24 quoted lines · 1–2 deep
On 3 November 1998 at 5:39 pm GMT, Alex David
Groce wrote:
Greg Neyman wrote:
Rostrum - Hammerstone said in
Lake that making a child takes at least
two years, and maybe as long as twenty
(as they get the parts, presumably) ....
does the couple enter the "love-trance"
for twenty years? there's no way they
could be productive citizens and produce
children simultaneously if that were the
case.
And even if it was the case, I'd imagine
that black mechanics would be able to find
a way to circumvent this.
Well, it wouldn't have to be a "trance"--humans
don't necessarily go into a trance to make a kid,
but don't have conscious access to the workings
of it. But it does seem odd the black mechanics
can't get at this if they can mess with programming
as much as they seem to be able to (maybe Pas
had this a lot better guarded, especially the fusion
pack part--as that would seem to be the really
dangerous part.)
And, as Alex implicitly points out, when bios make a
new child, they're not at it 24 hours a day, seven days
a week. The "love-trance" could manifest in a way
analogous to sleep or (perhaps better) dreaming.
"Hey, Rocky! Whatcha up to last night?"
"Well, Ruby and me was . . . well, ya know. Makes
the night go by awful fast, though. Seems like I just
left here. By the way, you got one a' them widgets
I told you about?"
"Something like it, I think, but I'm not sure. How's it
look to you?"
"Umm . . . yeah, it looks a little off. That's OK, though;
I think I can figure something out."
Or maybe Rocky just buys a lathe and a drill press
and then goes sorting through the scrap heap.
When Incus altered his soldier (was it Sand? I can't
remember), the soldier became Incus' best friend;
but was Incus able to alter the standing orders, or did
they still take precedence? If the black magicians
weren't able to interfere with the orders (I'm tempted
to call them hard-wired, but I'm not sure of that) then
they also may not be able to crack the reproductive
routines.
Nacre
*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.