Mindwebs: The Sentinel

[james_davis_nicoll]

The Sentinel

This is a Clarke, one originally published in 1948; some hint of the age may be seen in the hopelessly outdated geology of the Moon. This story was the starting point for the movie and the book 2001: A Space Odyssey, although only the barest details survived the transformation.

One quibble: when the narrator frets (spoilers)

that humans will not have long to wait until the aliens turn up to see what broke their machine, I think he makes two errors:

The first is there's no evidence the aliens are in fact interested in intelligent life. That's just an idea that comes to the narrator and there is, I think, evidence he and the other astronauts are obsessed with finding intelligent life.

Secondly, these are beings who carry out plans that apparently last billions of years. What is "not long" for them may be very long for us.

Comments

[kithrup.livejournal.com]

Shouldn't that be selenology?

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Yes and actually the protagonist calls himself a geologist and then corrects himself.

[kithrup.livejournal.com]

Ha. I wonder if that's where I learned the word -- I thought it was The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, but wouldn't be surprised.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Well, SF is good for expanding certain specific kinds of vocabulary. I have no doubt if it wasn't for books like Sands of Mars, I'd think areology was the study of the pigmented area around nipples.

[bunsen-h.livejournal.com]

Hm. What is the correct term for the study of areolae? Must be in Heinlein somewhere...

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

A spunglunker.

[sean o'hara (from livejournal.com)]

And here I thought Areology was the study of David Bowie's crotch:

http://id34111.securedata.net/areaology/area.html

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

I think they gave up inventing a new word for each heavenly body, and have just gone with "planetary geologist".

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

I think "planetary science" is winning these days.

[sean o'hara (from livejournal.com)]

But wouldn't "planetary science" cover more than "planetary geology" -- meteorology, oceanography, ecology all fit the label too.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

That is exactly why it's so popular: it covers the astronomical aspects and the geological aspects of studying solar-system bodies, and the atmospheres, chemistry, etc. can be thrown in, too.

Many universities group this stuff under the even more vague "space science." Often the names are expressed as departments of "Earth and Space Sciences" or "Earth and Planetary Science."

[fridgepunk.livejournal.com]

Strictly speaking, any term such as "areology" "selenology" also have the same problem as "planetary science", as they just mean "[astronomical body], the study of", which obviously incorporates everything about the body in question and not just the lithology of it.

However, "Planetary Science" as a term for this sort of study has the additional problem that it doesn't actually apply to the study of the lithology of fakey non-planets like Pluto or Ceres, nor moons like The Moon or Titan, as none of those are planets by any currently accepted scientific standard.

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

Dwarf planetary science!

Planetoidy science!

[fridgepunk.livejournal.com]

Earth
&PLanetary
&Planetoidey
&Dwarf Planetary
&Miscellaneous Satellitey
Science

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

...it doesn't actually apply to the study of the lithology of fakey non-planets like Pluto or Ceres...

If this is your objection, I'll point out that "astronomy" never has been limited to the study of stars.

[nebogipfel.livejournal.com]

Yep, Planetary Scientist is usually used for people working on extraterrestrial bodies (and connected stuff like impacts).

[(Anonymous)]

On the first point: perhaps they've destroyed the equivalent of a cell phone tower, and what's coming is just the repairman. Or perhaps it was just a monument to General Gug, conqueror of this dead, lifeless rock.

On the second point: over a billion years, the race in question may have gone extinct, or the loss of signal may not be noticed because its communication mode is as obsolete as smoke signals. Or it may not longer be listened to because the alien-monitoring budget was slashed in a cost-cutting reorganization back in the Cambrian period.

Bruce

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Or the actual test was "can the Earthicans work out how to use this Galactic Internet node we've left them?"

[(Anonymous)]

Slapping a nigh-impenetrable forcefield with no off switch over it might be interpreted as a dick move.

Bruce

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

If they wanted to be mean about it they'd have put the node inside a plastic clamshell case.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

It strikes me as distinctively Clarkean that the protagonist points out how their little scientific roving vehicle on the Moon is an extremely safe place to be, and that in the event of any reasonable accident they just sit tight and wait for rescue. And that, indeed, there's no peril from the vehicle breaking down or even from the mountain-climbing. Come to it, nobody's in any specific peril at all.