I know that I am not the only Toast reader who was regularly scolded for sitting on the sidelines and reading a book during recess. It is when we enter a lively discussion about the dubious science/historical accuracy/ psychological validity of a beloved book series that I feel most connected to you all. So when Mallory brought up the topic—first through Twitter, and then on this very site—of the scientific basis of Animorphs, I couldn’t resist procrastinating just a little bit more on my dissertation to delve further into the idea.
I spotted one of the first Animorphs books on display at a Scholastic book fair (let’s pause for a moment to revel in the glorious memory of book fairs) and was immediately hooked. Girls turning into dolphins? Someone had reached deep inside of me, plucked out my dearest fantasy, and bound it in a faux-lenticular Photoshop extravaganza. For a while, I managed to keep up with the series’ near-monthly releases. I experienced the cold panic of Tobias and Jake’s certain death when David moved to town and tried to destroy our fair heroes. I became so engrossed in a new release that I wandered off into a corner with it at Atlantic Book Warehouse and my mother had to page me over the intercom.
I never did manage to finish the series, but I read the majority of the non-ghostwritten books, including the outstanding Hork-Bajir Chronicles (sobbing quietly in my sleeping bag during a family camping trip) and the similarly exceptional Andalite Chronicles.
I hope that you, dear commentators, will fill in any details I have missed. Those of you who are well versed in the cognitive sciences (or philosophy or metaphysics) can also feel free to point out any errors in my reasoning.
In Mallory’s original post, she discussed a number of relevant and legitimate concerns, but I’m going to focus on the questions related to cognition. What exactly is Applegate insinuating about the nature of the mind and brain? The relationship between mind, brain, and body is a theme central to Animorphs. Humans and various aliens morph into other creatures, maintaining (occasionally tenuous) control of these new physical forms with their extant minds and communicating in the “universal mind symbols” of thought-speak (I’m not going to touch that one. Have at it, linguists). Yeerks—the baddies in the series—slither into the brains of others to control them directly, presumably through physiological mechanisms. In a multi-layered mindfuck, a Yeerk can control another individual with morphing capabilities, forcing that individual to morph and presumably wreak havoc or engage in other dastardly deeds. Query: Could an Animorph technically morph into a Yeerk, take a morph-enabled host, and proceed to morph into an entirely different creature? Minds on minds on minds.
This is all very well and good, especially if you are eleven years old and you really just want to get out of playing kickball or fantasize about Tobias and his 90’s bowl cut, ever-so-slightly tousled by his daily trip upside-down into the toilet bowl. But I am now 25 years of age and have a master’s degree, so it’s time to up the level of scientific scrutiny. What is Animorphs really saying about the relationship between our thoughts and consciousness and the physical stuff that makes up our brains and bodies? Is Applegate a dualist? That is, does she believe that the mind somehow exists independent of or greater than our brain? That our consciousness, or soul, or our very essence, is greater than the sum of our meaty parts? Or is she a materialist: does she believe that our thoughts and sense of self emerge directly from our physical being, and that everything we think and feel is represented in our firing synapses and the interactions between our bodies and the world around us?
Let’s start with what the series gives us to work with. In book 10, The Android, Marco learns what happens to one’s body “ in morph” from his friendly alien compatriot, Ax.
<Ah. I am frightened, too. I don’t really like morphing tiny animals. I keep thinking about all the rest of my mass.>
<Your what?> I asked, not really caring. I was focused on the morphing ahead.
<My mass. When you morph something smaller than yourself, your body mass must go somewhere. So it goes into Zero-space. Zero-space is the space that ships travel through when they are going faster than light. It’s not very likely to happen, but sometimes a ship traveling in Z-space will intersect with a temporarily parked mass.>
This got my total, complete attention.
<A big wad of Marco in Zero-space,> I muttered. <Like hanging your butt out of a car window and waiting for a truck to come along and sideswipe it off.>
If we believe that the Animorphs universe subscribes to the laws of dualism, then the problem is a simple one. Even when Rachel morphs into an ant with a tiny ant brain, her mind still exists, perfectly intact and Amazonian, floating in the ether, controlling her actions, and planting the seeds of feminism in young girls everywhere (Question for discussion: Who is your feminist icon, Rachel or Cassie? Which one did you have a crush on?) Fans of the series will already spot an issue with this solution, however, particularly when it comes to morphs like the ant. Here’s Marco again, this time in book 5, the first time the gang tries out this morph:
<What’s the matter?> Tobias cried.
