Comments in the combox for Red Skies On Other Planets mentioned Jihannath.
For an Appendix on Jihannath, see FUTURISTIC SEX by Sean M. Brooks.
For other blog posts that mention Jihannath, see here.
Jihannath is a minor planet in Poul Anderson's Technic History. We compare and contrast such planets within the Technic History and between future histories.
Chuan lists three ancient horrors that the Synesis prevents:
From Vernal, Fenn telephones Wanika in the Pacific where data search has located her on the shiptown, Malolo. She relays a recorded message for him from Mars. Kinna tells him that:
We are living in the real future, not in any of the fictional ones. Some of those fictional futures involved a World War III aftermath. Poul Anderson covered every option, including WWIII aftermaths followed by space travel. Late at night, I always ask: which further future are we moving into? Wells' Time Traveller sped through tomorrow into futurity. We will live into it, starting tomorrow morning.
Good night.
"[Fenn] was in space, and he would not trade; but ever more he remembered the seas of Earth, wind in a sail, waves thunderous, and the thrum of a tiller beneath his hand. When you get right down to the bones of the matter, he thought, the only meaning the universe has comes from whatever is alive." (p. 227)
He means consciously alive.
Where else could meaning reside? Some words mean objects to which they refer. Others derive their meaning from their use. Only consciousness and intelligence give meaning to sounds and signs. Only experiences that are enjoyed, appreciated, valued have any meaning. For a man enjoying "wind in a sail," see Fran And The Technic History.
I agree with Fenn (and Fran) but have to ask how it could be otherwise. When consciousness began, meaningfulness began, as also did the division of time not only into (as yet unnoticed) days and years but also into past, "present" and future. Any moment is "present" to any organism that is conscious in that moment but not otherwise.
"As for safety, the software in the robot, which could not be altered or replaced without triggering a burnout of the robot itself, would never obey an order that had any reasonable probability of endangering others." (p. 225)
Here is a faint echo of Isaac Asimov's future history in a later Poul Anderson future history. What a long way we have come from I, Robot. Indeed, the title story of Robot Dreams is one of three alternative culminations of Asimov's Robot stories. And Anderson's inclusion of the term, "software," reflects the distance that has meanwhile been travelled in the real world with computer technology.
Sf is one long discussion of ideas and extrapolations. And, so far, Anderson's Genesis, published appropriately in 2000, is one culmination of sf.
Australia and New Zealand are fully modernized:
Fenn considers Kinna's small, insectoid, robot pet:
"...the algorithms that ran it could not be simple; they must be capable of learning and of flexible response to situations. There might actually be a nonalgorithmic, quantum element - which would make it technically a sophotect, though an electrophotonic system this size couldn't be smarter than, say, a dog." (p. 182)
Algorithmic "learning" is not conscious. According to this passage, two elements are required for consciousness: "nonalgorithmic" and "quantum." However, "nonalgorithmic" is merely negative. What positive property is required? "Quantum" is positive but not sufficient to imply consciousness. We are left as ever with a qualitative difference between unconsciousness and consciousness. Somehow organic sensitivity became conscious sensation. An organism that needed food began to feel hungry or one that was becoming lethally hot began to feel uncomfortably hot. Did this qualitative change in organismic responsiveness have to involve quantum mechanics? Consciousness and quantum mechanics have in common that both are mysterious. Also, quantum processes (seem to) involve an observer effect which links them to consciousness. That is as far as I can go with this question at present.
Fenn stands for a long time watching a storm through the viewport of his and Wanika's cabin on the large, unsinkable, buoyant island, Waihona Lanamokupuni. When they converse, Fenn remembers that He'o's murderer, Pedro Dover, has been identified but not yet apprehended and, if caught, would merely be reformed.
He concludes:
"'Yes, I do have some months at leisure. Time for tracking Pedro Dover down.'" (p. 194)
That is the end of the dialogue and could have been the end of this chapter but Poul Anderson's readers know better than that. When a character has expressed himself thus, the elements must have their say, underlining or commenting on the human speech and, sure enough, immediately after Fenn's last sentence, the chapter itself ends with:
"The storm yelled." (ibid.)
It really never fails.
There will be an Andersonian settling of accounts with a villain before the main plot resumes and, as part of this, we will be shown another part of the future Earth.
