"...the old forms of government would be no more important than the difference between Homoousian and Homoiousian." (p. 90)
We search the blog to find out whether we have posted about these terms before. We have, but not in relation to Brain Wave. See Historical And Science Fiction. So Poul Anderson made this historical theological reference twice (at least) and it has taken this blog over eleven years to link the two references.
Glancing ahead to the end to check the page count - we are almost at the mid-point of the novel -, we spot something that we recognize as an Andersonian motif:
"'Have you come far?'
"'From New York City.' There was a small shiver in her, and he wondered what had happened there. Or maybe it was just the cold. The wind piped bitterly now." (21, p. 189)
Much had happened in New York. Sheila shivers and the wind pipes in sympathy. When Archie and Sheila approach the shelter of the house, they have:
"...the dog and the wind at their heels..." (ibid.)
Canine support counterposes the potentially hostile external world.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I disagree with what the narrator said, both about forms of gov't and the importance of theological terms.
Ad astra! Sean
I suspect super-intelligent human beings would simply be more effective at doing irrationally-based things.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Exactly, which is why I am so skeptical about Utopian dreams.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I don't see how that follows. "Utopian dreams," as you denigrate them, do not depend on a general rise in intelligence. People as they are now are capable of reorganizing society and using the vast potentials of technology socially instead of destructively. But I think that, when society has been reorganized on a better basis, general intelligence will then rise.
Paul.
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