,,the ,,unthinking ,,destroyer by ,,rog ,,phillips ,gordon and ,harold both admitted the possibility of thinking entities other than human4 ,but would they ever recognize the physical form of some of these beings8 ,hey1 ,gordon6 ,gordon ,marlow1 ,ph4,d41 straightened up and turned in the direction of the voice1 the garden trowel dangling in his dirt-stained white canvas glove4 ,his wide mouth broke into a smile that revealed even white teeth4 ,it was ,harold ,harper1 an undergraduate student1 who had called4 ,hop over the fence and come in1 ,gordon invited4 ,he dropped the trowel and1 taking off his work gloves1 reached into his pocket and extracted an old pipe4 ,he filled it1 the welcoming smile remaining on his lips1 while ,harold ,harper approached1 stepping carefully between the rows of carrots1 cabbages1 and cauliflower4 ,harold held a newspaper in his hand4 ,when he reached ,gordon ,marlow he held it open and pointed to the headline4 ,,robot ,,rocket ,,ship ,,to ,,mars4 ,gordon took the paper and read the item1 puffing slowly and contentedly on his old pipe4 ,his eyes took on an interested look when he came to the reporter's speculations on the possibility of intelligent life on ,mars4 ,finally he handed the newspaper back to ,harold4 ,you know1 ,harold1 he said1 ,i wonder if they would recognize intelligent life if they saw it on other planets4 ,of course they would1 ,harold replied4 ,regardless of its form there would be artifacts that only intelligent life could create4 ,would there8 ,gordon snorted4 ,i wonder4 ,he squatted down1 picking up the trowel and lazily poking it into the rich soil at his feet4 ,that's why ,i wonder1 he continued4 ,we are so prone to set up tests on what intelligent life is that we are likely to miss it entirely if it doesn't conform exactly to our preconceived notions4 ,we assume that if a being is intelligent it must get the urge to build artifacts of some kind--pots and vases1 houses1 idols1 machinery1 metal objects4 ,but ,,must it8 ,in order to do so it must have hands and perhaps legs4 ,suppose it doesn't have such things8 ,suppose that no matter how intelligent it might be1 it could not do those things6 ,then it wouldn't be intelligent1 would it8 ,harold asked1 puzzled4 ,we are assuming it is1 ,gordon said patiently4 ,there are other outlets for intelligence than making clay pots4 ,as a last resort for an intelligent being there is always--thinking4 ,he chuckled at his joke4 ,illustration3 ,harold held a newspaper in his hands4 ,i've often wondered what it would be like to be a thinking1 reasoning being with no powers of movement whatsoever4 ,with bodily energy provided automatically by environment1 say1 and all the days of life with nothing to do but think4 ,what a chance for a philosopher6 ,what depths of thought he might explore4 ,what heights of intellectual perception he might attain4 ,and if there were some means of contact with others of his kind1 so that all could pool their thoughts and guide the younger generation1 what progress such a race might make6 99 99 99 99 99 ,and so we see1 ,ont telepathed1 that there must be a ,whole of which each of us is a part only4 ,the old process which says ',i think1 therefore ,i am1' has its fallacy in the statement1 ',i think4' ,it assumes that that assertion is axiomatic and basic1 when in reality it is the conclusion derived from a long process of mental introspection4 ,it is a theory rather than an axiom4 ,but don't you think1 ,ont1 ,upt replied1 that you are confusing the noumenon with the phenomenon8 ,what ,i mean is1 the fact of thinking is there from the very start or the conclusion couldn't be reached2 and the theoretical conclusion1 as you call it1 is merely the final recognition of something basic and axiomatic that was there all the time6 ,true1 ,ont replied4 ,but still1 to the thinking mind1 it is a theory and not an axiom4 ,all noumena are there before we arrive at an understanding of them4 ,thought1 if it exists as such1 is also there4 ,but the theoretical conclusion ,i think has no more degree of certainty than any other thing the mind can deal with4 ,to say ',i think' is to assert the truth of an hypothesis which ,,may be true1 but not necessarily so4 ,and then to conclude1 ',therefore ,i am1' is to advance one of the most shaky conclusions of all time4 ,underneath that so-called logical conclusion lies a metaphysics of being1 a theory of ,wholes1 a recognition by differentiation of parts1 with a denial of all but the one part set apart by that differentiation1 and1 in short1 the most irrational hodgepodge of contradictory conclusions the thinking mind can conceive4 ,this pre-cognition that enables one to arrive at the tenuous statement1 ',i think1 therefore ,i am1' is nicely thrown out by tagging it with another metaphysical intangible called illusion--as if the mind can separate illusion from reality by some absolute standard4 ,i believe you're right1 ,ont1 ,upt replied slowly1 his telepathed thoughts subdued with respect4 ,it is possible that the concept1 ',i think1' is the illusion1 while the so-called