# Fingers (Adam) and Lamarckstuff (Dan) *The Urth list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 16 Jun 1998* > 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. --- ### Dan'l Danehy Oakes *16 Jun 1998, 11:42* Adam observes: > So your argument is that the characters who are portrayed on > the surface as paunchy men/women in business suits disguised > as the Queen, Hook, and Wolf are really the Queen, Hook and > Wolf disguised, or manifesting themselves as, paunchy men/women > in business suits disguised as the Queen, Hook, and Wolf? More like the latter. Paunchy folks in business suits _are_ the villains in the version of reality in which Mauss lives and works, so when these villain-archetypes enter that version of reality, that's how they appear. > So where does this leave your earlier contention that "sometimes > a pipe is just a pipe"? Good question. It all seemed so clear at first... ************** And Dan Parmenter wrote: Subject: Substitute me for him, substitute my coke for gin... Not a chance, Dan. I may ask myself, "Why did I fall for that," but we won't get fooled again. > From: "Dan'l Danehy Oakes" >> The same holds true, to a lesser extent, for many prelinguistic >> animals -- cats and birds can readily be seen teaching their >> offspring how to perform various survival-oriented activities. > And if that skill is not acquired during a particular phase of > development, it is never acquired. Kittens never taught to hunt can > coexist with pet mice without the slightest problem. Right. Sturgeon was fascinated by this stuff -- he called it a "window" in some stories published in the late '70s, by analogy with a "launch window" or "window of opportunity." Language in particular seems to be "windowed" in humans; the occasional feral child never really learns language if brought back to human society beyond a certain age ("three" sticks in my mind but that's probably too old). > ...What if the > shape-shifting ability (to whatever extent it exists) ...I'm beginning to lean toward the idea that it doesn't, that there are no abos (left) at all... > is like language > - a characteristic of the species the particulars of which > must be realized during a "critical stage" of their development. > All abos have the capacity to shape-shift but if its "parameters" > aren't set (through parental/societal examples and interactions, > as with language) the knack is never fully realized and such abos > are like the examples one hears about occasionally of children > raised in severely abusive isutations where they aren't allowed > to interact and learn language (e.g. Kaspar Hauser). Such abos > would have limited or nonexistant shape-shifting ability and no > ability to use tools. Interesting. By the more-or-less standard model, poor or no tool using ability seems to be endemic to abos even when they're raised among their own kind... --------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | Dan'l Danehy-Oakes | First Amendment Pop Quiz: | | Staff Curriculum Developer | | | Oracle World-Wide Education | Is it all right to shout | | e-mail ddanehyo at us.oracle.com | "movie" in a crowded firehouse? | | phone 650.506.0793 | | | | | --------------------------------------------------------------------- ---