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Neothink: Superpuzzle
A tome that teaches one being how to thrive and life beyond limits.
- GenresBusiness
1210 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
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124 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 29, 2014
This book has reminded me of my training from my teacher Monty Galloway on the illusions created by humanity to limit our power, our essence.
After years upon years of trying to discover my Friday night essence, read about in other books. I have found the answer! I woke to remember my dreams for the first time in my life. I am enthused and enlivened. I have ideas for 3 books I am in the process of writing (in my head right now) and how to better present my coaching business to the world!
As a poly person who has many gay friends whom I love and cherish. This book has a distinct absence of L.G.B.T. and Poly people. The concept that one can only love one person and not have multiple deep meaningful relations I found disconcerting.
If I could count off a half star less for these two issue I would. Neothink: Super puzzle remains one of my favorite books of my life. I shall reread it even during the self assigned 100 book challenge.
After years upon years of trying to discover my Friday night essence, read about in other books. I have found the answer! I woke to remember my dreams for the first time in my life. I am enthused and enlivened. I have ideas for 3 books I am in the process of writing (in my head right now) and how to better present my coaching business to the world!
As a poly person who has many gay friends whom I love and cherish. This book has a distinct absence of L.G.B.T. and Poly people. The concept that one can only love one person and not have multiple deep meaningful relations I found disconcerting.
If I could count off a half star less for these two issue I would. Neothink: Super puzzle remains one of my favorite books of my life. I shall reread it even during the self assigned 100 book challenge.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 17, 2014
While some parts of Hamilton's book Neothink: Superpuzzle get very repetitious and tedious, and I am not entirely convinced that he has captured real human psychology very well in his book sometimes, Hamilton introduces a lot of great ideas, many also championed by Ayn Rand. However, hamilton presents these ideas in a far less confrontational and far more approachable manner. I really liked his model for education, though I think he and Rand and many other reformational thinkers underestimate the capacity of adults for education. I love Hamilton's educational model, but it need not be applied only towards children. Imagine what the world would be like if adults could do adult-education modules along the same lines as Hamilton's 12 fictional children enjoyed. Still, ideological debates aside, Neothink was a good book, well worth reading, and especially for anyone still ruminating over Ayn Rand's books and ideas.
July 9, 2020
A Neo-Tech fantasy, and an example of how the human race might save itself.
This is a book whose ratings tend to be either 1 star or 5 stars, due to the topic.
Neo-Tech/SOS/Neothink is an idea that has undergone several changes in name over the decades; I will use the term Neo-Tech (NT), because that's what it was when I first found out about it. I was in graduate school in the late 1990s and got God-Man somehow. I sent in an order for another one of their books and never heard from them again. God-Man didn't seem to be written in a way that appealed to me; it promised all sorts of wonderful things but was short on the details. (Basically, when backed in the corner, an explanation like "It just will happen" came up.) Over the years, I've bought other NT books at used book stores, and about a week ago, I gave Superpuzzle a whirl.
Superpuzzle is provided as "Faction", which is fact presented in the form of fiction. It describes how a teacher provides a "new way" to teach students: by letting them look for the fundamental truth behind illusions that have cropped up. After a year of teaching, the teacher is forced out of the country and loses contact with her students until "Jake" shows up and reunites the group (which is known simply as The Group). Once reunited, they tackle the problems of society using NT principles (especially the idea of letting honest businessmen produce products that society actually needs). One becomes President, strips the government down to a purely protective role, and this allows technology and medicine to advance rapidly, to the point where nobody dies any more, and dead people can actually be brought back to life. The illusions of religion fall away, and a new faith is created. The human race also discovers that Consciousness has shaped the universe so that this can happen, and at the very end of the book, a spaceship is launched to rescue the sole survivor of a civilization that took the other path and nuked themselves.
This is a good introduction to the principles of NT, which are similar to those of Objectivism. It calls for businesses that only produce things that people consider valuable. It calls for false experts to get out of the way of progress. It calls for rescuing Consciousness in any form, because that is the most valuable part of the universe. It provides everyone with a feeling of Supreme Love, and introduces us to the conscious beings that created our universe (called Zons). Even though the model for this society is capitalism, the end result looks like Karl Marx's utopia, where everyone creates what they want, and everyone works together.
