To Cats We Are Telepaths

    To Cats We Are Telepaths

 

From the cat point of view, we humans are telepaths. We do telepathy by the sounds that we make with our mouths. Cats can partially read us, specifically our emotions; but we can transfer detailed information beyond that. Evidently there’s more to it than vocabulary; the _order_ in which we make noises matters somehow. We’re a mystery to them.

         Human telepathy (i.e. language) has all the properties and problems that science fiction ascribes to telepathy. Mass mind, virtual immortality, manipulation, hacking, spam, and viruses. As ever, science fiction excels not at predicting the future, but at imaginatively observing the present.

         So imagine telepathic saucer aliens who relate to us like we relate to cats. They’d teep at us constantly because they’re compulsive teepers. They like the sound of their own minds. We’d detect the psi waves that they make; we could make out how they are feeling, but not what they are thinking. There would be psi waves that we make back to them, but never to each other, as a way to manipulate them.

         They’d think they own us; we’d think we own them. If we play our cards right, then our case would be the stronger.