"'...Ayres [scroll down] of Antarctica.'"
-Poul Anderson, "The Game of Glory" IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, February 2010), pp. 303-339 AT II, p. 310.
Our daughter's partner, Mike, is a Eyre of Birmingham.
Ayres and Eyre sound similar despite their two spelling differences.
The multiracial, multicultural British city, Birmingham, prefigures Poul Anderson's multispecies Terran Empire - although I now suspect that multispecies civilizations are in the realm of fantasy rather than of hard sf.
Merseians and Ythrians are akin to trolls and elves.
Got to finish second coffee and move.
19 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I was more interested by that mention of Antarctica. The only reason families like the Ayres would become prominent there would be because of that continent gaining a large population. We know from A STONE IN HEAVEN that Terra had a weather control service, meaning it was possible to have at least some control of the climate. That made me conclude Antartica was "terraformed" enough for people to be willing to reside there.
And we don't know enough for anyone to definitely say intelligent life is rare in the galaxy.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
We know enough to calculate probabilities, starting from the long series of improbabilities that has led to us.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
We know "something" about meteorological possibilities. We know next to nothing definitive about whether or not life, including intelligent life, exists on other worlds.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
We do not KNOW but we can assess probabilities.
Paul.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
That more clearly expressed the point I was trying to make.
Ad astra! Sean
We must also keep revising our assessments of probabilities.
Presumably a lot more will be learned about exo-planets soon.
Kaor, Paul
The Susskindian view you apparently favor does not have enough evidence to be called a "probability." It's only one possibility out of several. I favor the possibility seen in STARFARERS.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I disagree. Of course Susskind's view is not the only possibility but which is more probable? Most times single simple cells collide, they do not fuse and become one complex cell and that has to happen by chance, apparently twice, before multicellular organisms and photosynthesis become possible.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul and Jim!
Paul. Then we have to agree to disagree. My view remains what I have stated above re Susskind.
Jim: A real Ayres connected to Antarctica? Maybe Mt. Ayres inspired Anderson to use that name in "The Game of Glory." We could even fancy descendants of that Ayres settled later in Antarctica. An interesting example of how Anderson used real allusions.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
But it is a matter of probabilities and improbabilities, not of opinions.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
My view remains the same as what Stirling and I stated above.
Ad astra! Sean
But an event is either probable or improbable whatever we think about it.
Kaor, Paul!
No, because here we are talking about things of which we, as yet, know very little about. Things depended on what might be discovered in the future. And that means Susskindianism is only out of several possibilities, not probabilities.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Yes, because here we are talking about things of which we already know a very great deal. The laws of physics, chemistry and statistics are universal. If, on Earth, it is usual that, when two simple cells meet, either one eats the other or both are destroyed and if, at the same time, it is highly improbable that they would fuse into a single complex cell (necessary for forming multicellular organisms), then that fusion is equally improbable anywhere in the universe. It might happen on very few, widely scattered, planets. Of course this view is one of several possibilities but we also have enough information to calculate probabilities.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Noted, and disagreed with.
Ad astra! Sean
Yes But I don't see why!
Kaor, Paul!
Reread what Stirling and I said above.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
What you said does not address the improbability of single simple cells fusing to become complex cells which alone can combine to become multicellular organisms.
Paul.
And someone said in another combox that this improbable fusion has to happen twice before photosynthesis is possible.
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