"'I want to perpetuate the lover, parent, child, adventurer, artist, poet, prophet. Another element in the universe. Have we machines in our self-sureness every answer, every dream, that can ever be?'" (p. 245)
Through this dialogue between two post-organic intelligences, Anderson starkly poses the question of the value of human life as it is.
Christian's reflection that the galactic nodes have transcended humanity echoes Isaac Asimov's Susan Calvin claiming that the robots are a cleaner, better breed than humanity. Of all of Asimov's future historical volumes, I, Robot is the most relevant to a comparison with Poul Anderson.
10 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And on this matter, to that extent, I agree with Gaia. Better to bring back the "ancient beast," with all its flaws, than to depend only on the AIs.
Sean
Paul and Sean:
Keith Laumer's *Dinosaur Beach* (1971) ends on a similar note, as the time-manipulating computer system tells someone that by the system's native era, humanity has gone extinct, but (very approximate quote), "In us, man's greatest dreams outlived him. We aspire to re-invoke the dreamer."
The blog archivist strikes again!
Kaor, DAVID!
I have read some of Keith Laumer's works, but I don't recall "Dinosaur Beach." But I'm not sure how we should understand what the computer meant by "re-invoking" mankind. Literally bringing back an extinct human race or merely thinking about mankind?
Sean
Sean:
As I recall it, the computer had assessed that time travel getting out of hand caused the extinction. LOTS of agents from different eras were trying to push their own solutions even though most didn't know HOW bad the result would be; the man to whom that quote was spoken was one of them. All of them were regarding most or all of the others as part of the problem, and not accepting that THEY might be, too.
The computer's goal — I THINK; it's been quite a long while since I read it, and time paradoxes, anyway... — was to effectively rewrite the continuum so time travel was never developed and nobody screwed up humanity. This ignores the fact that we could still become extinct for some other reason....
Personally, I just like human beings the way they are. I've no particular desire to reform or change them.
Kaor, DAVID and Mr. Stirling!
David: and Poul Anderson's Time Patrol had the mission of stopping meddlesome time travelers from mucking up the continuum. Precisely because hare brained solutions would very likely make our problems even worse.
Mr. Stirling: I agree! I'm very suspicious of people who want to "reform" the human race for our alleged betterment. Far more often than not, they turn out to be tyrants as brutal as Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, etc. Only God's grace can change people for the better!
Sean
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I often find myself not liking the human race very much, but I do admit that I don't have the wisdom to make any fundamental improvements in humankind.
Best Regards,
Nicholas D. Rosen
Nicholas,
Each of us can do something about himself. Buddhist meditation is one response. Any proposals for social change have to be argued for, not imposed.
Paul.
Kaor, Nicholas and Paul!
Nicholas: Correct! NO mere human being has the wisdom to make any fundamental improvements in our species.
Paul: And anyone who proposes social changes needs to keep in mind the very likely possibility of disastrous, unintended consquences. To say nothing if how, if force and brutality a la Lenin and Stalin is used, such "changes" are not worth it.
Sean
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