We are not quite finished with "Un-Man." If you found that you were in close physical proximity with, indeed even in conversation with, an exact double of a man whom you had buried on another planet five years before, then you might think of a ghost or a resurrectee but, if instead you found that you were in the immediate presence of two such doubles, then you would be overcome by uncanniness. Explanations would be difficult to formulate. Could there have been identical triplets? We are familiar with the idea of clones but Barney Rosenberg was not. He, a former friend of Stefan Rostomily, has stumbled on the UN secret of the Rostomily Brotherhood. How should this be handled? Rosenberg is paid to accept hypno-conditioning that will make him forget the clones. Will he remember that he had agreed to forget something or not even remember that? If the latter, then the UN will have to devise some other explanation of their payment to him. Why is cloning not used more in the Psychotechnic History? What became of the suspended animation technique discussed in this story?
From Naysmith's summary of Rostomily's career, it is clear that the latter was a major figure in the early interplanetary period, comparable, and even more so, to Rhysling in the "Green Hills of Earth" period of Heinlein's Future History. The Psychotechnic History needs a story about Rostomily between "Marius" and "Un-Man."
3 comments:
Merry New Year to all.
Backatcha!
Kaor, Jim!
And the same to you!
Ad astra! Sean
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