Typhon's nature

David Stockhoff · 14 Oct 2011, 14:14 · from 2011-October.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2011 10:14:29 -0400
Subject: (urth) Typhon's nature
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On 10/14/2011 1:22 AM, Jerry Friedman wrote:

Okay, I've got some time. In the real world, I'd say a surgical implant 
was the obvious possibility.  How can producing different proteins make 
a brain capable of taking over other brains?  In sf, that doesn't apply.

In Chapter 6 of RttW, Silkhorn tells Hound the embryos were "the 
products of carefully controlled matings in his workshops".  I suppose 
there could have been no more intervention than that.  On the other 
hand, Crane tells Silk that Mucor's brain was not recognizably human 
(LotLS, Chapter 11).  That sounds like a lot to get out of selective 
breeding, and makes me suspect that Typhon's scientists did something 
more in the labs.  Genetic engineering, implants, surgery, and changing 
the environment in the uterine replicators (as we call them here in the 
wormhole nexus) all seem like possibilities and are compatible with each 
other.

One speculation: There's an sf cliche that we'd all have superpowers, 
but we inhibit them.  (The mandragora tells Severian that Sev's 
continued psychic shrieking from being abandoned as an infant inhibits 
his telepathy, which is along the same lines but not the same.)  Maybe 
someone did a little surgery on Mucor's embryo to disable the part of 
the brain that would have inhibited her powers. Anyway, I don't see that 
it matters to the story.

I think it matters in terms of figuring out what's possible in the rest 
of the story.

Positing that Typhon's labs could insert nanorobots into embryos doesn't 
tell us what to do with the "carefully controlled matings" remark. 
Positing microsurgical techniques fails to explain why we don't see more 
evidence of microsurgery. Positing that Mucor is radio-controlled 
through her fillings only pushes the explanation farther away.

There is also the fundamental technical problem that embryos don't have 
brains. You can't operate on a brain that has not yet come into being, 
nor will an implant do anything for quite some time. In fact, if the 
brain does not develop as desired, the implant will prove to be a huge 
waste. Implants fail, surgeries fail. Since we are dealing with embryos 
on the Long Sun side (and large numbers of them), that pretty much 
settles it.

But genetic manipulation is supported, does not need teams of scientists 
performing thousands of surgeries (since the damn things grow by 
themselves once you start them off---they don't need revisions or 
follow-up visits), and directly connects to ever-present concerns about 
paternity, heredity, and identity.

I'd go so far as to assume that all technology in Briah is genetic, or 
at least somatic (who knows about astral travel, but we know there is no 
"astral travel suit"), unless demonstrably otherwise.

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