Wednesday, 27 January 2021

Shared Experience

A Stone In Heaven, VI.

The Ramnuan, Yewwl, wears a collar. On it, a TV camera points in the same direction as her eyes. A microphone receives whatever sounds she hears. Other instruments detect temperature, vibrations, scents etc. The collar transmits a radio signal, detected and relayed by comsats. A computer receives the signal and reconverts it into sense-data. Miriam wears a helmet, views a screen and holds her hands flat on vibrant plates. Her brain translates the input into an approximation of Yewwl's sensory experiences although not of the latter's thought processes:

"'It's not telepathy,' she said. 'The channel won't carry but a tiny fraction of the total information. Most of what I experience is actually my own intuition, filling in the gaps. I've spent my career training that intuition. I'm trying to discover how accurate it really is.'" (p. 100)

Or how inaccurate?

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I admit this description of the special collar worn by Yewwl's and its functions glided by me in my former readings of A STONE IN HEAVEN. So you have done a service, to remind me of very important details.

And Ramnu has a much heavier gravity than that of Terra or Dayan! Making it esp. hard for humans to move around that planet.

Ad astra! Sean