(ii) Weasel-like intelligencers report what they see: men talking to their wrists must have radiocoms etc.
-copied from here.
Messenger birds do not merely repeat sounds heard but somehow "translate" them into another language. How do they do this? Intelligencers go further, describing what they have seen albeit without understanding, e.g., of technology. How intelligent are intelligencers?
We are familiar with articulate or anthropomorphic animals in less realistic kinds of fiction, most of it juvenile - that man Lewis again. Poul Anderson approaches this concept in "Outpost of Empire." Instead of just accepting this animal communication when it occurs on the planet Freehold, the reader needs to reflect on its feasibility.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
As we both know, Poul Anderson wrote VERY well, so it was easy for me to miss the points you made about messenger birds and "intelligencers." Yes, the way these animals were used in "Outpost Of Empire" does seem too anthropomorphic to be quite convincing, once attention was paid to them. It does make me doubt if animals can be trained or bred to do what the messengers and intelligencers did. I think you found a weak point in this story, one which needed more elucidating from the author.
Sean
Post a Comment