Otherness by David Brin Page A
Authors: David Brin
Tags: Fiction, General, Science-Fiction, Science Fiction - General, Fiction - Science Fiction, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Modern fiction, High Tech, Science Fiction - High Tech, Science fiction; American, General & Literary Fiction
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ourselves."
Again, instant protests.
" But . . . but there may be other ways of dealing with the world intelligently than those we imagine !"
" Right !" another person agrees. " Those problems the dolphins had to solve were designed by human beings, and may miss the whole point of cetacean thought! In their environment they're probably as smart as we are in ours !"
How does one answer statements like those?
I've listened to recorded dolphin "speech," transposed in frequency. The sounds are repetitive, imprecise . . . clearly filled with emotional, not discursive, information.
Subjective opinion, to be sure. So I'd patiently describe the brilliantly simple experiments of Herman and others, which had forced me to abandon my own early optimism that it was only a matter of time until we learned to understand dolphin speech.
But this only seemed to deepen the questioners' sullen insistence that there must be other varieties of intelligence .
Finally, I gave up arguing.
"You know," I said, "every group of nonscientists I've talked to reacts this way. It's really had me wondering. But now I think I've figured it out."
They looked puzzled. I explained.
"Anthropologists tell us that every culture has its core of central, commonly shared assumptions—some call them zeitgeists, others call them dogmas. These are beliefs that each individual in the tribe or community will maintain vigorously, almost like a reflex.
"It's a universal of every society. For instance, in the equatorial regions of the globe there's a dogma that could be called machismo, in which revenge is a paramount virtue that runs deeper even than religion. From Asian family centrism to Russian pessimism, there are worldviews that affect nations' behavior more basically than superficial things like communism, or capitalism, or Islam. It all has to do with the way children are raised.
"We, too, have our zeitgeist. But I am coming to see that contemporary America is very, very strange in one respect. It just may be the first society in which it is a major reflexive dogma that there must be no dogmas !"
The puzzled looks have spread. This is quite a departure. I hurry on.
"Look how you all leaped up to refute me. Even though I'm the supposed 'dolphin expert' here, that hardly matters, since you all assume that any expert can still be wrong! No matter how prestigious his credentials, no expert can know all the answers ."
This is a bit of a revelation to me, even as I say it.
"Think about it. "There's always another way of looking at things' is a basic assumption of a great many Americans."
"Yeah?" One of the fellows up in front says, perhaps with a bit of a chip on his shoulder. "Well, isn't that true? There is always another way!"
"Of course there is . . . or at least I tend to think so. I like to see other viewpoints." I shrug. "But you see, I was brought up in the same culture as you were, so it's no surprise I share your dogma of otherness."
I roll the phrase over on my tongue, then repeat it, perhaps a little pontifically. "The Dogma of Otherness insists that all voices deserve a hearing, that all points of view have something of value to offer.
"Your reactions reflect this fundamental assumption. Having been raised in the same culture, I believe in it as fully as you do. Recall how reluctant I was to decide, at last, that dolphins aren't superintelligent. Most of us here believe in diversity of ideas.
"But think, for a moment, how unique this is . . . how unusual this cultural mind-set has to be! Throughout history nearly every human society has worked hard to ingrain its children with the assumption that theirs was the only way to do things. Oh, we still get a lot of that here. It probably comes automatically with flags and nations and all that tribal stuff. But where and when else has the societal dogma also included such a powerful counter-indoctrination to defend otherness?"
A man in the front row speaks up.
"That's a
Again, instant protests.
" But . . . but there may be other ways of dealing with the world intelligently than those we imagine !"
" Right !" another person agrees. " Those problems the dolphins had to solve were designed by human beings, and may miss the whole point of cetacean thought! In their environment they're probably as smart as we are in ours !"
How does one answer statements like those?
I've listened to recorded dolphin "speech," transposed in frequency. The sounds are repetitive, imprecise . . . clearly filled with emotional, not discursive, information.
Subjective opinion, to be sure. So I'd patiently describe the brilliantly simple experiments of Herman and others, which had forced me to abandon my own early optimism that it was only a matter of time until we learned to understand dolphin speech.
But this only seemed to deepen the questioners' sullen insistence that there must be other varieties of intelligence .
Finally, I gave up arguing.
"You know," I said, "every group of nonscientists I've talked to reacts this way. It's really had me wondering. But now I think I've figured it out."
They looked puzzled. I explained.
"Anthropologists tell us that every culture has its core of central, commonly shared assumptions—some call them zeitgeists, others call them dogmas. These are beliefs that each individual in the tribe or community will maintain vigorously, almost like a reflex.
"It's a universal of every society. For instance, in the equatorial regions of the globe there's a dogma that could be called machismo, in which revenge is a paramount virtue that runs deeper even than religion. From Asian family centrism to Russian pessimism, there are worldviews that affect nations' behavior more basically than superficial things like communism, or capitalism, or Islam. It all has to do with the way children are raised.
"We, too, have our zeitgeist. But I am coming to see that contemporary America is very, very strange in one respect. It just may be the first society in which it is a major reflexive dogma that there must be no dogmas !"
The puzzled looks have spread. This is quite a departure. I hurry on.
"Look how you all leaped up to refute me. Even though I'm the supposed 'dolphin expert' here, that hardly matters, since you all assume that any expert can still be wrong! No matter how prestigious his credentials, no expert can know all the answers ."
This is a bit of a revelation to me, even as I say it.
"Think about it. "There's always another way of looking at things' is a basic assumption of a great many Americans."
"Yeah?" One of the fellows up in front says, perhaps with a bit of a chip on his shoulder. "Well, isn't that true? There is always another way!"
"Of course there is . . . or at least I tend to think so. I like to see other viewpoints." I shrug. "But you see, I was brought up in the same culture as you were, so it's no surprise I share your dogma of otherness."
I roll the phrase over on my tongue, then repeat it, perhaps a little pontifically. "The Dogma of Otherness insists that all voices deserve a hearing, that all points of view have something of value to offer.
"Your reactions reflect this fundamental assumption. Having been raised in the same culture, I believe in it as fully as you do. Recall how reluctant I was to decide, at last, that dolphins aren't superintelligent. Most of us here believe in diversity of ideas.
"But think, for a moment, how unique this is . . . how unusual this cultural mind-set has to be! Throughout history nearly every human society has worked hard to ingrain its children with the assumption that theirs was the only way to do things. Oh, we still get a lot of that here. It probably comes automatically with flags and nations and all that tribal stuff. But where and when else has the societal dogma also included such a powerful counter-indoctrination to defend otherness?"
A man in the front row speaks up.
"That's a
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