Surprises And Inconclusiveness

The big surprise at the end of Poul Anderson's The Stars Are Also Fire is that, although the presiding Artificial Intelligence of Earth uses the forces of the state to track down two people who are acting against its own longer term goals, when it does apprehend one of them, it attempts only persuasion, not coercion. There has been a fundamental moral change in Terrestrial affairs. Maybe Asimov's First Law is relevant, although I think that the AI is breaking First Law by suppressing information.

Also, the longer term issue remains unresolved. Venator, serving the AI/cybercosm, says merely that the spread of chaotic Lunarians into the outer Solar System is a new factor that has to be taken into account. Kenmuir, opposing Venator, wonders whether organic and post-organic might not turn out to have been "...two faces of the same." (46, p. 554) How could this not be the case? Anderson manufactures what I think looks like a contrived conflict.

Some works by James Blish end with major interstellar conflicts only just beginning. See The Haertel History and "This Earth Of Hours." In all that space and time, ultimate conclusions will be hard to find.