With this in mind, an Anderson fan might notice the following sentence:
"A small night wind rose up outside and moaned around the building, giving an extra sweetness, an extra warmth, even a certain friendship to what was no more than an act of physical passion."
-Ian Fleming, On Her Majesty's Secret Service (London, 1965), 14, p. 127.
We know that James Bond has sex but do not expect the wind to participate as it might in an Anderson narrative.
That has to be it for tonight but tomorrow there will be a contrast between the significance of "stars" in a Cities In Flight novel by James Blish and in a Dominic Flandry novel by Poul Anderson.
Wind and stars. Good night.
14 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
That settles it! I will reread some of the Bond books after I finish Ben Bova's SAM GUNN, UNLIMITED.
Ad astra! Sean
Hello!
My name is Vincent L. Diaz, a retired California Driving Instructor and now an aspiring Voice Actor on FIVERR. But more importantly, a devoted fan of Paul Anderson. Recently, I came across your page on Poal Anderson Appreciation. After a cursory scan of the site I understand that to fully appreciate the legacy of Poal Anderson I will have a lot of reading ahead of me!
Of prime importance to me personally is one of his early works, Brain Wave. The story has been a source of constant fascination for me for decades. I remember a chilling quote from one of his characters in the story, the Physicist Peter Cornith.
The scene was a hastily called meeting with his friends, at Corinth's home. They were all commenting on the extraordinary and frightening experiences everyone was undergoing, Cornith said: the “change” is even accelerating. In a matter of weeks we'll all have IQ's of 400 or more. At that point it will not be intelligence as we know it. It will be …........something else! ' “.
I've read some comments regarding the circumstances around the writing and publishing of Brain Wave; that Anderson was under some sort of pressure. The following is a quote from Wikipedia:
“Some have argued that the book is too short, which might have been a result of editor pressure at the time. For example, Thomas M. Wagner writes: "the book does feel somewhat rushed, as well as heavily edited, and I felt there was more Anderson was wanting to tell me,,,,,,,,."
I've always wondered whether Poal Anderson would have been open to allowing some sort of fan fiction based on this story? The prime example that comes to mind is the voluminous output that resulted when Eric Flint allowed and encouraged his fans to write short stores and entire novels based on his 1632 series.
As an aspiring writer I wonder whether the Estate of Poal Anderson might be open to such an arrangement as Eric Flint agreed to?
VINCENT L DIAZ
(submitted on February 18th, 2021)
Welcome, Vincent.
You will have to address that last question to the Estate!
BRAIN WAVE is about a subject that I regard as very important: a change in human consciousness. The idea that PA might have had even more to say on the matter is staggering.
Paul.
Kaor and welcome, Vincent!
I do agree that BRAIN WAVE is one of Anderson's most important earlier works. But I would argue that he surpassed that early work with many other touching on some of the themes found in it. The that seems most clearly applicable is GENESIS, written near the end of Anderson's life. And I would suggest reading the four HARVEST OF STARS books as well.
Ad astra! Sean
Greetings, Vince1
TO: Sean
Thank you for your response. I never read GENESES. Will get to it ASAP. I read the Harvest of Stars books years ago, but I don't recall the subject of human consciousness, as related to in Brain Wave, being brought up in those novels.
I certainly could be wrong. I do remember the constant struggle against the world encompassing AI, as we would call it today, controlling and strangling human freedom.
There is of course Anderson's writing about uploading and downloading human consciousness, something that has been copied in several movies, TV plots: (Outer Limits, Star Trek, etc) and recently the Netflix series, Altered Carbon
What even more comes to mind is is Jonhny Depp in Transcendence (2014), where he played a
computer genius and entrepreneur determined to cheat death, at the end transferring his consciousness from his own private “cloud” to a home grown copy of his original disease free physical body, thereby promptly freaking out his devoted wife, who by the way intuitively deemed the result as intrinsically immoral and just too plain creepy for her to accept!
