Erg Hyperion
Encyclopedia
In Dan Simmons
' Hugo Award
-winning science fiction novel Hyperion, the first in the Hyperion Cantos
series, Ergs are quasi-telepathic sentient
(but not sapient) silicon-based life forms discovered around planet Aldebaran which generate and control extreme force-fields.
In the same series, Ergs are used to propel Templar Treeship
s. The ergs also generate the containment fields (force fields) around the tree that keep its atmosphere intact. It is implied by the author that the Templars have devised some way of communicating with the ergs.
One of the characters of the novel - Templar Het Masteen takes along an erg secured in a Mobius Cube to the Shrike pilgrimage. Masteen intended to use the erg to pilot Shrikes Tree of Pain, using the erg as a containment for the Tree. As Masteen failed to do this, the Erg was then used by the Keats second retrieval persona to tamper with the Shrike itself, in an effort to save the baby Rachel was then carrying.
Dan Simmons
Dan Simmons is an American author most widely known for his Hugo Award-winning science fiction series, known as the Hyperion Cantos, and for his Locus-winning Ilium/Olympos cycle....
' Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
-winning science fiction novel Hyperion, the first in the Hyperion Cantos
Hyperion Cantos
The Hyperion Cantos is a series of science fiction novels by Dan Simmons. Set in the far future, and focusing more on plot and story development than technical detail, it falls into the soft science fiction category...
series, Ergs are quasi-telepathic sentient
Sentience
Sentience is the ability to feel, perceive or be conscious, or to have subjective experiences. Eighteenth century philosophers used the concept to distinguish the ability to think from the ability to feel . In modern western philosophy, sentience is the ability to have sensations or experiences...
(but not sapient) silicon-based life forms discovered around planet Aldebaran which generate and control extreme force-fields.
In the same series, Ergs are used to propel Templar Treeship
Dyson tree
A Dyson tree is a hypothetical genetically-engineered plant, capable of growing in a comet, suggested by the physicist Freeman Dyson...
s. The ergs also generate the containment fields (force fields) around the tree that keep its atmosphere intact. It is implied by the author that the Templars have devised some way of communicating with the ergs.
One of the characters of the novel - Templar Het Masteen takes along an erg secured in a Mobius Cube to the Shrike pilgrimage. Masteen intended to use the erg to pilot Shrikes Tree of Pain, using the erg as a containment for the Tree. As Masteen failed to do this, the Erg was then used by the Keats second retrieval persona to tamper with the Shrike itself, in an effort to save the baby Rachel was then carrying.