It is optimistic in places, a bit too optimistic. For instance, there are two or three attempts on the lives of The Group, during the brief Presidency of a Group member. The religious community (other than a few zealots) accept the new faith without question. The fact that death is conquered, especially so quickly, also seems too good to be true, and the physics of the universe are questionable.
It is repetitious in others; we see the same concepts and phrases coming up over and over again. In particular, the idea of "value production" and "value creation" come up in many places which are not in the context of business. However, "business" might be better described as "collaboration".
One of the most unlikely occurrences is the episode with the survivor. The signal he sends out is written in a language similar to English. (How convenient!) This survivor also follows the principles of NT and uses terms like "anticivilization". And, evidently, lives in an environment just like ours.
There are a few things which I would consider to be inconsistencies. For instance, the model of societies is that there will be value producers and value destroyers, and eventually the value destroyers will be driven out of society. The problem is with "eventually"; it is possible for value destroyers to stick around long enough to completely ruin life for the rest of society. It seems like the EPA would be a way to weed out products that produce excess pollution, but the EPA is one of the first parts of the government that are removed.
Also, there needs to be some independent, central authority or data bank that tells you that company X's products are more dangerous than company Y's similar product, to sort through all the advertisement that X and Y put out.
Back on our planet, I've been thinking things over in the past few decades independently of NT, and some of the conclusions I come to parallel those of NT. For instance, the Theory of Evolution is incomplete. Evolution alone cannot account for the variety of life, or consciousness (and things related to consciousness: music, humor, etc.); there must be some creative "force" acting in the world.
If we accept that Consciousness is a fundamental part of our universe, then some things do make sense; conscious life would be the most valuable part of the universe, and any creators of the universe would try to keep it, and may even set up laws of physics so that consciousness can survive after death. This all seems plausible to me, outside the context of business.
The idea that we ourselves can create universes of our own is a point brought up in Lee Smolin's _Time Reborn_ (Chapter 11, for instance).
This is a book whose ratings tend to be either 1 star or 5 stars, due to the topic.
Neo-Tech/SOS/Neothink is an idea that has undergone several changes in name over the decades; I will use the term Neo-Tech (NT), because that's what it was when I first found out about it. I was in graduate school in the late 1990s and got God-Man somehow. I sent in an order for another one of their books and never heard from them again. God-Man didn't seem to be written in a way that appealed to me; it promised all sorts of wonderful things but was short on the details. (Basically, when backed in the corner, an explanation like "It just will happen" came up.) Over the years, I've bought other NT books at used book stores, and about a week ago, I gave Superpuzzle a whirl.
Superpuzzle is provided as "Faction", which is fact presented in the form of fiction. It describes how a teacher provides a "new way" to teach students: by letting them look for the fundamental truth behind illusions that have cropped up. After a year of teaching, the teacher is forced out of the country and loses contact with her students until "Jake" shows up and reunites the group (which is known simply as The Group). Once reunited, they tackle the problems of society using NT principles (especially the idea of letting honest businessmen produce products that society actually needs). One becomes President, strips the government down to a purely protective role, and this allows technology and medicine to advance rapidly, to the point where nobody dies any more, and dead people can actually be brought back to life. The illusions of religion fall away, and a new faith is created. The human race also discovers that Consciousness has shaped the universe so that this can happen, and at the very end of the book, a spaceship is launched to rescue the sole survivor of a civilization that took the other path and nuked themselves.
This is a good introduction to the principles of NT, which are similar to those of Objectivism. It calls for businesses that only produce things that people consider valuable. It calls for false experts to get out of the way of progress. It calls for rescuing Consciousness in any form, because that is the most valuable part of the universe. It provides everyone with a feeling of Supreme Love, and introduces us to the conscious beings that created our universe (called Zons). Even though the model for this society is capitalism, the end result looks like Karl Marx's utopia, where everyone creates what they want, and everyone works together.
