#546 The Nothing- Frank Herbert
The world is in an era of “Talents.” Due to radiation, some
humans have developed advantageous mutations. There are at least eight of them
such as Pyros, Prescients, Telepaths, etc. The problem is that evolution may be
flattening all that out, making a natural type of correction:
“The direction of development was toward the average…Genius
parents tend to have children less smart than they are.”
In other words, the talents are disappearing. When Jean, a
Pryo, storms out of her father’s house to let off some steam at a bar, she is in
way over her head. She tries to play a role from a movie she has seen but has
trouble flirting with the man sitting next to her. He is Claude, a Nothing, a
man with no talents; he has escaped from a local preserve and is on the lam.
A police force barges in and tales them both. Claude’s
father is a prescient and sees into their future, they will be married. Their
blood lines give them a 70% chance of having a mutant offspring. They are
trying to save the mutatios and avoid slipping back to a “pretalent
civilization.” The problem, as they say, is choice.
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