<I … I … I lost myself,> I said. <I was gone. I was lost. I didn’t even exist.>
<Get out of that morph!> Tobias said.
But I could hear the others now, snapping back into reality. Becoming again. Crying.
<What kind of creatures are these?> It was Ax. He sounded terrified. Terrified. <They have no self! I was lost! There was nothing to hold onto. They are not whole. They are only parts, like cells. Just pieces. What kind of foul creatures are these?>
<Listen. You guys morph back,> Tobias said. <This sucks. This isn’t right.>
<Hive,> Cassie said, sounding shattered. <They are social insects. Part of a colony. A hive. I should have guessed. I should have known. Ax is right. Each of us is only a part. Like a single cell within a human body.>
The fact that the Animorphs had to grapple with “animal instinct” suggests that that they don’t simply control animal bodies with their intact minds. In other words, one doesn’t control an animal body remotely, as if using a video game controller or pulling puppet strings from somewhere in Z-space.
These “animal instincts” are cognitive in nature, and sometimes complex higher-order cognitive processes at that. The instincts associated with dog and dolphin morphs relate directly to the animals’ dispositions (looking back, though, I find it surprising that all of the dolphin minds just wanted to goof off and play. I have to believe that any animal as intelligent as a dolphin is, on average, probably a huge asshole). With morphs like the ant, the shrew, or the flea, the Animorphs experience a lack of personality, independence, and drive. Applegate is suggesting that the physical animal brains impinge upon and transform the Animorphs’ very consciousness, altering who they are and how they respond. Thus, she does not seem to believe that the human mind exists completely independent of the brain.
So, is Applegate a materialist? Does she believe that the essential “Jake-ness” of Jake and “Tobias-ness” of Tobias, their personalities and thoughts and being, are contained in the meat of their human form (and particularly in their human brain)?
Applegate seems to make a distinction between the aforementioned “instincts,” which are automatic and relatively stable, and the stream-of-conscious experience of an intelligent human being. This potentially suggests some level of neural localization—that is, the idea that particular regions of the brain are “responsible” for different cognitive processes.
Neuroscientists know that this is at least somewhat true—when a patient has a lesion (from a stroke or head injury) on a particular part of the brain, she or he may lose a very specific ability, such as the ability to encode new memories, or speak out loud, or identify an object pictured one one’s left side but not one’s right. From neuroimaging studies, we know that certain neural regions become more active than others when a living human performs certain cognitive tasks. Converging evidence from these and other fields of study support neural localization. Perhaps Applegate is proposing that, while in morph, the Animorph’s human cortex (responsible for higher order cognitive processes like planning and decision-making, and for interpreting sensory input and coordinating movements) is grafted on the animal’s hindbrain. The limbic area, containing structures involved in motivation, fear processing, and fight-or-flight responses, is a little trickier to divide neatly. Wherever the division occurs, this theory would involve parts of the human brain in Z-space interfacing with parts of the animal brain through some kind of inter-dimensional connection.
The problem with this cosmic-brain-graft theory is that neural localization only takes us so far. There is no “consciousness region” of the brain (sorry, Francis Crick). The various parts of our brain are in constant conversation; our personalities, thoughts, and reactions emerge as the result of multiple brain regions working together. In reality, we are never, ever, using only 10% of our brain. In fact, even we are spacing out and ostensibly “doing nothing,” a variety of neural networks continue to activate.
One network in particular has even been associated quite robustly with the stream-of-consciousness style of thinking. And these networks develop slowly over the span of childhood and adolescence; you couldn’t attach two previously unacquainted brain parts and expect them to work together. (You CAN do F’d-up things like transplant mouse cortex onto kitten cortex, but it takes a bit longer than the two-hour morphing window). Plus, the morphing technology was designed with the Andalite brain in mind, and yet it transfers seamlessly to humans, a completely alien species (Evo-devo people: do Andalites and humans have a common ancestor? Further research reveals several bird-like species in the Andalite home world as well. Where is my Inter-Planetary Bering Strait Crossing Theory?).
