With “The Keys of the Cosmos” (North, translated by Barbara Ronca), Glenn Cooper returns to the themes that marked his debut: the weight of destiny, free will and the fascination of ancient mysteries. Mixing rhythm and archaeology, Greek mythology and the anxieties of the present, the American writer who has sold 3.5 million copies in Italy builds an adrenaline-filled thriller suspended between past and future, calling into question a new protagonist, the archaeologist David Birch.
From the mysterious mechanism of Antikythera to the underground city of Derinkuyu, passing through the era of Archimedes and the chaos of Athens, the author of books much loved by the public, such as “The Library of the Dead” and “The Damned”, guides the reader through a labyrinth of puzzles that dialogue with the challenges of artificial intelligence and with the contemporary need to give shape to what escapes control, chasing the answers to the fundamental questions of existence: “Every time we build a new machine, we we approach an increasingly subtle ethical and metaphysical boundary, as if we wanted to replicate divine power.”
In his new novel he questions the relationship between destiny and freedom. What brings you back to this topic?
«My son suggested that I return to the themes of my early days, in those pages in which everything revolved around the relationship between destiny and free will. We know, the world is full of enigmas and mysteries that we don’t know, we study our predecessors and ancient history in search of answers and inevitably, we discover that in science and spirituality there are constants that we cannot afford to forget. I love studying and I realize that knowledge is a power as great as it is dangerous, a form of magical realism that has always accompanied us.”
The novel intertwines opposite poles: spirituality and rationality, antiquity and contemporaneity. How do these elements communicate with each other?
«There are questions that have always accompanied us: to what extent do we decide freely and to what extent are we conditioned by larger forces that are beyond our control? We can embrace the mystery or fight it openly, but either way, these tensions are part of our very identity and we must embrace them in order to move forward.”
One of the focuses of the book is the ancient Antikythera Mechanism. Why did you choose it as a narrative key?
«It is the starting point from which I started to write the book. I didn’t know this mechanism just as I didn’t know Derinkuyu, the Turkish underground city where a good part of the novel takes place. Well, being able to learn these concepts, merging them with history, being able to talk about the mythology and tools of the past was pure fun that I hope I have conveyed to the reader. For all these reasons, writing is always an adventure that excites me.”
In «The Keys of the Cosmos» a new protagonist makes his debut, the archaeologist David Birch. What inspired you to return to your roots?
«To write “The Keys of the Cosmos” I had to do a lot of research on ancient Greece, astronomy and contemporary Greek politics. Furthermore, the central nucleus of the novel allowed me to return to the world of archaeology, my first passion since university. Also, David and I are from Harvard. But to my readers I say: don’t worry, Professor Cal Donovan has not disappeared, I am already working on a new novel with him.”
Technology seems to be pushing towards the triumph of the algorithm. Do you think there is still room for authentic freedom?
«Science has given us a lot, but it has also taken away our sense of destiny and limits. From this point of view, culture and reading are an antidote, since they allow us to understand that destiny and control are part of the same mechanism, and that their rewriting always depends on us, on our choices.”
In the novel, knowledge is also addressed as a philosophical tension. How would you define it?
«A sacred fire, a compass to orient us in reality. I’m honest, we will probably never fully understand the complexities of the universe, but that’s okay: what would life be without mystery?”.
What kind of changes will artificial intelligence bring to our lives?
«I believe that man will no longer be the only sentient species on Earth. The others will be different forms of artificial intelligence, equipped with the powers that, since ancient times, we have attributed to the gods.”
Meanwhile, the man-machine relationship is becoming increasingly ambiguous. Will we one day be forced to submit to the technologies we create?
«Who knows, maybe yes. Or maybe, we will rebel against our new virtual masters. I am fascinated by the fact that technology reflects our most ancient aspirations: to understand, to dominate, to create. Every time we build a new machine, we approach an ever thinner ethical and metaphysical boundary, as if we were trying to replicate divine power. Knowledge is the key to everything.”