Ythrian evolution:
fish
amphibians
small swamp dwellers
small tree dwellers
gliding tree dwellers
flying Ythrians
Life soars from sea to swamps to trees to the sky! The earliest moment of consciousness must have been the same as on Earth. A mobile marine organism made the qualitative transition from unconscious sensitivity to conscious sensation.
And what a versatile character is Philippe Rochefort:
he commands a small fighting boat with two crew, human and Cynthian;
we learn about Ythrians because Rochefort listens to a taped lecture;
he lives at a time when mankind has (maybe) transcended its own divisions but now confronts other intelligent species;
Man is his race even though the Ythrians are phasing out slavery while the Terran Empire is reintroducing it!;
he discusses war issues with Eve Davisson over dinner;
he crash lands on Avalon where he becomes a prisoner of war, an honoured house guest and Tabitha Falkayn's first sexual partner;
he unwittingly plays a central role in the defeat of Terra on Avalon!
And, unfortunately, he remains a one-off character.
10 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I think Stirling's view is more likely, humans gained intelligence/consciousness to deal better with each other. And that was most likely what happened with other races.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Indeed. I am seeking out the very first moment of sensation. Intelligence came much later and human intelligence came with language, thus with society.
Paul.
All mammals possess certain psychological similarities, and we have some with birds, too.
Eg., there's a girl who fed crows whenever they passed by. They started leaving her things -- trinkets that crows find visually attractive. Damned if that isn't "she's nice to us, we'll be nice to her".
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: Except we don't know for sure when that transition to being truly human occurred. And that would also be when, as I believe, God first infused a soul into the creature that became the first man. Anderson's "The Little Monster" comes back to mind.
Mr. Stirling: And Virginia Matuchek had a familiar in OPERATION LUNA which was a crow. I'm reminded as well of the story about the man or child who pulled a thorn from the paw of a lion tormented by it. And the lion remembered its benefactor years later when their paths again crossed--with gratitude.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
But what I am trying to focus on here is not the first moment of human consciousness but the first moment of animal sensation. A mobile marine organism needing food not only automatically approached a source of food but also felt an inner discomfort, the very first feeling of what we identify as "hunger."
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Then you might have to go back about 350 million years, to the Cambrian era, which is when the first life forms on Earth larger than ants came to exist.
Ad astra! Sean
"350 million years, to the Cambrian era"
The geologic time table posted on my wall has the Cambrian starting at 590 million years ago.
I think it is not so much the size of the life form as the ability to move toward desirable things or away from undesirable things. Though a certain minimum size is needed for a nervous system capable of something more sophisticated than a simple tropism.
Kaor, Jim!
I sit corrected. I was going by memory as regards the timing of what's called the Cambrian Explosion of life forms.
Again, if my memory is correct, the Cambrian era was when Earth first saw fist saw life forms of any real size and complexity.
Ad astra! Sean
"the Cambrian era was when Earth first saw fist saw life forms of any real size and complexity."
Mostly correct. Though you might want to look up the Ediacaran life forms. They didn't have hard parts to fossilize easily so they were discovered only well after the Cambrian forms. It's not clear to me that any of them had the sort of mobility that would encourage brain development.
Kaor, Jim!
That's news to me! The Ediacaran life forms must have been excavated after I read about the Cambrian era and the Burgess Shale fossils.
Ad astra! Sean
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