These passages when Brannock and Laurinda are in an emulation of mid-eighteenth century Surrey are my favourites in Genesis. Their environment is peaceful but has an authentic backdrop. The maid who serves them tea and cakes is a conscious entity:
"'...underpaid, undernourished, underrespected - servile.'" (p. 155)
- and is shocked by Brannock's presence. On a larger scale, the American and French Revolutions will happen.
The maid, like most of the population, is an animated fictional character, not a resurrection of any individual who really was alive in the eighteenth century. Gaia is not capable of that. However, Laurinda's dinner guests, James Cook, Henry Fielding and Erasmus Darwin, are reconstructed as accurately as possible given that, unlike Brannock and Laurinda, they are not uploads of the originals. We really do need a lot more information about these emulations (conscious simulations).
7 comments:
I think Poul mentions in another story that 'emulations' of this sort have to be restricted with those of actual historical persons, because they're wildly at variance with what those persons expect.
IIRC, it was in the short story where AI's are made to resurrect Machiavelli and Frederick the Great, and promptly reduce their 'creators' to servitude.
In that story, Frederick apologizes for writing the "Anti-Machiavelli" tract, and Nicolo shrugs it off as a necessary political move... 8-).
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Ha! Problem is, I can't quite recall the name of that story. Wasn't an "emulation" of Francisco Pizarro, the conqueror of the Incas, also a character in that story?
Ad astra! Sea
For my part, I do not know the story.
Kaor, Paul!
I wish I could remember the title of that story by Anderson featuring Machiavelli and Frederick the Great.
Ad astra! Sean
The title of Poul's story is "Statesmen".
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Many thanks! Now I'll be able to see if I have that story somewhere.
Another statesman Anderson wrote about was Cardinal Richelieu, in "The Kitten and the Cardinal," found in THE BOAT OF A MILLION YEARS. And he seems to have thought very well of Richelieu.
Ad astra! Sean
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