"Modesitt,.L.E.-.Flash" - читать интересную книгу автора (Modesitt L E)

"That will take between eight and ten weeks at current data-flow
levels."

"Takes what it takes," Yenci replied. She turned and left the stasis
chamber.

No response was required.

Whether the captain liked it or not, the body was thereЧdead. Life
takes people where it will, not where they will. That's what Bagram
Wills said more than a century ago. Analysis of history and records
would indicate that it is as true now as it was then. People can
control what they do and how they act, but they do not control the
effects of what they do. The effects spill onward and outward, like
ripples in a pond, if they're fortunate, or like the nearly unseen wave
of a tsunami, if they're not. For all that, life is not a river, nor a wide
ocean.

The universe is infinite and endless. Life is not, even though it
cannot be described accurately in any analytical fashion. People
employ comparisons or analogies or metaphors. They fail as well.
They use analytical systems and logical tools. Such systems can
replicate thought, and some few reach awareness, but neither the
rational and aware nor the irrational and unaware can describe life.
People have always searched for meaning, and all too many grasp
at beliefs that will allow them to deny that life, however extended,
modified, and preserved, remains most finite. "A flickering candle
against the span of the universe," according to Wills.

So are systems, even the most intelligent, even those fully self-
aware.



Chapter 3



I'd just come out of the fresher, clean with the feeling that you only
get after a hot, hot shower following good, sweat-producing
exerciseЧlike my morning run through the Boulder greenbelt.
Tuesday was the day I went for speed. After the flashback I'd had,
that speed helped, but the extra exertion left me panting by the
time I went into the weight room, both for the weights, and for other
exercises. Once I'd finished, as usual, I dressed in dark green and
black, black trousers and waistcoat, with a long-sleeved, wide-
collared green shirt. Cravats were back, Aliora had told me several
weeks ago, offering her sisterly fashion advice, but I only wore a
cravat and jacket when I met clients in person.