FOR FUN:
How Our Sun Warps Our Brains

Thal knew what was causing the difficulty. It was the nature of the space-time warp in the Sol system. Even though he was well beyond Pluto, it was affecting the functioning of his brain.

The space-time warp of this system was very powerful. It exerted a strong though very subtle influence which was felt as an influence to pull all matter and all energies into three dimensions. Thal thought of it as a vortex which attempted to pull every object caught in it into its own three-dimensional continuum. Even at this distance from the system's central luminary, it was a potent force.

Unquestionably, this time-space warp affected every life-form existing in this system. Nearer the sun, its effect must be much stronger. Thal almost shuddered at the thought of the effect of this warp on the life-forms that had evolved within its strangling influence. On the surface, they looked enough like the Pleiri to be their twin brothers, but what were they like on the inside?

The nature of the space-time warp in which they lived would tend to force every thought in their brains to twist and turn back upon itself. Because of this warp, they would find their own thinking going in circles forever!

How could the life-forms in the Sol system ever think a single thought that went directly to its objective without returning, boomerang-like, and hitting the thinker himself?

This was a problem that Thal preferred not to think about. However, he found the space-time warp was affecting his own thinking to such a degree that even his own mind kept going back again and again to the problem he did not wish to consider. He imagined the years of effort, of trial and failure, repeated in an almost endless cycle, before the dominant life-form in this system had even managed to get from their planet to their satellite. How had they succeeded in doing this? How could they reach a solution to any problem when their own thought processes constantly circled back to their starting point, a condition which resulted from the very nature of the space in which they live?

Thal sighed again. Even trying to imagine the problems this race had faced gave him a headache. He could see quite clearly how dangerous they were.

SOURCE: Williams, Robert Moore. Conquest of the Space Sea (New York: Ace Books, Inc., 1955), pp. 53-55. (Ace Double Novel Books; D-99)

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