{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/361",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 361,
    "subject": "Digest urth.v007.n002",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1998-02-07T15:17:45+00:00",
    "last": "1998-02-07T15:17:45+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0007-0536@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Charles Dye",
        "address": "raster at highfiber.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-02-07T15:17:45+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Re: Digest urth.v007.n002",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Jason Voegele mentions:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "I think this crops up when Severian comes to Typhon's little home in the\nmountains.  I've heard two theories.  One, Urth's magnetic poles have\nflip-flopped, thus North and South have taken on the opposite meaning\nthat we are accustomed to.  Two, Severian has some sort of\ndepth-perception problem (sorry, can't recall the technical term) which\ncauses him Somehow to confuse left/right/east/west etc."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "You know, that's rather eerie, because I've played around with the same\nidea myself.  Severian may well be spacially dyslexic.  Take another look\nat the Typhon sequence.  Severian, looking out the left eye of west-facing\nMount Typhon, sees a battle ... to the northeast?\n\nAnother supporting detail:  how many times is Severian given precise\ndirections to reach some place, but gets lost anyhow?  For most people,\nwe could just chalk it up to imperfect memory.\n\n(BTW, how's this for a Vancian chapter title:  \"The Eyes of the World\"\n(could also be called \"The Eyes of the Overlord!\"))\n\n\nDavid_Lebling at avid.com goes for the Gould:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "On the question of whether evolution stops when civilization is\nachieved; I doubt it. If you buy into \"puntuated equilibrium,\" you will\nsee that species go through long periods with nothing much happening,\nthen a rapid burst of evolution, and so on.  Taking care of the sick and\nweak may effect somewhat the distribution of certain genes, but others\ncan spread through humanity in a surprisingly short time.  Evolution\nrequires differential reproductive rates for different genetic makeups;\nthe fallacy that that means the sick and weak have to die off is just\nthat, a fallacy."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Punctuated Equilibrium, as I understand it, requires that a small subset\nof a larger population be reproductively isolated.  The guardians of the\nAutarch's mines would certainly qualify!\n\nraster at highfiber.com"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}