3001 - The Last Odyssey

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3001 - The Last Odyssey (English original title: 3001: The Final Odyssey , published 1997) a science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke . It is the fourth and final book in Clarke's “ Space Odyssey ” cycle, which he began with 2001: A Space Odyssey some 30 years earlier. 3001 is the last novel to be published by Clarke alone.

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3001 follows the experiences of astronaut Frank Poole , who was killed in 2001: A Space Odyssey by HAL 9000 . Poole's body is found by the comet tugboat Goliath in the Kuiper Belt , beyond Neptune's orbit , after being drifted through space for a millennium. Since the freezing to near absolute zero had preserved it well enough, it can be revived with the help of the advanced medical technology of the time. He begins to explore the earth of the year 3001 and encounters things like the BrainCap , German cerebral helmet , (a technology that allows a direct connection between the human brain and computer), genetically engineered dinosaurs as livestock and four huge space elevators that are driven by a Earth- spanning space station are connected in geosynchronous orbit . Mankind has now also colonized the moons of Jupiter, Ganymede and Callisto .

In the 26th century, the monolith (it was named TMA-0 ) was found in the Olduvai Gorge in Africa , which had given the impetus for the intellectual development of mankind. The monolith TMA-1 , originally found on the moon, was brought to earth in 2006 and set up in front of the UN headquarters in New York .

In the further course of the story it is revealed that the monolith TMA-2 , which was found in the orbit of Jupiter in 2010 - The year we make contact , sent a report to its "superior" 450 light years away and now the The arrival of orders for further dealings with humanity is imminent. (The report takes 450 years to get there and the orders another 450 years to return.) Apparently the monolith was authorized to destroy the resulting biosphere in the atmosphere of Jupiter during the events described in 2010 , but requires the approval of a higher one set authority to wipe out technological civilization on earth. There is considerable concern that the judgment based on the monolith's observations in 2001 will be negative. The entire human race could then be willfully wiped out, as happened to the inhabitants of the atmosphere of Jupiter (discovered by David Bowman there) when the latter imploded under the influence of monoliths to form a second sun (“Lucifer”). Frank Poole succeeds in persuading Bowman and HAL, who exist as a newly created common consciousness ("HALman") as part of the monolith, to close the monolith with a computer virus from the Mons Pico high security warehouse for chemical, biological and cybernetic weapons infect to avert the possible disaster.

Indeed, as feared by the people, the monolith receives the command to destroy humanity and begins to reproduce many millions of times. The resulting multitude of monoliths form two shields, which shield the earth and its colonies from the vital light and heat radiation of the sun and Lucifer. This is intended to bring the entire biological life cycle on earth to a standstill. However, since HALman had infected the monolith with the virus at the beginning of its replication, the monoliths in both shields (together with TMA-0 and TMA-1) dissolve after fifteen minutes.

HALman is able to transfer its combined personalities to a holographic storage medium with a petabyte capacity in good time and thus survives the destruction of the monolith. However, since it infected itself when the virus was transmitted to the monolith, it is stored in Mons Pico .

Obviously the creators of the monoliths, which long ago evolved into disembodied beings, observed humanity and decided to decide on their fate only in the "last days".

At the end of the book, Poole lands on Jupiter's moon Europa as part of an expedition to establish peaceful contact with the primitive inhabitants there.

Differences between 3001 and the earlier books in the cycle

The representation of the monoliths differs significantly from the earlier books in the cycle. In 2001 in particular , the monolith was able to transmit messages at faster than light speed and was also generally presented less as a threatening, but more as a thinking being than is the case in 3001 . Dave Bowman's transcendent experience of being transformed into the star child is explained there as a sophisticated uploading to a computer. (An explanation which is nevertheless entirely plausible according to Clarke's third law .)

In 2010 , an apparition of Bowman made of dust appears in Discovery, warning Floyd that they must leave Jupiter within 15 days. Floyd has big problems convincing the rest of the crew, which would have been easier for him if he had had the video of the incident that Poole had in 3001 from Dr. Allister Kim is shown.

The 2010 epilogue of the novel entitled 20 001 contradicts the final disappearance of the monoliths described in 3001 .

In addition, some dates have been changed. The Soviet Union , which lasted well into the 21st century in the first three novels, collapsed in 1991 in the last novel . Frank Poole's year of birth is now 1997 and the Discovery mission described in 2001 has been postponed to the 2030s. The Leonov mission described in the novel 2010 even into the 2040s. (In the earlier versions, these two missions took place in 2001 and 2010, respectively.) Finally, Frank Poole notes that as early as 2020 mankind had unlimited vacuum energy available, while in the previous books the cold fusion described in 2061 was the highest represents developed energy source. (In particular, according to the new dating in 3001, the nuclear reactor with the Discovery's plasma drive based on it would have been obsolete a decade before construction of the ship began thanks to the use of vacuum energy.)

However, since the publication of 2010 - The Year We Make Contact , Clarke has consistently said that each of the novels from the Odyssey cycle takes place in its own parallel universe . This is evidenced, among other things, by the monoliths that still exist at the end of 2010 in 2001 and Floyd's disappearance from the trinity with Bowman and HAL, which is described at the end of 2061 - Odyssey III .

Possible film adaptation

For a while, Tom Hanks expressed an interest in filming 3001 . He would then have played and directed the lead role (Frank Poole). However, it is unknown if he will continue to pursue these plans.

References to other works by the author

Part of the novel takes place on a ring-shaped geosynchronous space station that is connected to earth by four space lifts . This corresponds to the vision in the epilogue of Clarke's novel Elevator to the Stars , but where the station has six instead of four space lifts.

literature

  • Arthur C. Clarke: 3001: The Final Odyssey . HarperCollins, London 1997, ISBN 0-246-12689-2 . (UK: English original edition)
  • Arthur C. Clarke: 3001: The Final Odyssey . Ballantine Books, New York 1997, ISBN 0-345-31522-7 . (USA: English original edition)
  • Arthur C. Clarke: 3001 - The Last Odyssey . VGS, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-8025-2559-0 . (German hardcover edition)
  • Arthur C. Clarke: 3001 - The Last Odyssey . Heyne Verlag , Munich 1999, ISBN 3-453-13671-3 . (German paperback edition)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 2001: A Space Odyssey: Awakening of Mankind
  2. ↑ Yahoo! Movies: 3001: The Final Odyssey ( Memento from October 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive )