-
In this pioneering science-fictional treatment of superhuman intelligence, a mutant wonder childs insights prove devastating. Science fiction luminary Ted Chiang introduces The Hampdenshire Wonder, one of the genres first treatments of superhuman intelligence. Victor Stott is a large-headed supernormal mutated in the womb by his parents desire to have a child born without habits. Known as the Wonder, Victor surveys humankinds science, philosophy, history, literature, religionthe best that has been thought and saidand dismisses it brutally: So elementary . . . inchoate . . . a disjunctive patchwork. Rejecting the interposing and utterly false concepts of space and time, the Wonder claims that life itself is merely a disease of the ether. Unable to deal with the childs disenchanting insights, his adult interlocutors seek to silence him . . . perhaps permanently.
In this pioneering science-fictional treatment of superhuman intelligence, a mutant wonder childs insights prove devastating.
Science fiction luminary Ted Chiang introduces The Hampdenshire Wonder, one of the genres first treatments of superhuman intelligence. Victor Stott is a large-headed supernormal mutated in the womb by his parents desire to have a child born without habits. Known as the Wonder, Victor surveys humankinds science, philosophy, history, literature, religionthe best that has been thought and saidand dismisses it brutally: So elementary . . . inchoate . . . a disjunctive patchwork. Rejecting the interposing and utterly false concepts of space and time, the Wonder claims that life itself is merely a disease of the ether. Unable to deal with the childs disenchanting insights, his adult interlocutors seek to silence him . . . perhaps permanently.