(IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by TGLS

"I dunno. You said she studied up on it which made it sound kind of unusual..."

Seven: "She's an expert in human biology. Its her job"

"Does that not happen anymore?"

"Every so often, I think."

"How long before the war?"

"10 years, maybe 20?"

I recall something Orgel said. "Doesn't the Concordance isolate most communities that do cloning, with Panagos being an exception? If they hated cloning that much surely they wouldn't be engaging with Panagos."

"Most worlds doing mass cloning are using it to run indoctrination and slavery programs. The Concordance dealt with us initially because they couldn't justify their hostility to us to everyone else until they'd built up their presence."

That's surprising! "I... I didn't realize that is what is being offered here."

"Its not. No offense, but I wouldn't look for family here. I could help you look for someone or something, but Royal is the boss, not the Mom."

"I dunno, that feels like a," I scratch my head, "perfect solution fallacy. Just because there's some problems doesn't mean it's not a solution worth exploring. Do other worlds have to deal with mad cloners occasionally?"

"Yes, it happens periodically. I was referencing a true story."

"Would it really backslide that fast? Sure, it may have been needed before, but is it needed now? And is the population just going to keep growing like crazy forever? Won't you run out of room?"

"The Plan for Panogos was always to scale back eventually. It probably would have still been a fuss without the concordance. With the concordance around, stoking the flames and making wild accusations, its become difficult to even talk reason. The shutting down of the cloning centers that started the war made sense. The Concordance just made it too hard to tell if the people advocating it were lying when they talked about scaling back, as opposed to eliminating"

"Because they're the only people with FTL, right? Does that really make them tyrants? Maybe they're just strongly opinionated. Like if Panagos had FTL land in their laps instead of the concordance, would they not be pushing their opinions about cloning on everyone else?"

"My parents once tried working with the concordance, trading between worlds. When the concordance decided to push the cloning issue, my parents spoke up in protest. The Concordance took everything thing they had, and left them in deep in debt. Ruined them."


"They hoard the knowledge of FTL, because they're scared of what will happen if they loose control of it. Everyone makes decisions in the concordance is from Kuru. They control it all, and they're trying to warp all of humanity to look like them. But we will stop them."

"Hm. Could I look up those news stories?"

"Sure".

The words "the people" fill me with the same kind of dread that I felt when I thought Riask for "big people" meant owners.

"Well it's not just mine, and it's not just theirs either. It's shared, but it's not also the man down the street's."

"Its information. Owning information is strange."

"OK, well sure, use it to figure out who's using your computer. You could also use fingerprints or a camera. But don't just take it for crass material gain."

"Would you object if I made a sculpture out of all the hair and dust guests left in my house?"

"Well, if you treat all beliefs as malleable. But given that there's a war on Panagos, I don't think that beliefs can really be changed just because it's convenient either."

"That's a good point. I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. Some Beliefs are Malleable, but it takes a lot of effort. And unless the belief is strange in the first place, you still need to back up the belief with good reasons."

And if all goes to plan, Julian will see Monday the 17th by next July. Not that I'm complaining.

Julian likes his philosophical explorations of new societies. Some of the characters reciprocate better than others. Seven has a personality that makes him especially susceptible to that.



AFTER CONVERSATION:
Conversation with Clone
Reading "official material
News stories about cloned people