arachnekallisti (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
arachnekallisti) wrote2010-10-14 01:51 pm
arachnekallisti) wrote2010-10-14 01:51 pm
Entry tags:
Writing Hyperintelligence
I've just been thinking over the fandoms I'm really drawn to, and it occurs to me that one thing they have in common is incredibly intelligent characters: Sherlock Holmes, Miles Vorkosigan, the Doctor, Batman, the Culture's Minds, Q, Agatha Heterodyne, Willow, Toshiko, Romana...
The question is, how does one go about writing characters like that? At the baseline, you've got the ones who are at the top end of human intelligence, and then you're off into the realm of the superintelligences.
I think it was Vernor Vinge who claimed that authors cannot write convincing characters who are smarter than themselves: if you could work out what a really smart person would do in a given situation, then you are as clever as that really smart person.
The problem with this particular point of view is that authors can cheat. They don't just control the character, they control the character's environment and the nature of causality, and they can arrange them to produce a decent facsimile of hyperintelligence. Such tricks can include:
1. A Peek at the Script
The author can allow the character astonishing information gathering and deductive abilities, by feeding them clues that they can spin a plausible-sounding narrative of deduction around. This is pretty much Holmes' entire schtick, although Batman and the Doctor use it too. Ideally, the author should be able to plant the clues in such a way that the reader is thinking "oh, of course" when the final conclusion is announced, rather than "wtf did that come from?"
2. Think Fast
The character has thirty seconds to think, and then comes up with a plan that it took the author six weeks to come up with. Miles Vorkosigan is the unquestioned master of this, although the Doctor's no slouch either. The important bit is for the author to have actually thought the plan through, rather than relying on a string of fortunate coincidences; if the character has left a bit of the plan shaky and open to random chance, then random chance should damn well stick its oar in, and force them to come up with a patch on the fly.
3. The Long Game
Works best for the truly inhuman intelligences here. In which it transpires that their plans work on such a massive scale that they affect whole civilisations, rather than just individuals. Again, this does need to avoid the Happy Coincidences route if it's going to look plausible. Done best by Asimov in the Foundation novels, and it only really works because he does include a situation in which the Grand Plan breaks down, and then lets the Second Foundation deal with it.
Any good ones I've missed? Any more caveats on how to deploy those three?
The question is, how does one go about writing characters like that? At the baseline, you've got the ones who are at the top end of human intelligence, and then you're off into the realm of the superintelligences.
I think it was Vernor Vinge who claimed that authors cannot write convincing characters who are smarter than themselves: if you could work out what a really smart person would do in a given situation, then you are as clever as that really smart person.
The problem with this particular point of view is that authors can cheat. They don't just control the character, they control the character's environment and the nature of causality, and they can arrange them to produce a decent facsimile of hyperintelligence. Such tricks can include:
1. A Peek at the Script
The author can allow the character astonishing information gathering and deductive abilities, by feeding them clues that they can spin a plausible-sounding narrative of deduction around. This is pretty much Holmes' entire schtick, although Batman and the Doctor use it too. Ideally, the author should be able to plant the clues in such a way that the reader is thinking "oh, of course" when the final conclusion is announced, rather than "wtf did that come from?"
2. Think Fast
The character has thirty seconds to think, and then comes up with a plan that it took the author six weeks to come up with. Miles Vorkosigan is the unquestioned master of this, although the Doctor's no slouch either. The important bit is for the author to have actually thought the plan through, rather than relying on a string of fortunate coincidences; if the character has left a bit of the plan shaky and open to random chance, then random chance should damn well stick its oar in, and force them to come up with a patch on the fly.
3. The Long Game
Works best for the truly inhuman intelligences here. In which it transpires that their plans work on such a massive scale that they affect whole civilisations, rather than just individuals. Again, this does need to avoid the Happy Coincidences route if it's going to look plausible. Done best by Asimov in the Foundation novels, and it only really works because he does include a situation in which the Grand Plan breaks down, and then lets the Second Foundation deal with it.
Any good ones I've missed? Any more caveats on how to deploy those three?