The Robot Is Running Away From the Trees

Dowling, Terry. "The Robot Is Running Away From the Trees." In Rynosseros.

See for an AI robot and the question of whether it is true life. Note talk of "noosphere" and the "concept of the haldanes," juxtaposed with a negative reference to Ned Ludd and the Luddites (59). Unless "haldanes" is a term in Australian English, the allusion would be to John Scott Haldane (1860-1936) and/or his son J[ohn] B[urdon] S[anderson]. Haldane (1892-1964): scientists, evolutionary theorists, and philosophers; "noosphere" is an idea of the theologian Pierre Teilhard De Chardin, here described as "the ancient concept of the noosphere, of a mantle of life-energy surrounding the Earth, fed by dead souls, discorporated entities" (59)—which the robot, dying in such a way as to save to lives of trees, may add to (thereby proving "he" was alive). (RDE, 27/06/94)