note Re: Short Sun blog

Lee Berman · 28 Sep 2010, 16:27 · from 2010-September.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2010 12:27:52 -0400
Subject: (urth) note Re: Short Sun blog
Message-ID: <SNT123-W3355C21CC0FF54922251D3CF660 at phx.gbl>

>Jeff Wilson: Hello?! The Conciliator?!? Wields the Increate-given power to selectively 
>turn back the clock? Jader's sister's illness doesn't subside and heal, it's just suddenly 
>gone and she looks as healthy as if she had never been ill. Other healing and resurrections 
>are less complete, but in their limited extent they remain nigh-instantaneous.

I'm not sure of your point, Jeff. Is it that Wolfe's work contains powers and processes which
are "Increate-given" making them, by definition, beyond science, math or any other possible 
system of human understanding?

Or do you mean that if time is reversed or skipped over, then that becomes a function of 
physics and not biology?

I think the first may be an individualized issue, partly dependent on one's own view of God
and the supernatural. I would agree with the second.

I think I'll disagree with your premise that speeding up biological processes up the point of 
appearing instantaneous transforms them out of the realm of biology. There are many examples
in the animal kingdom of behavior so rapid and instantaneous it seems magical until slowed by
photography (bombadier beetles, bumble bee wings and cuttlefish color patterns come to mind).

By analogy, what modern computers can do might seem magical to most people from the 40's even
if they had heard of computers. But I suspect the creators of ENIAC, while impressed by the 
speed of our computers, would still recognize them as electronic in nature.

[I think cuttlefish pattern changes are amazing. This video shows an instantaneous switch from 
the strobing used to confuse prey to the camouflage used to hide from predators]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF-jHp-5XfU

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