"Stephen Goldin - Herds" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goldin Stephen)

appear, however. Intelligent individuals think partly in words of
their own language, partly in abstract concepts and partly in
visual images. The thoughts go by very quickly and then are gone
forever. Different species had different patterns of thought based
primarily on differences in their sensory inputs. And within a
race each individual had his own private code of symbolism.

Mindreading, therefore, tended to be a painstaking and very
frustrating business. Garnna would have to sift through
mountains of meaningless impressions that were bombarding
him at an unbelievable rate to arrive at even the kernel of an
idea. With luck, he would read some generalized emotions and
learn a few of the basic concepts that existed within the mind he
contracted. But he was experienced at this procedure and not
afraid of hard work if it were for the good of the Herd, so he
dived right in.

After a good deal of probing and even more guesswork,
Garnna was able to piece together a small picture of this world.
There was only one intelligent race here, but it had fragmented
into many individual cultures. Several constant patterns
emerged in nearly all the cultures, though. The iff-groups here
seemed generally to consist of only a few adults, usually related
or mated, plus their offspring. The purpose of the iff-group was
much more oriented towards the raising of the young than it was
toward the providing of security for the individual. There seemed
to be some individuals who survived entirely without iff-groups.
The Herd was more an abstract concept here than an everyday
reality as it was on Zarti.

He learned, also, that some of the cultures on the planet were
richer than others. The richest could be currently found on the
nighttime side of the planet. In that particular culture, many of
the things done by hand here were done by machine, and there
was supposed to be plenty of food for all. The thought that one
portion of the Herd could be overfed while another portion went
hungry seemed callous to the Zartic. He reminded himself once
more to stifle his emotions. He was here only to observe, and he
had best concentrate on that.
 He decided to investigate that ultra-rich culture. In evaluating
these creatures as a potential threat to the Herd, his superiors
would only be interested in their highest capabilities. It wouldn't
matter at all what the poorer cultures did if the richer ones
possessed a method of physical interstellar travel coupled with a
warlike nature.

At the speed of thought, Garnna zipped across an enormous
expanse of ocean and arrived in the darkened hemisphere. He
immediately found several large coastal cities blazing their lights
at him. These creatures might be diurnal, but they certainly