At the heart of much speculative fiction (and fiction in general) is a question. What if? On Tuesdays I like to throw one out there and see what you make of it. Do with it as you please. If a for-instance is not specified, feel free to interpret that instance as you wish. And if you find this becomes a novel-length answer, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements ;)
What if the sun is sentient?
I confess, I had to look up the word sentient. I don't think I would like it if the sun was sentient. What if it got moody and chose not to shine or shine strongly or shine weakly, etc? I like that it is consistent. Comes up every day and rises every day in our necks of the woods, even though we may not see it if it is a cloudy day.
ReplyDeletebetty
What Betty said - what if it was having a bad day?
ReplyDeleteI believe it is, and it has decided we've done enough damage to its planet. Now it's turning up its star power and setting it to broil.
ReplyDeletePossibly.
DeleteI've read a lot of science fiction, but stars as sentient beings? Oh, wait...yeah...the movie Stardust had a star that fell to earth. Not quite the same, but still....
ReplyDeleteI'd assume that the sun's intellect would run at a different pace than ours. Once upon a time, I looked at mountains and trees and wondered if the mountains thought the trees were young whippersnappers.
DeleteI would ask if it could send out a powerful blast of energy right on DC.
ReplyDeleteI'd feel bad for her hot flashes but want her to lay off sharing that heat just a little sometimes. lol
ReplyDeleteI think we'd get her wrath. After seeing what we do, she'd want to purge the earth.
ReplyDeleteConsidering the distance, would she note what we mere mortals do?
DeleteSentient wouldn't necessarily mean we could understand the sun, or that the sun would know we exist or even care. Perhaps the sun blazes, burns and thinks in different ways than we can imagine. Interesting to ponder. Alana ramblinwitham.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteYes, this. If the sun was sentient, would we even be able to tell?
DeleteMaybe the sun will be so pissed off that it will hurl a tiny but powerful sunburst right on to Trump?? If that was the case, the sun is just shaking its head ashamed at us mere humans
ReplyDeleteI think the sun would take a much longer view.
DeleteI'd question what would happened if the sun got pissed off hahaha
ReplyDeleteSince we know novas and supernovas are the death throes, I would think it would be something a bit smaller than that.
DeleteThinking if it could feel....it would probably be tired of feeling on fire and burn our ass! haha
ReplyDeleteBut if your nature is to generate heat and light, you'd be used to it, right? I mean, we don't usually notice the heat we naturally generate.
DeleteI'm with the school of thought that the sun would not be aware of us. Good question, by the way. It reminds me of some favorite "Star Trek: Next Generation" episodes pondering such situations. I'm such a geek that I watched that show by myself before meeting my partner back in the day (!) and it's still my favorite series of the entire franchise. Be well!
ReplyDeleteI watched TNG back in the day, too. One episode even features in one of my earthquake stories. (I have a bunch of earthquake stories. Comes with living in CA.)
DeleteI'm with Betty on this one. Even had to look up the word!
ReplyDeleteGreat minds, eh?
DeleteI hope it doesn't feel lonely. After all, nothing can get close to it and survive.
ReplyDeleteHi Liz - the sun is sentient ... and its course of action is already written ... it bursts out occasionally and will ultimately will burn us up and die on itself - a few billion years to go though ... so much about the sun is fascinating ... cheers Hilary
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