Sunday 18 January 2015

Christian Brannock

Modesty Blaise is good but I must return to Poul Anderson before turning in.

Christian Brannock:

worked as an astronaut;
married and settled down on Earth;
had a son who is now grown;
became a widower;
returned to space;
"...took up the new technology of human-machine linkage..." (Genesis, p. 21);
on Mercury, was linked to an AI called Gimmick;
after an accident, went onto the Mercurian surface to rescue Gimmick's neural net;
at the end of Chapter III, is offered the following option -

- his entire organism will be scanned;
the informational matrix will be transferred to a database in an advanced neural network;
sensors and effectors will be added;
the network will provide the necessary element of human judgment and will in the AI-controlled exploratory starships that will be ready soon after the end of his life expectancy.

I previously discussed artificial intelligence in Genesis here.

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