The green man is fake

Jeff Wilson · 17 Jan 2011, 00:53 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at io.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2011 18:53:56 -0600
Subject: (urth) The green man is fake
In-Reply-To: <4D3376B6.6030102 at gmail.com>
References: <SNT123-W61147465C4658444B748E8CFF50 at phx.gbl>	<COL105-W9BD6881AEB611BCA66D0185F50 at phx.gbl>
	<4D3376B6.6030102 at gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4D339324.5020000 at io.com>

On 1/16/2011 4:52 PM, Ant?nio Pedro Marques wrote:
> Pedro Pereira wrote:
>> Jesus guys/gals, this is a fantasy work, not "hard-scifi". IMHO you
>> people are reading way to much into Wolfe when it comes to the actual
>> science portrayed in the books. But that's just me.
>
> For the reasons that have been recently adduced, I think the books'
> portrayals of science are to be taken very seriously. In fact, I'd say
> that's one of the important things there - where other authors may
> fashion talking turnips out of thin air if they need them, GW only does
> it when he's got a very good rationale for them. A talking turnip in a
> GW book isn't a deus ex machina, it's an invitation to find its backstory.
>
> There are a number of ways a green man can be engineered, even only
> looking at the naturally-evolved biological processes we have already
> uncovered around us. And we don't even know the specifics of this green
> man. How long is he supposed to last, for instance. Heck, there *are*
> animals without a gut. Some aren't parasites and don't feed, they just
> use up their energy and die. According to the Laws of 'Hard' (chuckle)
> SF, some author putting such animals in a story should edumacate hissel.
>
> (The green man can even feed partially parasitically. Who checked the
> grass he's lain on? There is just no end to the possibilities.)

Sev remarks on his nice, white teeth, so he is at least partially 
equipped to prey on animals and fruit.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana
< http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >

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