WATERMAN%USC-ECL%SRI-NIC@sri-unix.UUCP (12/21/83)
Some time ago, i read 2010, clarke's sequel to 2001. He uses the 'von-neumann-probe' idea as the denoument for the odyssey. I thought that his 2010 was a base and anachronistic trivialization almost as rank as the first star-dreck film where the great,exalted mystery of the universe is reduced to an andy wharhol soup-can! Anyway, Clarke goes on and on about these g.d. 'von-neumann' probes as the meaning of the obelisks etc. and he makes all kinds of anachronistic use of terms like 'teselation automata' etc. jeeeeezuuuuuz hhhhhhh chiiiiirrrriiiist ! It sounded like going into the 'science section' of a used bookstore and choking on the dust of some dusty tome describing advanced buggy-whip-technology. Probably any 'really' advanced stage of space-time-differentiation has already dispensed with the explicit use of 'technology' (the 2001 movie handled that well).... ...flame out of fuel.... -------