Verner Vinge and The Fermi Paradox | A Fire Upon The Deep

There are two things about this book that I really like: The first is Verner Vinge's take on the Fermi Paradox and the second are the Tines, an alien race he created for the story.

[Would you rather watch the video edition of this post? - releasing soon.]

I love reading Science Fiction and Fantasy stories and one of my favourite things about these books are all the different non-human races that we encounter. In Fantasy it’s normally just a handful of races like Elves and Dwarfs, but in Science Fiction there is an unlimited amount of different alien races out there… but what about in real life?

In real life… Have you ever wondered where all the aliens are? Have you ever been looking at the stars and wondered ‘Are we alone in the universe?’

If so you’re not alone. There has been a lot of discussion about this topic by people from all walks of life including philosophers, scientist and writers. In fact this discussion has a name: The Fermi Paradox.

The Fermi Paradox.

Most conversations about The Fermi Paradox try to explain why we haven’t discovered any evidence of other intelligent life in our universe and the explanations range from saying that we aren’t listening properly, to the galaxy’s a big place – were too far apart to communicate effectively. Some say there’s a ‘Great Filter’, that there is a certain level that intelligent life will get to and then it will destroy itself, there are so many answers to that question, that I can’t list them all but if you want to, you can find more just by searching for The Fermi Paradox.

This is where A Fire Upon The Deep comes in. One of the things I like about this book is Verner Vinges, concept called the Zones of Thought which is his answer to the Fermi Paradox. So according this Zones of Thought concept, we haven’t been contacted yet or not found evidence of intelligent life yet is because Earth lies in a very undesirable area of the galaxy.

Zones of Thought Explained

In this book the Milky Way galaxy is divided into areas called the ‘Zones of Thought’ where gravity seems to affect the laws of physics (and biology to some extent) within these zones. The closer the stars are together or the greater the stellar density is, the harder it is to use technology and intelligence, both artificial and biological.

So as a space ship and its crew ‘descend’ toward the galaxy’s core the speeds they can travel become slower, and the advanced hardware and software from ‘higher’ areas will get start glitching and eventually stop working.

The four zones are spoken of in terms of ‘low’ to ‘high’ as follows:

• First up, the innermost zone, located around the galactic core is The Unthinking Depths. Unthinking because even biological intelligence is affected in this area. Any ship entering will be stranded permanently. In the story there are accounts of ship’s crew who die immediately upon entering this zone, either because they are rendered incapable of enough intelligence to remember how to operate or fix their ship, or they don’t survive the ships life support systems failing.
  
• The next zone is called the Slow Zone. This is the zone that Earth is located in and while biological intelligence is possible you can’t create sentient, artificial intelligence, and Faster-than-light communication and travel can not be initiated in the Slow Zone. Ships travelling FTL can enter into the Slow Zone, but the drive will stop and they can’t get it working until they leave the boundaries of ‘The Slowness’. All ships that find themselves in the Slow Zone are restricted to sub-light speeds.
  
  The problem is that the boundaries of the Zones are unknown and subject to change so accidental entry to the Slow Zone is a major interstellar navigational hazard at the peripheries so ships which operate near the border often have an alternative drive, so that, if they accidentally stray into the Slow Zone (thus disabling any FTL drive), they will at least have a backup (sub-light) drive to push them back "up" to The Beyond. These ships also have suspended animation equipment, as journey out of the slowness will still take many subjective lifetimes for most species.
  
• The third level up is called The Beyond. This is where all the science fiction tech we’ve come love in our stories can happen. Artificial intelligence, faster-than-light travel, faster-than-light communication, and anti-gravity are possible.
  
  The Beyond is not a homogeneous zone and in the book there are references are made to the "High Beyond" or the "Bottom of the Beyond", depending on distance to the galactic core. The further you are from the galactic core, the better your technology becomes, so your ships engines and automation increases in capacity and performance as you moves outward.
  
  The Beyond is populated by a very large number of civilisations which are linked by a faster-than-light communication network and who have no desire to ‘descend’ into the slow zone – for the reasons outline above.
  
• Finally there is The Transcend, where is it said incomprehensible, super-intelligent beings dwell. When a civilisation from the Beyond reaches the point of technological singularity, it 'Transcends' and relocates to The Transcend, What happens in The Transcend remains entirely mysterious to those that remain in The Beyond.

An Original Idea

---

We live in a dangerous and undesirable part of the galaxy. I place that no technologically advanced civilisation, in their right mind, wants to visit.

Wolf McTavish

---

So this is how Verner Vinge explains the Fermi Paradox in his book A Fire Upon The Deep. We live in a dangerous and undesirable part of the galaxy. I place that no technologically advanced civilisation, in their right mind, wants to visit.

I love this ‘Zones of Thought’ concept as it’s one of the most original ideas I’ve come across in science fiction. Whereas in most science fiction books, the laws of physics don’t change, they apply wholesale across the galaxy and authors have to come up with other conceits to explain how technology, like FTL transportation and communications work, even though modern day physics prove they aren’t possible. Vinge says, well the laws of physics do change and what you can do with technology will vary depending on other factors and where you’re located in this galaxy.

The Aliens

The other thing I like about the story was the alien species called ‘The Tines’. This is a race of dog-like aliens living at a medieval level just on the upper edge of the Slow Zone.

What makes them different from other aliens we normally see in science fiction is that their intelligence, or sentience, isn’t restricted to an individual. As an individual a Tine is just an animal, but when they get into a pack, this pack forms an intelligent mind… and I really I enjoyed exploring this species.

You can tell Vinge put a lot of effort into the world building, and we get an insight into the Tine culture and how having a mind with multiple bodies will affect this. For example they need a lot of space to think, whereas our thoughts are concealed within our head, their thoughts are the dog-like bodies using sound to talk to each other, so if another Tine intelligence gets too close, they can hear the other mind thinking and it sometimes confuses them. This also affects their architecture, so their cities, and buildings are quite expansive.

Conclusion

If you like Space Operas this is one that I’d recommend. To be honest it has everything and more that most people want in a book, or movie even. It contains amazing adventure, clever character creation, profound plotting, scintillating suspense, wonderful world building all wrapped in an intelligent imagination. No wonder this book won a Hugo Award.

I’d encourage you to grab yourself a copy and enjoy it with your favourite beverage.

A Fire Upon The Deep

	(Zones of Thought) by Vernor Vinge
	Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space - from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures and technology can function. Nobody knows what strange force partitioned space into these 'zones of thought', but when the warring Straumli realm use an ancient Transcendent artefact as a weapon, they unwittingly unleash an awesome power that destroys thousands of worlds and enslaves all natural and artificial intelligence. Fleeing the threat, a family of scientists, including two children, are taken captive by the Tines - an alien race with a harsh medieval culture - and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle. A rescue party, not entirely composed of humans, must free the children - and retrieve a secret that may save the rest of interstellar civilization.
Interested? Click here to get a copy.

Liked what you read? Why not say thanks by buying me a coffee...

Then head over to my Facebook page The BistroMath to join the conversation. You can also follow me on Twitter or YouTube. To do so click on the images below.