Poul Anderson, "Starfog" IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, June, 2012), pp. 709-794.
The ultimate technological achievement must be to travel without effort in comfort and safety through the most remote and inhospitable regions of the universe or, at least, of the galaxy.Daven Laure's faster than light spaceship, Jaccavrie, is flown by a vocal conscious computer that responds to spoken instructions, does whatever is necessary and converses with Laure in a female voice as if it were a human being. At his command, the computer generates a simulacrum of the external universe so that, to his eyes, the ship's bridge disappears and he seems to be standing in space except for the fact that he still feels the artificial gravity under his feet.
We vicariously enjoy the contrast between Laure's comfort within the ship and the dangerous cosmic realms that he explores.
4 comments:
I think the ship could have been done earlier in the Technic universe, but only at great expense.
Welcome and thank you, Anonymous.
Kaor, Anonymous!
For all we know Nicholas van Rijn did exactly that! We know, from reading the end of MRKHEIM, how he hoped to spend his old age in one last really long voyage of exploration. With his great wealth he could afford to outfit three or four ships for that.
Ad astra! Sean
Suddenly it's listing me, Steve Stirling, as anonymous. Will figure this out...
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