{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/24",
    "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": 24,
    "subject": "Black Mechanics",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1997-01-15T10:05:06+00:00",
    "last": "1997-01-15T10:05:06+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0001-0039@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "David_Lebling",
        "address": "david_lebling at avid.com"
      },
      "date": "1997-01-15T10:05:06+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) Black Mechanics",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "From: Peter Cash <cash at convex.convex.com>\nIn this connection, I thought it odd that while the talus factory can\nfix the hydraulics, the optical fibers that control Marble's hand can\nonly be repaired by a \"black mechanic\" like Incus. Who were these\n\"black\nmechanics\"? Where did they get their skills? What were they all about?"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I got the impression that the taluses did not use optical fibers.  There\nare many references to the decline in the chem population over time, and\nit may be that the skills and materials to build/conceive chem children\nare nearly lost.  (There's also a comment at some point about how few\nchem females are left.)\n\nI thought the interlude at the talus factory was excellent; a sort of\nessay on the morality of _constructing_ intelligent beings.  The factory\nputs a lot of money and effort into building a talus, so it's generally\nan indentured servant until that debt is paid off.  Parents put a lot of\nmoney and effort into raising children, so...  The whole set piece can\nbe read as an ironic commentary on the economics of parenting and child\nrearing.\n\nTaluses, though intelligent, seem to be a lower order of being than a\nchem like Marble.  That may be because we never really get to know one,\nof course.\n\nThe \"black mechanics\" seem to be a melding of voodoo priests and\nhackers.  They are researching the programming of chems, but the one\nspecific thing we are told they use that knowledge for is subverting the\nchems' will (recall the reference to one of them making his butler(?)\nmore obedient).  I assumed from the start that the reason the chem\nsoldier (sorry, name escapes me) in the tunnels was so loyal to Incus is\nthat while fixing him, Incus had reprogrammed him for loyalty and\nobedience. Incus is an interesting character; he develops from a sort of\nnasty, smarmy underling to a pretty good person by the end of the\nseries.\n\n     Dave Lebling\n     (david_lebling at avid.com)\n\nQuestions or problems to whorl-owner at lists.best.com"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}