Meetings

Poul Anderson, The Boat Of A Million Years (London, 1991).

In 1975, seven immortals met around a picnic table. In ?, the eight Survivors meet around a picnic table:

"They gathered around a picnic table. [Hanno] remembered another such board beneath another sky, long and long ago." (p. 488)

Next Hanno, representing the Survivors, meets "...the ruling intellects of the world." (p. 490) These ruling intellects are in no sense rulers. They articulate "'...an increasing body of opinion...'" (ibid.), then make a decision about allocation of resources that will, at worst, inconvenience "'...various elements of society...'" (p. 491) but which they know will in any case be acceptable.

To meet, Hanno and the intellects send their images around the globe but mainly exchange data. The intellects are:

human minds;
computer-linked human minds;
human minds temporarily or permanently in direct contact with each other;
electronic minds.

Their functions are:

Engineer;
Psychologist;
Economist;
Astronomer;
Artist;
Sociologist;
Administrator -

- although the same voice does not always speak for each function.

The Economist explains that:

"'"Investment" means resources diverted from other uses...'" (p. 490)

The only criterion for investment is which project public opinion thinks should be started next.

Hanno thinks that, several billion years hence, Terrestrial humanity will be long extinct, either dead or transfigured. He adds, "To me, it hardly matters which." (p. 492)

You don't care whether your descendants are dead or transfigured? I do.