Which book’s world would be the absolute worst to live in?
The worst book world is one that traps you inside and refuses to let you return to reality—but that is worst for you, not necessarily worst in itself. The prompt assumes a single answer. I doubt one exists.
No book world particularly pleases or frightens me. What I long for is the new heaven and new earth prophesied in Revelation.
Consider marriage: some find its book world the absolute worst, others cannot live without their better half. Isn’t life itself a book world unique to each person? Even Christians hoping for the Promised Land live earthly lives that vary widely.
Some hiding in their book world find complete security—a warless, painless paradise. Others would flee any world built on fear, violence, or the slow psychological crushing of the human spirit. Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series, for instance—a decaying, post-technological reality plagued by curses and ruthless raids—is not merely dangerous but meaningless: entropy without redemption. That is the worst kind of world, and no one would choose to face it.
Which raises the sharper question: is the real world the absolute best place to live?
As AI races ahead, warnings, threats, and worst-case predictions keep surfacing in public forums and publications. I find Singapore’s national statement, delivered by Foreign Minister Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan at the 81st UN General Assembly in New York, the most powerful—a soul-awakening call. He warned of the high risk of living in an AI-controlled world outpacing governance. If no book world is worst, perhaps the worst world is the one we are building.
Should we not then share a common goal, a shared desire, a loud voice—refusing to live in a world where AI, not humans, holds the nuclear button?
So my focus is on the cures at hand that release fears, worries, and heart-cutting aches through faith, prayer, and meditation—and on the peace and hope the Bible promises: the new heaven and new earth prophesied in Revelation. This is not escape but resistance: hope held precisely because the alternative is real.
Would you venture into this book with the new earth: “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them”? — Isaiah 11:6