Among the Animorph’s many animal morphs are several pretty intelligent species. The dog and the dolphin have been mentioned. Marco’s battle morph is a gorilla, which is capable of complex social interaction and possibly even language. A gorilla has a nice big squiggly neocortex, much like a human. In my mind, there is very little question that great apes possess something like self-awareness and consciousness. We do know that gorillas, and several other animals, recognize themselves in a mirror—which for whatever reason has become a benchmark for possessing consciousness. All this is to say that not only would we have to consider what parts of the Animorph brain are linked up to the animal, but also that some part of the animal brain has to be turned OFF. I have to give major props to the Andalites for developing such a sophisticated and sensitive technology.
This idea of turning OFF the animal consciousness seems to be one of the essential differences between the Yeerk’s biological ability and the Andalite’s technology (Something else to consider: did the Andalites harness the Yeerk’s biological ability to develop the benevolent mind control involved in morphing?). The technological off-switch is the second most important difference between the Yeerks and the Andalites; the first being, of course, that Yeerks are parasites who control the actual primary body of a creature, whereas Andalites essentially clone a creature and then hack into their brain.
I believe Applegate is implying that no clones were harmed in the making of the Animorphs. Somehow, the little blue box confers the ability to morph into the complete body of an animal (or human!), but with its sentience completely erased. In cognitive science, this sort of body-without-sentience is called a zombie (seriously). And here’s the thing: as the old thought experiment goes, if a zombie is physiologically indistinguishable from a non-zombie version of the same creature, the only possible explanation is that consciousness is dictated by a non-material phenomenon. In other words, where there’s a zombie, there’s dualism.
Unless of course:
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The Andalite technology isn’t quite so benevolent, and the poor innocent minds are being suppressed, Yeerk-style, and watching in horror while the Animorphs innocently believe they are fighting for neural freedom.
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If you captured someone in flagrante de-morph-o and sliced open their head, their brain would be somehow physically different. For all of the gross body horror Applegate gives us, this possibility is never mentioned, to my knowledge.
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It’s all just a Ketran world-building video game, laws of physics be damned.
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There is more freaky shit going on in Z-space, involving some sort of metaphysical space-time connection that our puny human brains cannot fathom. Which, okay, not to get all hard sci-fi on you right now, *pushes sweaty glasses up the bridge of nose* but that would be a total cop-out.
Alas, dear readers, I fear that I have no straight answer. Using the limited powers of my own brain-meat (I’m a materialist; in my book, the burden of proof is on the anti-physicalists), I fail to place Applegate solidly in one camp or the other. Based on our working knowledge of the human brain—which, granted, is still quite limited—I feel fairly confident that it would be impossible to Frankenstein together the morpher’s stream-of-conscious experience and the morphee’s instincts and brain-body interface. You can’t have your controlling-the-actions-of-a-new-body cake and eat it too. At the same time, however, morphing is a technology, not a superpower. The implication is that the Andalites worked within the physical laws of the universe to engineer it. Then again, this is a universe in which the characters once time-traveled to the Cretaceous period and got eaten by dinosaurs.
So, now it’s your turn. What do you think? Try out a few of these theories. Your mileage may vary… unless you use a Z-space transponder. Hey-ohh! *Raises hand in the air for a triumphant high five*
Tags: andalites, animorphs, get out of that morph, important questions, k.a. applegate, lauren sherman, morphing technology, science, yeerks
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I am busy at work and can’t read all of this right now, but I just wanted to thank you. This is the platonic ideal of an Internet article.
Okay so the thought of the Animorphs and their Andalite tech actually basically just being Yeerks but from a different perspective is something that never even occurred to me before and my mind is blown and I have no idea how I am supposed to be expected to continue doing data entry at work for the rest of the afternoon instead of FREAKING OUT ABOUT THIS.
I don’t remember which book it’s in (my first guess is #19), but the Animorphs themselves struggle with some related issues, asking whether they’re morally culpable for mind-controlling their animal morphs in the same way that the yeerks dominate their hosts. They don’t come to a conclusion about that either–one side says it’s not the same, the other (probably Cassie) argues that they shouldn’t dismiss it too quickly. I was always pretty solidly on the dualist side myself (less so in reality); I figured the animal morphs were cognitive zombies, and I would argue that the series itself ends up implying as much by way of the Ellimist, who exists in non-physical form and is capable of interacting with other beings in the same way. If a mind can continue to exist after its body is obliterated, dualism seems like the only answer.
I do recall that Cassie in particular grapples with this issue in one of her POV books, although I can’t recall which one exactly.
Is it better if the morphs are effectively lobotimized or mentally stunted clones? A sentience search-and-replace, enough instinct to be able to do those specialized instinctual things like flying (or playing Tetris??? I wonder.)
