Instinct

In Short

First published in Astounding Science Fiction in 1959, George O. Smith’s short story presents a high-stakes cosmic standoff between a hyper-cautious alien hierarchy and an unstoppable human drive. After wiping out or resetting human civilization six times to preserve galactic order, alien administrators capture an American astronaut bound for Venus. They attempt to neutralize the human threat not with weapons, but by subjecting their prisoner to total sensory deprivation. What they fail to anticipate is that the human mind’s deep, primitive need to communicate can fracture the very fabric of physical reality, forever changing the balance of galactic power.

The Story

The narrative opens in the administrative offices of an ancient, unnamed alien authority watching over the galaxy. Chief administrator Chelan and his subordinate Huvane receive alarming news: the inhabitants of Terra (Earth) have once again broken through crucial technological barriers. For the seventh time in cosmic history, human beings have rebuilt their civilization from the ground up, moving from primitive savagery to orbital spaceflight and nuclear synthesis. Each previous time humanity expanded into space, their chaotic, argumentative nature ignited wars that threatened to destabilize entire star systems. Chelan and Huvane reflect on their past failed efforts to contain, guide, or isolate Earth. Out of sheer desperation, Chelan decides against another mass extermination. Instead, he orders Huvane to capture a single, representative human specimen to investigate what fundamental drive makes humanity so irrepressible.

Huvane easily intercepts Jerry Markham, a twenty-four-year-old American astronaut launching from Cape Canaveral on a solo run toward Venus. Taken aboard the alien craft alongside his vessel, Jerry is brought before Chelan. Rather than cower, Jerry responds with stubborn defiance, refusing to provide intelligence or cooperate. Recognizing that physical force or interrogation will yield little, Chelan devises a psychological experiment. He hypothesizes that communication is the absolute foundational drive of all living organisms. By cutting a human off from all external contactAn alien empire has crushed human civilization six times, yet humanity rises anew every time to claim the stars.

In Short

When alien stewards Chelan and Huvane capture an American astronaut bound for Venus, they hope to unlock the secret of humanity’s persistent, cyclical rise across history. Having repeatedly wiped out Earth's technological eras, the extraterrestrials view the race with a mix of awe and terror. They subject their prisoner to total sensory deprivation, believing that severing all communication will force his surrender. Instead, the extreme isolation triggers an unexpected breakthrough in the human mind. George O. Smith’s science fiction short story endures as a crisp, ironic take on human resilience and the unseen potential of consciousness.

The Story

The story opens in the office of Chelan, an alien overseer tasked with monitoring Earth. His subordinate Huvane brings troubling news: humanity has broken through the mass-inertia-relativity barrier again and synthesized Element 109. Chelan reflects with weary dread on the history of the galaxy. Six previous times, human civilization reached high technology, spilled out into space with an aggressive, unyielding drive, and forced the aliens to reset Earth back to the swamp. Despite these forced catastrophes, humans rebuild from scratch every ten thousand years, repeating the exact same civilizational climbs and carrying ancient planetary names through persistent racial memory.

Seeking to understand the hidden driver behind human tenacity, Chelan orders the capture of a live specimen. Huvane targets the American space program at Cape Canaveral, snatching twenty-four-year-old astronaut Jerry Markham directly out of his Venus-bound rocket. Jerry, a lively and optimistic pilot who spent his final night on Earth partying with his girlfriend Sally, finds his space capsule opened like a sardine can by alien force. Taken into custody, he refuses to cooperate or identify himself. His chief anxiety is not death, but the thought of his family and countrymen never knowing what happened to him.

Chelan concludes that force is useless, but reasons that communication is the primary drive of all life. He decides to break Jerry’s spirit by cutting off his five physical senses completely, placing him in an environment of total lightlessness, silence, and sensory stillness. Inside the sensory-deprivation cell, Jerry initially loses his sense of time, orientation, and bodily control. His heartbeat wanders, and his mind struggles against the absolute void. However, instead of collapsing into madness, Jerry’s isolated brain responds to the urge for communication by turning inward.

Without the distraction of external inputs, billions of brain cells synchronize their focus. Jerry’s memory and imagination combine into a hyper-vivid internal reality where he walks down the street, feels the breeze, smells the air, and greets Sally and his family. When Chelan and Huvane open the cell to check on their captive, they find the room completely empty. Jerry has transcended his physical prison. Terrified by this final proof of human adaptability, Chelan surrenders the future to mankind, ordering an end to all interference before humanity returns to claim the galaxy.

