An Ecology of MInd (41 page)

The grenagle had killed the pinoochi and instead of having its existence snuffed out, the pinoochi had jumped somehow to the grenagle's body. The krogol
killing the grenagle again caused a jumping of the pinoochi's consciousness. The creature or pinoochi as it now thought of itself, was aware. In fact, it
was more aware than it had ever been. It could recall all the memories of the krogol up until it killed the grenagle but beyond that, all it could sense or
recall were its own thoughts. It did not get any current sense of the krogol's mind, only memories. The creature's thoughts were now far faster and wide
ranging than they had ever been, but they seemed to be entirely its own.

The pinoochi moved a cluster of its new body's tentacles and shifted each individual tentacle through a series of movements in rapid succession. It seemed
to have full body control as well. The pinoochi thought about this for a while. Obviously, its life had just been transformed and while it still loved the
thought of eating its favorite plant, this version seemed much preferable in many ways. Twice its consciousness had jumped bodies and taken the place of
other minds when it was killed. It had no idea if there was a limit on the number of times it could do this or what other limits it may have. It was
suddenly struck by a new thought. The pinoochi wondered if it could jump its consciousness and take the place of another mind without having to be killed
first.

I can be contacted by email at [email protected].

This book is very much about concepts. Everyone has their own views about what they like in certain books, and my favorite thing about the Science Fiction
genre has always been the amazing concepts and how they could be explored without the limitations of the current real world, as we know it. I enjoyed the
adventures too, but always felt you could get adventure from almost any type of genre. It was the vast number of new ideas that kept me returning to
Science Fiction books.

While this is a work of fiction, the concepts about brain function, and historical items presented in the lectures have a strong foundation of truth. Some
concepts are from a variety of books or articles that I read over the years. Others may be small pieces of a documentary I saw while switching channels or
fragments of an interview heard on the radio years ago, where I never knew even the name of the program or person being interviewed.

It is amazing how the mind works; I can remember an idea fragment, I found interesting in an assigned reading from a first-year university anthropology
course for thirty-five years and have no idea of the name of the person I was introduced to four minutes ago.

Information surrounding a concept may have been altered slightly to fit my purposes within the story but the basic truth is there. How I linked them
together, and some of the derived conclusions are wholly mine. I often made or implied links that were not in the original experiments or were far beyond
what researchers have made about their own work. Errors, in fact, or interpretations are mine and are not intentional in nature. They are either the result
of my faulty memory or my not fully understanding the concept in the first place.

That having been said, if you have any interest in exploring some of the concepts or history further I have listed below, some sources to help you. They
can provide you with far more details, and a much more formally researched source than a work of fiction.

“Guns, Germs, and Steel” by Jared Diamond

“1491” by Charles Mann

“1493” by Charles Mann

“Slights of Mind” by Stephen Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde with Sandra Baleslee

“Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” by Betty Edwards

“Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” by Robert Pirsig

“Titan, The Life of John D. Rockefeller Sr.” by Ron Chernow

“Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire that Rescued Western Civilization” by Lars Brownworth

“Gengis Khan and the Making of the Modern World” by Jack Weatherford

"You-Tube" the “Vsauce” collection of videos and its links to various sources.