The Conversation On Talwin

Flandry's mindscreen and its power pack make an ugliness through Aycharaych's nerves and the Chereionite warns Flandry not to wall off his brain for too long:

"'...from those energies which inspirit the universe, behind a screen of forces that themselves must roil your dreams.'"

-Poul Anderson, A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows IN Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: Defender of the Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, March 2012), pp. 339-606 AT IX, p. 459.

Does Aycharaych understand the mind-brain relationship better than human philosophers? We cannot understand how neurons generate consciousness but maybe they don't. Neurons are macroscopic enough to be governed by classical mechanics, not by quantum mechanics. Consciousness and quantum mechanics are both mysterious and the latter involves an observer effect so does quantum mechanics explain consciousness and do Chereionites think and intuit on the quantum level, closer to the mind-brain interaction?

Aycharaych speculates that consciousness of mortality inspires human creativity but surely all rational species are mortal? Maybe Chereionites live longer? He refers initially to human consciousness of imminent death.