In Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep, I wonder whether the Tines should have died at the end. Not their bodies — the sophonts themselves, falling apart into their constituent members, becoming individual solitary animals.
Certainly it would fit in with the setting: there's even a mention about how unusual it is to find a group intelligence in the Bottom of the Beyond. When the Zones change — it would be a logical consequence for the group intelligence to become impossible and so fall apart.
It would fit in with the story, too. Ravna considers in the Epilogues how the Countermeasure affected distant planets, distant realms; having the effect local, visible, would be more vivid. So much of the book tells of the Tines' strife and striving — then, in one fell moment, it would all be for naught.
⇦ Idea: to-do schedulers and GPS navigators | ⇨ Little Red Riding Hood as if from Rainbows End |
