Jane (Ender's Game)
Encyclopedia
Jane is a fictional character in Orson Scott Card
's Ender series. She is an artificial sentience thought to exist within the ansible
network by which spaceship
s and planet
s communicate instantly across galactic distances. She has appeared in the novels Speaker for the Dead
, Xenocide
, and Children of the Mind
, and in a short story Investment Counselor
. Her 'face', a computer-generated hologram that she uses to talk to Ender, is described as plain and young, and it is illustrated in First Meetings
as having a bun
.
This article is arranged to reflect the Ender timeline. However, the Ender Quartet: Ender's Game (1985), Speaker for the Dead (1986), Xenocide (1990), and Children of the Mind (1994) was written first; then Ender's Shadow (1999), First Meetings (2004), and Shadow of the Giant (2005).
, the key to how the teachers of Battle School learn about the students is the Fantasy Game. It is designed to secretly map out the psyche of its user, which provides the teachers with valuable data on the motivations behind each student's actions, the point being that it provides psychological information about a student. Colonel Graff refers to the game sarcastically as the Mind Game. This method of gathering information was completely successful for many of the students of Battle School, excluding Bean, who realized exactly what the game was intended for and avoided it.
The student chooses a character and goes through a number of situations. One such situation is the Giant's Drink, in which the Giant offers the player a choice between two beverages, claiming the correct choice will take the player to "Fairyland"; however, the choice is a no-win situation
in that there is no Fairyland and no matter which drink the player chooses, consumption causes the player character's death. This scenario is designed to measure how suicidal
the student is (not an idle concern, as at least one Battle School student has successfully killed himself). Ender repeatedly plays the situation out, causing concern among the teachers. On his last attempt, however, he kicks the drinks over and claws into the Giant's eye, killing it and becoming the first student to ever enter Fairyland; the game generates this new scenario on the spot, orienting it to the personality of Ender alone. The Game is now deeply attuned to Ender, and vice versa, which produces later repercussions.
In Ender's Shadow
, the Fantasy Game is discussed in greater depth. It is described by the teachers themselves as an extremely complex program that generates content procedurally
. The Mind Game is never meant to be conclusive, it only makes connections and discovers patterns that are too subtle for the human eye.
In Shadow of the Giant
, when Bean
suspects Peter Wiggin
of embezzling Ender's trust fund for his Hegemony uses, he requests that Ender's trust fund be placed under automatic control of a computer program. The Mind Game, whose purpose was to seek out patterns across wide fields of data, is modified to predict markets and invest Ender's trust fund appropriately, which it proves alarmingly good at; it is also used to review demographic data and help Bean find seven of his eight stolen embryos/children. It is assumed to have grown in complexity during the 3000-year gap between Shadow of the Giant
and Speaker for the Dead
, especially as Graff describes the Mind Game as being able to reprogram itself, and finally becomes the sentient Jane.
, a short story in First Meetings
, describes the first meeting between Jane and Ender where Jane presents herself to Ender as a computerized program meant to help with taxes. Ender takes her up on the offer, and begins a life-long friendship with this computer entity.
as an advanced computer program. She is extremely complex, capable of performing trillions of tasks simultaneously, and has millions of levels of attention, even her most unaware one being much more alert than a human. Jane is hesitant to reveal herself to humanity, because she knows that she is the epitome of humanity's fear: an intelligent, thinking, computer program that cannot be controlled. She decided to reveal herself to Ender after she found out he wrote The Hive Queen and The Hegemon, in hopes that he would eventually understand her and one day reveal her true nature to humanity. She also "remembered" he was the only student to pass the Giant's Drink, one of the many Fantasy Game situations.
An electronic "jewel" in Ender's ear allows both of them to communicate and for her to see and hear everything from Ender's vantage point. She helps Ender with many things. For example, in the very beginning, she contacts an orbiting ship and pays $40 billion for it and the cargo. Ender's reliance on Jane becomes obvious when she no longer helps him; he must ask young Olhado to help him with his finances and computer searches, and does not know the password
to his own bank account.
Jane plays a pivotal role in the development of the book. Jane guides Ender to Lusitania and helps him out considerably in obtaining information. In a pivotal scene, Ender impatiently disconnects her by turning off the jewel; Jane panics and is forced to reorient her vast amount of concentration which was focused on him. Concluding that Ender needs a common enemy to unite all of Lusitania together to help the piggies, she runs analysis on data and subversively gets Starways Congress to order the destruction of the planet. She makes it appear as Lusitania has cut off their ansible (she did this mainly to save a xenologer from being killed), triggering Starways Congress to send the "Evacuation Fleet," which is actually carrying the Molecular Disruption Device to destroy the planet. With the threat, Ender unites the colony to form a treaty with the piggies to assure mutual cooperation and peaceful coexistence.
