(i) In the Chronos, en route to Saturn, Scobie of necessity screens most of what he wants to read from the data banks but also has a few old books on a shelf, including, despite his agnosticism, an eighteenth century family Bible and also a signed copy of a modern work. See the link.
(ii) The narrator of "The Problem of Pain" takes a "reel" of the Bible with him wherever he goes:
"...for the grandeur of its language if nothing else..."
-Poul Anderson, "The Problem of Pain" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 103-134 AT p. 103.
(iii) In Harvest The Fire, Jesse Nicol meets an AI reproduction of Jorge Luis Borges who signs and gives him a copy of El libro de arena although there is no book in Nicol's hand when he leaves the AI machine. A more creative AI technology would have been able to print the book with a facsimile signature on the title page.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
That 18th century Bible was either the Anglican AV or the Catholic Douai-Reims-Challoner, if Scobie was of Catholic origins. And I can think of a few other hard copy books I would have on that shelf. One being Sayers' translation of Dante's DIVINE COMEDY and another being Kipling's collected poems. If you could have five or six hard copy books on the "Chronos," what would they be?
I like that suggestion you made, that a THOROUGHGOING AI program would have printed out a hard copy of Borges' book with his facsimile signature. I'm a bit surprised Anderson did not think of that!
And it might be more accurate to say Jesse Nicol met a "reconstruction" of Jorge Luis Borges, not a "reproduction." The AI "constructed" its version of Borges from what was known of him in its data banks.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I would not need hard copies if everything was on-line.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I know. But I prefer my books to be hard copy. I feel more comfortable that way. Even Old Nick has been mentioned as having many of his books in "codex" form. And in a ship like the "Chronos," I would like to have a FEW hard copy books.
Ad astra! Sean
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