illusions are the reality4 99 99 99 99 99 ,even without the benefit of past thoughts1 ,gordon was saying1 whacking off a weed a yard away and nearly upsetting himself1 a mind with nothing to do but think could accomplish miracles4 ,suppose it was not aware of any other thinking entity1 though it might be surrounded by such similar entities4 ,it would be born or come into existence some way1 arrive at self-awareness and certain other awarenesses to base its thinking on1 depending on its structure1 and-- he looked up at ,harold startled at his own conclusion--it might even arrive at the ultimate solution to all reality and comprehend the foundations of the ,universe6 ,and eventually be destroyed without any other entity having the benefit of it all1 ,harold commented dryly4 ,what a pity that would be1 ,gordon murmured4 ,for the human race to struggle for hundreds of years1 and have some unguessable entity on ,mars do all that in one lifetime--and it all go to waste while some blundering ass lands on ,mars and passes it by1 looking for artifacts4 99 99 99 99 99 ,but that is only the start in the blunders contained in that most profound philosophical revelation of old1 ,ont stated4 ,after arriving at a precarious conclusion about existence the ancients were not satisfied4 ,they had to say1 ',if ,i am ,i must have been created6' ,then they go on and say1 ',if ,i was created there must be a ,creator6' ,and thus they soar from their precarious perch in existence1 soar on nonexistent wings1 and perch on the essence of evanescence6 ,they do not recognize the alternative--that to exist does not necessarily imply a beginning4 ,they do not recognize it because they have derived all their tools from reality around them and then denied the reality while accepting the validity of the tools of thought derived from it4 ,and in this way they arrive at an absolute existence of ,something they have never sensed or felt in any way1 while denying all that they have felt and sensed1 and give it attributes which their sense of idealism dictates it must have1 and call it ,god4 ,then1 ,upt said thoughtfully1 ,i take it you are an atheist8 ,certainly ,,not1 ,ont growled telepathically4 ,but you implied that in your comments on the conclusions of the ancients1 ,upt insisted4 99 99 99 99 99 ,but if there are no artifacts1 ,harold said4 ,and no signs of intelligence whatever1 how could we ever know that there ,,was intelligence some place8 ,there must be some way1 ,gordon said4 ,i've taught logic at the ,u for fifteen years now1 and ,i've done a lot of thinking on the subject4 ,if we ever reach ,mars ,i think we should be very careful what we touch4 ,we would be clumsy bulls in a china shop1 not knowing the true worth of what we found1 destroying what might be found to be priceless by later and more careful explorers4 ,mars is older than the ,earth1 and ,i can't help being convinced that there is ,,some form of intelligence there4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i implied no such thing as atheism1 ,ont insisted4 ,i merely said that the reasoning used by the ancients to arrive at the ,creator was the most slipshod and illogical possible4 ,there was another line used long ago that was more solid1 but still very weak4 ,it started out with the statement1 ',i can be aware of nothing but thoughts4' ,external stimuli1 if such there are1 must be transformed into thought before ,i can be aware of them4 ,since ,i can never be aware of anything other than thought1 why assume anything except thought exists8 ,you1 and all other things1 exist as thoughts in my mind4 ,there is nothing except what exists in my mind4 ,therefore1 by that token1 ,i am ,god6 ,but1 ,upt chuckled1 by the same token ,i can insist that ,i am ,god and you are just a product of my own creation4 ,yes1 ,ont agreed4 ,so it presents a dilemma4 ,to resolve it1 it is necessary to postulate a ,supreme ,mind1 and to say that all things are just thoughts in ,god's ,mind4 ,that makes us both the same then and there is no argument about who is ,god6 99 99 99 99 99 ,harold kicked a lump of moist earth absently4 ,it seems to me1 ,gordon1 he said cautiously1 that you are biting the air with your teeth4 ,if there are intelligent beings on ,mars they will be aware of us1 and make themselves known4 ,if for no other reason they will do that to keep us from destroying them4 ,gordon stood up and arched his back4 ,he placed the garden trowel and gloves in the hip pocket of his coveralls and tapped his pipe on the heel of his shoe4 ,you are assuming1 he said1 that such beings can find a way to communicate with us4 ,but have you thought of the possibility that if their abilities to reason are undetectable to us1 by the same token they might not be aware we are intelligent8 ,a mad bull in a pasture can think after a fashion1 but would you try to reason with him8 ,you would run if he charged you1 and if he caught up with you and mauled you it would never occur to you to say1 ',look here1 old boy4 ,let's talk this thing over first4' ,both men laughed4 ,gordon started walking along