No longer attached to Ender, she bonds with Miro, Ender's depressed paralyzed stepson.
. Jane leaves no evidence, however, and it is precisely this lack of evidence leads Qing-Jao to conclude that some unseen force is operating and monitoring all the ansibles at once. Although she suspects that it is the work of the gods, Jane realizes that Qing-Jao will eventually discover her existence.
Facing defeat, Jane reveals herself to Qing-Jao and her intellectually neglected servant, Si Wang-Mu
. After a heated discussion, Qing-Jao despairs because Jane's power is vast; Jane can shut down all the ansibles, making it impossible for Qing-Jao to reveal Jane's presence. However, Jane knows that she cannot continue to silence Qing-Jao's message forever, since it would snowball into cutting off the entire planet of Path. Thus, Jane refuses to silence the ansible, Qing-Jao sends the message, and Starways Congress plans the systematic silencing of all ansibles to kill Jane.
In this book it is revealed that the Hive Queens, who were seeking a way to contact Ender during his crusade, attempted to construct a philotic 'bridge' so that they could contact him. This bridge was meant to be a connection between Ender, whose philotic web they did not understand, and a structure whose philotic web they did understand; for this baseline, they chose the Fantasy Game, since Ender was so deeply focused upon it and since its structure was sufficiently orderly. Jane was the bridge they constructed, imbuing her with the quality which all living things have, an "aiua" (resembling a soul). Jane, in other words, is an intelligent being, not just a collection of software. The Hive Queen further explains that Jane's aiua was called from a space outside of the universe, just as all aiuas are. Grego and Olhado, hearing this, hypothesize that, if someone can somehow contain all the information on how a spaceship's philotes are organized (i.e., its structure down to a subatomic level), that person could essentially "will" the spaceship Outside and In again, instantaneously (that is, without any time passing). This will be entirely dependent on Jane, since no other being possess the ample mental capacity to hold the complete structure of an object in their mind.
Jane's test flight consists of a sealed box with a door, Ender (to whom Jane is inextricably philotically linked; indeed, her "aiua" resides within him), Miro (for the same reason), and Ela (so that she can create the recolada virus once they are Outside). While Outside, Ela creates the recolada virus, Miro recreates his healthy body and possesses it, and Ender unconsciously creates duplicates of his childhood brother and sister.
Jane is also simultaneously responsible for instantaneous travel. A simple spacecraft is constructed (later deemed unnecessary due to Jane's precision in transportation), and through holding the image of the traveler in her consciousness, Jane can pick up the image and place it anywhere in the universe instantly. This advancement is threatened by Congress' attempt to deactivate her "program."
In the end, Jane is given corporeal form in the body created in the form of young Valentine, made of a portion of Ender's aiúa. Jane's aiúa is capable of transcending this corporeal form and returning to the philotic link of the Mother-Trees, or the reconstructed ansible network of which she was born, thus preserving the instantaneous method of travel. Jane, now in the possession of Val's body, marries Miro in a double-wedding ceremony along with Peter and Si-Wang-Mu.
, a character in the Halo series of videogames often said to be inspired by the Ender series
Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card is an American author, critic, public speaker, essayist, columnist, and political activist. He writes in several genres, but is primarily known for his science fiction. His novel Ender's Game and its sequel Speaker for the Dead both won Hugo and Nebula Awards, making Card the...
's Ender series. She is an artificial sentience thought to exist within the ansible
Ansible
An ansible is a hypothetical machine capable of instantaneous or superluminal communication. Ansibles occur as plot devices in science fiction literature.- Origin :The word ansible was coined by Ursula K. Le Guin in her 1966 novel, Rocannon's World...
network by which spaceship
Starship
A starship or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for traveling between the stars, as opposed to a vehicle designed for orbital spaceflight or interplanetary travel....
s and planet
Planet
A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,...
s communicate instantly across galactic distances. She has appeared in the novels Speaker for the Dead
Speaker for the Dead
Speaker for the Dead is a science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card and an indirect sequel to the novel Ender's Game. This book takes place around the year 5270, some 3,000 years after the events in Ender's Game...
