‘The sea levels rose. The population retreated inland. Between the roofs and roads, there was no room for countryside.’ To avoid that future, we in the west would have to give up some comforts – get rid of the second car, turn the heating down. How much would you be willing to give up to preserve the environment for future generations?
Without a direct, frequent connection to nature, have we lost something that makes us human?
‘These things trouble him, but they make him what he is.’ Without our memories, would we be the same people?
‘Sharing makes the pain go away.’ Think of an unhappy experience in your own life. If somebody could take it away, would you agree to that?
‘There’s something wrong with me, except it doesn’t feel wrong.’ How far would you conform to other people’s opinions in order to be liked? How far would you stick with being different if it might cost you your friends?
‘Horses are lifeform 3,’ In the novel, animal lifeforms are ordered according to their significance to society. What order would you put them in?
‘The Lost Lands management takes keen interest in the punters.’ With all the social networking and filters, are humans losing their privacy, free will and identity?
If we have software to help us make decisions, does that give us more scope to be individuals or does it make us more alike?
Bods are designed so that their greatest wish is to serve. If somebody values your happiness above their own, does that excuse you taking advantage of them?
Isaac Asimov wrote his famous laws of robotics:1 A robot may not injure a human, or through inaction allow a human to come to harm.2 A robot must obey orders, except where such orders would conflict with the first law.3 A robot must protect its own existence, so long as this does not conflict with the first and second laws.Is it inevitable that a creature created to obey these must be a slave?
Is Lifeform Three science fiction or fantasy? Can it be both? Which of these categories would a fairytale belong to?
‘This at last makes sense of the wildness in his heart.’ If you had to give up everything else, what’s the one spark that would keep your soul alive?
Contact me for your book club – RozMorrisWriter at gmail dotcom
Lifeform Three 