Alice clearly isn't happy to have this story told.Presumably Ardent and Gavia are human, maybe from a different line. If Alice is exposed to them as R Alice, her authority becomes highly circumscribed, assuming that the Three Laws apply here. It also feeds into the way she handles the locals.
If Alice is exposed to them as R Alice, her authority becomes highly circumscribed, assuming that the Three Laws apply here. It also feeds into the way she handles the locals.
IIRC, the zeroth law was derived from the first three, not deliberately applied by any human.
So apparently Alice isn't human by any definition of the word, if we're going by what Amos says.
the villagers fear and hate alice, with luck there will be at least an attempt at a burning sometime soon.Fear: Yes, to an extent. Hate: No, I don't think so; recall this scene:
There's something very "white privilege-ish" in the obliviousness Amos displays, lecturing a blue boy and his antigrav sister on how their chaperone/jailer is "unnatural."
If they're literal trees, where are you going to grow a tree in space?
If they're literal trees, where are you going to grow a tree in space?
Well, either they could have their roots anchored to something and some complex system is used to make sure they get water/nutrients, and air to their leaves. Or on a spaceship, which come to think of it seems to be a much simpler proposition.
I don't get that reference...I'd google it but I don't wanna accidentally spoil something for myself.It's a reference to a character in the Discworld Series, by Terry Pratchett. It's fantasy humour. Terry Pratchett has been called the "Douglas Adams of Fantasy."
Is Ardent and Gavia's society also being preserved at a lower-than-possible tech level? We knew before there were restrictions on AIs, and now we know that there are limits on what the Praesides share with the spaceborne.
Twoflower was basically a massively naļve tourist who thought the best of everyone no matter how many threats they make and weapons they are pointing at him, who thought all the dangerous adventures he had were thrilling and thoroughly enjoyable. The other character he had them with, Rincewind, disagreed mightily on that point.
Rincewind: (Name I have forgotten), from where no one ever comes back.
TwoFlower: I must see that!
Alice "For starters, my name is Alice Chattham-Reed, and i am not quite Human.
Nope. I think she's mostly human. With a few artificial preservatives.
spaceborn
- The space version may have been inspired by the trees from Tench Muyo.
Tomorrow it's space trees and cucumber ships!If this sentence is supposed to turn people against GMOs I don't see how :roll:
- The space version may have been inspired by the trees from Tench Muyo.
About 30 years ago, the BBC showed a one-off sci-fi short/nature documentary where future humans have been miniaturised to about the size of harvest mice and are living in a gigantic space station that turns out to be a huge genetically-engineered intelligent tree.
The spaceship that they used to visit past Earth turned out to be a genetically-engineered cucumber! :laugh:
I'd agree if it wasn't that she said she'd known Jebediah since he "was a bump in her mother's belly."She could be using anthropomorphizing metaphors to describe machine functions. Humans do this all the time. Or the "artificial life" has a self-replication method that is closely modelled on mammal pregnancy.
There were AI's in this Universe...
Alice is either an immortal Human remnant of one of the two civilisations, or a highly advanced AI who is so close to Human it's virtually impossible to distinguish the difference. I'm guessing she's not entirely Human in the terms we would understand them, but neither is she an AI Construct.
The Praeses are some form of lower level AI/Advanced Semi-sentient Computer Life left behind after the true AI's left.
'The Blink' may have been AI's taking a hand in ending a war that was ruining Earth before completely seperating themselves from the two societies - the new stars might actually be the AI's who have left to live beyond the Solar System, but still close enough to be seen and to watch over the system of their birth
So Alice is either a genetically super enhanced human, or she's more human than human.
So Alice is either a genetically super enhanced human, or she's more human than human.
You see, this is what people are warning about GMOs! Today it's larger tomatoes! Tomorrow it's space trees and cucumber ships!
Does anyone else find it odd that he's bragging about his right hook while brandishing his left fist at Gavia?
