• WetFerret@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I remember reading a sci fi novel a long time ago where mankind encountered a spider-like intelligent lifeform with an unusual method of communication. Wrapped around the creature’s head is some type of organ which displays changing bands of light forming a kind of language. Instead of telling someone something they can show them instead.

    I wish I knew the book and author. I feel like it could have been in either Clarke’s Rama series or Varley’s Gaea trilogy.

    • dontpanic@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 year ago

      Rama definitely had octospider robot creatures that communicated with patterns of light on their skin, kind of like cephalopods iirc, but the 90’s were a while ago and I can’t remember many details. Wasn’t Dr. Blue a spiderbot with a ‘speech impediment’ where he could only display blue, or something like that?

    • Haggunenons@lemmy.worldOPM
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      1 year ago

      I was just listening to this podcast and the woman being interviewed, Sylvia Earle, said that according to Edith Widder, a bioluminescence specialists, light signals are the most common type of communication on the planet due to all the animals using it in the ocean. I would have never guessed that.