''Bloom'', written in 1998, is the fifth
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
novel written by
Wil McCarthy. It was first released as a hardcover in September 1998. Almost a year later, in August 1999, its first mass market edition was published. An
ebook reprint was published in 2011.
''Bloom'' is one of Borders' "Best 10 Books of 1998" and is a
''New York Times'' Notable Book.
The premise of the book is how to handle human technology that has evolved beyond human control.
Plot summary
''Bloom'' is set in the year 2106, in a world where
self-replicating nanomachines called "Mycora" have consumed
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
and other planets of the
inner Solar System
The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...
, forcing humankind to eke out a bleak living in the
asteroids and
Galilean moons. Two groups of humanity are described—The Immunity, who use "
ladderdown" technology and
augmented reality and live on the moons of Jupiter, and The Gladholders, who use human
intelligence amplification
Intelligence amplification (IA) (also referred to as cognitive augmentation, machine augmented intelligence and enhanced intelligence) refers to the effective use of information technology in augmenting human intelligence. The idea was first pr ...
and
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...
and live in the asteroid belt. The story begins on
Ganymede with an article about a "bloom", or outbreak of Mycora, that serves to emphasize the danger and horror of this technogenic life (TGL). The article is written by Strasheim, the primary narrator character. He is first seen in the office of Chief of Immunology Lottick, the effective ruler of Ganymede, who has called him there for an unknown purpose.
Lottick tells Strasheim that the Mycora have apparently been stealing or assimilating human designed defensive nanotech and may soon develop resistance to the coldness of the
outer Solar System
The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...
, which incites concern. It is planned to send mission to drop TGL detectors onto the polar ice caps of Mars, Earth, and the Moon, and Lottick asks Strasheim to go along as a
reporter. For the longer term, a starship is being constructed to colonize other star systems before the Mycora.
Strasheim agrees, and goes to meet the other crew-members and inspect the ship, which is called the ''
Louis Pasteur''. The ship is technologically camouflaged to protect the crew against Mycora. A terrorist attack releases a Mycora bloom in the hangar, killing one crew member and forcing the others to launch the ''Pasteur'' and escape—departing three weeks earlier than planned, and without adequate supplies.
Because of their forced launch, the ''Pasteur'' docks at Saint Helier, a medium-sized Floral
asteroid of the Gladholders to pick up supplies. While there, they are surprised by the culture multiple times, but what shocks them most is that the asteroid's inhabitants have apparently discovered, through powerful telescopes, human life on both Earth and Venus, co-existing with the Mycora.
The "Pasteur" is pursued by ships of the Temples of Transcendent Evolution, a fringe political/religious group that believes the Mycora are divine, investing large sums of money in researching them.
Searching for ways to defend themselves against the Temple ships, the crew discover that the mission has a somewhat more violent purpose than they were led to believe. The "detectors" they have by this time dropped on Mars, Earth, and Luna can actually be repurposed as "cascade
fusion
Fusion, or synthesis, is the process of combining two or more distinct entities into a new whole.
Fusion may also refer to:
Science and technology Physics
*Nuclear fusion, multiple atomic nuclei combining to form one or more different atomic nucl ...
" devices.
Shaken, the crew continues on their journey, but become aware that one of the crew is sabotaging the mission. The saboteur turns out to be the Mycorea specialist Baucum, with whom Strasheim has developed a personal relationship. She is secretly a member of the Temples of Transcendent Evolution, and after being discovered, Baucum ruptures a storage bag inside herself that had been carrying spores of Mycora. Terrified, the crew responds, with Strasheim himself shoving her out an airlock before the Mycora now consuming her can also devour the ship.
It is determined that the mission's actual purpose was to use the detector/bombs to establish small footholds on the three planetary bodies, but it occurs to Strasheim that if such a device were detonated in the Sun, a massive blast of laddered-down iron would wipe out most Mycoran life in the inner Solar System. Several of the Temples' ships that have chased them since Mars, are now desperately attempting to destroy the ''Pasteur'' against this possibility (The ''Pasteur'' is heading toward the Sun to get away from the Mycosystem via an out-of-plane slingshot, but the action could have been construed differently by Temples' agents.).
Having discovered this possibility, the crew decide not to pursue it, but instead transmit the existence of this potential weapon back to the outer Solar System. As a result of the energy of this high power transmition the Mycora break through the hull of the ''Pasteur'', blooming, and unexpectedly assuming the form of a pseudo-human spokesperson. It transpires that the Mycora is
sapient and without ill-will toward humans. Communication is brief but paradigm-shattering. The ambassador explains that the majority of persons consumed during the destruction of Earth or on the evacuation out-system was incorporated into the Mycosystem and are still alive in some sense, their consciousness and intelligence adjusted to run on the cellular-automata-like Mycora substrate, or "Unpacked". The crew is given information on how to mark areas as off-limits to the Mycosystem. They are told that humanity is, "...Utterly free. Free to conduct your lives in the classical manner, to escape this solar system, to populate the stars. Free to Unpack, if you choose."
The book ends almost thirteen years later, with a description of how the captain of the ''Pasteur'' has been diagnosed with a terminal disease and requests that Strasheim (now a successful media magnate) be his witness as he joins the Mycora.
