gordonl@microsoft.UUCP (Gordon Letwin) (12/27/85)
A few weeks ago the works of T.J. Bass were brought up in conjunction with a "mega cities" discussion. I'm familiar with two of his works, Half-Past Human and The GodWhale and thought that I'd put in a plug for them. Its true that these books discuss mega-cities, but they're much more interesting then just that. Both books deal with the future of mankind - population has grown to the thousands of billions, everyone lives underground in huge "hive cities", most physical work, including all crop growing, is done by mechs. Bass's world is an unusual place - the "citizens", aka "nebishes", are four-toed, about 3 1/2 feet high, live to a ripe old age of 25, and nearly all suffer nutritional diseases. The four toes is a key point - genetic selection for a smaller, weaker citizen which can be severely crowded. The five-toed gene - large, strong, agressive, big appetite - is nearly extinct. Although this description sounds rather nightmareish, its not. The world is run by the world computer - the "class 1". There are 2 class 2's, which are dumber, on down to a few hundred class 6's, which are as intellegent as a human. In general, the "big ES" - earth society - is benevolent and dedicated to the welfare of the citizens, its just that there isn't much welfare to go around. In fact, things are slowly deteriorating. The five toed gene is almost extinct inside the hive, but a small group of five toed savages continues to exist on the outside, eating by raiding the crops. Ancient restrictions prevent the Class One from wiping them out via machines - pest extermination is done by bands of hunters with heat seeking gear and high-tech bows. The hunters have the hardware, but the savages have the speed, strength, and cunning, so neither side has yet exterminated the other. At the start of Half-Past Human, Olga, an implant starship sent out a thousand years ago, has returned for another load. Olga is a Class One herself, and she quickly realizes that the species that built her - the five toes - is nearly extinct. She wants to pick up the savages, and whatever five toed genes still exist in the hive, but without alerting the hive Class One that she exists. (If the hive knew of her colony implants, it would consider them a threat and enter space. The colony's aren't yet far enough along to defend themselves.) I've gone on far enough, so I'll close with a recomendation that you try these books if you like hard science, SF-adventure, descriptions of non-human societies, or AI issues. Or, just a good read. Although I wouldn't place these books in the "great literature of mankind" category, they're definitely 4-stars in the "good read" category. Gordon letwin decvax!microsoft!gordonl