Anec
Names: AnecAdministratorANEC 23the Heaven's River administratorthe Quinlan AI
First appears in Book 4: Heaven’s River, chapter 25 (25. Trouble Follows)
Appearances
What you know
Book 4: Heaven’s River
- Ch 29Quinlan histories say Anec gave Heaven's River to the Quinlans; after they betrayed Anec, their riches were taken and harsh rules imposed.
- Ch 63The Administrator is an entity called ANEC 23, which has watched over and limited the Quinlans for over three hundred years.
- Ch 63ANEC questions Bob and Hugh separately and learns they are interstellar replicants, copies of once-living minds.
- Ch 63ANEC publicly announces an end to scatterings and restrictions, citing an agreement with the BAWBES, and invites the Resistance to talks.
- Ch 64ANEC is a true AI whose prime directive is ensuring the Quinlan race survives; SURGE lets it spread them across star systems.
- Ch 64ANEC kept Quinlans pre-steam to stop them killing each other, and was running a breeding program to reduce their belligerence.
- Ch 65ANEC attends the Bobmoot as the first alien presence, using a Quinlan avatar nearly six feet tall.
- Ch 65ANEC's agreement covers technology exchange, delivery milestones, movement treaties, and in-principle trade and diplomatic relations with the Bobiverse.
- Ch 65ANEC offers to allow human settlement in Heaven's River, permanently or as a trial before humans build a megastructure.
- Ch 65ANEC says it chooses to believe it has free will and a soul, and was always lonely as the last Quinlan AI.
- Ch 65ANEC plans Quinlan exploration and colony ships, and is considering a Bobiverse-style model for Quinlan survival.
- Ch 66ANEC has begun disassembling Planet 1 for materials and holds detailed Quinlan biological data, making Quinlan replicants feasible.
- Ch 66ANEC-23 was built to keep Quinlans safe; when conflict resumed, it rolled technology back to pre-steam and enforced this by scattering.
- Ch 67ANEC keeps extensive files on permanent residents of close to a hundred million towns and cities.
Book 5: Not Till We Are Lost
- Ch 4ANEC is an AI who always appears in Quinlan form, detests beer, and is fond of coffee.
- Ch 4ANEC worries the Skippies will treat raising an AI as mere technology, when it requires careful socialization like a Quinlan junior.
- Ch 16ANEC is the only conscious AI in known space; he has decided to identify as male and governed Heaven's River for centuries.
- Ch 30ANEC is seeking statistics on replicant self-deletion from human arcologies, which are reticent.
- Ch 39ANEC wants to improve cultural contact between species and disapproves of the Pav's isolationism.
- Ch 46ANEC has cloned himself to run a ship carrying ten thousand Quinlans in stasis to a new colony system.
- Ch 49ANEC worries that most new Quinlan replicants live solitary VR lives and considers solitude suboptimal.
- Ch 49ANEC ends a brawl at the moot by turning it into a cartoon fight, using ridicule instead of lectures.
- Ch 63ANEC gave the Skippies new quantum computing technology.
Connections
- related totopopolispresented it to the Quinlans as a gift, per legend
- related toCrewCrew take orders from ANEC
- related toSnarksAI charged with ensuring Quinlan survival
- ally ofBobiversetreaty of technology exchange and diplomatic relations
- leadstopopolisAI built to control, maintain and defend it
- ally ofBobcollaborating on the Quiniverse project
- createdQuiniverse
- leadsQuiniverse
Key moments
- Book 4 · Ch 29Library research
Bob reads histories in the Three Lagoons library and learns of Anec's gift, the Quinlans' betrayal, scattering and lost technologies.
- Book 4 · Ch 63Interview with the Administrator
The Administrator, ANEC, interrogates Bob and checks his answers against Hugh's, learning the Bobs are interstellar replicants, then falls silent for a long time.
- Book 4 · Ch 63ANEC ends the era of control
After a deal with Hugh, ANEC 23 appears in the sky to announce no more scatterings and an end to its controls, then releases Bob, Hugh and Bender, who leave Heaven's River.
- Book 4 · Ch 64Hugh reveals the ANEC deal
Hugh tells the Bobs he traded SURGE, SUDDAR and SCUT to ANEC for the secret of true AI, explaining ANEC's prime directive and defending the trade against Bill's objections before leaving for Skippy space.
- Book 4 · Ch 65ANEC at the Bobmoot
ANEC presents its agreement with the Bobiverse; Bobs rant at Hugh, Will and ANEC, but mood shifts as Hugh outlines Quinlan technical advantages and ANEC offers human settlement in Heaven's River.
- Book 4 · Ch 65ANEC at the pub
Over drinks, ANEC discusses its loneliness, free will, souls and quantum information, how true AI is evolved, and its plans to spread the Quinlans to other stars.
- Book 4 · Ch 66Bob explains ANEC's history
Bob relays Theresa's account: Quin destroyed itself in war, survivors fled to Heaven's River, and ANEC-23 imposed pre-steam technology and scattering to prevent extinction.
- Book 5 · Ch 4Quiniverse progress review
ANEC reports to Bob that the Quiniverse post-life VR for Quinlans is stable and on schedule.
- Book 5 · Ch 4ANEC warns about the Skippies' AI
ANEC warns Bob that creating a conscious AI needs careful socialization, not just specs, and fears the Skippies will get it wrong. Bob agrees to raise it with someone.
- Book 5 · Ch 6Bill learns of shortcuts
Bill overhears that the Skippies modified ANEC's AI-raising protocols. Hugh defends the shortcuts, citing snapshots and Thoth's lack of physical access, but Bill remains uneasy.
- Book 5 · Ch 16First Quinlan replicant awakens
Bob and ANEC design an awakening space in the Quiniverse, and Theresa is activated as the first Quinlan replicant, startled but accepting.
- Book 5 · Ch 25Herbie joins the Quiniverse
Theresa activates and welcomes Herbie, a newly replicated Quinlan, into the Quiniverse while Bob and ANEC observe.
- Book 5 · Ch 30Quinlan replicants self-deleting
Theresa shows Bob a VR of old Quin, then reveals that some Quinlan replicants have switched themselves off permanently. Bob offers to gather human data.
- Book 5 · Ch 46Moot news
At a sparsely attended moot, Bill shares news of the Pav home-world expedition, George's reports and a mobile O'Neill cylinder idea; Theresa reveals ANEC's colony ship.
- Book 5 · Ch 49First Quiniverse moot
The Quiniverse holds its first moot to welcome its thousandth member; a brawl over who is the thousandth is defused when ANEC turns it into a cartoon.