“What are you talking about?”
“Just this: It is quite obvious that the Trajendi are smarter than we are.”
“Ridicu—”
“How can you—”
Hunter turned his head away until silence fell. “One can measure intelligence in many different ways, each of them with its own limitations. There are gross measures such as the amount of brain tissue per kilogram of body weight; the relative complexity of the synaptic connections; the number of variables that can be simultaneously considered in solving a problem; the speed of manipulation of abstract concepts; the ability to generalize successful solutions from limited factual data points, to name only a few.”
“Under these strictures,” replied Deputy Tournet after a moment’s pause, “the dolphin is smarter than human beings. They certainly have bigger brains per kilogram of body weight. And yet we know that they are not smarter than we are.”
Hunter’s eye was unblinking as it turned to the councilman from the European Protectorate. “Generally speaking, brain size is only a very rough indicator of intelligence. How the brain is organized internally is at least as important as how big it is. Dolphins, by their very nature, are obliged to perform extremely complicated sonar-tracking calculations in order to flourish in their particular environment. They are also required to compute the true positions of objects across a distorting water-air barrier. They furthermore have to process a great deal of data that are based on odors. Their brains are proportionately larger, yes, but much of that extra size is ‘hardwired’ solely in order to perform these extremely calculation-intensive functions.
“When you take those functions away, what’s left is, in fact, far less than the mass of a human brain.” Hunter’s right shoulder hunched and his face grimaced—he had attempted to raise a finger on the end of an arm that no longer existed. “And before we go on to any other analogies, let me just say that the great apes do indeed have reasonably good-sized brains, but that the synaptic complexity per cubic centimeter is far less than that of humans.”
“And what has this to do with the Trajendi?” asked President Clayborn.
“Well, we obviously haven’t had the opportunity to dissect a Trajendi brain, but judging from the drawings and descriptions that Lubchek sent back, their cranial capacity may be substantially greater than ours. Besides, Lubchek himself is absolutely convinced that they are the smartest beings he’s ever run into, and Major Lubchek has an IQ of at least 165. We don’t send dummies into space.”
“But how could he possibly tell that in such a brief meeting?” Councilwoman Moguiba demanded. “I’ve studied the transcripts and—”
“Nine hours is not a brief meeting. Moreover, he kept his eyes open and asked intelligent questions. Remember, the Trajendi didn’t let him bring in any recording equipment or anything else that might possibly have been a weapon, so everything that he’s told us during the debriefing is based solely upon his memory.
“Lubchek says they discussed mathematics, set theory, game theory, classical mathematical puzzles —weighty topics for three merchant seamen from Brussels come to sell trinkets to the Indians! He swears they tried to explain how to solve the three-body problem—and that their explanation almost made sense to him. Except that five minutes later he couldn’t reconstruct the logic. He asked about their governmental systems and they gave him a ten-minute lecture about something called the ‘Set Theory Of Sentient Interaction Protocols.’ Once again, it almost made sense to him. And before you say it, no, they weren’t giving him a line of double-talk. Lubchek is a very, very smart man, certainly smart enough to know the difference between something being made up and something that makes sense but which he just isn’t able to understand.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have to face the fact that at least on a cultural and scientific level, and very possibly on an organic level, the Trajendi are simply smarter than we are. In any negotiation between them and us, we will lose, and we will lose big.”
A long silence filled the room in Geneva. Finally Prime Minister Lii spoke.
“With no disrespect to your Major Lubchek, Mr. Hunter, the gentleman may have an Intelligence Quotient of 165, but that does not make him the smartest person in the world. Far from it. In China alone we have many, many people who are certified geniuses who can competently represent the human race in dealing with these Trajendi.”
“Madam Prime Minister, geniuses are generally brilliant in one particular field, maybe two, possibly three, but not in general intelligence. No matter how brilliant Albert Einstein was in physics, I wouldn’t want him to represent me in negotiations with a car salesman for that new Scepter 3000 in the showroom window.”
“Yes, but—”
“And what if these particular Trajendi are actually just of average intelligence as their race goes? What if they really are just the equivalent of commission salesmen, free-lance contractors, railway purchasing agents, backwoods scouts like Daniel Boone? If that’s the case, then who’s going to be following along after them? We can’t even guess at their long-range motives, at the big picture. In the next three months, they could sucker us in ways it might take us a century or more to figure out.”
Councilman Gupta snorted disdainfully. “Mr. Hunter, your parochial fears—”
“How long did it take the Cheyenne or the Apaches to understand what had really happened to them and what they would have to have done in order to avoid all the traps their negotiators fell into or ignored? What did they understand about copper mining, or riparian water rights, or the difference between an option and a contract, or the value of oil and gas leases?”
Councilman Gupta made an angry clucking sound. “Let me just say, Mr. Hunter, that we naturally checked on your medical status before agreeing to this meeting. I don’t recall the precise medical terms, but it appears that you are suffering from acute depression and an active desire to be left to vegetate in a world of twenty-four hour virtual reality. These are hardly credentials to compel us to take you seriously.”
“Yes, I am depressed by the death of my wife and children, terribly so, more so than I can possibly express. But that makes me more determined to do whatever I can to prevent suffering for other people’s families. I value human life more now, not less.”
Councilman Gupta snorted again. “On the contrary, I think you’re sounding just like the very people who blew you up: All-mighty Satan is on the way, and there’s nothing we poor little humans can do to prevent it.”
Hunter’s mouth twisted as he struggled to hold back an angry retort. “All I’m trying to do,” he said finally, “is to keep them from doing to us what the British did to India. I would have thought that you, of all people, would be a little bit more understanding.”
Prime Minister Lii nodded curtly. “All right, Mr. Hunter, let us stipulate for the sake of argument that every single thing you have just said is actually correct. Where does that get us? And, more importantly, what do you propose to do about it?”
Hunter’s head shifted against his pillows. “It’s obvious: We need to have someone much smarter than any of us here in this room represent us in our negotiations with the Trajendi.”
“But you’ve already argued that no humans, not even geniuses, are equipped to do that.”