OH. It didn't go to the specific blog entry. That last comment was for the Oct. 18 one you posted. Double oh -- it seems like adding a comment does not add a comment but replaces the previous comment. IF that's not a glitch, if that's what's happening, then I'll repeat: Your synopsis of Brin reminded me of the CS Lewis Space Trilogy (Which I need to read again, as my brain is full of cobwebs, it was so long ago. I just remember it as a book that made me wonder if Lewis was zoo. Pre-Internet days, so anything I ran across that hinted at similar interspecies communication and interactions made me do cartwheels in the lawn.