These dreams

[unixronin]

I had an odd dream last night in which we (the human race, that is) had a first-contact with a spacefaring alien race, who told us how very fortunate it was that we'd learned to recognize and diagnose Asperger's syndrome, because what we call Asperger's was the signature of a set of mental traits which are absolutely necessary to pilot a starship in hyperspace, and this was really important because a major interstellar warfront was about to sweep through this sector, and they could teach us to build ships and train our pilots but we had to HAVE the potential pilots in the first place.¹  And oh look, we do.  Oh frabjous day, callooh callay, now we'll be able to protect ourselves when the Jabberwock comes calling, and have enough pilots in fact to be able to contribute to the war effort and maybe turn the tide in this sector (if they can help us train enough Aspies fast enough).  Something to do with hyperspace jumps taking anywhere from minutes to eight or ten hours, and if your concentration or your grasp of the geometry of local hyperspace conditions slips for more than a few seconds during the jump, you're fucked.

"What you call the neurotypical mind," they told us, "not only cannot maintain focus through a jump, but is not capable of intuitively grasping the geometry of hyperspace.  The ability cannot be taught to neurotypical minds, and cannot be automated."  Short version: a ship with a neurotypical pilot, on a jump longer than 20, maybe 25 minutes, just never comes out.  But an Aspie can maintain focus through a jump, and if the ship does drift a little off vector in hyperspace, an aspie pilot can sense the changes in the flow of hyperspace and make a correction.  Aspies with a good instinct for strategy and tactics were especially valuable, what with the war and all; because they, and only they, could command hyperdrive warships effectively.

[1]  Fear the might of my run-on sentence fu!

Comments

[databeast.livejournal.com]

so what did they make all us ADD kids then? cackling gunnery crew?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Not a clue, honestly.

[yndy.livejournal.com]

that's brilliant - would you mind if I turned it into a short story?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

If you can get a short story out of it, you're welcome.

[amethest.livejournal.com]

I read a short story like this I believe in the collection A Space of Her Own (women sifi writers)

about a very quick-minded theif that was able to think in pictures, not in words and so circumvent the perils of hyperspace.

Very cool.

[fatcook.livejournal.com]

What a lovely dream!

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I don't know that "lovely dream" is quite the way I'd choose to describe "Hey, you're about to be on the front lines of an interstellar war."

[fatcook.livejournal.com]

I'll take my chances in the war. It beats being chased down an endless hallway by sentient cutlery.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Uh, yeah, that kind of thing gets weird fast.

[wyrdling.livejournal.com]

i want in

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Well, if aliens come to earth and tap me for training, I'll make sure to point them at you too. Unfortunately I'm not expecting it to happen any time soon.

I suspect what's behind the dream is some kind of "Even after everything that's happened, I can still be useful... see?" wish.

[wyrdling.livejournal.com]

or perhaps there's a way of navigating through stellar systems, metaphorically, right now?

funny, though, you posted it the same day NASA posted that they'd found magnetic "roads" linking the sun and earth, and i've dreamed, over the years, of navigating ships along those things (even though i only wondered, at the time, if they were really there.) so it was a surreal combination ;)
my space navigation dreams are always intensely beautiful. though sometimes we get "the life support system's failing" stuff and that's not so fun. i'm not quite sure what they mean to express, but you kind of hit a soft spot with that.

and, yup, interstellar warfront= not so good
being able to guide a ship through the universe= wow.