Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ucla-cs.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!trwrb!trwrba!cepu!ucla-cs!wales From: wales@ucla-cs.UUCP Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: Group minds (Hal Clement, "The Nitrogen Fix") Message-ID: <4056@ucla-cs.ARPA> Date: Sat, 23-Feb-85 17:51:12 EST Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.4056 Posted: Sat Feb 23 17:51:12 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 1-Mar-85 06:30:42 EST References: <580@topaz.ARPA> Reply-To: wales@ucla-cs.UUCP (Rich Wales) Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department Lines: 72 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 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-