A Double Surprise

Throughout "Genius" by Poul Anderson, the psychologist Heym and the soldier Goram speak as though genocide were morally acceptable, although - surprise ending - Goram turns out to have been playing a role. Shortly before the end of the story, Heym has learned, first, that Goram is secretly a member of the genius population of the experimental planet that they are inspecting and, secondly, that agents from that planet are infiltrating and taking over the Solarian Empire.

Knowing this, Heym, who is loyal to the Empire, cannot be allowed to return to it. Just six sentences before the end of the story, Goram, who until now has spoken of nothing but killing, remarks with a smile:

"'I'll just have to report you as accidentally killed on the planet.'" (Call Me Joe, p. 222)

A death sentence for Heym? No. The geniuses are too ingenious to resort to violence. Goram continues:

"'I don't think you'll find life exile on this world, out of sight of the observers, uncongenial.'" (ibid.)

Indeed, it has already been established that this entire planet is a hassle-free zone with considerate inhabitants and no conflict. I like to imagine a sequel, set decades later, in which Heym, still happily living on the planet, has no desire to escape or warn the Empire. In fact, the geniuses will solve the social problems of which he was only too aware - the only difference being that homo intelligens pursues goals that transcend those of homo sapiens. 

Subdimensional Quasivelocity?

Poul Anderson made a point of imagining a different means of faster than light travel every time he wrote a new story requiring this premise. (He had the scientific background to enable him to do this.) Thus:

he did not always invoke the sf cliche, "hyperspace;"

when he did use this phrase, he devised his own meaning for it.

His "hyperdrive" does not make a spaceship disappear into another kind of space where there is no light speed limit but makes many quantum jumps through ordinary space and thus has a pseudovelocity.

In earlier stories, means of FTL had not yet been worked out. In "Genius" (1948), "...quasivelocity..." (Call Me Joe, p. 197) sounds like hyperspatial pseudovelocity but is qualified as "subdimensional." What can that mean? The ship temporarily has zero dimensions in relation to the rest of the universe and thus is not limited to the light speed barrier because the latter applies only to objects that have a finite length and that therefore shrink in that length, although never reaching zero length, while they accelerate? Other dimensions are loosely thought of as other and higher realms, therefore "subdimensional" implies the lowest possible realm at which normal physical laws do not apply?

"Subdimensional" is probably an early piece of pseudo-scientific jargon without any rational thought behind it.

Exposition

Poul Anderson's "Genius" contains a lot of exposition but it works because the exposition is well presented, interesting and about very basic issues. For example, the psychologist character argues that the grammatical distinction between nouns and verbs blinds us to the fact that the world consists of processes, not of objects. Thus, even an early pulp story by Poul Anderson repays closer analysis.

"'The ordinary man is just plain stupid. Perhaps proper mind training could lift him above himself, but it's never been tried.'" (Call Me Joe, p. 217)

I do not agree that the ordinary man is stupid but I appreciate being made to think about this question. Proper mind training is deployed in Anderson's Psychotechnic History.

We are convincingly shown that social conditioning and social pressure account for most behavior. An individually pacifist scientist will usually engage in war research if asked, and paid, to do so. But this can work the other way. Individually aggressive people will not act aggressively if conditioned and pressured by a peaceful society. The population of geniuses sees no reason to settle their differences by warfare and sees every reason to devise an international language as soon as speakers of diverse local languages come into contact: Babel in reverse.

We can learn a lot by considering the behavior of more intelligent human beings.

Empires

There is:

an oppressive Solarian Empire in "Genius;"
an oppressive Star Empire in the first Kith History;
a comparatively benign Terran Empire in the History of Technic Civilization;
an all-encompassing Galactic Empire in Isaac Asimov's future history;
an Empire of the Known Universe in the Dune History;
etc.

But surely the entire idea of an interstellar empire is hopeless to begin with - especially one that either rules the entire galaxy or has an individual Emperor?

Poul Anderson makes three significant contributions:

he describes the Fall of the real historical Roman Empire in more than one work;
his Terran Empire is the least implausible of the interstellar empires, becoming increasingly credible and substantial as the series proceeds;
he shows us several interstellar scenarios in which there is no question of a multi-system imperialism ever arising.

Thus, as ever, he covers all the bases.

The Universal State

The psychologist in Poul Anderson's "Genius" presents a simplified version of Chunderban Desai's theory of the decline of civilizations. See here. In "Genius":

cultures clash;
wars intensify, leading to fears, resentments and economic breakdown;
one nation founds a "universal state," whose peace is merely that of exhaustion;
the state decays and either collapses or falls to foreign invaders.

Pre-Imperial scientists based their semi-mathematical theory of history on:

thousands of years of records and archaeology;
extrapolations from individual and group psychology.

On the basis of this theory, the Empire has been able to:

conquer humanly inhabited planets;
make truces with non-human empires;
tell whether a proposed policy might provoke revolt;
know how to phrase proclamations;
divide the barbarians with psychological and economic pressures.