And this isn’t even taking into account the morph-blender thing (what Ax does to make a human form). Is he using Rachel’s cerebrum and Marco’s frontal lobe?
What I’m saying is:
http://imgur.com/c1PbJ
I really appreciate that you guys are taking this as seriously as I do.
How I’d do it:
-Z-Space is chock-full of an infinite number of Boltzmann brains representing every possible iteration of consciousness. Evil Captain Kirk, Chaste Bill Clinton, French Bonnie Raitt: every flavor of everyone at every conceivable moment is waiting out there, bobbing gently in the hyperspatial flux.
-When Cassie morphs into a squirrel, the morphing technology locates the Boltzmann brain most closely replicating Cassie’s consciousness (if Cassie were a very smart squirrel with human memories.) It also locates a series of brains representing intermediate states between Human!Cassie and Squirrel!Cassie.
-The morph tech begins the physical transformation, shuttling through intermediate Human/Squirrel states like animation cels. The nervous system of each intermediate physical state is linked, through hyperspace, to one of the intermediate mental states to preserve the illusion of a continued consciousness. The excess physical matter boils away into Z-state. (Of course it’s not preserved. That would be unworkable.)
-Eventually we arrive at a physical squirrel*…
…linked hyperspatially…
…to a brain…
…hosting a mind…
…which believes it’s Cassie.
Adventures ensue.
*The squirrel’s skull is empty, save for a pulsing Z-space nexus.
10/10 Would fund the grant to build a simulation of this hypothesis.
Forget Rachel and Cassie, my feminist icons are Loren and Eva.
Alright, so, if this is accurate: “the Andalite technology isn’t quite so benevolent, and the poor innocent minds are being suppressed, Yeerk-style, and watching in horror while the Animorphs innocently believe they are fighting for neural freedom” what does this mean when Tobias gains the ability to morph back into himself? Is his old brain, trapped, watching the “new” Tobias brain taking over his own? Like being possessed by someone who is you, but also isn’t?
(Andalite chronicles: Elfangor and Loren forever. Love them).
I wonder if it would be unpleasant to be possessed by somebody with the exact same personality as you, or if you’d just sit back and watch and think, “Yeah, that’s what I’d do.”
See, this is why I think “personality” can never enter into it. They experience the terrible hive mind situation, yes, but that’s not part of each ant’s personality – it’s just how all (worker) ants are. Same with how they turn into “steers” that one time but really it’s bulls who are not castrated and they are out of the animorphs’ control. Because that’s just how bulls are. I do not think anything they morph into is aware that there is another thing controlling them – because they are literally one and the same. The reason Marco et al have so much trouble morphing into an ant is that the morph takes into account all the necessary cerebral structures needed to run the ant, and they happen to run so much counter to what Marco is used to – maybe Andalites don’t have hive-minded creatures or even bull-minded creatures on their planet. Is it possible that KA gave us humans too much credit?
Also I can only picture Roman talking about hard sci-fi right now, and it is….not a real problem.
Look, I don’t know if you are watching Silicon Valley, but Martin Starr is a satanist coder and it’s… it’s good, man, it’s really good.
That’s kind of how I always used to imagine it…
There is a moment in the orca whale book where the orca mind is watching and judging Jake’s actions, but that book is so batshit (they find Atlantis?) that we should probably just blame the ghost writer and call it non-canon.
In a way, the hawk has already done this when he became trapped.
I always thought that they weren’t mind controlling some animal, more like, by transforming themselves into the animal their brain also changed, making human thinking processes more difficult to control. BUT I also didn’t make it as far as book 19, I don’t think. I mean, them transforming into an actual, already existing animal doesn’t really make sense to me, given that their bodies literally “morph” which to me suggests more of a rearrangement of their already existing cells into a new form. I’M ALREADY THINKING ABOUT THIS TOO MUCH.
Also I am mad that Scholastic no longer sells the damn Omnibus. I AM 28 YEARS OLD AND WANT TO READ ALL OF ANIMORPHS, FFS.
That is pretty much how I see it as well. But the Animorphs themselves seem to view it as something more complicated – they choose not to morph sentient creatures, because of the questionable moral implications of controlling a thinking brain.
Best Animorphs blog: http://cinnamonbunzuh.blogspot.co.uk/ It has made me snort-laugh in an undignified manner many times.
