated is very impressive. Reaching the stars and before getting out of hand, the Overmind is after catching the consciousness of humans. A meaning like life or existence is progressing layer by layer inside a universal hierarchy is also present in the novel.
I traced the track of Hegel much more. Knowing will transform us, I am sure of this. Are not all the fights in the world, the going backward in our country because of our being closed to progressing as mind and existence? We are inside a confusion perhaps because we are deprived of a Kantian “moral” law starting and ending in universal and mind. Everyone is after making the other accept their own right by force, with violence. For this reason, our development is close to zero.
Sometimes I think myself, if the representatives of Overlord came to Türkiye, they would probably issue a report of “incurable” for us. They would say “It is not suitable to merge with the existence of Zihindar – Overmind,” and they would push the button and go. Anyway, let me not dilute the subject too much.
