Tangle in the Dark - Kassidor

pious crewman and can carry out his duty in spite of getting alittle too carried away with what he's finding.""Colonel Bancour, what does he think he's seeing?"She compressed her lips but replied, "Some alien artificiallife form in the information domain.""I see," Kelvin said."But I really don't think that belief is interfering with hisability to carry out his duties.""Alfred, what is the possibility of life in these bodies?"Kelvin asked."Liquid-water carbon-chain biology is nearly impossible.It would have to be a very high technology of very smallcreatures. They would have to be incredibly advanced to bedumping their waste heat somewhere we don't see it. At thesame time, biology is impossible on Gordon's Lamp, but arewe life?""Yes Colonel, of course we are, and I see your point, theremay be life but it won't be biology.""At least it won't be protoplasm," Alfred said."There is no energy out here," Heymon said. "The poweravailable from starlight is so low that they couldn't generatevisible photons. Information flow can occur only because thecondensates are superconducting and superfluid. Any heat atall would kill them and even the tangler beam probablycarries more heat than they want to deal with.""Is computation possible in this domain?" he asked Ava."Yes, there has been work done on this since the year264