In a message dated 1/27/2004 8:21:55 PM US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> Dear William: > > I dont share your enthusiasm for this plot twist you say DB is planning. I'm enthusiastic in the fact that I don't know what the plot twisr will be, if there will be one, or if in fact our good Dr. didn't merely build in a possible twist just to see if it would get noticed. In > > fact, given what I know about it the plot-twist seems more ugly than 'oh-so > deligihtfully clever'. > > Indeed, if Andromeda and the Milky Way get severed from the main part of > Galactic Civilization, it arguably makes Earth's "misplacement" not more > plausible, but less so! Again, misplacement, or a bribe to be misplaced? We don't know yet. But I tend to believe in the Clarke Hypothesis. Against the Fall of Night parallel. (A.K.A. steal from the best.) Earth was left alone to be set up as a wolfling nursery. > > My first literary option would be non-explaination. The Highlander folks > never tell us where the swords are sheathed and Brin will just avoid > explaining how Earth got "lost". That's a Piperism. H. Beam Piper wrote in a lot of possible angles that were never used. Like how the Federation/Empire stories _could_ be tied together with the Paratime stories. > > My second choice would be a simple explanation. > > 1) about 2 billion years ago the GIM surveys Earth. It (barely) has an O2 > atmosphere and its highest life-forms are algal mats. Earth is a > terraforming candidate. Worse it is located in a terrible neigborhood. > There are few transfer points, hyperspace is full of currents, and only > lower > levels are accessible. > > 2) Therefore, the GIM cannot find anyone who wants to lease Earth and it > doesn't bother to survey the place again. Unlikely. Ya gotta at least check for sooners every 500,000 years. > > 3) The GIM goes back and checks its records. It runs some simulations. > Earth > is not alone. Galactics start to re-survey other planets like Earth. They > worry about an epidemic of wolflings. But their whole philosophy is based upon the premise that wolflings are rare, un-natural, un-couth, and not worthy of being admitted into the 'brotherhood' of Uplift. ...or so we are told. > > Nevertheless, I will add more timeline points about the loss and rediscovery > > of Galaxies in the Sundering-Knitting cycle noting when the Milky Way is > lost > and re-discovered. > Speaking of knitting, I eventually hope to write a short story where I rip a Voltaire into the fabric of space and time. Charles Fort got it wrong. We are not property--we're Prime Time. William Taylor _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
