Another chunk from Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Memory has hit me as brilliantly metaphorical, both for human neurodiversity, and our greater power when working synergistically in teams.

It’s another scene featuring the evolved birdlike species of corvids (previously recorded in conversation in this post) but this time it’s a description of their individual natures, and the evolutionary mutations that proved to be fantastically beneficial for them.

Some birds had become hyper obsessive about detail, their natural curiosity for the new honed to an almost preternatural awareness… they noted every little thing. Each discontinuity and novelty leaping out at them. They had in their little brains a perfect recollection of how things had been, so that every change screamed in their minds, demanding attention. Attention, they were unable to give it though. Their metal resources were spread across everything they could see and hear and sense, caught up in a comparison of now and before and no more able to affect the former than the latter. 

Then, there were the others, who could see none of this. So unable to focus on their surroundings that they should surely have died to marauding raccoons in a moment, had they not had another pair of eyes watching their feathered backs. Instead, they were mono-maniac problem solvers who would still be trying to get a treat out of a bottle just as the frothing raccoon ate them. Unable to stop until they had found a precise angle that would solve their difficulties.

So, two stable sets of neuropathies, equally non-viable. Save that if you ended up with a matching pair, the recogniser and the solver, you had something like a complete unit. The covid pairs, because individually they were no more than smart birds, and sometimes that wasn’t enough… A perfect balance of opposed and equal neurodivergence… a phenotype split between individuals

…Their lifelong pair bonding, selecting one of each brand of damaged mind, made every pair into a new compound individual. Greater than its component parts. 

Abridged from Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

While he’s only writing about a pair, I can’t read this and not think that Tchaikovsky is writing directly to the idea that the best teams include diversity and different ways of thinking. People with ADHD (in slight relation to the first bird description above), others with ASD (as I slightly see the second description). Or some with dyslexia, some with aphantasia. Etc.

The whole book series is in this theme now I think about it (Children of Memory is the 3rd book). Using sci-fi as an effective smoke screen to describe very particular and extreme character traits, wrapped up in either genetically engineered and highly evolved spiders, octopuses, or birds.

Yet another reason to love metaphor. So much power. And another recommendation for these books.