Subject: (whorl) the problem with de-evolution

From: maa32 <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu>
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 10:12:21 +0000

If the inhumi all refuse to feast on human blood since they become "good" from 
good humans, then their offspring would return to mindless animals.  There is 
nothing to prevent the mindless animals that are the children of good inhumi 
from sucking off of the people, especially with a colony of humans on Green.  
They would have no scruples, then their children would be intelligent.  It 
would just be a threat to humans with alternating generations of inhumi.  I 
don't like this golden rule idea.

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From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <ddanehy at siebel.com>
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 11:03:44 +0000

> If the inhumi all refuse to feast on human blood since they become
> "good" from good humans, 

A debatable premiss, but consider the result as if it were a given.

> then their offspring would return to mindless animals.  

Correct so far.

> There is nothing to prevent the mindless animals that are the children
> of good inhumi from sucking off of the people, 

Also correct. But Horn does not say the secret will make the inhumi
non-dangerous, only that it will make them no more dangerous than
crocodiles. 

> They would have no scruples, then their children would be intelligent.

Intelligent, yes, but (_ex hypothesi_) benevolent. So you would have
the "alternating generations" situation you suggest, but the threat 
would be greatly reduced, as the dangerous inhumi would be the mindless
animals.

(As a side note, how many people are _actually_ attacked by alligators 
and the like in a given year? I presume that proper precautions could 
make the threat from non-sentient inhumi no greater than that from 
crocodilians.)

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From: Kevin J. Maroney <kmaroney at ungames.com>
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 14:51:46 +0000

>make the threat from non-sentient inhumi no greater than that from 

My understanding is that the number of human attacks from crocodilians is
very low. They're much like wolves that way--feared as human predators all
out of proportion to the actual danger they present. Which isn't to say
that they can't sometimes be very dangerous, indeed. 

-- 
Wombat, a.k.a. Kevin Maroney kmaroney at ungames.com
Kitchen Staff Supervisor, New York Review of Science Fiction
http://www.nyrsf.com

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From: Michael Straight <straight at email.unc.edu>
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 16:00:49 +0000

> that they can't sometimes be very dangerous, indeed. 

So how many people are _actually_ attacked by inhumi in a given year (not
counting weddings)?  Of those, how many suffer any permanent harm?

-Rostrum