@RUTGERS.ARPA:kenah%super.DEC@decwrl.ARPA (02/14/85)
From: kenah%super.DEC@decwrl.ARPA (Andrew Kenah, DTN 381-1576)
Probably the best depiction of the group mind/racial memory idea is
Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End". (Highly recommended.)
Another novel that also considers the idea of the group mind is
Theodore Sturgeon's "More Than Human". (Also highly recommended.)
Andrew Kenah
DEC @ ZKO@RUTGERS.ARPA,@MIT-MC:LS.SRB@MIT-EECS (02/19/85)
From: "Stephen R. Balzac" <LS.SRB%MIT-EECS@MIT-MC.ARPA> How about Gaea in Foundation's Edge? I don't know, how about it...
mouse@uw-beaver.arpa (02/20/85)
From: utcsri!mcgill-vision!mcgill-vision!mouse@uw-beaver.arpa (der Mouse) It's questionable whether it is a legitimate group mind, but here it is anyway: "Mechanical Mice", by Maurice A. Hugi (Astounding, anthologized in Famous Science-Fiction Stories: Adventures in Time and Space). ***SPOILER ON*** This is about a "future viewer" which is incidental except that it allows an inventor to build a machine which is analogous to a queen bee. Stopping it once it's built a swarm is what the story is about. ***SPOILER OFF***. Try also "The Possessed", by Clarke (eg in his collection "The Nine Billion Names of God"). > And to all you people in net land: I remember a short story (by > Heinlein or Asimov?) that involved a starship manned by a > multi-racial crew coming to evacuate Earth before Sol goes nova. A > few of the crew were part of a group mind. This was important when > a landing party was trapped in a trans-Atlantic subway and cut off > from radio communications. Anyone know the author/title? Try "Rescue Party", by Clarke (also in "The Nine Billion Names of God"). See if this sounds right: "Last came one of the strange beings from the system of Palador. It was nameless, like all its kind, for it possessed no identity of its own, being merely a mobile but still dependent cell in the consciousness of its race. [half a paragraph later] When a creature of Palador spoke, the pronoun it used was always 'We'. There was not, nor could there ever be, any first person singular in the language of Palador. [about a page later] In moments of crisis, the single units comprising the Paladorian mind could link together in an organization no less close than that of any physical brain. At such moments they formed an intellect more powerful than any other in the Universe." der Mouse ...ihnp4!utcsri!mcgill-vision!mouse
wales@ucla-cs.UUCP (02/24/85)
In article <580@topaz.ARPA>, victoro%Nosc@crash.UUCP (Victor O'Rear)
asked for pointers to stories dealing with racial memory or group minds.
One such book is "The Nitrogen Fix" by Hal Clement. This story takes
place on Earth after a natural catastrophe has pulled essentially all of
the oxygen out of the atmosphere and locked it into nitrates. Those
people who survive must either live in enclosed cities or use breathing
masks. Some claim this state of affairs was due to a scientific experi-
ment gone wrong -- hence, such words as "scientist" and "invent" have
become vulgar insults.
The only other kind of animal life to be found on Earth at this time is
a large, highly intelligent fish-like being with lots of tentacles. One
of these has befriended/been befriended by the main human characters --
a man, woman, and their young daughter. They communicate by means of a
complicated sign language (which the humans also use among themselves,
since it's hard to hear someone who is wearing a breathing mask all the
time!).
The fish-like being is called "Bones" by its human friends. The species
(which do not breathe, and thus don't care what is or isn't in the air)
is collectively called either "Natives" (by those humans who assume the
air was always like it is now, and that the "Natives" are Earth's true
original indigenous life form) or "Invaders" (by those humans who think
the fish-like beings prefer a nitrogen atmosphere and took all the oxy-
gen out of Earth's air so they could take over the Earth).
As it turns out, the fish-like beings actually comprise a group con-
sciousness which calls itself "the Observer". Whenever two Observer
"units" meet, they embrace briefly -- which causes all memories of each
of the "units" to be copied to both. The Observer has sent its various
"units" all over the universe in an insatiable quest for as much infor-
mation as possible.
Both the Observer and the humans have a great deal of difficulty under-
standing each other's outlook on the world; this difficulty is exacer-
bated by the fact that most of the humans are hostile to the Observer(s)
and make no real effort to understand it/them.
(1) The humans naturally assume that the temporary joining of two Ob-
server "units" is a sexual act; conversely, "Bones" assumes that his
two adult human friends periodically share memories.
(2) When "Bones" meets another, smaller Observer "unit" and they share
memories -- and then the smaller "unit" returns to "Bones"'s human
friends and acts just like "Bones" (including knowing their home-
brew sign language), the male human assumes that the city-dwellers
have done something to shrink "Bones", and gets quite upset.
(3) The Observer -- understandably -- has no conception of individuality
or individual death as we think of it. It is quite a revelation to
the Observer that humans actually have no better way of communicat-
ing to each other than visual and sound "codes" (i.e., sign language
and speech). The Observer is also thoroughly confused by the human
assumption that different Observer units are not completely inter-
changeable with one another.
There's a lot more to the book, of course -- I don't want to give the
whole thing away and deprive you of the fun of reading it yourself.
--
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Rich Wales
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Computer Science Department
3531 Boelter Hall
Los Angeles, California 90024 // USA
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Phone: (213) 825-5683 // +1 213 825 5683
ARPANET: wales@UCLA-LOCUS.ARPA
UUCP: ...!{cepu,ihnp4,trwspp,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!wales
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-@RUTGERS.ARPA,@MIT-MC:LS.SRB@MIT-EECS (02/25/85)
From: "Stephen R. Balzac" <LS.SRB%MIT-EECS@MIT-MC.ARPA> I believe that Kieth Laumer's "House in November" involved a group mind, and a battle to destroy it.
@RUTGERS.ARPA,@MIT-MC:ELIZABETH@MIT-OZ (02/28/85)
From: Elizabeth Willey <ELIZABETH%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA> Don't leave out Ursula Le Guin's "Nine Lives", a short story about clones. It's been anthologized several places. The story deals with nine clones of the same person who have been raised together from early infancy---they have no individual identities, cannot conceive of themselves as being separate from each other; they are a group mind of a kind. -------