Man of Many MindsEvans, E. Everett (Edward Everett)
Science
Man of Many Minds
Evans, E. Everett (Edward Everett)
Extraterrestrial beings -- Fiction; Science fiction, American
"Well, hi, fellow," Hanlon reached down and lifted the little dog onto
his lap, where the latter wriggled and contorted in an ecstasy of joy,
climbing all over the young man, licking at his hands and trying to
reach his face. The puppy was so extremely happy and anxious to make
friends that Hanlon was soon laughing almost convulsively while trying
to avoid those well-meant but very moist kisses.
"Wait now, boy. Take it easy. I like you and all that, but let's not get
carried away with ourselves."
Hanlon scratched the puppy behind one of its floppy ears, and pressed it
firmly but gently down so it was lying on his lap.
"That's better. Just lie there and take it easy."
A sudden thought brought a grin onto the young man's lips. He tried to
get into the puppy's mind ... and got a real surprise. For after a few
anxious moments of testing and trying, he did it--actually got the dog's
thoughts of pleasure at finding such a wonderful new friend with such a
nose-appealing effluvium. Hanlon then tried to see if he could get into
the deeper parts of the dog's mind, and using what knowledge of the
technique he had deduced in his previous though unsuccessful attempts
with humans, found after many more anxious minutes he could follow the
thought-and-memory tracks back and back until the dog's whole mind was
open to him.
The puppy had far more of a mentality than Hanlon had ever guessed dogs
had--and he knew they were far from stupid. This one's mind, he could
now see, was immature but latently capable.
Say, this was great! Hanlon probed some more, and found many sketchy
facts--sketchy because the thoughts were incomplete to the puppy, beyond
its experience, and not because the man couldn't read perfectly what was
there. The dog apparently knew a woman--Hanlon got the impression of
skirts--and answered when that goddess called the word "Gypsy."
"Gypsy, eh?" Hanlon said aloud, and immediately the dog wriggled from
beneath his restraining hand, and again tried to climb up and lick
Hanlon's face in a frenzy of adoration.
"Lie down, sir, and be quiet!" Hanlon said sternly, and the puppy did so
instantly, without question or hesitation.
Hanlon thrilled, realizing at once that it was not what he had said that
did the trick--but the fact that he was still inside the dog's mind, and
that it had obeyed his will rather than his words.
"Hey, this needs looking into!"
Without saying the words aloud this time, Hanlon commanded the dog--or
rather, he impressed the command directly onto the puppy's mind with his
own--to get down off his lap onto the deck.
Instantly it leaped down.
"Lie down." The dog did so.
"Roll over." Again silently. But now the puppy merely looked up at him,
imploringly, quivering in an apparent emotion of indecision. Hanlon
realized the puppy didn't know how to "roll over."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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