But all of these plots are in the end have a sort “mechanical” feel to them. What interests me the most are thoughts and/or stories about a “change of consciousness”: not religious but evolutionary in character.
The prime example in my opinion is The New Adam by Stanley G, Weinbaum, where the main protagonist, Edmond Hall, eventually to comes to the conclusion that he is in fact the first “expression” in the genetic sense, of a new species of mankind.
In closing, let us hope that we will have the time to endlessly speculate, and that the nightmare of AI crossing the Event Horizon will not come to past, putting out our confused musings to an unmerciful end! Deo volente!!
Kaor, Vincent!
The points you raised about Anderson's HARVEST OF STARS books were exactly what I had in midn, even if they don't truly fit in with the scenario seen in BRAIN WAVE. What I basically had in mind was thinking the HARVEST books and GENESIS more sophisticated than that early work of Anderson. Which is exactly what I would hope for from PA after more than forty years had passed!
Truthfully, I am more skeptical than not of whether true AI will ever be possible. And I am equally skeptical of the kind of transformation of human beings seen in BRAIN WAVE. Moreover, I think Anderson tended to move away from such ideas after the '50's.
Ad astra! Sean
TO: Sean
Upon looking up Genesis I recognized the cover. I indeed did read the novel many years ago. I seem to recall a portion of the plot where the GIA AI seeked out, for want of a better word, the soul or perhaps the Quantum Pattern of a long dead Astronaut for her purpose on Earth in a distant future.
Ancient religions have a common theme: that the “soul” never dies but is transformed or transported, in some manner to another, so called plane of existence.
Personally, I find it hard to imagine that one's conscientiousness, which is essentially a fragile collection of electro-chemical reactions and patterns, could be remain intact in some sort of a quantum space or reality, separate and apart from the cold environment of empty space; that it could be plucked out of same and reinstated, as it were, into reality.
Regrowing a copy of new physical body based on the DNA information inherent in such a Quantum Pattern would be a simple task from the viewpoint of an unimaginable Artificial Intelligence.
Fortunately by that time and distant epoch, I trust there would be no “meddlesome priest” around to damn me for eternity for such talk; nor would I have to endure the shrill call that I be tied to the nearest stake and burned for my blasphemy! ;>)
PS: Who or what is Kaor?
Vince,
In Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter series, Mars is called Barsoom. Barsoomians have a single spoken language but many written. "Kaor" is their greeting which also gives assent. Thus, it means both "Hail" and "Aye."
When it was judged that John Carter could no longer be a Prince of the city of Helium but must instead be Jeddak of Jeddaks, Warlord of Barsoom (Emperor of Emperors, Warlord of Mars), all those present stood, raised their swords and shouted "Kaor!"
Paul.
Kaor, Vincent and Paul!
Vincent: it's my affectation, because of how I enjoyed the Barsoom stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs, to often greet some people online or by emails as "Kaor." Iow, I'm being geeky! (Smiles)
And some of the points you raised helps to understand why I am skeptical a true Artificial Intelligence will be possible. If interested, I suggest going to John Wright's blog to look up the lengthy arguments he has made against AI, from logical and philosophical premises. Still, I find AI fascinating to speculate about.
And I do believe in the existence of the soul, from both revelation and philosophic reasoning of the kind found in the works of Plato, Aristotle, and the Scholastic theologians and philosophers (Jacques Maritian and Mortimer Adler being two modern examples).
Paul: When Mars is finally colonized I would not be surprised if ERB fans start using some names and titles taken from his Barsoom books and using them on Mars!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Aristotle said that the soul was the form of the body. That is different from the Platonic soul discarding successive bodies.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I should have remembered that. After all, the Scholastic philosophers and theologians adopted Aristotle's reasoning about the soul being the form of the body.
Platonism and Neo-Platonism never really became as deeply rooted and popular in the West as did Aristotelianism.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
But, if the souls is the form of the body, then it is not an entity that outlasts the body?
Paul.
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