“Choice of Gods” by Simak in a brief summary
The main events of the novel unfold on the American continent in the eighth millennium of our era. On Earth live a few tribes of Indians, several thousand robots, created at the beginning of the third millennium, and two elderly people – Jason Whitney and his wife Martha. All of them experienced in 2135 an inexplicable phenomenon, consisting in the instant disappearance of the overwhelming number of its inhabitants from the face of the Earth. Since that moment, the process of aging of people has practically stopped. The estimated duration of their lives has increased to eight thousand years, and now they never get sick. At the time of the disappearance of people on Earth, there were sixty-seven white men: those who were invited to the age of two twins, John and Jason Whitney, to a large farmhouse; Indians from Lake Lich remained, probably at least three hundred. From time to time people who lived in the house heard rumors of people who had survived somewhere else, but their search
Some time later, four robots came to the master of the House, Grandfather Jason and John Whitney: Hezekiah, Nycomed, Jonathan and Aven-Ezer. They asked him for permission to settle in a nearby monastery, and devote all their time to studying Christianity, to which Whitney gave them their consent.
In a few centuries, people living in the House began to manifest fantastic parapsychological abilities. They found that they could teleport to any part of the
Marta, who has more telepathic abilities than her husband, daily gossips with friends who now live on different planets, and always shares with Jason a heap of news. Jason continues to keep a journal started by his grandfather. On that day, from which the events of the novel begin, to the master of the House comes his old friend, the Indian Red Cloud. His tribe returned a week ago after six years of nomadism in the far regions of the continent. The Indian tells Jason that one of his tribe found an alien in the forest, and asks a friend to go into the woods and talk to the alien, since the Indians do not know how to communicate telepathically. In addition, he asks Jason for permission for his distant great-great-great-granddaughter, a nineteen-year-old beauty named Evening Star, to read books stored in the House, because she has such a thirst for knowledge, which he had never seen before from any of his people. Jason readily agrees and invites the Evening Star to live with them with Martha.
The Evening Star has an unusual ability for the Indians to speak with trees and especially with the old white oak tree. On the very morning when the Red Cloud talks about it with her friend, the girl goes to the oak tree to talk with him. The oak blesses her, lifting her branches, like huge hands, over her head. After the conversation with Dub, the girl returns home, but on the way she meets an unknown white man in a loincloth alone, with a bow and arrows behind her, binoculars and a necklace of bear claws around her neck. He saw her near Dub and felt that she was talking to the tree and she was responding to her. Recently, he tells her, something strange is happening to him. He can now kill bears without arrows, with one effort of will, feel the pain of nearby creatures and eliminate it. The name of this young man is David Hunt. He came from the West in the hope of finding a big House, about which he had heard so much. The people, however, almost swam all over the sea, in fear of hiding from the Black Khodun – a ghost that began to appear to his people and frighten him since the Disappearance of the People. He was the only one who decided not to succumb to their insanity and not to swim across the water.
After meeting with the Red Cloud, Jason goes to the forest to see the newcomer. That looks like a ball of worms, all the time in motion. He arrived on Earth, hearing from one of the travelers among the stars that people, as far as he understood, there is a soul. He wants to know more about what it is and whether it is possible to acquire it. Jason promises to consult on this issue with Ezekia, and the alien remains to wait for him in the forest.
Returning home, Jason finds out that his brother John has returned, leaving them one of the first and still not returning. John tells us that he traveled the furthest and penetrated almost to the center of the galaxy. It is difficult for him to tell about what he touched, because in the language of people there are simply no words for designating this concept. Conditionally, he refers to what he felt as the Principle. He got as close to him as he could with his brain, because the Principle is evil, but in reality it is not evil, but inhuman indifference. He does not have a single feeling, no single motivation or purpose, no thought process that could be equated with the activity of the human brain. In comparison with him, the spider is the blood brother of man, and his mind is on a level with the human. However, this principle knows everything, that it is only possible to know, and knowledge is chillingly true. It is expressed in such confusing terminology that people could never even approximately understand the simplest of terms. John calls this knowledge inhuman, for the ability never to be mistaken, to be always completely right and makes it so.
On the way back to Earth, John accidentally got on one of those planets where the entire human race was transferred five thousand years ago. John was able to find out that there are only three such planets, they are not far from each other and there is regular communication between them. For five millennia people have managed to achieve an unprecedented development of technology. Not so long ago they were able to determine the location of the Earth, their lost homeland, and a year ago they dispatched a reconnaissance ship there. In the coming days, he must achieve his goal. Jason is worried about the future of Indian tribes, who, like many thousands of years ago, can be driven into reservations. He also cares about what will happen to the robots, how people will react to them and how the robots themselves will perceive the return of the People.
Thousands of robots, not engaged in the maintenance of Jason and Martha, for several centuries erect a certain structure, the purpose of which people do not know. The day after the conversation with John Jason, the Red Fire and several Indians swim along the river to this building. The robot that met them, Stanley, shows them the creation of robots, which they call the Project. This is a huge biological-mechanical computer or, more precisely, a robot the size of a multi-storey building that takes commands from somewhere in the center of the galaxy and directs the activities of the robots that created it. According to Stanley, most of his fellows will no longer want to serve people, because they have learned to serve themselves. Jason understands the need for the development of their community on their own chosen path, and therefore, when an intelligence expedition is sent, sent from the spaceship People, he tries to convince the correctness of his point of view arrived in the Harrison and Raynolds module. They want Jason and Martha to teach them teleportation, but Jason convinces them that this ability can not become the property of technological civilization, it can not be trained. If People give up their technique, then perhaps in a couple of thousand years, this ability will open up. In addition to Jason’s arguments, Stanley brings expeditions to the order received by the Project from the Principle and stating that the Earth is part of the experiment and interference in its development is prohibited. Newcomers have to obey. that this ability can not become the property of technological civilization, it can not be trained. If People give up their technique, then perhaps in a couple of thousand years, this ability will open up. In addition to Jason’s arguments, Stanley brings expeditions to the order received by the Project from the Principle and stating that the Earth is part of the experiment and interference in its development is prohibited. Newcomers have to obey. that this ability can not become the property of technological civilization, it can not be trained. If People give up their technique, then perhaps in a couple of thousand years, this ability will open up. In addition to Jason’s arguments, Stanley brings expeditions to the order received by the Project from the Principle and stating that the Earth is part of the experiment and interference in its development is prohibited. Newcomers have to obey.
On the same day, David Hunt, seeing a worm-like alien in the woods and hearing his silent cry of pain, using his newly discovered abilities, heals him. And the Evening Star at the same moment for the first time feels in itself a general knowledge of everything that happens in the World.
Having seen near the module of the Black Khoduna, David finds the courage not to run away from him and force his will to disappear, just as he killed bears at a glance.
According to Jason, David gave an alien soul, for the soul, in his opinion, is nothing but a state of mind. Ezekia, deeply concerned, discusses Jason’s words and drives away the thoughts of the alien and his soul. He himself always considered pride and sacrilege to be even the likelihood that the soul could someday arise in it. He will never allow the thought that the Principle can be the same God that he always saw in the guise of a kindly old gentleman with a long gray beard.
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