Someday they'll want us.

Gwern Branwen · 26 Jun 2010, 20:34 · from 2010-June.txt.gz

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From: gwern0 at gmail.com (Gwern Branwen)
Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2010 16:34:33 -0400
Subject: (urth) Someday they'll want us.
In-Reply-To: <4C23809C.9080804 at gmail.com>
References: <SNT123-W29D9961BBF56029ED333B7CFC60 at phx.gbl>
	<4C23809C.9080804 at gmail.com>
Message-ID: <AANLkTilHxsBZJO7beAKSfUY-r6xfkZjcdl3y0jbOZ_be at mail.gmail.com>

On Thu, Jun 24, 2010 at 11:58 AM, James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> My understanding is that Mr. Million and his successors are exceedingly
>> narcisisstic, which is why they continue to clone themselves. Their
>> thinking is that the goal of planetary or even inter-planetary rule could,
>> of course, be accomplished by such a superior person if only they had more
>> than one lifetime to pursue the goal. Frustration is expressed over the
>> fact
>> that after several lifetimes they have not progressed beyond being an
>> aristocratic pimp on St. Croix. So the "us" is the sucession of clones and
>> the
>> "they" are the fellow humans who refuse to acknowledge and submit to his
>> superiority.
>>
>
> I think the only manipulator who actually counts is Mr. Million. All the
> other clones are his test subjects. Note that Auntie Jeanine died rather
> precipitously after she began acting as though she owned the house.
>
> U+16B9

Did she? I haven't read it recently, but she's described as digging up
the house for a while and searching for Maitre's hidden fortune, and
only when she finally dies does Mr. Million try (and fail) to run the
brothel. She had enough time to damage it quite a bit, which isn't
very consistent with Mr. Million offing her quickly, and given his own
predictable failure, he wouldn't want to off her.

-- 
gwern

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