the row he was standing in1 toward the house4 ,harold kept pace4 ,i see your point1 he agreed4 ,there are so many things we assume unconsciously when we speculate on the possibilities of intelligent life on ,mars1 ,gordon went on1 stooping over to pull a weed he had missed in his earlier weeding4 ,rate of thinking is most probably a function of the material organism4 ,some other thinking creature might think faster or slower--perhaps so much so that we couldn't follow them even if we could tune in on their thoughts directly4 ,imagine a mind so ponderous that it takes a year for it to think as much as we do in a minute6 ,speed wouldn't necessarily have to be a function of size1 either4 ,something incredibly small might take ages to think a simple thought4 ,have you ever heard the ,german tale called ,the ,three ,sleepers1 ,harold8 ,no1 ,i haven't1 ,harold replied4 99 99 99 99 99 ,well1 in a small town in ,germany there were three men so fat that they could barely walk4 ,they spent nearly all their time sleeping4 ,the only trouble was that every day or so someone would disturb them by singing or walking by1 or some other trivial thing that is always happening in a small town1 no matter how dead it is4 ,one time when they were disturbed three days running they got mad and decided to go to the hills4 ,they looked in the hills until they found a nice dry cave4 ,there they relaxed with deep sighs of contentment and went to sleep4 ,day after day1 week after week1 they slept undisturbed4 ,then one day a dog wandered into the cave1 saw the three breathing mountains of flesh and heard the din of their deep snoring2 and1 scared half to death1 let out a shrill yip and skedaddled4 ,a week later one of the three sleepers stirred1 opened his eyes briefly1 and muttered1 ',what was that noise8' ,then he promptly went back to sleep4 ,ten days later the second sleeper stirred1 muttered1 ',damfino1' and went back to sleep4 ,nearly a month later the third sleeper opened his eyes suddenly1 stared at the roof of the cave for a moment1 and said1 ',i think it was a dog4' ,then he went back to sleep4 ,the way the story goes nothing ever came near the cave again1 so they are still there1 fast asleep--still fat1 too1 ,i suppose4 ,i see what you're driving at1 ,harold said1 chuckling over the story4 ,we assume that any intelligent being whatever1 if it exists1 thinks at the same ,,rate we do2 but it might not4 ,that's right1 ,gordon admitted4 ,and there are even more subtle assumptions we make unconsciously4 ,for one1 we assume that a thinking creature must think in the same way we do4 ,we might not even be able to recognize thinking when we meet it1 on another planet4 ,no-- he held up his hand to silence the question on ,harold's lips1 --,i don't know exactly what ,i mean4 ,i'll put it this way4 ,we have steam engines and gasoline engines4 ,we also have electric motors4 ,suppose we have steam-engine thought4 ,how would we recognize electric-motor thinking8 ,or perhaps a little closer to what ,i'm trying to express1 we have arithmetic and algebra4 ,suppose with our arithmetic minds with no slightest inkling of the existence of a variable1 we run into an algebra mind8 ,we might mistake it for something far removed from thinking or intelligence4 ,we go on the assumption that anything that doesn't stomp up1 give a salute1 and solemnly announce ',how'1 is unintelligent4 ,it might just be more interested in its own thoughts than in the visitors from ,earth1 ,harold suggested4 ,it might1 ,gordon said4 ,or it might be intensely curious and studying the ,earthmen very closely with senses other than sight and hearing4 99 99 99 99 99 ,but1 ,ont added thoughtfully1 although the conclusion that we are all thoughts in the mind of the ,creator is logically unshakeable1 it isn't very satisfying1 from a logical point1 because it makes ,god nothing more than the compromising of a cute dilemma4 ,it places the ,creator in the same light as the final decision to locate the ,capitol of the ,united ,states at ,washington4 ,where's that8 ,upt asked quickly4 ,i don't know1 ,ont said testily4 ,that's just something ,i picked up out of the blue1 so to speak4 ,inspirational thought4 ,for all ,i know it's just a figment of my imagination4 ,i've had inspirational thoughts too1 ,upt said excitedly4 ,i haven't spoken of them to you because ,i was afraid you might think ,i was becoming disorganized in my thoughts4 ,i've done a lot of thinking about the inspirational stuff ,i get now and then1 ,ont said matter-of-factly4 ,if it came all the time ,i would be inclined to think it was the ,voice of the ,supreme ,being ,itself6 ,but it doesn't come that way4 ,neither does mine1 ,upt said4 ,i often think there must be angels that hover over us at times and bless us with their wise thoughts1 perhaps looking into us to see if we are 'ready' yet4 ,when ,i seem to sense these powerful thoughts about me ,i try to feel humble and worshipful4 ,i hope in that way one of them will see fit to reveal himself to me someday4 ,they might1 ,ont said hopefully4 ,i wouldn't mind actually