Intelligence doesn’t always look the way we expect it to. Human intelligence is one thing… but what of inhuman intelligence? Is it so alien as to be unrecognizable? Or are there universal constants through which we can communicate? Perhaps there are higher truths not subject to the whims of our perception, and through these we may find that intelligence comes in many guises.
One of the things I’ve always found attractive about fantasy and science fiction was its capacity to explore other intelligences, other ways of thinking. Of course it all boils down to different ways of human thinking, because so far humans are the only ones writing these stories. But it’s still fun to imagine how different the world could look when viewed from the mindset of, say, a dragon. Or a giant tortoise. Or, as in the case above, an alien tentacle monster.
The character in question here is Dave, who doesn’t think at all like we do (he doesn’t have a brain), yet he (a misleading term; his species do not have a solid gender) can still comprehend the same geometric proofs that we do. So even though we communicate via visual and audio cues and he communicates via psychoactive slime, we can still “talk” to each other because we can interact with the same world.
Dave is a character from my Professor Odd series. He first appears in The False Student, and has a minor role in The Slowly Dying Planet. He will be making a rather larger contribution to the next Professor Odd story, The Promethean Predicament, which will be coming… soon? I hope.
Goldeen Ogawa will be exhibiting in the art show at the World Fantasy Con this November in Toronto, Canada, and so she will be posting rather a lot of new art between now and then. Lots more of her pictures can be found on her deviantART account. You can email her at goldeenogawa@gmail.com or peck at her on Twitter @GrimbyTweets.