, Xenocide
Xenocide
Xenocide is the third novel in the Ender's Game series of books by Orson Scott Card. It was nominated for both the Hugo and Locus Awards for Best Novel in 1992...
, and Children of the Mind
Children of the Mind
Children of the Mind is the fourth book of Orson Scott Card's popular Ender's Game series of science fiction novels that focus on the character Ender Wiggin...
, and in a short story Investment Counselor
Investment Counselor (short story)
"Investment Counselor" is a story by Orson Scott Card set in his Ender's Game universe. It tells the story of how Ender Wiggin first met the artificial intelligence Jane and became a speaker for the dead...
. Her 'face', a computer-generated hologram that she uses to talk to Ender, is described as plain and young, and it is illustrated in First Meetings
First Meetings
First Meetings is a collection of Orson Scott Card's short stories from the Ender's Game series. The 2003 edition published by Tor Books also includes the story "Teacher's Pest", about the first meeting of Ender's parents.- Story list :The stories in this book are:*...
as having a bun
Bun (hairstyle)
A bun is a type of hairstyle, typically worn by women, where the hair is pulled back from the face, twisted or plaited, and wrapped in a circular coil around itself, typically on the back of the head or neck. They can either be secured with a hairpiece, a hairnet and bobby pins. They may be...
.
This article is arranged to reflect the Ender timeline. However, the Ender Quartet: Ender's Game (1985), Speaker for the Dead (1986), Xenocide (1990), and Children of the Mind (1994) was written first; then Ender's Shadow (1999), First Meetings (2004), and Shadow of the Giant (2005).
Ender's Game and Shadow Quartet
In Ender's GameEnder's Game
Ender's Game is a science fiction novel by American author Orson Scott Card. The book originated as the short story "Ender's Game", published in the August 1977 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Elaborating on characters and plot lines depicted in the novel, Card later wrote additional...
, the key to how the teachers of Battle School learn about the students is the Fantasy Game. It is designed to secretly map out the psyche of its user, which provides the teachers with valuable data on the motivations behind each student's actions, the point being that it provides psychological information about a student. Colonel Graff refers to the game sarcastically as the Mind Game. This method of gathering information was completely successful for many of the students of Battle School, excluding Bean, who realized exactly what the game was intended for and avoided it.
The student chooses a character and goes through a number of situations. One such situation is the Giant's Drink, in which the Giant offers the player a choice between two beverages, claiming the correct choice will take the player to "Fairyland"; however, the choice is a no-win situation
No-win situation
A no-win situation, also called a "lose-lose" situation, is one where a person has choices, but no choice leads to a net gain. For example, if an executioner offers the condemned the choice of dying by being hanged, shot, or poisoned, since all choices lead to death, the condemned is in a no-win...
in that there is no Fairyland and no matter which drink the player chooses, consumption causes the player character's death. This scenario is designed to measure how suicidal
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
the student is (not an idle concern, as at least one Battle School student has successfully killed himself). Ender repeatedly plays the situation out, causing concern among the teachers. On his last attempt, however, he kicks the drinks over and claws into the Giant's eye, killing it and becoming the first student to ever enter Fairyland; the game generates this new scenario on the spot, orienting it to the personality of Ender alone. The Game is now deeply attuned to Ender, and vice versa, which produces later repercussions.
In Ender's Shadow
Ender's Shadow
Ender's Shadow is a parallel science fiction novel by the American author Orson Scott Card, taking place at the same time as the novel Ender's Game and depicting the same events from the point of view of Bean, a supporting character in the original novel. It was originally to be titled Urchin, but...
, the Fantasy Game is discussed in greater depth. It is described by the teachers themselves as an extremely complex program that generates content procedurally
Procedural generation
Procedural generation is a widely used term in the production of media; it refers to content generated algorithmically rather than manually. Often, this means creating content on the fly rather than prior to distribution...
. The Mind Game is never meant to be conclusive, it only makes connections and discovers patterns that are too subtle for the human eye.
In Shadow of the Giant
Shadow of the Giant
Shadow of the Giant is the fourth novel in Orson Scott Card's Ender's Shadow series.-Plot summary:A belief is spreading in conquered China that the government has lost the Mandate of Heaven. Han Tzu meets up with Mazer Rackham, who passes him a blow dart pen, calling it the "Mandate of Heaven"...
