I would be able to enjoy a long retirement in the age of Serdar and Naia:
in a late afternoon, they sit silently on a terrace between flowers and vines, sipping wine and watching shadows;
the sun sets behind purple city towers;
the few distant lights are far apart - the city is almost deserted and its "...maintainors..." (p. 91) do not need lights;
Serdar composes a perfect haiku;
Naia compares such artistic revivals to the shadows because the poetic forms emerge from the database, then "...vanish back into quantum states" (p. 92);
they will probably be the only audience for any verse that they compose or instruct the program to compose for them;
in the night sky, sudden white radiance shows that one of the satellites warding off cosmic rays from the nebula through which the Solar System is passing has ionized some dust and gas in order to repel it;
as the stars emerge, Serdar and Naia reflect that the universe now has meaning because intelligences dwell out there.
There is more but breakfast calls.
1 comment:
Hi, Paul!
I remember this part of GENESIS too! It stuck in my mind because it gives us a picture of how the dying "first" human race lived. You might not agree, but it sure looks like the last humans were living like the pampered, impotent, powerless pets of the AI which actually ruled Earth in that remote future. Why should these humans have children, for example, if there will be nothing REAL for them to do, strive after, even fight or quarrel over?
The universe has "meaning" because "intelligence" in the form of AIs and a relative few human "uploads" existed out there? Maybe, but it looks too abstract and remote to be convincing!
Sean
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