Ythrians need both "...ample outlook..." (p. 340) from a vast viewport and a large hold to fly around in to preserve their sanity. Air, slightly thinner than Terrestrial, carries smoky Ythrian bodily odours. Weight is 0.75 standard: exhilarating to human beings.
Nicholas van Rijn and Coya Conyon are the only non-Ythrians in Gaiian/"Dewfall" during its search for the supermetals source. Coya does not object to this but I would have had problems with the close proximity of so many large, feathered bodies (smaller than human beings but still large) although, fortunately, Ythrians are not beaked. Getting used to contact with intelligent beings with differently shaped bodies would be part of living in Technic civilization. Entering a new room in a building or a new cabin in a spaceship, you could find anything waiting: any size, shape or colour, any number and distribution of limbs and sense organs etc.
Later in the Technic History, Tabitha Falkayn is raised by Ythrians so that she is going to have to be used to them and Kossara Vymezal is familiar from an early age with zmayi/ychani/Merseians but those are just two of the many intelligent species in known space. I think that coping with all of that could be a major psychological problem.
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I too have wondered how I would do being in contact with and traveling with non-human sophonts.
Very realistic, Anderson suggesting that some intelligent races might find space traveling more difficult than others.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
And Ythrians cannot be confined in spacesuits so, if their hull is breached, they are dead.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Exactly, altho I forgot that bit. Meaning Ythrians can't leave their spaceships to do repairs on the hulls, unlike humans, who can wear space suits.
A point I forgot to make, by the time of "Lodestar" humans and non-humans had more than three centuries to get used to one another.
Ad astra! Sean
Humans are already using remote control manipulators to do work on the outside of the ISS from the inside. Ythrians would have a major motivation to adopt & improve such technology.
Jim: certainly.
Kaor, Jim!
But I believe there are going to be times when spaceship crews won't be able to use such remote controlled waldos to do work on ship hulls. Meaning humans and other sophonts who can wear space suits will have to go outside for such work.
Ad astra! Sean
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