The Science of Discworld Revised Edition

Samuel R. Delany in the novel
Empire Star
. Simplex minds have a single-world view and know exactly what everyone ought to do. Complex minds recognize the existence of different world views. Multiplex ones wonder how useful a specific world view actually is in a world of conflicting paradigms, but find a way to operate despite that.
    Anyone who wants to can get on the Internet and construct a webpage about UFOs, telling everybody who accesses that page that UFOs exist – they’re out there in space, they come down to Earth, they abduct people, they steal their babies … They do all these things and it’s absolutely definite, because
it’s on the web
.
    A prominent astronomer was giving a talk about life on other planets and the possibility of aliens. He made out the scientific case that somewhere out in the galaxy intelligent aliens
might
exist. At that point a member of the audience put his hand up and said ‘we
know
they exist: it’s all over the Internet.’
    On the other hand, you can access another page on the Internet and get a completely different view. On the Internet, the full diversity of views is, or at least can be represented. It is quite democratic; the views of the stupid and credulous carry as much weight as the views of those who can read without moving their lips. If you think that the Holocaust didn’t actually happen, and you can shout loud enough, and you can design a good web page, then you can be in there slugging it out with other people who believe that recorded history should have some kind of connection with reality.
    We are having to cope with multiplexity. We’re grappling with the problem right now: it’s why global politics has suddenly become a lot more complicated than it used to be. Answers are in short supply, but one thing seems clear: rigid cultural fundamentalism isn’t going to get us anywhere.
    1 There was a television programme called
The Magic Roundabout
. One of the characters was a dog called Dougal, which looked a bit like a hairbrush. Mantis shrimps have the same general form, though not with hair.

FORTY-FIVE
THE BLEAT GOES ON

    EXTELLIGENCE BLOOMED, FASTER than H EX could create extra space in which to apprehend it. It reached the seas and spread out across the continents, left the surface of the world, spun webs across the sky, reached the moon … and went further, as intelligence sought things to be intelligent about.
    Extelligence learned. Among many other things, it learned to fear.
    The HEM filled up again as the wizards returned, unsteadily, from lunch.
    ‘Ah, Rincewind,’ said the Archchancellor. ‘We’re looking for a volunteer to go into the squash court and shut down the reactor, and we’ve found you. Well done.’
    ‘Is it dangerous?’ said Rincewind.
    ‘That depends on how you define dangerous,’ said Ridcully.
    ‘Er … liable to cause pain and an imminent cessation of respiration,’ suggested Rincewind. ‘A high risk of agony, a possible deficit of arms and legs, a terminal shortness of breath –’
    Ridcully and Ponder went into a huddle. Rincewind heard them whispering. Then the Archchancellor turned, beaming.
    ‘We’ve decided to come to a new definition,’ he said. ‘It is “not as dangerous as many other things”. I beg you pardon …’ He leaned over as Ponder whispered urgently in his ear. ‘Correction, “not as dangerous as
some
other things”. There. I think that’s clear.’
    ‘Well,
yes
, you mean … not as dangerous as some of the most dangerous things in the universe?’
    ‘Yes, indeed. And among them, Rincewind, would be your refusal to go.’ The Archchancellor walked over to the omniscope. ‘Oh, another ice age,’ he went on. ‘Well, that
is
a surprise.’
    Rincewind glanced at the Librarian, who shrugged. Only a few tens of thousands of years could have passed down there. The apes probably never knew what squashed them.
    There was a lengthy rattle from H EX ’s write-out. Ponder walked over to read it.
    ‘Er … Archchancellor? H EX says he’s found advanced intelligence on the planet.’
    ‘Intelligent life? Down there? But the place is a snowball again!’
    ‘Er … not life, sir. Not exactly.’
    ‘Hang on, what’s this?’ said the Dean.
    There was, thin as a thread, a ring around the world. Spaced at regular distances were tiny dots, like beads, and from
them
more tiny lines descended towards the surface.
    So did the wizards.
    Wind howled across the tundra. The ice was only a few