New Gara Bov
Kind: Colony world Location: Unstated — within empire space Controlled by: Galactic Human Empire
Summary
A colony world within the empire that briefly rendezvoused with a moon-sized entity: a mass composed entirely of nerve filaments with no method of sensing the outside world. The creature orbited New Gara Bov for several days before departing. Several scholars hypothesise that a mind of the creature’s scale could compute the universe from first principles — deducing its location and environment by extrapolating from base logic alone, without any sensory input whatsoever. The narrator notes that “Polly Hare’s devotees still remain strong in some regions of the empire” in relation to this hypothesis, linking the creature to the book’s panpsychist tradition.
Appearances
- Ch. 07 — 101 Things to Not Visit in the Galaxy Before You Die: Named as the world where the nerve-filament creature was observed.
Related
- Polly Hare — whose devotees interpret the nerve creature as evidence for their panpsychist position
- Panpsychism — the philosophical frame the narrator invokes here
- Consciousness — a mind that computes the universe from first principles, without embodied experience, is an extreme case of the book’s central question
Open questions
- Where is New Gara Bov in empire space? No A.L. date or location is given.
- Did the nerve creature interact with or acknowledge the colony’s inhabitants?
- What became of the creature after it moved on?