Shoresteading

'''Brin, David. "Shoresteading."' In Gateways''. Ed. Elizabeth Anne Hull. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2010. "A Tor Book" Festschrift in honor of Frederik Pohl.

"Shoresteading" is set on a fairly near-future, and quite plausible, Earth with significantly raised sea levels and is relevant here for its marvelous (and witty) near-future Terran machines and a harder-edged set of alien machines. Central to the story are two alien machines with important messages for humans — but at least one machine may be lying. Especially nifty human-made devices include body augmentation in the cyborg/cyberpunk tradition (e.g., 81), robot penguins (40 f.), and a mini-sub that looks and moves like a sea serpent and travels with the story's hero in its figurative, but also rather literal, belly (77 f.). Reviewed by Ellen M. Rigsby, SFRA Review #294, Fall 2010: 15.

Rigsby summarizes a key plot element, with the main character finding "an artifact that turns out to be an alien AI who wants the people of earth to tell his story and make more copies to pass on as he was passed on — a viral chain letter complaining about the futility of civilization. In return the AI will give earth the technology to replicate and send to more like artifacts with its message." However, "[...] there are other such 'artifacts' from competing civilizations offering competing messages and technologies to transmit their message." Appropriately for a tribute to Frederik Pohl, "The notion of an alien artifact producing great wealth comes out of Gateway, probably Frederik Pohl's most famous book (and, of course, the source of the title for the Festschrift).

RDE, Initial Compiler, 08/IV/11, 26Dec18