Continuing with my “Atlantis Year”, this Christmas I read “The Codex of Atlantis”, number 1 in sales in the United States and Italy (according to the publishers in Spain). Just in case, the publishers have published it in the Thrillers collection instead of in the Science Fiction collection, which is where it really should be, I imagine to see if the sales figures of other countries are emulated. (Will they manage to do it? I think they are already on the 5th edition).
The book is interesting and well written, for escapist reading.
In terms of theories about Atlantis, it is quite original. It is based on the premise that the Atlanteans were an advanced society, with knowledge beyond that of our time in fields such as nanotechnology, conductivity, physical states, etc. Their constructions were on a planetary scale and some remains of them still exist. As in Plato's theories, they were destroyed by the Flood... although in the book we see that the Flood is the consequence of a catastrophe at the level of the Solar System, which may happen again.
According to the book's thesis, all the monuments of antiquity are connected and are actually part of a planetary machine, capable of saving or condemning humanity. The task of the protagonists is to try to make the former the case, rather than the total annihilation of the human species.
…And they succeed, although just barely.
As a curiosity, it is worth mentioning that at one point in the book, when talking about the biological synchronisation of jellyfish banks, the author takes the opportunity to explain Resonance and has one of the protagonists explain how Huygens, in 1660, while sick in bed, realised that the pendulums of two of his clocks oscillated at the same time when the clocks were brought together. If they moved, causing them to lose rhythm, they would soon move in a coordinated manner again. If the clocks were separated, they would not be synchronised.
This reminded me of a demonstration video of this same effect, but this time, illustrating the tuning of 3 metronomes.
This approximation tuning is the same as that which governs the movements of groups of animals: groups of fireflies, flocks of birds changing direction, schools of fish, etc.
I like finding non-academic books that take advantage of the opportunity to spread science!
