https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23197269-aurora (slight spoiler warnings after the main ideas section)
- found this recommended when researching generation ships for generation ship visual novel game
- interesting writing style influenced by the narrator’s worldview
- very metanarrative-esque, which I always think is fun
- interesting worldbuilding design - preserving wilderness and nature is not something i considered
main ideas
beginning
- narrating humanity’s experience aboard a generation ship enroute to a new solar system, tau ceti - primarily following the story of the chief engineer’s family, and how the immense responsibility on her impacts their lives
- exploring how different cultures live and develop aboard the ship across varying biomes
- exploring the ethicalities of the last Earth generation condemning their descendants to being “trapped” on this ship - a home, a world, an island, a rat cage
- exploring the science and technology required to sustain a population of 2,000 for nearly 200 years
- the mental struggle of living on such a ship - the tradeoff between needing to maintain perfect balance in the ecosystem , and people feeling like they have no control over their lives, or privacy
- the deterioration of the ecosystems, health problems accumulating after generations
- Also on the side exploring the limitations of the algorithms that the ship’s AI learns from - how to break down a narrative into algorithms, how you cannot… second todo
interesting ship details
(possible spoilers)
- 24? biomes, comprehensively preserving different biomes from earth
- two rings rotating about a spine for coriolis force
- 3d printers for replacing ship parts
- can print dna and bacteria too
memorable quotes
- “in the infinite black space of ignorance, it is as if stands as the basic operation of cognition, the mark perhaps of consciousness itself. Human language: it is as if it made sense.”
- “We will either see what comes next, or we won’t. And we don’t get to decide.”
- Zeno’s paradox?