More Than Human Part 3, Section 17 Summary

  • Hip's thought tells Gerry to recognize that they were both hated boys who wanted to be needed and became unwanted monsters. In other words, the two have enough in common that Gerry should listen to him.
  • The message also says the gestalt, because it is unique, doesn't need morals. Instead Hip's message offers an ethos which requires belief rather than obedience. You really have to read it, but in short, it's a code for a greater survival than that of the gestalt. It requires reverence for the current carrying the gestalt from its past, humanity, to whomever will be more advanced in the future. The thought instructs Gerry to use his immortality to help humanity.
  • Hip's thought explains that once there are enough gestalts, this ethic will become their group morality until a new, even more advanced being creates a new ethic to replace it.
  • Hip concludes his thought by saying that Hip was a monster who found this ethos, and Gerry, also a monster, must now decide what to do.