Los Altísimos

Los Altísimos

Hugo Correa

Hugo Correa's “Los Altísimos” (1951), is one of the first books of science fiction of Latinamerica, in which the author describe an alien world like if this were more advance technologically (Poland). Through the story the protagonist and the reader star to discover the reality fragment by fragment, not knowing the whole truth of all till we arrive next to the end of the book.

Like many others of the same genre, “Los Altísimos” goes developing an end that you can know in advance, in which the protagonist can't do anything to change their destiny.

We are now in a “futuristic” world where people don't interact one each other but for work issues or to satisfy their biological needs, in which the figure of possession of a person (like in husband and wife) doesn't exist, and so everyone can do whatever they want with whoever they want, and so one day you can choose a sexual partner and the next day you choose a different one. Nonetheless you are forbidden to have some kind of partner in life (girlfriend, wife, whatever).

All the adventures happen in a planet that it was designed by some “Lords”. This planet is made itself of other planets, one tinier than the other, conserving the gravity constant in all of this planets. Also, you can go from one to another, and if there exist some danger, these planets can lock up to defend themselves. People doesn't born like in our days, letting a machinery to deal with all of this. Also, the “controller” can manipulate the DNA of people, to satisfy the needs of the world and make them better in all senses (the ones they believe). Also, this world function at perfection, having all the needs satisfied for human, and so they can do what they have to do.

Even though the androids don't appear in this story, where the human kind don't play to be gods, they must pay their “sins” condemned to live in this perfect world prison.

Are we advancing the right path of doing this a better place to live, changing ourselves to people with no feelings, without the possibility to do what we more want? Till what point do we must sacrifice ourselves as individuals for the common well? Evolution, is it always positive, even though the human loose the ability of being a human being?

Of course, there's much more in this book I'm not telling you, but that's because, and making the difference to the other reviews I've made, I want you to read this one. It's different, it's our, and make you think in a different way than the others.

Super-Toys Last All Summer Long

Super-Toys Last All Summer Long, Super-Toys When Winter Comes and Super-Toys in Other Seasons are the stories in which is based the film A.I. Artificial Intelligence. The stories tell about a future world in which humanity depends on machines for everything. Even though the world is overpopulated people live their lifes lonely. Because of the overpopulation, the government has decided to control the birth rate in a lottery.
So the main story is about David and the way he lives his life and tries to find out what he is, real or not.


We are place in the future, no one cares for the rest because they are to focus in themselves. The world is overpopulated and the food's not enough for everyone, but that's not a problem to the ones who can afford it, eating much more than they need without looking fat because of the Crosswell Tape, a parasite tape-worm that process all the food the host eats in excess. The houses can be manipulated to show whatever you want in walls and windows, letting you think there's much more space than what really is, and taking you to the place you want to be.
Also you can find androids that can perform different activities, like helping with the kids, in the house, etc. Particularly, the different industries are working in create the more advance one, changing the metallic parts for organic ones and adventuring with real thinking brains instead of computers in the head. So, the objective is to produce real human beings.



The characters that give life to the story are David, his mother Monica Swinton and his father Henry. David is a little kid of three who struggles to feel love by his mother. They don't get to have a connection between, and poor David suffer because of that. He has a little friend called Teddy. Teddy is a intelligent and very mobile Teddy Bear which function is to accompany David. 
Henry is the hard working man too focus in his company to be there to his family, letting all responsibility of the child to his wife. He has build a powerful position in the industries.
Monica is... special (kind the hated character)... She lives her life the way she knows not caring about the others, concern in herself, just like society teach her to. But she don't get to David and it looks (to me) that she doesn't really care about that, well, at least when she read the letters that's when she released what he feel.

David as long as the story continue change his original question from "why my mon doesn't love me" to "am I real". So we can see David at the beginning trying to write letters to his mother expressing what he feels for her to open Teddy to discover if he (Teddy) is real or not as long as himself.
The mother doesn't change as long as we move on the story, at least not significantly.
Henry, the man who once got everything he wanted, now in the final step of the story sees himself almost ruined, with no wife, with no David, all alone. So he start looking for David and take it with himself to "transform it", letting the reader know or now showing a new face of Henry, the one of a person who loves.


So, let's think... is this world so different from the one we are making, letting aside all the technology, of course. We prefer to ignore the suffering looking in the other side, just like Monica does. We prefer to live in our comfortable houses just like her.
We are in the future, and the future doesn't look so pretty as we would want it to be. People has transform it to some dark place.
We need a David, an innocent child to make us smile, to make us feel once more.

Just as in the other stories, we ask ourselves once more the same question, what's a human being? In this case, David ask himself is he real?. Well, what is to be real? Are we real just because we are made of flesh, because we think, because we have soul? Can David have a soul even though he is not made of flesh or have a brain? If we transform to David to something more advance, or as in other stories, to an android made of organic materials. Even if we could reproduce ourselves, with bones, flesh, blood, a brain, make it think and feel, give it all the attributions or qualities we have, can it be real? Can it be a human?
Is something like that less than us just because it didn't born but was made of?
I believe David can be much more real than a lot of people. In the same story, just because of the fact that David cares, I would say is more real than Monica.
To me, David is one of us. Maybe, greater than us.