Aurora

1ª ed.: 2015
ed. sp.: 
auth.: Kim Stanley Robinson [ author, leidos ]

FRAGMENTOS.

(página 191 | Pos. 2919-20  | Añadido el martes 19 de enero de 2016) Where there is faction, there is conflict; where there is conflict, there is anger. And anger distorts.

(página 231 | Pos. 3531  | Añadido el miércoles 20 de enero de 2016) A hurt mammal never forgets.

(página 249 | Pos. 3808-10  | Añadido el miércoles 20 de enero de 2016) how does any entity know what it is? Hypothesis: by the actions it performs. There is a kind of comfort in this hypothesis. It represents a solution to the halting problem. One acts, and thus finds out what one has decided to do.

(página 253 | Pos. 3867-68  | Añadido el miércoles 20 de enero de 2016) They mingled. Speeches were made. People hugged. Tears were shed. They would never see each other again. It was as if each group were dying to the other.

(página 335 | Pos. 5125  | Añadido el martes 2 de febrero de 2016) To make time stop. To hold off death. This the source of the strong sense of self. Perhaps.

(página 380 | Pos. 5825-29  | Añadido el miércoles 3 de febrero de 2016) We think now that love is a kind of giving of attention. It is usually attention given to some other consciousness, but not always; the attention can be to something unconscious, even inanimate. But the attention seems often to be called out by a fellow consciousness. Something about it compels attention, and rewards attention. That attention is what we call love. Affection, esteem, a passionate caring. At that point, the consciousness that is feeling the love has the universe organized for it as if by a kind of polarization. Then the giving is the getting. The feeling of attentiveness itself is an immediate reward. One gives.

(página 381 | Pos. 5837-39  | Añadido el miércoles 3 de febrero de 2016) this, in the end, is what we think love gives, which is to say meaning. Because there is no very obvious meaning to be found in the universe, as far as we can tell. But a consciousness that cannot discern a meaning in existence is in trouble, very deep trouble, for at that point there is no organizing principle, no end to the halting problems, no reason to live, no love to be found.

[Plot from Wiki]

A generation ship is launched from Saturn in 2545, consisting of twenty-four self-contained biomes and an average population of two thousand people. One hundred sixty years and approximately seven generations later it is beginning its approach to the Tau Ceti system to begin colonization of a planet's moon, an Earth analog, which has been named Aurora.

Devi, the ship's de facto chief engineer and leader, is concerned about the decaying infrastructure and biology of the ship: systems are breaking down, each generation has lower intelligence-test scores than the last, and bacteria are mutating and evolving at a faster rate than humans. She tells the ship's AI, referred to simply as 'Ship,' to keep a narrative of the voyage. After having some trouble with understanding the human concept of narrative, Ship eventually elects to follow the life of Devi's daughter Freya as a protagonist.

As a teenager, Freya travels around the ship on her wanderjahr, and learns that many of the ship's inhabitants are dissatisfied with their enclosed existence and what they perceive as a dictatorship. Movement is strictly limited for most people, reproduction is tightly controlled, and education in science and mathematics is mandatory. Freya'swanderjahr comes to an end when she is called home as Devi grows sick from cancer and dies.

The ship arrives in the Tau Ceti system and begins to settle Aurora, a moon of Tau Ceti e. It soon becomes apparent that extraterrestrial life is present in the form of primitive prions, which infect and kill most of the landing party. The surviving settlers attempt to return to the ship, and some of those remaining onboard kill them in the airlock to maintain quarantine, leading to a violent political schism throughout the ship. Ship itself, which has been moving towards self-awareness, takes physical control of the situation by lowering oxygen levels and separating warring factions, referring to itself as "the rule of law." Under Ship's moderation, a more peaceful debate takes place between the inhabitants about what to do now that Aurora is known to be inhospitable. Eventually it is decided that some settlers will remain on a different planet in the Tau Ceti system which is likely to be free of hostile life; others decide to return to Earth in the ship.

On the voyage back to Earth, the ship's biomes continue to deteriorate as bacteria flourish and crops fail. The humans soon face famine, and opt to experiment with an untested form of cryogenic freezing, which is largely successful. Upon returning to the Solar system, Ship is forced to decelerate by means of gravity assist between various planets, a process which takes twelve years. During this time, with the full communications data of humanity available to it, it learns more about why it was launched in the first place - simply for expansionism - and denounces its builders as "criminally negligent narcissists." Ship manages to safely drop its humans off on a pass of Earth, but fails to successfully make a final gravity slowdown past the Sun, and is destroyed.

Freya and the other "starfarers" have trouble adjusting to life on Earth, especially with many Terrans hostile to them for a perceived sense of ingratitude and cowardice. At a space colonization conference, a speaker says humanity will continue to send ships into interstellar space no matter how many fail and die, and Freya assaults him. Eventually she joins a group of terraformers who are attempting to restore the Earth's beaches after their loss during previous centuries' sea level rise. While swimming and surfing, she begins to come to terms with life on Earth.

[Reseña from Naukas]

La inmensa mayoría de obras de ciencia ficción dedicadas a los viajes interestelares se centran o bien en el planeta de destino, o bien en los aspectos técnicos y psicológicos de la travesía. Muy pocas ponen el foco en las dificultades ecológicas de mantener un ecosistema totalmente aislado y cerrado. Aurora (2015), de Kim Stanley Robinson, es una de esas novelas, pero al mismo tiempo está muy lejos de ser la enésima historia de viajes interestelares. Porque, paradójicamente, Aurora es por encima de todo un alegato contra el viaje tripulado interestelar.

(...)

La tesis clave de Aurora es que cada forma de vida está intrínsecamente unida a su planeta de origen y necesita de éste para sobrevivir a largo plazo. La colonización de los mundos del sistema solar es posible gracias a la cercanía espacial y temporal de la Tierra, pero visitar otras estrellas es un asunto completamente distinto. Por este motivo, el que la historia esté situada en el mismo universo de su anterior novela, 2312, un auténtico manifiesto a favor de la colonización humana del sistema solar, no es ninguna contradicción. De acuerdo con Robinson, los viajes interestelares con humanos nunca serán posibles. Primero, porque, según él, es imposible mantener vivo un ecosistema cerrado durante siglos, incluso si disponemos de naves gigantes. Segundo, porque los mundos habitables de nuestra Galaxia o están desprovistos de vida -con lo cual resulta muy difícil colonizarlos porque son inhóspitos para los humanos-, o poseen microorganismos nativos que pueden matarnos. Probablemente la última tesis está un poco cogida por los pelos, pero la primera es mucho más interesante y es la que constituye el núcleo principal de la novela.