# the problem with de-evolution *The Whorl list — 4 messages, 4 voices, 25 Apr 2001* > 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. --- ### maa32 *25 Apr 2001, 10:12* 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. *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun. --- ### Dan'l Danehy-Oakes *25 Apr 2001, 11:03 · follows maa32* > 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.) *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun. --- ### Kevin J. Maroney *25 Apr 2001, 14:51 · follows Dan'l Danehy-Oakes* > At 11:03 AM 4/25/01 -0700, Blattid wrote: > (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.) 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 *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun. ``` --- ### Michael Straight *25 Apr 2001, 16:00 · follows Kevin J. Maroney* > On Wed, 25 Apr 2001, Kevin J. Maroney wrote: > At 11:03 AM 4/25/01 -0700, Blattid wrote: >> (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.) > 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. 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 *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun. ---