The virgin & the bad boy (Gravity)

Apndx 1: Notes and Queries for Gravity/The Bad boy and the Virgin

Hi my name is Scarlett and I'm here to interview the authors RK Adam's and Rebecca Moreue. 

"so RK. I am sure you're dying to tell us this, what is the big idea behind gravity." said Scarlett. 

"I'm glad you asked me that that." RK began. 

Scarlett smiled "well it was the underlined one at the top of the list of questions you gave me to ask you. " 

"quite a so." RK Began "you see gravity came out of our response to 'I'm a cyborg's pet'. In that book we explored the idea of a robot takeover. While we were researching a book we came across a lot of texts suggesting that the robot Apocalypse would never happen. What they is suggested as far more likely was the possibility of robots taking over all productive work. So we became interested in writing a book which looked at the opposite side of the coin. What happens if robots never take over. In practice this is set in the same universe as cyborgs pet but a few hundred years after Jenny successfully leads the human revolt to take control back. You could assume that if is that ever happened people would never build a robot again. That was I think the plot behind Frank Herbert's Dune but you have to read a lot of the extra text to get that."

"Many people said we don't know what a world where there is no work for people to do would be like. I said to RK we know exactly what it would be like, it would be like the world of Jeeves and Worcester by P.G Woodhouse." Rebecca said.

RK Jumped in "Jeeves and Wooster is set in the 1920s and 1930s. It's about I'm upper-class idiot called Worcester and his much smarter manservant called Jeeves. Worcester is just an upper-class drain on society, he does nothing. However, he manages to do nothing in such an amusing way it is one of the greatest books ever written. I would certainly recommend it to all our readers. So Gravity is partly a tribute to Jeeves and Wooster. Except updated for a world where we have humans and the robots to do all the work."

"Conversations about robots doing all or most of the work tend to identify the fact that at that point the economy would collapse because there would be no people around with money to be able to pay for products that the machines producing," Rebecca said leaning back. " Many people are now talking about the notion of a Universal Government income." 

"It's not the first time this has happened. The Romans introduced a subsidy to all the breadmakers and Potters in Rome. This was to protect them against cheaper Gaulish imports from around the rest of the Roman Empire. Pretty soon the populace realised they could just live off the subsidy and not do any work at all.   Suddenly keeping the population entertained became the primary job of all the semi-elected politicians. Giving rise to things like the Colosseum in Rome. Obviously, the Roman Empire lived off the backs of slaves. However ethically they felt fine about this as we do living off robots. So the idea of large numbers of people living off a state subsidy it's real possibility for the future. And it's the role of science-fiction to explore the outcomes of these ideas."

"Hence Gravity" Scarlett. 

 "We wanted to Think about what world like that would be like. Schools seem very interesting. Governments have always extended the school  age as a way of dealing with youth unemployment. It seemed natural then, to have people going to school as some kind of mandatory activity. However, the need to do well would become less and less important. After all with no positions available to people with higher levels of skill what's the point of developing those higher levels?  Our theory was that you would get a few people who would still learn for the sake of it and as a way of relieving boredom. Secretly Dante is one of these people. To comprehend thisTo comprehend this strange world we needed somebody who enters in with our perspective."

Scarlett smiled "which is where I come in Yakwim". 

Yes, that's right you, Scarlett, come from Mars a place where people still have jobs. She is there, you are there to bring the readers perspective into this." RK said "what we hadn't really thought about was what it would be like for someone from Mars to arrive on Earth. People from beyond the earth who had grown up on Mars would never know things like the Sea, or free air, all living without something keeping the air in. Spontaneously you emerged as this fantastic way of looking at the everyday world seeing things for the first time like sunrises. We liked that a lot." 

"Equally IO became a fantastic way of looking at natural thought. This collision of naive with the sophistication what has really reflected a lot of writing from the 1930s. For example the Great Gatsby. The parties  the decadence all reflected this era." 

"and it wouldn't be a good book about that era if there wasn't the rise of something like fascism in the background. I think we Forget how natural that all was. In retrospect you wonder how someone like Hitler could come to power. You wonder how people would fall for someone blaming everyone's problems on someone or something else. So it seems natural to have a figure in the background of the book rising to prominence. But the rise to prominence is driven by, not evil, but someone desperately trying to make a difference and being confronted by moderately incompetent but well-meaning people trying to oppose them." 

"So the Aunt is the symbol of moderate incompetence. And the ultimate threat to mankind." 

"we will find out more in the final book." Rebecca said "if we can ever sit down and write it."

[ MORE TO COME ]