You might say that contributions to a series created by another author are in a different category from new installments of a series entirely written by a single author. Nevertheless, "Hunter's Moon" is a series story and should have been recognized as such in the first place.
Meanwhile, I have finished reading "Mustn't Touch." A word that I did not recognize and cannot find by googling is "...bullmole..." (NESFA Vol 3, p. 409)
Anderson applies impeccable logic to yet another version of FTL:
traveling faster than light involves changing the laws of nature;
changing the laws of nature changes the DNA code;
changed DNA produces enzymes that the body cannot use;
every organism in the FTL ship dies very quickly;
but if there is "'...one set of computers to operate under normal drive, another under FTL [and] each can feed its data directly into the other...'" (p. 415), then AI's can make interstellar crossings.
Our hero, deducing why test plants and animals in an FTL probe have all died, has an Andersonian moment of realization on p. 417.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I remember "Musn't Touch" as well. And my reaction would be of how BITTERLY frustrating to mankind it would be if it was discovered that FTL travel would be lethal to living organisms. And of how ironic it would be if only AIs could travel FTL.
I've thought of a possible partial way around this, tho! If FTL ships "crewed" by AIs find uninhabited terrestroid worlds not too impossibly far from Sol (in interstellar terms), I can imagine STL ships setting out for those worlds. True, only the most stubborn and determined humans would probably do this, but it's a thought!
Sean
Sean,
Yes, the characters do not mention STL - but it would occur to someone later. It happens in enough other sf.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Exactly! And Poul Anderson has speculated about mankind moving to other stars by STL means. Esp. in the "History of Rustum" timeline and THE HARVEST OF STARS books. And, of course, the Kith stories.
Sean
I recall a story by David Brin in which it was AI's that couldn't (economically) use FTL. The problem was the AI's needed superconducting quantum circuits, but the 'hyperspace' was about 300 K rather than 3 K, so keeping the AI's cold enough was expensive, but humans could travel through it just fine.
Kaor, Jim!
And I assume ordinary non AI computers could also be sent FTL?
Ad astra! Sean
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