talking to one of them myself4 ,but speaking of that1 we don't know for sure that these inspirational thoughts aren't actually our own4 ,they ,,seem different1 but that may be because they arise in some part of our deep subconscious thought processes4 ,i've been trying to extend my sense of awareness in order to reach into my subconscious mind and actually plumb it to its depths4 ,one thing ,i've found is that most of my ,,real thinking goes on there1 and only rises to the surface of consciousness when it is completed6 ,that lends probability to the theory that ,,all such voices of inspiration are merely my own subconscious mind giving me the end products of carefully thought out trains of reasoning it had dreamed up4 ,i think ,i'll try that line of development myself1 ,upt said4 ,i'd never thought of it4 ,maybe inspiration is only subconscious thought rising to the surface of consciousness4 ,maybe it is4 ,but if so1 ,i'll be very disappointed4 ,i'd hoped sometime to be able to commune with some intelligence infinitely superior to mine and really learn the true nature of things4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i sincerely hope ,i'm wrong about it1 ,ont said4 ,i too would like to believe that there is more in reality than just us4 ,i wonder if other kinds of entities are possible8 ,i mean thinking beings with different forms1 different senses1 perhaps different types of thinking4 ,it may be they exist and we aren't equipped to detect them4 ,they may be around us all the time1 aware of us and our puerile thoughts1 but so superior to us in every way that they don't think it worth while even to consider our feeble cogitations4 ,i wouldn't call ,,your cogitations feeble1 ,ont1 ,upt exclaimed admiringly4 ,that is a point of relativity1 ,ont said1 somewhat flattered4 ,it does seem in vain1 though4 ,we spend our existence in solving the problems of reality1 and when we have solved them we have no need of the solution4 ,it gives us a feeling of satisfaction to gain the theoretical basis of reality from our point of view4 ,but ,i for one would feel much better if we could be of service to some entity who is unable to accomplish that himself1 but might be able to comprehend it if we taught him4 ,all very noble1 ,upt said skeptically4 ,but ,i can't even imagine a thinking creature different from us in any way4 ,that's why it's so difficult1 ,ont said4 ,in our own minds we tend to become absolute rather than relative in our conceptions4 ,some other entity might1 for example1 think much more slowly than we1 or with incredible rapidity1 so that our thoughts would be sluggish to him1 or so swift that he would never be able to grasp them until long after we were gone4 ,also1 we tend to think that thought as we experience it1 is the only possible type of thought4 ,in reality there may be others4 ,different mental principles4 ,different material structure4 ,perhaps concepts outside our ability to grasp1 while ours might be outside the ability of such creatures to grasp also4 ,i don't believe ,i grasp what you're trying to say1 ,upt hesitated4 ,well1 put it this way1 ,ont said patiently4 ,all things are relative4 ,why not thought8 ,it might be possible to have two thinking minds which are relatively non-thinking4 ,each1 from ,,every standard of the other1 being totally thoughtless and without intelligence or mind4 ,now you're going too far1 ,upt said4 ,thought is thought1 ,i think1 and--it's real4 ,if any other entity thinks1 its thinking must be real too4 ,of course1 ,ont murmured4 ,you miss the point entirely4 ,if from every possible angle1 some entity1 to ,,you1 can't think and doesn't1 it is non-thinking and unintelligent4 ,right8 99 99 99 99 99 ,gordon and ,harold paused at the edge of the garden4 ,nice crop of vegetables you have there1 ,gordon1 ,harold said appreciatively4 ,thanks1 ,gordon said4 ,say1 wouldn't your wife like some fresh vegetables8 ,without waiting for an answer he stepped back into the garden1 taking a knife from his pocket4 ,these are nice now1 he said1 bending over and cutting4 ,won't be much longer though4 ,brown spots developing already4 ,i'll scrape off the brown stuff for you1 but tell your wife to cook them right away4 ,in a couple of days they'll spoil4 99 99 99 99 99 ,upt6 ,ont exclaimed1 exasperated4 ,why don't you answer me1 ,upt8 ,upt6 ,where are you1 ,upt8 ,why don't you answer8 99 99 99 99 99 ,there you are1 ,gordon said1 smiling1 as he handed ,harold the head of cauliflower4 ,thanks1 ,harold said1 accepting the white1 fresh head1 and balancing it in his palm4 ,the two men continued up the walk to the house4 ,as ,i was saying1 ,gordon took up their conversation1 when men get to ,mars1 if they aren't careful they may destroy a civilization1 or even thousands of intelligent beings1 without knowing it4444 ,,the ,,end ,transcriber's ,note3 ,this etext was produced from ,amazing ,stories ,december #aidh4 ,extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the ,u4,s4 copyright on this publication was renewed4 ,minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note4