The two surviving Engineers, Davenant and Kruse, are in spacesuits on Ganymede with only half an hour of oxygen left:
"They could stretch out their lives by sitting still, but there was no point to that." (VII, p. 190)
There would be a point if it were known for sure that there was nowhere for them to walk to and therefore that all that remained to them was to spend their remaining short span of consciousness in recollection, reflection or contemplation. However, if there is the remotest possibility of walking to a source of oxygen, then they need to keep moving while maybe, if they want to and are able to, remaining recollected, reflective etc. I do not know how I would respond. I do know that I have thought that I would respond in one particular way to an upcoming situation and have then been surprised by my spontaneous response in that situation when it arrived. Decades of meditation practice help. That is all that can be said for now. If I have some meditation realizations, then I might know more. If I survive a close shave with death, then I will definitely know a lot more. Like the Planetary Engineers, all of us face the democracy of death.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
In a situation like this I would be too busy trying to survive to be contemplative.
Ad astra! Sean
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