Hegira (novel)
Encyclopedia
Hegira is a 1979 science fiction
novel by American writer Greg Bear
(ISBN 0-7592-0684-8). It deals with themes including cyclic time, artificial intelligence
, artificial life
, and artificial structures of planetary scale.
, which has habitats for several species on its surface. Those habitats are protected and uncoupled from the universe's entropy by means of forcefields projected by giant obelisk
s. In the human realm these are inscribed with the recorded history of humankind, sorted chronologically from the bottom up, including the science that went with it. People try to understand and copy what they can read on the obelisks, using balloons in some places to reach higher points on the obelisks.
A legend tells the protagonist that his beloved (frozen in stasis) will awaken if he goes on quest to the rim walls of the habitat, so he does. On the way he lands on an island with a good view of an obelisk (at least 1000 miles high) which is just tumbling down in the distance. Its fall causes a tsunami
and devastates a continent. After the devastation, the inscriptions at the top of the fallen obelisk about human history are revealed. The hero's quest to the rim succeeds. He makes contact with an AI
guardian of Hegira who tells him the story and advises him to go and populate the new universe, having become part of the last one.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel by American writer Greg Bear
Greg Bear
Gregory Dale Bear is an American science fiction and mainstream author. His work has covered themes of galactic conflict , artificial universes , consciousness and cultural practices , and accelerated evolution...
(ISBN 0-7592-0684-8). It deals with themes including cyclic time, artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
, artificial life
Artificial life
Artificial life is a field of study and an associated art form which examine systems related to life, its processes, and its evolution through simulations using computer models, robotics, and biochemistry. The discipline was named by Christopher Langton, an American computer scientist, in 1986...
, and artificial structures of planetary scale.
Plot summary
In the novel, "young" humans (i.e. recreations of the medieval originals) are transported through the Big Collapse at the end of time to seed the next cycle of the universe. They are transported to Hegira, an artificial environment of the scale of JupiterJupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
, which has habitats for several species on its surface. Those habitats are protected and uncoupled from the universe's entropy by means of forcefields projected by giant obelisk
Obelisk
An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top, and is said to resemble a petrified ray of the sun-disk. A pair of obelisks usually stood in front of a pylon...
s. In the human realm these are inscribed with the recorded history of humankind, sorted chronologically from the bottom up, including the science that went with it. People try to understand and copy what they can read on the obelisks, using balloons in some places to reach higher points on the obelisks.
A legend tells the protagonist that his beloved (frozen in stasis) will awaken if he goes on quest to the rim walls of the habitat, so he does. On the way he lands on an island with a good view of an obelisk (at least 1000 miles high) which is just tumbling down in the distance. Its fall causes a tsunami
Tsunami
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...
and devastates a continent. After the devastation, the inscriptions at the top of the fallen obelisk about human history are revealed. The hero's quest to the rim succeeds. He makes contact with an AI
Ai
AI, A.I., Ai, or ai may refer to:- Computers :* Artificial intelligence, a branch of computer science* Ad impression, in online advertising* .ai, the ISO Internet 2-letter country code for Anguilla...
guardian of Hegira who tells him the story and advises him to go and populate the new universe, having become part of the last one.