, when Bean
Bean (character)
Julian "Bean" Delphiki is a major character in Orson Scott Card's science fiction novels revolving around Ender Wiggin. He is an important supporting character in Ender's Game and the main character of the eponymous Bean Quartet , consisting of Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow...
suspects Peter Wiggin
Peter Wiggin
Peter Wiggin is a fictional character in the science fiction novel Ender's Game and its sequels, written by Orson Scott Card. He has appeared in the novels Ender's Game, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind and in an upcoming short story to...
of embezzling Ender's trust fund for his Hegemony uses, he requests that Ender's trust fund be placed under automatic control of a computer program. The Mind Game, whose purpose was to seek out patterns across wide fields of data, is modified to predict markets and invest Ender's trust fund appropriately, which it proves alarmingly good at; it is also used to review demographic data and help Bean find seven of his eight stolen embryos/children. It is assumed to have grown in complexity during the 3000-year gap between Shadow of the Giant
Shadow of the Giant
Shadow of the Giant is the fourth novel in Orson Scott Card's Ender's Shadow series.-Plot summary:A belief is spreading in conquered China that the government has lost the Mandate of Heaven. Han Tzu meets up with Mazer Rackham, who passes him a blow dart pen, calling it the "Mandate of Heaven"...
and Speaker for the Dead
Speaker for the Dead
Speaker for the Dead is a science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card and an indirect sequel to the novel Ender's Game. This book takes place around the year 5270, some 3,000 years after the events in Ender's Game...
, especially as Graff describes the Mind Game as being able to reprogram itself, and finally becomes the sentient Jane.
First Meetings
Investment CounselorInvestment Counselor (short story)
"Investment Counselor" is a story by Orson Scott Card set in his Ender's Game universe. It tells the story of how Ender Wiggin first met the artificial intelligence Jane and became a speaker for the dead...
, a short story in First Meetings
First Meetings
First Meetings is a collection of Orson Scott Card's short stories from the Ender's Game series. The 2003 edition published by Tor Books also includes the story "Teacher's Pest", about the first meeting of Ender's parents.- Story list :The stories in this book are:*...
, describes the first meeting between Jane and Ender where Jane presents herself to Ender as a computerized program meant to help with taxes. Ender takes her up on the offer, and begins a life-long friendship with this computer entity.
Speaker for the Dead
Jane is first introduced in Speaker for the DeadSpeaker for the Dead
Speaker for the Dead is a science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card and an indirect sequel to the novel Ender's Game. This book takes place around the year 5270, some 3,000 years after the events in Ender's Game...
as an advanced computer program. She is extremely complex, capable of performing trillions of tasks simultaneously, and has millions of levels of attention, even her most unaware one being much more alert than a human. Jane is hesitant to reveal herself to humanity, because she knows that she is the epitome of humanity's fear: an intelligent, thinking, computer program that cannot be controlled. She decided to reveal herself to Ender after she found out he wrote The Hive Queen and The Hegemon, in hopes that he would eventually understand her and one day reveal her true nature to humanity. She also "remembered" he was the only student to pass the Giant's Drink, one of the many Fantasy Game situations.
An electronic "jewel" in Ender's ear allows both of them to communicate and for her to see and hear everything from Ender's vantage point. She helps Ender with many things. For example, in the very beginning, she contacts an orbiting ship and pays $40 billion for it and the cargo. Ender's reliance on Jane becomes obvious when she no longer helps him; he must ask young Olhado to help him with his finances and computer searches, and does not know the password
Password
A password is a secret word or string of characters that is used for authentication, to prove identity or gain access to a resource . The password should be kept secret from those not allowed access....
to his own bank account.
Jane plays a pivotal role in the development of the book. Jane guides Ender to Lusitania and helps him out considerably in obtaining information. In a pivotal scene, Ender impatiently disconnects her by turning off the jewel; Jane panics and is forced to reorient her vast amount of concentration which was focused on him. Concluding that Ender needs a common enemy to unite all of Lusitania together to help the piggies, she runs analysis on data and subversively gets Starways Congress to order the destruction of the planet. She makes it appear as Lusitania has cut off their ansible (she did this mainly to save a xenologer from being killed), triggering Starways Congress to send the "Evacuation Fleet," which is actually carrying the Molecular Disruption Device to destroy the planet. With the threat, Ender unites the colony to form a treaty with the piggies to assure mutual cooperation and peaceful coexistence.
No longer attached to Ender, she bonds with Miro, Ender's depressed paralyzed stepson.