I just want to hold their hands and tell those sweet bbs that we barely even understand what sentience even IS.
The issue here is not one of dualism vs. materialism, rather we should realise that K M Applegate is putting forward a theory of embodied cognition. Granted, her version differs from the traditional theory of embodied cognition, in that there is some ‘part’ of the self which can be ‘moved’ into other ‘selves’. However once we properly interpret her work as belonging within the greater embodied cognition framework, the behaviour of the morphed ‘humans’ is self explanatory. Granted, Applegate’s lack of detail about ‘self-parts’ substitution is concerning, however an holistic theory of embodied cognition is eminently possible.
(I love this, I have not thought about Animorphs enough in TOO LONG)
Oh, for sure! Brains are never working in a vacuum, as much as neuroimagers wish they were sometimes. Are you suggesting that the human brain part is being moved into the animal body part, and that the interaction of those pieces are holistically producing the sort of internal conflicts that Applegate describes? Or am I totally misrepresenting your theory?
No, that’s pretty much what I meant. Though I don’t know whether the brain part is meant to actually be moved into the animal skull (what about size??), or parts of the human brain move? or maybe there’s just a homunculus that moves?
Aaargh, gotta think about this more, but I’m sure that an embodied cognition approach is the right starting point.
Haha right, that is where I think you get into the dualism/materialism issue, since the brain isn’t a monolith. If we talk about homonculi, we are contemplating dualism since that implies that there is some unit that cannot be broken down into functional parts. I really like the embodied cognition approach, and think it is part of the larger argument about how conscious thoughts are enacted by bodies in an environment (with the caveat that the body and environment also contribute to how those conscious thoughts are formed in the first place). It’s a two-way street for sure.
As a kid, I used to semi-seriously ask my mom if she was a Yeerk, and, if not, whether she could prove she wasn’t. She would say things like “I love you; a Yeerk wouldn’t love a human,” and I would counter with, “No, but a Yeerk would say it loved a human.” And she would say, “Well, I’m not a Yeerk. Yeerks don’t exist,” and I would say, “That’s exactly what a Yeerk would say.”
I was never really afraid that my mom was a Yeerk, but for some reason it did freak me out that she was never able to successfully prove it.
ON TOPIC: I thought back then (and stand by my theory now) that the brain just kind of morphs, and you’re left with a brain that is functionally pretty similar to your original human (or Andalite or whatever) brain, but the right size and shape to fit the cranium it’s in, replete with all the cool features of the target animal, like instincts, motor abilities, and sensory processing, as well as some of its personality characteristics.
Yesss, a functionalist approach. I like it.
Me too!
So far my only evidence that Yeerks aren’t real is that regular humans are still proceeding as normal; every government is dumb as hell, and no one is prioritizing space travel. But that can fall apart like a house of cards, so.
And as I think about it more and more (not really recommended (totally recommended)) the nerves are the only thing that must remain complete, otherwise how would they control the physical system they had morphed into? I think the tinier the brain, the more difficulty the humans had controlling all the neurons they were used to, since they were used to having so many (I know the 10% of your brain thing is a terrible fallacy, can we make it work for us though?). Or! the fewer neurons (e.g. of the ants) were more powerful and could not be overridden as easily as our (people) neurons can be in our very giant human brains, which have many well-positioned neurons at their disposal.
When I was in grade six I started a petition to get the band teacher fired for just three days so that they could get the Yeerk that was OBVIOUSLY in her head removed. The principal (who, thank god, was a family friend and who knew that I was a crazy person) was like “I can’t do that,” and I was like “oh my god, you’re one of them too. Of COURSE the principal is in on it.”
I’m pretty sure at some point cassie (?? or one of the addendum animorphs?? the disabled kids?) morphs rachel, and has to deal with RACHEL’S PERSONALITY as her “animal instincts”. this might actually have been from a fanfiction but i don’t even care.
whether this is canon or not: discuss. how is an individual human personality different from animal brains? would morphing one specific dolphin, or gorilla, or elephant be similarly variable (ie, you might morph rachel, or you might morph cassie – both are human, but they have very different attitudes and animal instincts). people who morph terriers would be expected to have very different responses to those who morph, like, super chill rescue greyhounds – is it about the person or animal’s personality and instincts in that one moment in which they are absorbed? or is it something hard-coded into dna, like, permanently?
serious questions. i’ve read all of the books, like, 3 times, and also hella fanfiction because there’s just SO MUCH HORRIBLE WORLDBUILDING to explore and not understand because i’m not science at all but. SCIENCE!
