It’s the twenty-ninth century and everything in our galaxy has changed. Most of all, the galactic hierarchy has changed: there are beings superior to humankind that, despite evolving from the human race, are more accomplished and more powerful than humans. Secondly, the beings that have evolved the most are virtually immortal, because they are able to make use of ‘manifestations’, which, in approximate terms, are biological, nanomatic and virtual incarnations, giving them unlimited potential for existence. Thirdly, travelling about the cosmos is no longer a problem, because space is now subject to non-gravitational modelling. Fourthly, power is concentrated in the hands of the creatures gifted with the highest intelligence. So is this the perfect universe? It’s ideally imperfect, answers Dukaj. This world has been created by humans striving for security, in other words an existence free from fears of death, illness and war. However, instead of an immortal body, these incarnations have been invented, and instead of tolerance and mutual respect there are galactic governments run by the highest intelligence. Reason has proved to be a life force jostling for supremacy, but supremacy is still rooted in biological adaptation. Where have we heard that before? Yes, of course – Dukaj’s novel is saying the same thing as our contemporary philosophers, which is that genetic experiments will lead to the birth of ‘post-human’ beings. But Dukaj also says that over the next thousand years, humans will have to delve inside the genes and logical structures that make up the mind, because the cosmos –as Darwin taught us – is subject to the law of evolution; those who fail to adapt will perish. So either humans will transform themselves, or else they’ll fall to the rank of slaves. The anti-utopian tone of the novel is increased by the deliberate linking of evolution with money and power. In short, the future belongs to the rich, who will be able to buy themselves wisdom, and to the intelligent, who will know how to climb up the Evolutionary Curve. Meanwhile, a gulf will grow between the feudally organised aristocracy and the democratic rabble, who do not desire things they cannot have, but rather that which the kitsch of the future can supply. The story is set at the end of the third millennium, but as we can see, Dukaj supplements it with some developments of contemporary themes, including the issue of globalisation, i.e. events we are all constantly surrounded by.The author calls its sequel ‘cosmologisation’ – the gradual, systematic acquisition of the universe by higher beings, i.e. those who are richer and more powerful. All in all, the book can be read as a novel that tells us about a world that is in sight just around the corner of the present day. This world will entail: ‘the end of mankind’, because it will create a ‘replaceable’ being; ‘the end of geography’, because it will offer the opportunity for virtually unlimited space travel; and finally ‘the end of illusions’, because it will bury faith in the idea that freedom and the achievements of civilisation are for everyone. In Dukaj’s world only the powerful are not afraid of illness, old age, injury or assassination, and it is only the powerful who are not bound by any spatial limitations. The fabulous new world lies spread at their feet. The rest play ball on the beach. They have the sand and the sunset for free – for now. So here we are, it is the twenty-ninth century and everything in our galaxy has changed – and stayed the same.
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