[McCarthy, Wil: ''Bloom'', Del Ray Books, 1998]
Characters
* John Strasheim – The main character. Works as a
cobbler
Cobbler(s) may refer to:
*A person who Shoemaking, repairs, and sometimes makes, shoes
Places
* The Cobbler, a mountain located near the head of Loch Long in Scotland
* Mount Cobbler, Australia
Art, entertainment and media
* The Cobbler (1923 ...
on Ganymede, but is also a very good amateur journalist. It is the latter skill which causes him to be selected for the journey to the Earth.
* Vaclav Lottick – Introduced as the most powerful man in the Solar System, he is the head of research for the Immunity and the man who invites Strasheim on the mission to Earth.
* Darren Wallich - Captain of the ''Louis Pasteur'', has had a "tickle capacitor" implant, which makes his personality seem more likable.
* Tosca Lehne – Another crewmember. One of the inventors of the t-balance, which coats the outside of the ''Pasteur'' with the purpose of making it appear to be part of the Mycosystem.
* Jenna Davenroy – A nuclear engineer in her 40s. She is the ladderdown expert on the ''Pasteur'' and also its chief propulsion monitor.
* Tug Jinacio – A Response lieutenant, responsible for handling emergencies on the ''Pasteur'' (ex. fire, bloom, etc.) Killed in the hangar bloom.
* Renata Baucum – Bioanalyst on the ''Pasteur'', who turns out to be a traitor. Killed when she ruptures the Mycora hidden within her and Strasheim blows her out of an airlock.
* Sudhir Rapisardi – Coordinated the design of the TGL (technogenic life) detectors that the ''Pasteur'' will place on the Earth to monitor the Mycora. Is the biophysicist on the ''Pasteur''.
* Chris Dibrin – sent by the Governor to show the ''Pasteur'' crew around Saint Helier. He has an artificial intelligence implanted into his brain that enables him to think faster.
The ''Louis Pasteur'' Spaceship
Named after
Louis Pasteur the French microbiologist and chemist, the ship is described as being very small and having an unusual external covering invented by Lehne called the t-balance.
According to Strasheim, the ''Pasteur'' is "like a bathroom with seven shower stalls and a streetcar cockpit wedged incongruously at one end, a utility closet wedged in the other." Rather cramped quarters for a crew of seven going on a voyage that will take about two years.
The purpose of the t-balance is to convince the Mycora that the ship is part of it by means of tactile camouflage. It is described as a gleaming rainbow gray colored coating that appeared to be made up of millions of minuscule dots, each of which also appears to be made up of millions of tiny dots, and so on. The t-balance also gives off the illusion that the dots are moving. Unfortunately for the ''Pasteurs crew, although the t-balance should work in theory, it has not yet been tested because the only way to do so is by surrounding it with Mycora.
Places
* Ganymede: Where the story begins. It is one of Jupiter's moons and home to people who are protected from the Mycora by the Immunity.
* Ansharton: A large city on Ganymede where Lottick's office is.
* Philusburg: A smaller city on Ganymede where Strasheim and his mother live.
* Galileo: The city/base/port where the ''Pasteur'' is docked on Ganymede.
* Saint Helier: A Floral asteroid where the Pasteur docks to stock up on supplies.
Terms/Organizations
* Immunity: A defensive system used by the people on Ganymede (as well as those on the other outer planets) to keep spores of Mycora from invading. Also a term used by people under its protection to refer to themselves.
* Ladderdown: System of
converting elements into other elements further down the
Periodic Table. As a result of using this system, the inhabitants of the Immunity have a plethora of high-numbered elements lying around. For example, they have so much gold they use it to weigh down their shoes and pave the streets.
* Mycora: A substance that appears to be
grey goo
Gray goo (also spelled as grey goo) is a hypothetical global catastrophic scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating machines consume all biomass on Earth while building many more of themselves, a sce ...
, but is in actuality a type of technogenic life form created by humans that escaped their control and began consuming everything around it. It has also evolved from its original state and adapted to an environment where there is nothing left to consume. Throughout the book,
Conway's Game of Life
The Game of Life, also known simply as Life, is a cellular automaton devised by the British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970. It is a zero-player game, meaning that its evolution is determined by its initial state, requiring no furthe ...
is used as an imperfect example of how the Mycora operates.
* Temples of Transcendent Evolution: Originally formed on
Callisto Callisto most commonly refers to:
*Callisto (mythology), a nymph
*Callisto (moon), a moon of Jupiter
Callisto may also refer to:
Art and entertainment
*''Callisto series'', a sequence of novels by Lin Carter
*''Callisto'', a novel by Torsten Kro ...
, it is an organization that invests large sums of money into research about the Mycora. They are spiritually inclined and believe that the Mycora is "a presence greater than themselves".
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bloom (Novel)
1998 novels
American science fiction novels
Cellular automata in popular culture
Novels by Wil McCarthy
Del Rey books
Self-replicating machines in fiction
Augmented reality in fiction
Fiction about main-belt asteroids
Novels about artificial intelligence
Hive minds in fiction
Cyborgs in literature
Fiction set on Ganymede (moon)
Religion in science fiction
Nanotechnology in fiction
1998 science fiction novels