However, they can at best maintain the status quo until an eventual collapse:

if they allowed free invention, then there would be regular industrial revolutions with consequent social upheavals;
if they allowed new religions, the there might be jihads;
if they allowed population growth, then there would be a land problem;
if they stopped subjugating or even exterminating non-human races, then they would have to cope with many alien psychologies.

It is hoped that the planetary experiments will make their science properly quantitative. Although the psychologist character defends this oppressive regime, I do not think that the author approves of it.

More On "Genius"

(i) For an experiment, the Psychotechnic Foundation of the Solarian Empire breeds human beings for intelligence. Fred Hoyle argued that genius results not from heredity but from luck. See here.

(ii) As the second stage of the experiment, groups of memory-wiped geniuses are placed in different locations on an isolated terrestroid planet. Thus, this planet now resembles Earth after the intelligence revolution of Anderson's Brain Wave.

(iv) In Brain Wave, some factory workers quit while others need earphones with intellectually stimulating input until their jobs can be automated. On the experimental planet in "Genius," the entire population shares intellectually undemanding jobs until these can be automated. I think that, in future, jobs that cannot be automated and are universally unwanted but socially indispensible will have to be shared until they can be reduced to zero.

(v) In Brain Wave, after the intelligence increase, a second inner change is intelligent control of emotions and instincts. In "Genius," when, on the experimental planet, the social norm has become genius, those who are even more intelligent are called "transcendents." Do they also have control of emotions?

(vi) they will rule the galaxy as Asimov's Second Foundation plans to.

What Is To Come

SM Stirling's In The Courts Of The Crimson Kings is in the post and I will get the British paperback edition of Old Mars in September. The latter, which includes a Stirling "Lords of Creation" story is an anthology based on the same theme as the "Lords of Creation" series.

Meanwhile, back in Poul Anderson's "Genius," the Solarian Empire is threatened by:

human barbarians beyond the Imperial borders;
nonhuman border barbarians;
rival empires;
the Magellanics attacking every century with unimaginable weapons.

Given these external threats, the marshal thinks that any internal disruption could be fatal. Internal order is kept by:

toleration of local gods;
a state church with the Emperor as the material incarnation of the divine Spirit;
local garrisons;
political indoctrination;
state control of commerce and travel;
psychotechnic preparation and supervision of popular entertainment;
rigid birth control;
complete sexual freedom as an outlet;
early selection and training of the ablest children for government work;
unlimited opportunities for promotion.

Incorporation of the ablest is always an astute move. "New men" are loyal to the regime that has promoted them, not to any vested interests within it. How effective is psychotechnic control of entertainment? Might the psychotechnicians learn anything from our advertisers or vice versa? Is such control compatible with the creation of valid art? The psychologist states, plausibly, that it generates "'...mediocrity.'" (Call me Joe, p. 201) Even a story with crude pulp premises yields interesting discussion when analyzed.

Social order and stability would indeed be precarious given certain familiar premises:

faster than light travel;
nuclear weapons;
expanding imperialisms;
barbarians with access to spaceships and modern weapons -

- which is why Manuel Argos founds the Terran Empire in Anderson's History of Technic Civilization. But Manuel grants citizenship to worthy non-humans, unlike the Solarian Empire which exterminates aborigines.

Psychotechnic Foundation

In the previous post, I mentioned Isaac Asimov's Foundation and Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History. Over the page in Anderson's "Genius," which I am rereading, there is a reference to a "...Psychotechnic Foundation..." (Call Me Joe, p. 199). As Anderson remarked in Going For Infinity, sf writers used to refer to, and reply to, each other's ideas - a tradition that goes back to Greek drama.

In "Genius," we are also told that the Solarian Empire colonizes planets by exterminating aborigines. Even if we agreed with the marshal's idea of governing society by suppressing most of its members, we would have to disagree with this.They not only exterminate but even eradicate all traces. This recalls a novel although I remember neither title nor author.

Three established sf authors, Gregory Benford, Greg Bear and David Brin, wrote a Second Foundation Trilogy. Asimov had introduced:

(i) a humans only galaxy;
(ii) robots programmed to protect human beings and also used to colonize extrasolar planets.

Logical conclusion: robots exterminated aborigines and protected human beings from knowledge of their genocide. Maybe a blog reader knows which of the three authors deduced this logical conclusion from Asimov's premises?

Crude though it is, "Genius" presents interesting ideas and arguments. I will return to it probably this evening.

Genius Revisited

It is nearly time for me to go up the apples and pears to Bedfordshire but there may be enough time for one last post. The object of the exercise is to reread "Genius" in order to ascertain whether its leading characters express moral opinions that Poul Anderson disagreed with. See here.

However, that objective will not be achieved tonight. Preliminary remarks... This short story was published in the month before I was born. Think about it. I did not know anything about the story at the time. (And I expect to know as little about anything in the month after I have died.) As I became able to read, I noticed displayed for sale paperbacks with titles like I, Robot and wondered about them.

