n7axw wrote:SCLibrarian wrote:I don't have the earlier books in the series in hand (I cataloged them for my church library, and am just too lazy to drive down tonight to get them), but I'm pretty sure I remember Merlin, upon learning of the promise of a millennial visitation by the archangels, musing that 1000 years was too long for svuccessful cryogenics. I believe he thought that a few hundred years was the upper limit.
Am I mistaken?
Actually, it was more like 50 years or so which had been the upper limit before. Or, restated a bit, that was about as long as it had been previously tried which would mean that anything beyond that would be uncharted territory.
One other comment here: Although the idea is unlikely, a PICA built after the arrival of Safehold cannot be ruled out on the basis of anything we currently know. Owl built a PICA on the basis of existing resources from Nimue's cave. One would think that the command crew would have had AIs and resourses superior to anything available in the cave.
Don
Don
I went hunting for the authors words around this from the Langthorne Mistake thread it's around the 8/9 August if anyone wants to go look up the post, it's quite long. Below is an edited excerpt of what David wrote:
"The mission planners were pretty darned fanatical about what was and what was not to be permitted on the surface of Safehold for the colonists in general. They had made a conscious decision at an early point that PICAs and virtual reality-bound AIs would not be part of that mix. ...
The command crew (under the original plan) were to be given two options once the colony was fully up and running. Option A would be to have their own memories adjusted to delete any memory of high technology and then to join the rest of the colony population. Option B would be to retain their memories, but in that case they were supposed to live in isolated communities, with little or no contact with the rest of Safehold. This, in fact, is why Zion was located in such a relatively inhospitable surroundings and why the Alexandria Enclave was located on what equated to Antarctica. The youngest of the command crew could be expected to live to a point well past the end of the "complete ban on technology" period by the original mission planners, and if they chose to remain in one of the very small "high-tech" enclaves, ... but they were supposed to retain the technological "seed corn" for the descendents of the other colonists once the initial hiding. Was over.
Because of that, there was no need for any PICAs to "protect against barbarism." There were always supposed to be a minimum of two enclaves which would retain that carefully hidden technology and be the librarians/caretakers for humanity's technological past. ... The last thing Langhorne wanted to add to his baggage was an emancipated PICA which might reject his vision for what was needed to preserve humanity ... Another possible fear was that a PICA or PICAs might see the opportunity to set up as the immortal, divine rulers of an enslaved humanity. ...
Langhorne probably could have requested that a PICA or PICAs be assigned to the command crew. He didn't want one. None of the original command crew — with the exception of the Peis and their small handful of fellow conspirators — wanted PICAs, to be honest. ...
There are reasons beyond those I've listed here why the command crew never contemplated a "permanent PICA presence" to keep Langhorne's master plan on track. Eventually, you guys will find out what those other reasons were. At the moment, you're just going to have to take my word for it that those reasons actually made sense given the command crew's plans, expectations, and fears.
There's no question that leaving a cadre of PICA "Archangels" to control the situation would have been a masterstroke in many ways. As I say, there's a reason it didn't happen, and you're just going to have to trust me when I tell you that "it will all make sense in the end." The original mission planners included no PICAs in their plans for the reasons I've listed above, and the options available to Langhorne and his immediate successors began and proceeded from the technology initially assigned to the colony by those planners."
This does not absolutely say no more PiCAs but the last sentence I quoted
"The original mission planners included no PICAs in their plans for the reasons I've listed above, and the options available to Langhorne and his immediate successors began and proceeded from the technology initially assigned to the colony by those planners."
indicates to me that whatever wakes under the temple is unlikely to be a PICA. I would be interested in other thoughts?
Cofion
Iorwerth
