(urth) Typhon's nature

[David Stockhoff]

On 10/14/2011 8:53 AM, Gerry Quinn wrote:
> *From:* David Stockhoff <mailto:dstockhoff at verizon.net>
> On 10/12/2011 11:09 AM, Gerry Quinn wrote:
>
> > > For me they are not confusing because I do not find it very important
> > > what exact mix of technological, personality, and psychic powers is
> > > possessed by Typhon. Whether he has sent his thoughts into far places
> > > by telepathy or by logging onto still extant computer databases is
> > > something we are simply not told, and Severian, if he knew, would
> > > probably find both possibilities equally astounding.
> > Astounding, or else pedestrian. We can't really tell, can we? But I
> > agree that mechanisms are not strictly critical outside of hard SF,
> > which this ain't. But what about my point above? An interstellar 
> emperor
> > who basically uses Daddy's wealth to create his empire is quite
> > different from one who asserts the power of his self, is it not? (A
> > Trump-style president who uses self-promotion to hide his incompetence
> > vs an Eisenhower?) Force of personality, force of mind, same thing.
> > Fancy electronics---not so much. BIG difference there, and that's a
> > bigger point than ESP, aside from the cloning debate.
> >
> > Typhon wants to govern the universe by unleashing (ungoverning) 
> himself.
> > That's why I call him anti-Autarch. If his powers come from himself, 
> the
> > point is more strongly made.
> But I think we can all agree that Typhon does have great force of 
> personality and will to power. This is the essential thing about him. 
> To fulfil his drive to conquer he uses the things and people about 
> him, and any tools available to him. He uses armies, he uses 
> databases. He uses the power to command that by way of propaganda and 
> years of power have been identified with his face in the mind of the 
> populace – hence the whole head transplant. If he has innate psychic 
> powers he uses them too, but they are no more significant than the 
> strength of his hands.
Significant in what sense?

If I ruled worlds with all those tools you list, and then you found out 
I was psionic (without using a psionic helmet), would that not strike 
you as significant?

What if I boasted of these powers?

What if I claimed (or hinted at) them but had none?

All these hypotheticals are situations in which the "significance" of 
psionic powers TO THE STORY is quite high. Wolfe has made choices---the 
choices are significant.
> In the Long Sun series, we learn more about life on Typhon’s Urth from 
> Mamelta, a young computer technician who was one of the millions 
> selected by Typhon and commanded to enter the Whorl as a sleeper. We 
> learn much from the very fact of command, of course: “We had to 
> volunteer. They were – you couldn’t say no.” She agreed with Silk that 
> the Loganstone was a “slave boat”. [Note: This passage also seems to 
> make it clear that Mamelta was nobody special on Urth. Of course she 
> might for all we know have been forced previously to donate eggs, and 
> one of them could have been fertilised and engineered to eventually 
> become Silk, and then she might have become the one of many sleepers 
> woken by Mucor to be woken just as Silk arrived, but there is no 
> indication in the text that any such series of coincidences happened.]
> We also learn that the inhabitants of Typhon’s Urth (or maybe just 
> certain classes or occupations) were wired into some kind of always-on 
> telepathic internet. They did not need to use normal speech to 
> communicate, and the system was also used for control: the family of 
> the Monarch danced or stalked through their dreams. When they were 
> placed in the Whorl, brain operations were needed to remove the 
> apparatus (whether that consisted of modified brain tissue or 
> electronics we are not told) associated with this internet, and to 
> reduce their mental dependence on the rulers. The latter was not 
> possible to completely achieve - and thus came about the eventual 
> political/religious structure of the Whorl - but the surgeons did “as 
> much as they dared”. Brain centres associated with speech processing 
> may have also needed to be revamped, or it may be that the ability to 
> speak “to move my lips and my tongue... while I make this noise in my 
> throat” was present anyway, though unused.
> So Typhon’s psychic domination of his people was technologically 
> mediated, in the end. Of course, Wolfe probably hadn’t decided on any 
> of that when he wrote BotNS, and for all we know he may have leaned 
> the other way at that time.
Again, it's not that the distinction between technologies is small. It's 
that the distinction between forms of matter is small, so that putting 
on an electromechanical helmet to intensify brain-controlling 
thought-waves generated by mutated brain tissues to rule the galaxy is 
simply part of the fabric of what is possible (in pulp SF).

I wonder again if there is a particular model for Wolfe in describing 
Typhonic society, there being so many models to choose from. But I'm 
inclined to think "as much as they dared" points to a removal of tissue, 
not removal of a kind of set-top cable box for the brain. The story that 
Lemur tried to limit Mucor's power through surgery but failed supports 
this idea, since an implant could simply be removed. In this theory, 
perhaps humans developed their brains on their own through exposure to 
mental commands, or evolution (Mucor may not be all that unique).

It's almost as though Wolfe posits, as a sort of philosophical joke, a 
human gene for submission to kings that corresponds to a vulnerability 
to imperious commands. Remove it and we think for ourselves. There is a 
parallel between the "words-of-power" Severian uses on susceptible 
machines at the Citadel as Autarch and the "mental speech" of Typhonic 
society that turns humans into tools. (Decuman's magic, too?) How much 
is really meant to correspond between New and Long Sun?---but you do 
have to wonder about the innateness question. Were people made more 
vulnerable, or their rulers more powerful? My money is on Typhon's 
uniqueness. OTOH, once you consider the central roles of his children, 
and the way Mainframe weakly replicates their ability to abuse the 
Mameltas that they had on Urth, I can certainly see it the other way.

Variability in psionic power could be a test of this. Do any of the 
Mainframe gods show greater or lesser power? Did they on Urth? Such 
variability might indicate variable inheritance of an inherited trait 
for mind control. Lack of variability suggests standard 
electromechanical enhancement.


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