TELEPATHY
If you haven't found something strange during the day,
it hasn't been much of a day.
-JOHN WHEELER
Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible.
-M. C. ESCHER
A. E. van Vogt's novel Slan captures the vast potential and our darkest
fears associated with the power of telepathy.
Jommy Cross, the protagonist in the novel, is a "slan," a dying race
of superintelligent telepaths.
His parents were brutally murdered by enraged mobs of humans,
who fear and despise all telepaths, because of the enormous power
wielded by those who can intrude on their private, most intimate
thoughts. Humans mercilessly hunt down the slans like animals. With
their characteristic tendrils growing out of their heads, slans are easy
to spot. In the course of the book, Jommy tries to make contact with
other slans who might have fled into outer space to escape the witch
hunts of humans determined to exterminate them.
Historically, mind reading has been seen as so important that it
has often been associated with the gods. One of the most fundamental
powers of any god is the ability to read our minds and hence answer