In the Near East in the eighth century, Aliyat's pimp knew that she was unaging, therefore "'...special, maybe magical...,'" (p. 325) so he did not dare to abuse her and moved her between cities to keep the secret. We learn that, for different reasons, several mortals colluded in guarding the secret of immortality. Aliyat thinks that any immortals without protectors might have lost their sanity and not survived.
Flora found ways to cope with psychological problems like memory overload:
"'By the early twentieth century we had a science of psychology. Crude, largely guesswork, but the idea that the mind can be understood and fixed makes a huge difference. I found autohypnosis did wonders -...'" (ibid.)
Flora summarizes the opening premise of Poul Anderson's first future history series, the Psychotechnic History. Psychology, beginning in the twentieth century, is at first crude and largely guesswork but becomes a predictive science of society with some good and many bad consequences. It remains in the background even after the outlawing of the Psychotechnic Institute so that, in the Stellar Union period, a distinction is made between integrate and unintegrate civilizations although we are told nowhere near enough about this. Psychotechnicians rule in the eventual Galactic period. Immortals explore the galaxy in Boat.
7 comments:
The problem with this is that it analogizes memory to a recording. But memory is not a recording; we don't record all sensory input, occurrences, etc. Memory is recreated every time it's recalled, it's heavily edited -- or just made up -- and it 'trashes' much of the input. That is, it doesn't record it at all.
Mr Stirling,
OK. Not recorded but recalled, recreated, edited or even invented. A "recall" is not a "record"?
It is all a mystery. Something happens physically in brain RNA. Something happens psychologically when we remember/recall an incident. And no one knows how the RNA relates to consciousness.
Paul.
Kaor, to Both!
And I am no longer so sure people with very long life spans, as seen in WORLD WITHOUT STARS and FOR LOVE AND GLORY, will need memory erasures to "free up space" for new memories. It might be enough to simply forget old, seldom recalled memories.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: which happens all the time.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree. But then some people will start worrying, for obvious reasons, if they begin forgetting too much.
Ad astra! Sean
sean: we tend to remember things which involve very strong emotions -- they 'burn it in'.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, we recall most strongly what matters to us.
Ad astra! Sean
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