Yeah, we don’t even really know how much of personality is genetically determined. There is some evidence to suggest that infants’ temperaments predict their personalities far down the line in adolescence and beyond, but environmental factors have a huge impact as well (as is the case with any trait, physical or otherwise, including how genes are actually expressed– even our DNA itself is subject to environmental impact). So maybe the bits of personality that are genetic are the ones that show up in the morph.
I always used to wonder about this as it related to age. If you acquired an adult, would you morph into them at the same age? If you morphed into them in twenty years, would it be the aged version (probably not, but who knows)? Our DNA changes as we age, so there is some tenuous, questionable scientific basic for the idea that you morph into the creature as they were at time of acquiring.
Science indeed.
I believe Cassie DOES morph Rachel when she develops an allergic reaction to the alligator (crocodile?) morph. But this open up ANOTHER can of worms: at the end of that particular book, Rachel had to “expel” the crocodile morph, essentially creating an entire, functioning crocodile, with its own brain and everything, presumably a perfect clone of the one she acquired! Never mind the fact that any scientist who tested the DNA of the two crocodiles that Rachel encounters in that book and cast further suspicion on her, but this hearkens back to Lauren’s original question of whether or not the animal is cognizant when you morph into it!
If you acquired a human morph and found yourself to be “allergic” to that particular human (they never specify whether the allergy can develop for an entire species or just an individual), and you have “expel” that human, do you then create a perfect clone of that human, complete with its thoughts and memories up until the moment you acquired it!? The existence of Rachel’s personality within Cassie’s morph would suggest so! This phenomenon could be similar to what happened when Rachel morphed a starfish and got cut in half, and de-morphed into her good and evil sides (for the life of me, I can’t remember how that got resolved).
Food for thought.
My favorite quote from this article is:
“I have to believe that any animal as intelligent as a dolphin is, on average, probably a huge asshole.” I can’t help but agree.
My interest lies more on the Yeerk side of things (this coming from one of four people with Elfangor’s <Hope> quote tattooed on her body, lol). Exactly how does the Yeerk body interface with the mind of another? Obviously the control isn’t complete, and it is shattered in certain instances — starvation or the introduction of narcotics (oatmeal), for example. Biologically speaking, what does this mean? And how can a creature evolved to infest and control the relatively simple-minded Gedd of their own planet transfer that ability to all sorts of alien races of varying mental capacity? We learn in #14 that they are certainly capable of infesting non-sapient beings (horses, in this case), but they seem to prefer more intellectually developed minds. Why? Is there a physiological basis for this, or is it just the result of ego?
And what, exactly, does the oatmeal do to the infected Yeerk? What is the difference between a Yeerk that ingests oatmeal through his host or a Yeerk that absorbs the narcotic directly through the pool liquid? Is the descent into madness a slow and steady one, or is it swift and unstoppable, leaving the hosts helpless to live with bits of psychotic Yeerk stuck in their mind for all eternity?
The ability of Yeerks to control their host’s memories is also interesting. They don’t just view the memories, they recreate them with such vividness that they can make their host feel as if they are reliving the moment. This must be particularly interesting when considering fragmented memories, stale memories, dreams, etc. If you don’t remember all of your dream, will the Yeerk in your mind?
>We learn in #14 that they are certainly capable of infesting non-sapient beings (horses, in this case), but they seem to prefer more intellectually developed minds. Why? Is there a physiological basis for this, or is it just the result of ego?
I always assumed this had to do more with quality of life than intelligence. For all their strength, power and elegance, a horse is still a comparatively dirty creature compared to a human or an Andalite (though what would constitute “luxury” to a Yeerk as compared to a human is anyone’s guess). It seems likely that a Yeerk should be able to “enjoy” being in a particular host body similar to the way the Animorphs enjoy being in certain morphs, like whales and dolphins.
It may also be a matter of agency or utility – a human on its own can use tools and manipulate its environment much more freely than a horse. Remember Aftran’s dialogue with Cassie about what it’s like to be a Yeerk, and how the two of them made a deal in which Cassie agreed to remain in caterpillar morph, a body with significantly less utility and agency over its environment. To a Yeerk, who comes from a race restricted to dull, ape-like creatures on their home world, this ability to freely wander their environment as a human and harness the technology they’ve managed to acquire and travel the stars, being in a human body must feel like a kind of freedom compared to many animal bodies, which must feel like a privilege to a Yeerk.
