Stella...Hey Stella!
"There are other forms of intelligence on Earth [than ‘people’], Doctor.” —Spock, Star Trek IV I have always been a cognitive pluralist—by prejudice, if not by conviction. I never saw any reason to insist that mankind alone should possess consciousness to any significant degree. Part of it has to be due to growing up in a church that, on account of its great respect for the scriptures, always acknowledged the existence of an unseen world of angels and demons, even if our general fear of all things Catholic led us to declare that the age of miracles—including angelic visions and demonic influences and exorcisms—was over. I have since gotten over that fear, and no doubt one small reason for this was the second contributing factor to my cognitive pluralism: my second home in the world of pure imagination. From Eternia to Tatooine, from Cybertron to Vulcan, from Asgard to Lothlorien—and yes, even the digital world of Automan —I spent so much time in worlds...