Offspring Ch. 029

"Give me an example."

"The Oktonians can't understand the way in which we group things together.

"Let me put it this way. Show some paper in different pastel shades to colour blind people. To them they all look the same. They cannot see why you and I differentiate.

"My guess is the Oktonians have the opposite problem. They perceive differently coloured paper in a way that makes it look like something else. The to us obvious communality 'paper' is buried in a flood of information that makes it appear as a different object with which they have no previous experience. They need to be shown what can be done with it. Something like that anyway."

"That makes sense."

"We assume because they have learned to speak like us they also think like us. That is a fallacy. That assumption makes them look dumb to us, rather than different. I asked Talla to teach me her language. She told me that was impossible and why. She also told me there were many things we didn't understand about each other. I don't know how you see this, but to me these were the answers of a highly intelligent and aware creature."

"Yes they were. That and the fact she expressed interest in learning more about us."

"I shall explore that avenue further. Now we should get back to the library and study some more. It seems to have fallen by the wayside a little."