Captain Torrance thinks like Eric Wace:
"'[Van Rijn] sits in his suite with a case of brandy and a box of cigars. The cook, who could be down here helping [the engineer], is kept aboard the yacht to fix him his damned gourmet meals. You'd think he didn't care if we're blown out of the sky!'" (pp. 590-591)
Remembering his oath and position and succumbing to habit, Torrance apologizes and proceeds to test the gorilloids for intelligence. A nervous-impulse tracer detects synaptic flows and casts a 3D image of the functioning nervous system. Then, anatomical correlation should identify the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems and also the degree of brain activity independent of other nerve paths. The gorilloids have small brains but might have more efficient neurones.
If a Chereionite were present, then he would be able to detect, interpret and even understand brain emissions, a qualitatively different proposition from merely measuring brain activity. Here is the old philosophical mind-brain problem yet again.
Torrance, like Torres in "Margin of Profit," is both a captain and a Lodgemaster - a conflict of interests, I think.
13 comments:
I wish we heard more about the Togru-Kon-Tanakh as they seem fascinating.
I wonder what their societ(y/ies) is/are like?
It would be interesting to have them interact with Didonians...
Imagine a colony world with humans, T-K-Ts, AND Didonians!
On a very differnt note:
Do you suppose the idea for "Master Blaster" in "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdone"
(https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/MadMaxBeyondThunderdome)"came from "hiding Place"?
-kh
Keith,
That I can't tell you.
ERB has a Barsoomian race that is very similar to the Vanrijnians.
Did you see Ketlan in a previous combox inviting you to email him?
Paul.
Kaor, Keith!
We do see worlds in the Technic series with populations coming from different intelligent species. Such as Imhotep in THE GAME OF EMPIRE or Avalon.
Sean
Thank you, Gentlemen. Except for Avalon, it seemed most of the multi-species worlds were: "Continent available for sale or let, terrestroid climate, good location. Please contact..." (On Daedalus, it seemed more like "county or province for sale or let".)
I'd be more interested in seeing Avalon-like societies where the different species lived together, either by original plan or by necessity (as in "Defiance").
-kh
Kaor, Keith!
I don't quite understand your point or objection. The Empire chose Imhotep as the planet for resettling the surviving Tigeries and Sea People of Starkad because it was the world most suitable for those races not too "far" away. It already had a human colony in the uplands, where our race could breathe. So, quite suddenly, Imhotep became a multi species world. Wasn't Imhotep NECESSARY for the Starkadian races?
Sean
Thank you, Sean. I have no objection. I would have liked to visit Imhotep- with 1:3 ', I'd get stronger and maybe lose this bit of a "spare tire," too. (Need very comfy shoes, though). I bet Danny Coffin would've like to visit Imhotep, too...
I was speaking more about Daedalus than Imhotep. IMSM, there was the human area, the Cynthian area, and the Donarrian area, along with our Zacharian friends.
This sounds more like neighboring cultures as opposed to a multicultural society, more "Chicago" than "Queens (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/08/us/census-race-map.html)"...
I'm thinking of a mixed society of Zacharians "The Ones", K-k-Ts "The Twos", and Didonians "The Threes" living together, perhaps with the means for different groups to "join:
Ruka + Helmet Beast, Zacharian + Krippo + Gorilloid, etc. To mix it up further, we could bring along some Aenean Slinkers....
-kh
Kaor, Keith!
One caveat, the tri-bodied Didonians were still at a primitive level of technology in Flandry's time. While the "vanrijns" had achieved interstellar space travel in Old Nick's day. Not much point for any of the Didonians leaving their planet in any serious way for a long time to come.
And the Zacharians were BANISHED from Daedalus, as a punishment for plotting with Merseia in the Magnusson affair. But, yes, Daedalus seems to have been divided into different cantons inhabited by different races.
Sean
Indeed. You've hit upon an important point: how long does it take for a techno-primitive race to adapt/incorporate 3rd Millennium human tech? IMSM, upon discovery:
Cynthians: Hellenistic
Shalmuans: Bronze Age/Iron Age?
Mereseians: Early Industrial
Trilians: Early Industrial
Zatlakhi/Wodenites: ?
If this kind of tech would be too hard for the Didonians to learn, they might have better luck with Freeholder tech.
Also, I'd think some types of things could be learned more quickly than humans could learn them, and some things with difficulty (or not all). Finally, if they have a sense of curiosity- they might WANT to visit the wider world, and maybe some of them think they have something with teaching.
As for our Zacharian friends, I wonder why they never decided to go SOMEWHERE they could have their own world (space is BIG), and not just what looks like Cyprus from the map. I would have liked to see more of them too. There didn't seem (from my memory) much identical "twininess" about them, which I would've expected, except maybe keeping the secret. (I know PA said they have different interests, different backgrounds, but look at twin studies...) Also, I would have found it more interesting if they had a collective sense of being exiled and looking for a new home (like Jews [I know they resented not having much elbow room]), or had a sense (like Romani) of always having to go somewhere. Finally, the "Zachs" were described as being the "all, singing, all-dancing" generic human- adaptable to whatever comes up. I wonder why they weren't designed to be DRAKA. Mr. S: any thoughts here?
Cheers,
-kh
Keith,
Ideally, Zacharians would have been leaders in politics, business, science etc, not slave-owning supremacists and despots.
Paul.
Kaor, Keith!
IMO, different races would advance in knowledge and technology in different ways, depending on the kind of people they were and the history resulting from that. That is vague, I know, but I don't think it's possible to say anything more than that every race is DIFFERENT.
I don't know if you have read any of my articles, but I discussed the Zacharians in my "Was The Domination Inspired By Merseia?" Briefly, the Zacharians were "created" to be the leaders of the human race as the interstellar age began sometime around AD 2100. But other humans regarded with suspicion anyone claiming to be superior and refused Zacharian leadership. Also, one Zacharian admitted they might have tried becoming a ruling master race caste if the circumstances had been different. It was resentment at being merely one out of many peoples and ethnicities in an Empire containing thousands of them which made the Zacharians commit treason conspiring with Merseia.
Sean
@Paul: Unfortunately, I was unclear. I meant why weren't they genegineered to be "supermen" and "superwomen" like the Draka in Mr. Stirling's novels. or the Augments (like Khan) in Star Trek? They WEREN'T superior; thy just had physical flaws removed. They didn't have anything like "Tighe System Training" in the Psychotechnic History, or the Ben Gesserit and Mentat training in the Duneverse to develop themselves to their physical and mental limits, either. They seemed deluded and feel falsely entitled (as mentioned, they THINK they're)
superior and everybody else should think so, too), not particularly proactive (Let's explore, colonize, and have lots more babies than the erst! Na-a-ah...) or very knowledgeable (How can marginalized groups make good? Find out what's important where we live and get good at it, e.g., Nonconformists in England, and the Jewish and Chinese Diasporas.) The Zacharians are just a bunch of whiny and spoiled pan-racial folks with good health and great hair who just weren't told, "No, you can't have that" enough...
@ Sean: I haven't read any of your articles, but I want to read ALL of them!
Please send links so I can begin. kdhalperin@sbcglobal.net
-kh
Keith,
Click on "Poul Anderson: contributor Articles" on "My Other Blogs" on the top right of this blog.
Paul.
Kaor, Keith!
I would be very interested if you offered comments about some of my articles. As Paul said, click on the "Contributor" button and scroll down.
Sean
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