Or, if not odd, at least amusing? 8-)
Alice is the one who blinked.
So.. we have two factions, the bio-engineered humans who went into space, and the AI builders who stayed on Earth? Which then got re-formatted to an agrarian society when *something* happened to end the AI wars? Gavia uses nanotech though, so the spaceborne haven't totally given up on computer tech.. Just the advanced thinking machines. It makes me think maybe the Praeses were maybe humans originally that where heavily modified with plant/tree DNA. Essentially giving up their humanity for greatly expanded lifespans to guide their civilization.
I wonder what keeps the spaceborne supposedly separated from the surface dwellers? Is it just lingering ideological differences? Some sort of actual barrier set up before or after the way to keep the societies separate? These answers just lead to so many more questions...
I wonder what keeps the spaceborne supposedly separated from the surface dwellers? Is it just lingering ideological differences? Some sort of actual barrier set up before or after the way to keep the societies separate? These answers just lead to so many more questions...Judging from http://www.alicegrove.com/post/107925637899/exposition-finally (http://www.alicegrove.com/post/107925637899/exposition-finally), I suppose the praesides keep some sort of control about transport to the surface, and the spaceborne are for the most part indoctrinated to believe that the praesides know best. The earthlings, of course, lack the necessary technology to fly out to the colonies.
The problem with the three faction theory is that Alice explicitly says that humanity split into two factions... One that developed AI and tech and one that took a biological approach. The implication is that the two factions went to war, not AIs vs humans. When the Blink happened most tech stopped working. People on the surface have developed into an agrarian society, while the people in orbit had their trees and bioenhancements and nanotech.
However, it made no sense for only the biotech factions to be sent into spaceWhy not? Because the earthlings don't seem to have any AIs and live a rather primitive life? Well, most technology was sabotaged during the Blink, so the remaining AI-programmers would have been unable to start again, and in time, the knowledge about AIs got lost among their descendants.
However, it made no sense for only the biotech factions to be sent into spaceWhy not?
Alice is the one who blinked.
She'd be fantastically powerful if she was capable of doing that - god-tier+. She would have had no problem sending Ardent and Gavia back by her own power if it really was her.
Alice reminds me of Jones from Gunnerkrigg Court. But with emotion.
Who said she would have any problem sending them back? I see no indication that she's not able to do so, just that she doesn't want to. Maybe she's curious to see why they're not being let back in. (And why they were let out to start with.)Alice is the one who blinked.
She'd be fantastically powerful if she was capable of doing that - god-tier+. She would have had no problem sending Ardent and Gavia back by her own power if it really was her.
7. Does Alice perform the same function for the Earthborne as the Praeses perform for the Spaceborne? (i.e. benevolent dictatorial overlords.) You could argue that both Ailce and the Praeses are telepathic. In the case of the Praeses, they answer (or are expected to answer) calls made by their charges from anywhere. In the case of Alice, Alice is thoroughly familiar with the minutiae of in-town social interactions (she knows who wants to date Jebediah before he does) despite rarely leaving her home base.
So Alice is either a genetically super enhanced human, or she's more human than human.
Perhaps a super freak.
I'm calling it now.
Alice is Pintsize.
So.. we have two factions, the bio-engineered humans who went into space, and the AI builders who stayed on Earth? Which then got re-formatted to an agrarian society when *something* happened to end the AI wars? Gavia uses nanotech though, so the spaceborne haven't totally given up on computer tech.. Just the advanced thinking machines. It makes me think maybe the Praeses were maybe humans originally that where heavily modified with plant/tree DNA. Essentially giving up their humanity for greatly expanded lifespans to guide their civilization.
I make it three groups:The first two groups were sent to different space habitats. The third ended up on Earth forced into a pre-industrialised civilisation. The actual AIs themselves could be considered a 'wild card' fourth faction; we don't know enough about what happened to them as yet.
- The AI builders/nanomachine builders
- The biotechnologists
- A third anti-technology faction