Calculating God (Robert J. Sawyer) читать бесплатно онлайн полную версию книги

Robert J. Sawyer Calculating God

AUTHOR’S NOTE

The Royal Ontario Museum really exists, and, of course, it has a real director, real curators, real security guards, and so on. However, all the characters in this novel are entirely the product of my imagination: none of them are meant to bear any resemblance to the actual people who currently hold or in the past have held positions at the ROM or any other museum.

COMPLETE FOSSIL SKELETONS ARE RARELY FOUND. IT IS PERMISSIBLE TO FILL IN MISSING PIECES USING THE RECONSTRUCTIONIST’S BEST GUESSES, BUT, EXCEPT FOR DISPLAY MOUNTS, ONE MUST CLEARLY DISTINGUISH THOSE PARTS THAT ARE ACTUAL FOSSILIZED MATERIAL FROM THOSE THAT ARE CONJECTURE. ONLY THE AUTHENTIC FOSSILS ARE TRUE FIRST-PERSON TESTIMONY OF THE PAST; IN CONTRAST, THE RECONSTRUCTIONIST’S CONTRIBUTIONS ARE SOMETHING AKIN TO THIRD-PERSON NARRATION.

— Thomas D. Jericho, Ph.D., in his introduction to Handbook of Paleontological Restoration (Danilova and Tamasaki, editors)