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"Human beings hardly ever learn from the experience of others. They learn; when they do, which isn't often, on their own, the hard way."
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![]() In this Hugo award-winning novel, Jack Vance creates a world that combines low-tech organic decadence with technology that is capable of taking humanity to the stars. The aristocrats make use of non-sentient (or barely sentient) creatures from various worlds to support their lifestyle.
In a helpful footnote, Vance gives us the details on the power-wagons:
Power-wagons, like the Meks, originally swamp-creatures from Etamin 9, were great rectangular slabs of muscle, slung into a rectangular frame and protected from sunlight, insects and rodents by a synthetic pelt. Syrup sacs communicated with their digestive apparatus, wires led to motor nodes in the rudimentary brain. The muscles were clamped to rocker arms which actuated rotors and drive wheels. The power-wagons, economical, long-lived, and docile, were principally used for heavy cartage, earth-moving, heavy tillage and other arduous jobs.
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