It was 1986, and one (weeks-long) evening and one (months-long) south polar night. I was in Antarctica with Roy Curtius, the two of us hundreds of miles inland, far away from the nearest civilization. If Roy is wrong, then perhaps they’ll diminish with time. Intense, visceral nightmares from which I wake sweating and weeping. If he has, then I don’t expect my nightmares to diminish any time soon. In all of them he claims to have finally solved the Fermi Paradox.
He sends various manifestos and communications to the papers too, I understand. He concedes as much to me, in the many communications he has addressed me from his asylum. Not with so much professional psychiatric opinion having been brought to bear on the matter. Lots of heady big-concept fun, in short.Roy would probably say it started when he solved the Fermi Paradox, when he achieved (his word) clarity.
The closest thing we get to a returning narrative lies with Rich, a writer in London who becomes entangled with The This, the interface hardwired into his brain.Īs Roberts’ book progresses, the idea widens until we are faced with intergalactic communication and parallel universes. Comradery is formed amongst soldiers only for their lives to be snuffed out in minutes. People ask fewer questions when offered something for free.Īs The This jumps through time, we see a worrying glimpse of humanity’s future – the futility of being human in a technologically advanced war. What do we sacrifice for the chance to be part of something – our privacy, our sense of self? The This is the latest tech company with cult-like status, to the point where its users no longer resemble themselves – and beyond, to threatening individuality as we know it. Narratives that question our reliance on AI and technological advances are a staple of storytelling, from The Matrix to Ready Player One and Two, 1984 and a multitude of others.
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