Muddlehead confirms that he is self-programming:
"'I am self-programming within the limits of the types of task for which I am built,' the computer reminded [Chee Lan]. 'Thus whenever I am activated but idle, I endeavor to make that idleness creative.'"
-Poul Anderson, Mirkheim IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 1-291 AT p. 77.
Adzel immediately responds:
"'I think the Manichaean heresy just scored a point,' said Adzel. Van Rijn would have understood the reference, but it went by Falkayn, although he was reasonably well read." (ibid.)
Van Rijn explicitly referred to Manichaeanism in Satan's World, thus establishing a conceptual link with James Blish's A Case Of Conscience. See "...Distance Traveled"
I was told at school that Mani was a Christian heretic but learned at University that he was an independent prophet claiming to synthesize Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and Christianity. Manichaean texts use terminology from all three traditions.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I read a little about Mani myself when I was young, and my sources did not call him a Christian heretic. More a founder of his own religion. Mani lived in the Sassanian Empire and was executed the Persians for preaching non Zoroastrian beliefs.
I also recall how St. Augustine was at one time a Manichaean before becoming dissatisfied with it, as we see in his CONFESSIONS. Which I'm pretty was read by Nicolas van Rijn!
Sean
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