A spaceship jumps to a point at a considerable distance from the target star and its ecliptic plane in order to minimize the risk of occupying the same space as a solid object. Through some error yet to be determined, the Meteor, not designed to land on a planet, arrives too close to a terrestroid planet, skips through its atmosphere and crash lands. Immortals face mortality.
Would the prospect of an indefinitely prolonged lifespan make many people less inclined to entertain concepts like reincarnation or a hereafter? In this crash, thirty year old Enver Smeth dies whereas three thousand year old Hugh Valland survives. The only deity that seems to be relevant is Fortuna.
Argens plans to erase his memories of their attempts to save Envers. The latter, dying, asks Valland to sing the song about his girl back home. Valland hesitates, then complies. The last line that he sings is:
"'And whisper your name where you lie.'" (p. 34)
The last word is significant.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
The philosophical and theological implications of human beings becoming able to live indefinitely would indeed be interesting. We see a hint of such thoughts in the "contemporary" part of THE BOAT OF A MILLION YEARS, after Hanno had founded and funded the Rufus Institute to scientifically investigate human longevity. We see Hanno conversing with a scientist who was also a devout Catholic. The latter thought, if I recall rightly, Hanno would benefit from reading some of the philosophers a pragmatist like him tended to overlook.
This mention of how Argens planned to have deleted his memories of the details of Enver Smeth's agony reminded me again of how "immortals" kept diaries and wrote memoirs to preserve coherent
"images" of themselves. The simple mention in a diary of how Smeth died in pain would have been enough. No need to RELIVE the details in one's mind.
Sean
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