Nootics

Type: The Galactic Human Empire’s science of Consciousness. The in-universe discipline studying the physical basis of mind. Era: Established by at least ~2641 A.L.; a recognised academic field by the time of K. Pasternak.

Summary

Nootics is the direct descendant of Henry Berkhamsted’s Mentalic Ontology: the idea that mind is a pattern of information which should, in principle, leave a physical trace detectable by instruments. A practitioner is a nootician; K. Pasternak is introduced as one of the most respected nooticians in the Empire.

The core research goal in Pasternak’s era is to find the Nooticle — the hypothetical fundamental particle (or force-carrier) of consciousness, the missing fifth alongside the four fundamental interactions of physics. The Pasternak-narrator collider is designed to collide beams at 5 churtens because that is the energy regime at which the nooticle is predicted to appear.

Nootics is a serious, funded science — but not yet validated. The collider is primed to 4.3 churtens when Evie seals the chamber; the experiment is never run.

Appearances

• Ch. 03 — For Every Dove a Bullet: K. Pasternak is a nootician; the whole Pasternak-arc turns on his research programme.

Related

• Nooticle, Mentalic Ontology, Consciousness, Panpsychism, The Fifth Science, Churten
• K. Pasternak — central practitioner.
• The First Wanderer — secret sponsor.

Open questions

• Is the nootic research programme ever completed by a later Marquis?
• Is “nootics” the book’s title concept — i.e., is nootics literally the fifth science?