Comments on: Have Mouth, Will Travel, Part 2: The Planarians

By: Gerry Quinn

Gerry Quinn — Tue, 18 May 2010 13:25:07 +0000

Transferring memories by way of cannibalism is a major theme in Gene Wolfe’s _Book of the New Sun_ also.

By: Anton Sherwood

Anton Sherwood — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 03:32:58 +0000

Were CONTROL worms fed other untaught worms? If not, maybe WELL-FED learned quicker because they ate better, not because they ate smarter, as it were.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Mon, 25 May 2009 11:15:06 +0000

I hadn’t thought about planaria since my biology course in high school. At first I thought “The Planarians” was a parody science fiction fan club… Back on topic: it’s too bad learning by eating didn’t pan out. That whole concept struck me as a little “off” when I heard about it, but it would’ve been so convenient to rationalize some ancient human traditions about gaining the power of your prey by eating it.

By: Nix

Nix — Sat, 23 May 2009 21:32:05 +0000

Maybe Niven used it in _The Fourth Profession_ (transferrable memory yes, not sure about memory RNA, and I’m fairly sure that can’t give you the ability to do miracles), but memory RNA was *definitely* used in _Rammer_, which became the first part of _A World Out Of Time_. Definitely one of Niven’s better works, gave me sensawunda like nothing he’d done since _Ringworld_.

By: Marc

Marc — Sat, 23 May 2009 11:54:48 +0000

Memory RNA and its possible uses is a beautiful concept. Sadly? it ‘seems’ Ockham’s razor (my favour law, which I use daily with great glee) triumphs again. Ironically Ockham’s “Theory of knowledge” touched remarkably close to memory RNA back in medieval times.

By: Stefan Jones

Stefan Jones — Thu, 21 May 2009 20:18:28 +0000

Larry Niven used the “memory RNA” notion in one of his better stories. “The Fourth Profession” I believe.