Or maybe not. Maybe they see it as an inherent right. As you said, Yeerks are prideful creatures, so status I’m sure has an effect on it as well. We also learn in the book Visser than humans are a “class five” species, whereas Hork Bajir and Taxxons were lower class. This suggests that with Yeerks have some form of hierarchy when it comes to classifying their host bodies, making some bodies more desirable than others, though as to how much this pertains to utility over quality of life is anyone’s guess.
Given the necessity of horse controllers and shark controllers, and how much the Yeerks seem to resent being placed in these bodies, it seems reasonable to assume that it’s a combination of how much personal freedom being in a body grants them and the boost in ego that the status the body represents. I like to think a matter of simply how pleasant it is to BE in that body.
>And what, exactly, does the oatmeal do to the infected Yeerk? What is the difference between a Yeerk that ingests oatmeal through his host or a Yeerk that absorbs the narcotic directly through the pool liquid?
To me, the key here is that when a Yeerk succumbs to oatmeal poisoning (which is totally what I’m calling this from now on), they no longer need Kandrona rays to survive. Ax refers to Yeerks possessing a digestive organ called an osmosis node, suggesting that they are able to absorb nutrients through osmosis. The fact that the Yeerk is able to ingest whatever chemical is present in the oatmeal through the host body suggests that they are constantly absorbing nutrients while in their host bodies. This could possibly represent an alternative form of respiration for the Yeerks. When the Yeerk enters a Yeerk pool, they’re absorbing Kandrona rays, but presumably, the Yeerk pool itself consists of water or something very much like water, as well as possibly other nutrients. When the Yeerk is no longer in the Yeerk pool, they are cut off not only from the Kandrona, but from water, as well as whatever other nutrients it provides, which seems to be a vital component to all life in the universe. I would surmise that the Yeerk absorbs this water directly from their host’s body. It wouldn’t be much, but just like humans need water, air and food at different intervals throughout the day, it stands to reason that a Yeerk needs more than just Kandrona rays, but water and other nutrients as well, possibly at even shorter intervals. It just so happens that these other nutrients are in much richer supply (there is water everywhere on Earth), and Kandrona is a scarcity, which makes it a weakness and something the Animorphs can readily exploit.
Wow, that got off-track fast, but my original point is that Yeerks likely absorb water from their host body to stay hydrated, and in doing so, absorb whatever chemical is present in oatmeal. While we’re on the subject of Yeerk physiology, however, here’s a puzzler for you: do Yeerks sleep? Do they sleep inside their host bodies? Can the host sleep while the Yeerk is present, or vice versa? If they do, then clearly there is some mechanism in place that maintains the Yeerk’s hold on the host while the Yeerk is asleep, otherwise a host could take over while the Yeerk slept and alert whoever they could find before the Yeerk woke up.
>And how can a creature evolved to infest and control the relatively simple-minded Gedd of their own planet transfer that ability to all sorts of alien races of varying mental capacity?
>The ability of Yeerks to control their host’s memories is also interesting. They don’t just view the memories, they recreate them with such vividness that they can make their host feel as if they are reliving the moment.
I do recall reading that there were some species that the Yeerks simply couldn’t control (I think the Skrit-Na, but I could be mistaken). Since a Yeerk controls its host’s body through the brain, and not all brains are the same amongst every species that the Yeerks are shown to control, for them to be able to adapt to so many types of brains, it stands to reason that they would have a great deal of dexterity, for lack of a better term, when handling brain matter. Perhaps they control the brain through electrical impulses, or chemical impulses? However they do it, they’ve been shown to be able to access the parts of the brain responsible for motor control, speech, as well as the thoughts and memories that make-up your personality. Such a versatile control over the brain must extend to the parts of the brain that even we ourselves cannot fully access at will. To the Yeerk, the brain may very well be like a set of levers and switches, so any memory that could be recalled, as in a nightmare or a daydream (as with Jake’s basketball fantasy) could simply be called up as easily as the Yeerk could make you lift your arm.