It is optimistic in places, a bit too optimistic. For instance, there are two or three attempts on the lives of The Group, during the brief Presidency of a Group member. The religious community (other than a few zealots) accept the new faith without question. The fact that death is conquered, especially so quickly, also seems too good to be true, and the physics of the universe are questionable.
It is repetitious in others; we see the same concepts and phrases coming up over and over again. In particular, the idea of "value production" and "value creation" come up in many places which are not in the context of business. However, "business" might be better described as "collaboration".
One of the most unlikely occurrences is the episode with the survivor. The signal he sends out is written in a language similar to English. (How convenient!) This survivor also follows the principles of NT and uses terms like "anticivilization". And, evidently, lives in an environment just like ours.
There are a few things which I would consider to be inconsistencies. For instance, the model of societies is that there will be value producers and value destroyers, and eventually the value destroyers will be driven out of society. The problem is with "eventually"; it is possible for value destroyers to stick around long enough to completely ruin life for the rest of society. It seems like the EPA would be a way to weed out products that produce excess pollution, but the EPA is one of the first parts of the government that are removed.
Also, there needs to be some independent, central authority or data bank that tells you that company X's products are more dangerous than company Y's similar product, to sort through all the advertisement that X and Y put out.
Back on our planet, I've been thinking things over in the past few decades independently of NT, and some of the conclusions I come to parallel those of NT. For instance, the Theory of Evolution is incomplete. Evolution alone cannot account for the variety of life, or consciousness (and things related to consciousness: music, humor, etc.); there must be some creative "force" acting in the world.
If we accept that Consciousness is a fundamental part of our universe, then some things do make sense; conscious life would be the most valuable part of the universe, and any creators of the universe would try to keep it, and may even set up laws of physics so that consciousness can survive after death. This all seems plausible to me, outside the context of business.
The idea that we ourselves can create universes of our own is a point brought up in Lee Smolin's _Time Reborn_ (Chapter 11, for instance).
June 15, 2022
This is a message to my future self.
This novel has made me feel all types of emotions I have never felt before.
It has taken my mind from the anti-civilization to the civilization of the universe which is the revelation chapter of the bible. a world where everyone lives with supreme love and honesty. There is no more death because everyone is a value creator and people are so happy and in love that they desire to live forever and its why the human race created the technology to cure aging and eradicate catastrophic death.
You will reawaken your inner child of the past if you lost your child like essence to help you discover the life you were meant to live as a value creator.
The reason for living is happiness and happiness comes from creating values. We are the happiest when we are creating.
ambition is earning a living doing what we love.
I recommend you read this every January to keep your mind in the Neothink Mentality
This novel has made me feel all types of emotions I have never felt before.
It has taken my mind from the anti-civilization to the civilization of the universe which is the revelation chapter of the bible. a world where everyone lives with supreme love and honesty. There is no more death because everyone is a value creator and people are so happy and in love that they desire to live forever and its why the human race created the technology to cure aging and eradicate catastrophic death.
You will reawaken your inner child of the past if you lost your child like essence to help you discover the life you were meant to live as a value creator.
The reason for living is happiness and happiness comes from creating values. We are the happiest when we are creating.
ambition is earning a living doing what we love.
I recommend you read this every January to keep your mind in the Neothink Mentality
April 22, 2025
10/10 read
At first, SuperPuzzle hits you with ideas that make you think. It slowly turns into something deeper about life success and seeing the world in a whole new way.
It’s one of those books you feel more than just read. If you're into philosophical journey or want something different from the usual self-help stuff—this is worth picking up.
One of the most unique books I’ve ever read.
At first, SuperPuzzle hits you with ideas that make you think. It slowly turns into something deeper about life success and seeing the world in a whole new way.
It’s one of those books you feel more than just read. If you're into philosophical journey or want something different from the usual self-help stuff—this is worth picking up.
One of the most unique books I’ve ever read.
October 21, 2020
The author posits and suggests a new way of thinking through the characters in the story he wrote.
June 21, 2023
i really liked the book
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews