Call me Joe
Encyclopedia
Call Me Joe is a science fiction story by Poul Anderson
about an attempt to explore the surface of the planet Jupiter
using remotely controlled artificial life-forms
. It focuses on the feelings of the disabled man who operates the artificial body. The story was published in Astounding Science Fiction magazine by its editor John W. Campbell.
The Science Fiction Writers of America selected Call Me Joe for The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two
.
orbiting Jupiter. Anglesey furiously repairs the equipment to restore the connection.
It transpires that such equipment failures are happening more and more often. All technical attempts at repair have failed, and instead a psionics
expert, Cornelius, is brought to the station to determine if Anglesey himself is the problem.
Anglesey uses a wheelchair and is bad-tempered. He dislikes all his colleagues and is disliked in return. He is allowed to stay on the station only because of his ability to establish a telepathic connection with and thereby control Joe, a creature designed to survive the hostile conditions on the Jovian surface. Cornelius conjectures that something in Anglesey's mind rejects or fears Jupiter, and the resulting feedback keeps destroying the delicate equipment.
Eventually Cornelius is allowed to share a session with Anglesey during an important part of the mission. A set of autonomous female Jovians, similar to Joe but lacking a human controller such as Anglesey, has been launched from the satellite and will soon land on Jupiter. Joe, still controlled by Anglesey, is to be the leader, and father, of a new race that will live on the planet. During this session, Cornelius becomes aware of a third mind – that of Joe himself. Anglesey's mind has been steadily transforming itself into Joe and shrinking in the process. Cornelius was looking at the problem from the wrong end – it was not Anglesey's fear of going to Jupiter and becoming sublimated into Joe's stronger character which was causing the blowouts, but his fear of leaving Jupiter and the freedom Joe's whole and healthy, though non-human, body allows him. Anglesey's existence is poor and constricted compared to Joe's, and the environment has shaped a personality that no longer wants to be human.
Seeing himself from Cornelius's perspective, Joe becomes fully self-aware. He ejects Cornelius from the loop and shuts down what is left of Anglesey.
Cornelius revives on the station next to the hollow shell of Anglesey's body. Far from being dismayed, Cornelius realizes that this is the way of the future. From now on people with diseased bodies and even the aged can be recruited for the Jovian program if they have the necessary talents. Eventually they will leave their bodies behind and become Jovians in the flesh, functioning as the priesthood of the new race.
Conditions on Jupiter were not well known, although measurements of the planet's mass had revealed that it must consist largely of gases. Call Me Joe posits a surface at very low temperatures and exceptionally high pressures. Under these conditions ice is a hard solid and methane a liquid, where both native and human-created life can survive. However, based on subsequent observations from space probes, it is believed (as of 2005) that the solid core of the planet is surrounded by regions of high pressure and temperature that would make any life, as we know it, impossible.
adaptation of "Call Me Joe" appeared in issue 4 of Starstream, 1976 (script by George Kashdan, art by Adolfo Buylla).
The premise of a paraplegic man whose mind is remotely controlling a blue-skinned alien body also appears in James Cameron's 2009 movie Avatar – similar enough for some to have called for Anderson to receive credit.
Poul Anderson
Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories...
about an attempt to explore the surface of the planet Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
using remotely controlled artificial life-forms
Artificial life
Artificial life is a field of study and an associated art form which examine systems related to life, its processes, and its evolution through simulations using computer models, robotics, and biochemistry. The discipline was named by Christopher Langton, an American computer scientist, in 1986...
. It focuses on the feelings of the disabled man who operates the artificial body. The story was published in Astounding Science Fiction magazine by its editor John W. Campbell.
The Science Fiction Writers of America selected Call Me Joe for The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two: The Greatest Science Fiction Novellas of All Time is an anthology edited by Ben Bova. It honors works published prior to the institution of the Nebula Awards in 1965...
.
Plot summary
Joe is awakened in his den, when a pack of predators are attacking him. Using his great strength, and weapons made from sculpted ice, he kills the animals and, exultant, bays at the moon above him. A vital component shorts out, and "Joe" reverts to being a human, Ed Anglesey, wearing a special headset on a space stationSpace station
A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...
orbiting Jupiter. Anglesey furiously repairs the equipment to restore the connection.
It transpires that such equipment failures are happening more and more often. All technical attempts at repair have failed, and instead a psionics
Psionics
Psionics refers to the practice, study, or psychic ability of using the mind to induce paranormal phenomena. Examples of this include telepathy, telekinesis, and other workings of the outside world through the psyche.-History and terminology:...
expert, Cornelius, is brought to the station to determine if Anglesey himself is the problem.
Anglesey uses a wheelchair and is bad-tempered. He dislikes all his colleagues and is disliked in return. He is allowed to stay on the station only because of his ability to establish a telepathic connection with and thereby control Joe, a creature designed to survive the hostile conditions on the Jovian surface. Cornelius conjectures that something in Anglesey's mind rejects or fears Jupiter, and the resulting feedback keeps destroying the delicate equipment.
Eventually Cornelius is allowed to share a session with Anglesey during an important part of the mission. A set of autonomous female Jovians, similar to Joe but lacking a human controller such as Anglesey, has been launched from the satellite and will soon land on Jupiter. Joe, still controlled by Anglesey, is to be the leader, and father, of a new race that will live on the planet. During this session, Cornelius becomes aware of a third mind – that of Joe himself. Anglesey's mind has been steadily transforming itself into Joe and shrinking in the process. Cornelius was looking at the problem from the wrong end – it was not Anglesey's fear of going to Jupiter and becoming sublimated into Joe's stronger character which was causing the blowouts, but his fear of leaving Jupiter and the freedom Joe's whole and healthy, though non-human, body allows him. Anglesey's existence is poor and constricted compared to Joe's, and the environment has shaped a personality that no longer wants to be human.
Seeing himself from Cornelius's perspective, Joe becomes fully self-aware. He ejects Cornelius from the loop and shuts down what is left of Anglesey.
Cornelius revives on the station next to the hollow shell of Anglesey's body. Far from being dismayed, Cornelius realizes that this is the way of the future. From now on people with diseased bodies and even the aged can be recruited for the Jovian program if they have the necessary talents. Eventually they will leave their bodies behind and become Jovians in the flesh, functioning as the priesthood of the new race.
Scientific background
In popular culture
A comic bookComic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
adaptation of "Call Me Joe" appeared in issue 4 of Starstream, 1976 (script by George Kashdan, art by Adolfo Buylla).
The premise of a paraplegic man whose mind is remotely controlling a blue-skinned alien body also appears in James Cameron's 2009 movie Avatar – similar enough for some to have called for Anderson to receive credit.