My interest lies more on the Yeerk side of things (this coming from one of four people with Elfangor's <Hope> quote tattooed on her body, lol). Exactly how does the Yeerk body interface with the mind of another? Obviously the control isn't complete, and it is shattered in certain instances — starvation or the introduction of narcotics (oatmeal), for example. Biologically speaking, what does this mean? And how can a creature evolved to infest and control the relatively simple-minded Gedd of their own planet transfer that ability to all sorts of alien races of varying mental capacity? We learn in #14 that they are certainly capable of infesting non-sapient beings (horses, in this case), but they seem to prefer more intellectually developed minds. Why? Is there a physiological basis for this, or is it just the result of ego?
And what, exactly, does the oatmeal do to the infected Yeerk? What is the difference between a Yeerk that ingests oatmeal through his host or a Yeerk that absorbs the narcotic directly through the pool liquid? Is the descent into madness a slow and steady one, or is it swift and unstoppable, leaving the hosts helpless to live with bits of psychotic Yeerk stuck in their mind for all eternity?
The ability of Yeerks to control their host's memories is also interesting. They don't just view the memories, they recreate them with such vividness that they can make their host feel as if they are reliving the moment. This must be particularly interesting when considering fragmented memories, stale memories, dreams, etc. If you don't remember all of your dream, will the Yeerk in your mind?
>Wherever the division occurs, this theory would involve parts of the human brain in Z-space interfacing with parts of the animal brain through some kind of inter-dimensional connection.
Further supported by the fact that when morphing mosquito, and a ship does pass them by, their consciousness is pulled (by gravity?) into their normal bodies while in Z-space. Curious that they’re still able to morph while this occurs, considering that they’re already morphed elsewhere, even if they are separated from their mosquito morphs by timey-wimey stuff.
>(Evo-devo people: do Andalites and humans have a common ancestor? Further research reveals several bird-like species in the Andalite home world as well. Where is my Inter-Planetary Bering Strait Crossing Theory?).
I blame the Ellimist.
>The technological off-switch is the second most important difference between the Yeerks and the Andalites; the first being, of course, that Yeerks are parasites who control the actual primary body of a creature, whereas Andalites essentially clone a creature and then hack into their brain.
Worth noting: The Iskoort genetically manufactured what amount to brain-dead host-bodies in a similar fashion to what he is describing here with morphing.
>A similar fashion to what he is describing here with morphing.
What *she* is describing. Sorry.
Every time someone suggests apes can possibly learn language, somewhere in the world, a linguist punches a gorilla.
It’s the linguistic equivalent of “we only use 10% of our brains and if we could use more we’d be superhumans” bullshit. Not one reputable study that has ever been conducted has demonstrated language capability of any non-human animal.
Yes, Koko the gorilla can associate words with concepts. But, for one thing, she has no concept of syntax, so “Koko want apple” isn’t used any more than “Want apple Koko” or “Koko apple want” or (and this admittedly may be a look into Koko’s darkest nightmares), “Apple want Koko”. For two, while apes are certainly intelligent, word-to-action association is hardly unique to them: any trained dog will respond to its name and freak the hell out when you say “walk”.
It’s almost as bad as the whole “Eskimos have an absurd number of words for snow” nonsense.
(now that that’s out of my system, this was otherwise a great read; I reread the entire series last year in the span of two months after getting to hang out with KA Applegate at my bookstore)
As a Medievalist (a few of us still exist, we mostly spend out time drinking tea and burning the odd warlock) I have a sneaking suspicion that many materialists often lapse into dualism, because it’s hard to deny the existence of the human soul. Getting the preaching out of the way (we Medievalists are obligated to preach about something at least twice a day), it’s more likely that Applegate, being raised in such a incredibly duelist culture, and lacking a strong education in either philosophy or science, just kind went with her instincts, and assumed her nine year old readers would figure it out once they grew ould enough. The realistic explanation out of the way… I could think of several reasons why the Blue Box worked as a Medievalist.
1. It is Satanic witchcraft and the Animorphs should be burned at the stake. More folk medievalist than anything worthy of a great mind like Aquinas.
2. God in his great mercy, granted the Andalites and Humans morphing technology in order to save huamnity from the Yeerks. Begs the question as to why God created the Yeerks in the first place. Evidently God likes Andalites and humans more than say… Hork Bajir or Taxxons (But why even God would like create the Taxxons is beyond me).
3. Transubstantiation. The essence of the animorphs remains unchanged, only the accidents change.Elfangor was obviously a priest who blessed the blue box.
4. The Box evidently allows one to see the form of the Good in which all forms partake, allowing the animorphs to switch from one form to another because their enlightened minds have finally grasped the relationship between the universal and the particular.