Like a good Neighbor

Lee Berman · 23 Nov 2011, 20:56 · from 2011-November.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:56:41 -0500
Subject: (urth) Like a good Neighbor
Message-ID: <SNT123-W29A411F9307C3E5B65C09CFC90 at phx.gbl>

>How could inhumi survive in the void with all the water in their bodies frozen and all
>their cells burst? (hasn't this been discussed before?)

>Insects and plants have all sort of tricks to fight the cold, including 
>antifreezes and allowing themselves to be covered with ice. Since we 
>know they can't fly through the void (no air) they may simply launch 
>themselves and drift until they fall.

Nah. Those tricks are for fighting cold temperatures on earth. None would work
in outer space. The best ethylene glycol (car antifreeze) could do would be
to stay liquid at -51C (at highly toxic levels, mind you). The void is -273 C.

I think the only chance a living thing might have of surviving extended void
exposure might be the spore stage of bacteria (and even there, the chances are 
slim). But that's the thing. A spore can only be produced by a single cell 
organism. Multicelled creatures require an internal liquid medium.

I guess, since this is SF, you could postulate that the inhumi completely
dehydrate themselves and their dry, mummified husks drift through space and
manage to re-enter and rehydrate on Blue.

But why would you want to? I don't get this. I swear this is Wolfe's commentary
on politics and demogoguery. People will swallow ten tons of crap from a politician
just to avoid admitting the simple truth that they are lying. Don't drink the
inhumi kool-aid!  They travel through space the way we are shown they travel- 
using deception to become an unwanted hitchhiker. Better check the cargo hold
of that lander for stray lianas too ;- ).

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