"Genius" begins with a conversation, almost a confrontation, between a soldier and a psychologist. The soldier claims that, in order to preserve their interstellar Empire, it is necessary to suppress rebels, barbarians, pirates, serfs, slaves, criminals and the insane. That is quite a list! The insane need care and, if possible, cure. Pirates and criminals need to be arrested and charged. Barbarians need to be civilized. Serfs and slaves do not need to exist in a high tech society. And, if the Empire is ruled well, why should anyone want to rebel?

The psychologist remarks that military power is a tool but that the Empire is based on "'...applied psychological science...'" (Call Me Joe, p. 197) Further down that page, he uses the term "...psychotechnician." Can psychology become a technology as in Asimov's Foundation and Anderson's Psychotechnic History? A big question but no answer tonight.

What Next?

I now think that the remembered description of the planet being transformed by the Tahirians must have been the brief summary in the opening paragraph here. However, I also think that Anderson presented more information on Tahirian planetary engineering so I hope to write a more detailed summary when I have reread Starfarers to that point.

It has been suggested here that Anderson's early story, "Genius," was a false start, disagreeing with the author's later expressed moral views. "Genius" is a paradox: on the one hand fairly crude early hard sf, with Magellanic barbarians threatening a Galactic Empire; on the other hand, serious discussion of the factors that facilitate social stability and/or progress. I will have to reread "Genius" to assess the judgment that it is a false start.

Then, after rereading some more of Poul Anderson, I will have to read for the first time some more works by SM Stirling.

After Genius

I had definitely not read Poul Anderson's "Genius" before and it is an interesting story. After it in the NESFA Press The Collected Short Works Of Poul Anderson (Framingham MA, 2009), there are:

"The Live Coward"
"Time Lag"
"The Man Who Came Early"
"Turning Point"
"The Alien Enemy"
"Enough Rope"
"The Sharing of Flesh"
"Welcome"
"Flight to Forever"
"Barnacle Bull"
"Time Heals"
"The Martian Crown Jewels"
"Prophecy"
"Kings Who Die"
"Starfog"

I had already read all but three of these works and have quickly read the rather lackluster "The Martian Crown Jewels" since acquiring the book so there is not much left before Vol 2, which I have yet to order. However, the remaining stories will be read and commented on.

Despite their exotic interstellar settings, "The Helping Hand" and "Genius" are serious discussions of how societies develop. I thought that I had finished comparing Isaac Asimov unfavorably with Poul Anderson but here again Anderson presents a more interesting account of a ruling group applying to society a mathematically formulated, predictive science of society. Station Seventeen, secretly directing the Empire, is like a Second Foundation but based on intelligence, not on hypnosis.

The geniuses of Station Seventeen, which is an entire planet, are intelligent, perceptive and cooperative enough to share socially necessary menial tasks equally among their entire population rather than relegating a social majority to lifetimes of drudgery. Mass-production will have to wait until mechanical knowledge is sufficient to develop entirely automatic factories because "'...few if any geniuses could stand to work on an assembly line all day.'" (p. 212) However, they "'...are in no hurry to advance their standard of living.'" (ibid.)

Production has, perhaps, four stages:

hunting and gathering;
horticulture and agriculture;
manufacturing, eventually industrialized;
automation.

In our history, the second and third stages necessitated social stratification and competition whereas the eventual production of abundance should make stratification and competition redundant. The geniuses manage every stage of production without either stratification or competition.

A society of geniuses has super geniuses who are as far beyond the ordinary mind as logic is beyond instinct. The surprise ending is a real surprise but also logical. The geniuses have already outwitted the Imperial social experimenters.

Occasional raiders from the Magellanic Clouds are also a neat idea.

Genius

Poul Anderson's "Genius" (Astounding, 1948) is very early. I have just spotted, while googling, a comment that it was Anderson's third published story. Have I read it before? I find that I have saved a copy of the Astounding cover although I do not remember doing so.

Having just read the first three pages, until the first break in the narrative, I have found several familiar story elements:

faster than light quasivelocity;
an interstellar Empire, with slaves;
peripheral barbarians;
psychotechnicians;
many implausibly humanoid, even "human," aliens;
an interstellar civilization secretly observing Earth;
a hint that Terrestrials are somehow special.

There is also what may be a covert reference to another writer about a Galactic Empire:

"...the foundation and the reason for the Empire..."
- Poul Anderson, The Collected Short Works Of Poul Anderson, Volume 1, (Framingham, MA, 2009), p. 197.

"Genius" should not be confused with "Details," which bears some of the listed common features. I am still not entirely sure whether I have read "Genius" before.

Addendum: It seems I have misunderstood some points but only because they are introduced allusively and gradually. In this case, the Empire is Solarian and the covertly observed planet is not Earth but somewhere else. I will have to read further (obviously) to unravel the plot.