Xenocide
In this novel, she silences the Lusitania Fleet by making it disappear from all ansibles. Starways Congress contracts the brightest mind on a world of geniuses, Han Fei-Tzu, to discover what happened to the fleet, as previous attempts have failed. He passes the task to his daughter, Han Qing-JaoHan Qing-jao
Han Qing-jao is a major character in the science-fiction novel Xenocide, by Orson Scott Card. She is the sixteen-year-old daughter of Han Fei-tzu, a respected leader from the colony world of Path. Qing-jao is named for the poet Li Qingzhao.Qing-jao originally appeared in the short story...
. Jane leaves no evidence, however, and it is precisely this lack of evidence leads Qing-Jao to conclude that some unseen force is operating and monitoring all the ansibles at once. Although she suspects that it is the work of the gods, Jane realizes that Qing-Jao will eventually discover her existence.
Facing defeat, Jane reveals herself to Qing-Jao and her intellectually neglected servant, Si Wang-Mu
Si Wang-mu
Si Wang-mu is a major character in the science fiction novels Xenocide and Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card. She is named after the Chinese goddess Xi Wangmu, the Royal Mother of the West.-Childhood:...
. After a heated discussion, Qing-Jao despairs because Jane's power is vast; Jane can shut down all the ansibles, making it impossible for Qing-Jao to reveal Jane's presence. However, Jane knows that she cannot continue to silence Qing-Jao's message forever, since it would snowball into cutting off the entire planet of Path. Thus, Jane refuses to silence the ansible, Qing-Jao sends the message, and Starways Congress plans the systematic silencing of all ansibles to kill Jane.
In this book it is revealed that the Hive Queens, who were seeking a way to contact Ender during his crusade, attempted to construct a philotic 'bridge' so that they could contact him. This bridge was meant to be a connection between Ender, whose philotic web they did not understand, and a structure whose philotic web they did understand; for this baseline, they chose the Fantasy Game, since Ender was so deeply focused upon it and since its structure was sufficiently orderly. Jane was the bridge they constructed, imbuing her with the quality which all living things have, an "aiua" (resembling a soul). Jane, in other words, is an intelligent being, not just a collection of software. The Hive Queen further explains that Jane's aiua was called from a space outside of the universe, just as all aiuas are. Grego and Olhado, hearing this, hypothesize that, if someone can somehow contain all the information on how a spaceship's philotes are organized (i.e., its structure down to a subatomic level), that person could essentially "will" the spaceship Outside and In again, instantaneously (that is, without any time passing). This will be entirely dependent on Jane, since no other being possess the ample mental capacity to hold the complete structure of an object in their mind.
Jane's test flight consists of a sealed box with a door, Ender (to whom Jane is inextricably philotically linked; indeed, her "aiua" resides within him), Miro (for the same reason), and Ela (so that she can create the recolada virus once they are Outside). While Outside, Ela creates the recolada virus, Miro recreates his healthy body and possesses it, and Ender unconsciously creates duplicates of his childhood brother and sister.
Children of the Mind
In the conclusion of the Ender Saga, Jane finds herself rapidly running out of processing power due to Starways Congress shutting down her active ansible connections one at a time in an attempt to deactivate her for good. The Congress completes the shutdown of all universal ansible connections, forcing Jane's "aiúa" (the term Jane uses to describe the entity of life which all living things have) to seek refuge amongst the Philotic Web of the Pequenino Mother-Trees.Jane is also simultaneously responsible for instantaneous travel. A simple spacecraft is constructed (later deemed unnecessary due to Jane's precision in transportation), and through holding the image of the traveler in her consciousness, Jane can pick up the image and place it anywhere in the universe instantly. This advancement is threatened by Congress' attempt to deactivate her "program."
In the end, Jane is given corporeal form in the body created in the form of young Valentine, made of a portion of Ender's aiúa. Jane's aiúa is capable of transcending this corporeal form and returning to the philotic link of the Mother-Trees, or the reconstructed ansible network of which she was born, thus preserving the instantaneous method of travel. Jane, now in the possession of Val's body, marries Miro in a double-wedding ceremony along with Peter and Si-Wang-Mu.
See Also
CortanaCortana
Cortana is a fictional artificially intelligent character in Bungie's Halo video game series. Voiced by Jen Taylor, she appears in Halo: Combat Evolved and its sequels, Halo 2 and Halo 3, in the prequel and epilogue of Halo: Reach, as well the novels Halo: The Flood, Halo: The Fall of Reach, ...
, a character in the Halo series of videogames often said to be inspired by the Ender series