"Peter F. Hamilton - A Night's Dawn Companion - The Confederation Handbook" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Peter F)

piracy which forms the vast majority of deep-space crime and, given the lack of
supralight communications, is the most successful. With the maneuverability of
mercenary ships (see Starships,page 57 ), even a two-minute response time is often
inadequate. Apart from voidhawks, few navy starships could jump to the aid of a ship
under attack within a quarter of an hour.

Two




Edenist Culture
The term Edenist derives from the first bitek habitat to be germinated: Eden. It was
germinated in Jupiter orbit by the JSKP (Jovian Sky Power Corporation) to provide a
dormitory and engineering support facility for its He3mining operation within the gas
giantтАЩs atmosphere. The affinity bond had just been discovered by Wing-Tsit Chong,
and all sub-sentient bitek organisms were implanted with a symbiont neuron so that
they could receive direct instructions from a human.
 Affinity is a silent voice, also capable of carrying a sensorium, similar to classic
telepathy. Between individual Edenists it has a range of about 100km. A bitek habitat
can receive from and communicate with other habitats, bitek organisms, and Edenists
over a 100,000km range. With 4,250 mature habitats orbiting Jupiter, these provide an
affinity zone, or relay, across the whole Jovian moon system. The combined Jovian
habitatsтАЩ affinity can communicate with the habitats orbiting Saturn, no matter what
their relative orbital positions, and also contact voidhawks within NeptuneтАЩs orbit (see
later for voidhawk affinity ability).

Until 2065 affinity bonds were unique, allowing one person to control just one
servitor animal. This was accomplished by using a pair of cloned symbiont neurons,
one of which was implanted in a humanтАЩs brain, the other in the servitor, providing
the user with a kind of telepathy.

Such an arrangement was obviously impractical for controlling an entity as vast as a
habitat, so Eden itself was given a neural strata which would be sentient, allowing it
to regulate and control all its own functions. Wing-Tsit Chong contributed to the
project by developing the habitatтАЩs thought routines, and by modifying affinity to
provide a communal affinity symbiont allowing everyone to converse with both the
habitat and each other. He then went on to incorporate the affinity neural architecture
into a gene sequence which could be spliced into a fetus, giving a child the same
ability from birth. Those children were the first to grow up in this unique
environment, sharing their thoughts with each other and with Eden. While not entirely
eliminating negative traits such as jealousy, such an atmosphere conducive to honesty
and trust greatly reduced them. A hint of what was to come . . .

Without informing the JSKP or the other geneticists involved in the project, Wing-
Tsit Chong also designed EdenтАЩs neural strata with the capability to receive and run a
dying personтАЩs thoughts and memories, thus allowing his or her personality to live on
after the bodyтАЩs death.

Wing-Tsit Chong was the first person to transfer his memories into the neural strata,