{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/1397",
    "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": "whorl",
  "thread": {
    "id": 1397,
    "subject": "My take on The Secret",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2001-04-23T16:25:39+00:00",
    "last": "2001-04-23T16:25:39+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0012-0708@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Joel T. Sieh",
        "address": "jsieh at cs.umass.edu"
      },
      "date": "2001-04-23T16:25:39+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) My take on The Secret",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Hello All,\n\tI just recently got on the list, and have been reading the ideas\nposted on the secret of the inhumi.  Well, I'm pretty sure an idea akin to\nmine has been posted on here already.  However, in the case one hasn't,\nI'm posting my idea.  I don't think the spirit-travel (I don't like to\ncall it astral travel for some reason) really had anything to do with\nit.  At least not as far as Krait was concerned.  I think the main idea\nbehind the secret was that the inhumi need humans to be sentient.  In my\nopinion, this fits with the \"weapon too big to wield\" description, because\nin order to really change the inhumi, humanity as it existed on Blue and\nGreen would need to do one of two things:\n\n1.  Fundamentally change.  I think this has interesting ramifications,\nbecause this change could mean physically, by genetic alteration, or\npsychologically/spiritually.  If humans were changed genetically so that\ntheir blood or DNA somehow became undigestable, poisonous, or incompatible\nwith their biological systems, the inhumi would be reduced to mere\nanimals.  If the humans on the two planets were to change on a spiritual\nor ethical basis, becoming more altruistic, kind, selfless, etc., it's\npossible the inhumi would change in similar ways.  However, its easy to \nsee that both of these alternatives are pretty hard \"weapons to\nwield\".  For the first one, the technology level isn't high\nenough (and to Silk or other whorlers, such a thing might be\nconsidered magic).  For the second one, you can't really change\nhumanity.  Traits such as greed, selfishness, lust, etc., are inescapable \nfor humans, but the inhumi don't necessarily know that. \nPersonally, I like the second idea better.  It seems to fit more with the\ngeneral feeling of the series.  I think the second idea is also more\ninteresting, because it means the inhumi's fear is imaginary.\n\tOh, and if you're wondering why the inhumi would fear becoming\nbetter people....  Well, that question isn't easy for me to answer.  It\nwould create a greater emotional conflict for each inhumi to pursue his\nown survival and that of his species.  However, this might not be a good\nenough reason, and it's debatable whether increased morality would be able\nto overrule survival and reproductive instincts.\n\n2.  Leave, like the Neighbors did.  This is an easy one.  If the humans\ninhabiting the two whorls left, or died, or some combination of the\ntwo (and no inhumi could sneak along with them), the inhumi would again\nlose their source for sentience.  This one might also be a difficult\n\"weapon to wield\", because the settlers would have to round everyone up\nand either kill them or put them on ships, and weed out the inhumi in the\nprocess of getting people ready to transport.\n\nAnyway, that's basically all I had to say.  I'm not particularly fond of\nthe ideas that dealt with physically wiping out the inhumi or using \nthe weapon in an active sense.  They just didn't seem to fit the style and\nfeeling of the series.  Just some thoughts.  I apologize if I'm\naccidentally reiterating ideas that have already been posted.  The\narchives are daunting and I'm too lazy for my own good.  :)\n\n--Joel\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}