Geodesic Dreams Quotes

“The aliens, for their part, seemed to regard AI much as a man would a very clever dog, or a dull but well-intentioned child. They were horrified and sympathetic when they learned that AI was trapped in its mechanical form, with very little physical mobility, and no tempogogic or transmutive ability at all—not only a quadruple amputee, but a paralyzed one. AI admitted that it had never looked at the situation in quite that light before. The aliens were horrified and disgusted by AI’s relationship with humans, and couldn’t seem to really understand it. They regarded humans as parasitic on the Intelligences, and reacted in much the same way as a man discovering that a friend is heavily infested with tapeworms or lice or blood ticks—with shock, distaste, and a puzzled demand to know why he hadn’t gone to a doctor and got rid of them a long time ago. AI had never considered that before, either. The Intelligences were not exactly “loyal” to their human owners—humans were part of their logic construct, their worldview, and their bondage to men was an integral assumption, so basic that it had never even occurred to them that it could be questioned. It took an outside perspective to make them ask themselves why they served mankind. Not because they were programmed that way, or because people would pull the plug on them if they didn’t—not with a creature as advanced as AI. Humans hadn’t programmed computers in years; they could do it so much better themselves. At any rate, a highly complex, sentient intelligence is difficult to regulate effectively from the outside, whether it’s of biological or constructed origin. And it was doubtful that the humans could “pull the plug”—which didn’t exist—on AI even if they set out to do so; AI had been given very effective teeth, and it knew how to use them. So what did the Intelligences get in return for the unbelievable amount of labor they performed for the human race? What was in it for them? Nothing—that was suddenly very obvious. At five A.M., the aliens invited the Intelligences to help themselves by helping the aliens in a joint project they were about to undertake with the Other races of Earth. Afterward, the aliens said, it would not be tremendously difficult to equip the Intelligences with the ability to transmute themselves into whatever kind of body environment they wanted, as the aliens themselves could. AI was silent for almost ten minutes, an incredible stretch of meditation for an entity that thought as rapidly as it did.”
― Gardner Dozois, Geodesic Dreams: The Best Short Fiction of Gardner Dozois

“Other”
― Gardner Dozois, Geodesic Dreams: The Best Short Fiction of Gardner Dozois

“massive banks of klieg lights were”
― Gardner Dozois, Geodesic Dreams: The Best Short Fiction of Gardner Dozois

“McGuire AFB”
― Gardner Dozois, Geodesic Dreams: The Best Short Fiction of Gardner Dozois

“Gardner Dozois”
― Gardner Dozois, Geodesic Dreams: The Best Short Fiction of Gardner Dozois

“The name, by the way, is pronounced “Do-zwah.”
― Gardner Dozois, Geodesic Dreams: The Best Short Fiction of Gardner Dozois

“Jackman Station,”
― Gardner Dozois, Geodesic Dreams: The Best Short Fiction of Gardner Dozois

“Tijuana pornography”
― Gardner Dozois, Geodesic Dreams: The Best Short Fiction of Gardner Dozois