I read most of the related stories online after seeing the reference to "think blue, count two" when trying to remind myself what Serial Experiments Lain was ab

I read most of the related stories online after seeing the reference to "think blue, count two" when trying to remind myself what Serial Experiments Lain was about. It is very idiosyncratic. A heavy role for psionics, uplifted animal species, and animal brains conditioned to perform tasks and then preserved in something like a circuit board. And space, economics, politics, and a civil rights movement for the uplifted animals. "Oh yeah, I'm here on another planet having a telepathic chat with an uplifted cat who is mad about the oppression of her species." But engaging writing and worldbuilding that makes that feel more plausible. I think you could say that it's space opera that puts organisms' bodies and minds at the heart of things, rather than machines. Electronic devices with any kind of important agency in the stories are rather few and far between, but stuff about bodies and minds, and what Cordwainer Smith could imagine them doing and wanting, kept coming back again and again and again.