Although the text focuses on the plot, background details that we usually read past give clues to the daily life of the future. I wondered how the flying boats moved: "...jets." (IV, p. 36)
A single enormous multi-storey building contains, on different levels:
shops
offices
services
schools
entertainment
residences
There are express lifts and miles-long slideways.
Sofie is an engineer on the Pacific Colony project so the rebuilding of the environment continues.
Naysmith's job is described as:
cybernetic epistemologist
cybernetic analyst
basic-theoretical consultant
troubleshooter of ideas
Epistemology and semantics are close to integrating synthesis. Anderson shows new disciplines joining existing ones.
6 comments:
It's an example of 30's-50's emphasis on centralization and corporatism.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And I thought just now of the giant Cities of David Wingrove's CHUNG KUO series, set in a world where China conquered all Earth, as another example of that centralism.
Happy New Year! Sean
In one of his rare really felicitous coinages, Sartre said: "Hell is other people."
This springs to mind when I read about giant apartment buildings.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And that made me think of comparing such giant apartment buildings to swarming bee hives!
Happy New Year! Sean
Sean: human beings have an upper limit of about 150 people they can really 'know'. It's not a coincidence that the basic military unit is never much more than that.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
That certainly fits in with my own personal experience. And that basic military unit is the company or "century" of a little over 100 men.
Happy New Year! Sean
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