• A_norny_mousse@feddit.org
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    1 day ago

    Reminds me of the idea that intelligence might express itself in ways that we cannot perceive, because it’s so slow. Like Rock trolls taking a year to speak a sentence and a century to have this little conversation. Ents are a little faster I guess.

    • wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works
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      21 hours ago

      You should read “Vaster than Empires, and More Slow” by Ursula K Leguin, which is basically this. Also “Shroud”, and “Alien Clay” by Adrian Tchaikovsky have somewhat related ideas, but are full-blown examinations of the concepts of utterly alien intelligence. Honestly, you’d probably like most of Tchaikovsky’s work. He does a lot with “alternative manifestations of sapience”.

      • A_norny_mousse@feddit.org
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        19 hours ago

        I love Le Guin! I just started re-reading her opus; but since this is a (short) story I might have skipped it the first time. I also aded some Tschaikowski to my e-reader, if I like that I will try to remember this.

        full-blown examinations of the concepts of utterly alien intelligence.

        In this context I will always recommend Stanislaw Lem’s “Eden”, although it has little to do with differences in speed.

        • wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works
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          19 hours ago

          Yeah, if you’re looking to get into Tchaikovsky, I’d recommend either Children of Time (if you like sci-fi) or The City of Last Chances (if you like fantasy). His work is always based in his experience as a zoologist, so his environments and animals are second-to-none (even the series of which City of Last Chances is a part contains well-considered biology whenever “monsters” from “the grove” are described)