How It Unfolds

The warning arrives Huvane informs Chelan that Earth has synthesized atomic element 109 and achieved manned orbital flight. The alien leaders lament that despite six past planetary resets, humanity repeatedly rebuilds its technology on the exact same trajectory.

A captive is chosen Determined to solve the mystery of human drive, Chelan orders the painless capture of a single healthy, educated human specimen. Meanwhile at Cape Canaveral, astronaut Jerry Markham boards his three-hundred-foot rocket for a solo flight to Venus.

Intercepted in space Huvane effortlessly scoops Jerry and his rocket out of orbit, opening the craft like a tin can. Brought before the alien commanders, Jerry refuses to answer questions, remaining defiantly silent while worrying only about how to get word back to Earth.

The sensory sentence Chelan theorizes that communication is the fundamental requirement of all living things and orders Jerry placed in absolute sensory isolation. Stripped of light, sound, touch, taste, and smell, Jerry’s mind is cut off from all external data.

Mind over void Faced with total blankness, Jerry's brain cells achieve a rare, unified resonance, calling upon deep memories to build a fully realized internal reality. When the guards return to check the cell, they find the astronaut has vanished entirely, convincing the aliens to leave mankind alone forever.

The People

• Jerry Markham: A healthy, twenty-four-year-old American astronaut selected for a solo voyage to Venus. Brimming with youthful confidence and a desire for life, he cares little for abstract danger, worrying instead about duty, his reputation, and his girlfriend Sally. Captured by aliens, his stubborn refusal to betray his species and his innate urge to connect drive him past the limits of human consciousness.
• Chelan: The weary alien chief responsible for managing the Terran problem. He harbors a mixture of deep admiration and genuine terror toward human ambition, viewing their relentless expansion as a threat to galactic peace. He believes cold logic and scientific isolation can break any mind.
• Huvane: Chelan’s sarcastic, pragmatic subordinate who handles the practical work of monitoring Earth and capturing Jerry. He views human behavior as absurd, chaotic, and dangerously unpredictable across every era.

In Its Own Voice

“I admire their tenacity. I admire their ambition. I admire their blasphemous, consignatory, obscenity attitude of acting as if the Great Creator had concocted the whole glorious Universe for their own playground.”

— Chelan reflects on the terrifying, unyielding nature of the human species.

“The metronome of heartbeat died. Determined Brain compromised by assuming that crude time could be kept by the function of hunger, elimination, weariness.”

— Jerry Markham's mind struggles to maintain its grip on reality inside total isolation.

“Communication is the prime drive of life. Cut off from external communication entirely, section A, bay 6, tier 9, row 13 hollered over to box Q, line 23, aisle F and wanted to know what was going on.”

— The sensory-deprivation environment forces the human brain to organize its internal storage.

What It's Really About

George O. Smith explores the psychological concept of sensory deprivation alongside the classic science fiction theme of human indomitability. The narrative pits alien coldness and systemic control against the raw, unmeasured potential of the human spirit. Chelan assumes that because human consciousness relies on five physical senses to gather information, severing those pathways will reduce a man to nothingness. Instead, the story argues that human drive is not merely a reaction to external stimuli, but an active force rooted in memory, imagination, and a fundamental need to connect. When forced into total stillness, the mind does not wither—it reorganizes its vast internal architecture to overcome physical limitations entirely.

Why Read It Today

Instinct captures the Mid-Century space-race optimism of the late 1950s, blending technical Cold War aesthetics—gantry towers, countdowns, Cape Canaveral—with speculative philosophy. Readers who enjoy classic Astounding Science Fiction tales centered on clever human triumph over superior alien adversaries will find a quick, satisfying read here.

The prose reflects its era: straightforward, slightly formal in its technical explanations, and marked by period tropes like military precision and 1950s slang. It avoids heavy-handed worldbuilding, focusing instead on a tight, conceptual duel between two alien bureaucrats and one headstrong test pilot. The story’s charm lies in its brisk pacing and its surprisingly modern take on neural processing and sensory deprivation research, which was just emerging in the mid-20th century.