In several works, Poul Anderson describes alternatives to grass on other planets. Genesis is set so far in the future that there is an alternative to grass even on Earth:
"...the thick-lobed carpeting of glades..." (IX, p. 207)
- and every other plant and animal is alien. The winged fliers are not birds.
The robot Brannock proceeds almost as slowly as a man because he does not want to leave a visible trail through the forest and up Mount Mindhome. However, he does not need to rest, eat or sleep. His directional sense is attuned to the magnetic field and to planetary rotation and an inertial integrator counts kilometres. He senses in every direction and across every wavelength, can amplify sounds, has a memory the size of a library, has four arms, hands that can be reshaped into tools and a retractable third leg and can display different faces on the holographic screen on the front of his head.
Asimov's robots are a major part of the Frankenstein tradition especially since Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics are designed to counteract fear of robots which Asimov describes as the "Frankenstein complex." Genesis is a Frankensteinian novel because it asks whether men are right to create artificial intelligences and whether a post-organic intelligence is right to re-create humanity and also because it features the robot Brannock.
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
What caught my eye here was Anderson using the word GLADES in its ordinary meaning--open spaces within wooded areas. Rather than the bafflingly idiosyncratic use he made of that word in other stories.
Ad astra! Sean
I just mentioned "Quixote and the Windmill" in an online discussion about the effects of such things as ChatGPT on employment. So 'a robotic walk' is timely.
Synchronicity.
Note that humans stand out like sore thumb in that ecology. They're the only actual mammals around. It's as if something from 200 million years ago were on Earth today.
Recreating humans would involve a lot of other things -- our intestinal flora, for example.
And you'd have to revamp the immune system to deal with allergies.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Never thought of that! Esp. how those future mammals existing. That might lead to some wondering why--and then finding out WHAT had happened.
Well, Gaia literally had millions of years to tinker with human genes!
Ad astra! Sean
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