Virtual Phaeacia

See "Sentience."

I would take "sentient" to apply to animals as well as to human beings. And the Wiki article (see above link) does differentiate sentience from sapience. I make this point because I think that sf writers sometimes use "sentient" as if it meant "intelligent," e.g., James Blish in Cities In Flight wrote that every sentient being in the galaxy was horrified by an atrocity.

Pytheas' destination, the planet Phaeacia, named by Hanno, is nearly 150 light years from Sol, and is Earth-like although without sentience... Before Pytheas embarked, one robotic mission had reached Phaeacia and had sent twelve years of data. The robots will download more data to Pytheas on arrival. Meanwhile, the Survivors en route explore a virtual Phaeacia where they sense blue sky, clouds, snowpeaks, an equivalent of grass, trees, wind, wings and herds. Anderson is using "sentient" to mean "intelligent." The scene reminds Wanderer of Jackson Hole (Boat, p. 508).

Tu Shan orders robots to cut wood and make planks. How much of Phaeacia will be farmed and how much preserved for hunting? Tu Shan and Wanderer bring this ancient conflict, between Cain and Abel, with them from Earth.

On Pytheas, nanoprocessors recycle air, water and food and can transform any matter into any object or substance for which they have a program.