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Wendy E Gamble
a rough-cut book bubble about
Shoot for Earth: MedSci Missions 3
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Author Insight
The Future of Bees
My book club is having me read The History of Bees, by Maja Lunde. While the writing style is lovely, and the point that we need to treat our bees properly instead of killing them with pesticides is poignant, I do object to the opening chapter. The novel opens in 2098 with a horde of people laboriously hand pollinating flowers. Really? In 2098? Even today, we have drones, and AI, and artificial brushes-and real feathers that would work. What was the author thinking? Or not thinking? Yes, she drove home the point that we on Earth are killing our bees and it will cause humans a lot of trouble. We do need to save the bees, for their sake and the sake of the rest of nature, but I can in no way imagine the future looking like that, even without bees. The excerpt this week is from a passage written for an alien planet, but we could do the same on Earth. Certainly by 2098!
Book Excerpt
Shoot for Earth: MedSci Missions 3
The orchard stretched as far as the eye could see, and farther than the miniaturised AI controlled camera could sense. In a world where all the sentient bi-beds were referred to as mini-Tasa, or Tasla-min around the galaxy, the tiny mechanical bees were relatively large. By Earth standards they were tiny, smaller than the average honey bee. The did there job though.
With grand efficiency, the micro-drone-bees flitted around, tickling flowers with fibres idealised for the job. The tiny appendages worked with the artificial intelligence within and without to co-ordinate the pollination of each and every blossom that existed. Coupled with the larger spraying drones, and irrigation system, they brought a bountiful fruit year after year to mini beings who received them through flaps in their protective mobile suits.
The bipeds never left the suits. It wasn’t clear if they even could.
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