Manse Everard tells Wanda Tamberly that Danellians come after human beings the way we come after apes. Tamberly asks:
"'How much could Australopithecus know for certain about us?'" (p. 29)
Olaf Stapledon answers that question. His Last Men inhabit Neptune two hundred thousand million years in our future. If one of the First Men, us, were to enter that world, then he would no more suspect the existence of the spiritual culture surrounding him:
"...than a cat in London suspects the existence of finance or literature."
-Olaf Stapledon, Last And First Men IN Stapledon, Last And First Men/Last Men In London (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1972), pp. 5-327 AT XV, p. 284.
That is one big comprehension gap. A cat knows something, how to hunt for mice and birds, but not how to invest in the stock exchange or to appreciate Jane Austen.
Danellians, one million years hence, physically time travel and organize the Time Patrol whereas Last Men, in a further future, mentally time travel, observe history and inspire Olaf Stapledon to write what he thinks is fiction.
12 comments:
Of course, describing an incomprehensibly advanced intellect is, by definition, impossible!
I had mine tell the humans they dealt with that they were explaining as much as they could, but the problem was that some of the concepts they were using were incomprehensible from a human perspective.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I admit to not really understanding this comment of yours. I wondered if you meant your Shadowspawn or Homo drakensis.
Ad astra! Sean
The "gods" in the Emberverse?
Kaor, Paul!
That's a better guess than my suggestion about Homo drakensis or the Shadowspawn.
Ad astra! Sean
I had the Emberverse in mind.
There are two issues.
You can't teach calculus to someone who doesn't yet understand algebra, or algebra to someone who doesn't yet understand arithmetic.
But what if the person just tops out at arithmetic?
I spent some time tutoring someone in his teens who was at the arithmetic level.
I was able to improve his ability to handle eg: adding up coins, but I doubt he could learn to understand algebra.
Maybe if something Poul's "Brainwave" happened...
Kaor, Jim!
If you are saying people vary in talents, abilities, proficiencies, I agree!
Genetic engineering might improve mere intelligence, but only up to a point, IMO.
Ad astra! Sean
Intelligence in the general sense is largely genetic, so eventually we should be able to get everyone up to the maximum level any human being attains.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, with the caveat that I don't think merely increasing our intelligence is necessarily likely to make us become BETTER persons. Some of us, more likely, would become smarter scoundrels and villains.
Ad astra! Sean
Intelligence improves outcomes, up to a certain point. Above that, it tends to lead to, ah, weird personality outcomes.
(From SM Stirling.)
IQ tests tend to become unreliable at the upper extreme -- individuals get widely varying results from taking and re-taking the tests. I got everything in the 140-150 range, for example; some psych types came to my school and re-tested me repeatedly because my initial test results were very strange. I made up complex, detailed stories about ink-blots, for example...8-).
(From SM Stirling.)
Kaor, Mr. Stirling! Some of the more eccentric Roman Emperors had very peculiar personalities! So I see your point about weird "personality outcomes." Ha! So, even as a schoolboy, you had what it takes to be a writer! Ad astra! Sean
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