Original scientific paper
Time constraints in digital data storage (Alastair Reynolds: Slow Bullets)
Ottó Beke
; The Hungarian Language and Literature Department at the University of Novi Sad
János Samu
; The Hungarian Language and Literature Department at the University of Novi Sad
Anikó Novák
; Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi sad
Erzsébet Csányi
; Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi sad
Abstract
Knowledge, cultural and personal memory is increasingly being associated with digitally stored data. The formation and self-representation of individual identity is similarly happening in a largely computational environment, including social media sites and online social networks. Accordingly, we are presented with profane eschatological promises linked to technological advancement, such as immortality in this world and an eternal conscience, but encompassing all those optimistic interpretations of the digital revolution that concentrate only on the positive aspects. Alastair Reynolds’s 2015 science-fiction novel, Slow Bullets, aims to raise awareness of the time constrains and potential vulnerabilities of digital data storage and transfer. The narrative is reduced to the enclosed space of a single spaceship, thus subjecting the outside world (both as an interconnected ecological system and as the “universe of data”) to the danger of total annihilation. Among others, Reynolds’s novel stresses the importance of implementing and reinforcing a mindset where media may be used and criticised thoughtfully and deliberately.
Keywords
Reynolds; Slow bullets; digital; erasure; science-fiction
Hrčak ID:
247750
URI
Publication date:
13.12.2020.
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