(urth) First Exodus theory revised

[Gerry Quinn]

From: "António Pedro Marques" <entonio at gmail.com>
> Gerry Quinn wrote:
>>
>>     *From:* Ashley Crill <mailto:ash_crill at hotmail.com>
>>
>>     Were any embryos engineered to have a superior military intellect
>>     that were destined to conquer, Typhon-style?
>>
>> I have said in the past that I think Silkhorn's military accomplishments
>> in Gaon and Blanco were similar to those of Typhon as described by
>> Rigoglio. Like Typhon, he sided with the underdog in conflicts, and won.
>> But I don't think this is necessarily anything to do with genetics. Silk
>> has merged with Pas in Mainframe, and Horn downloads the merged entity
>> into himself (i.e. Silk's old body). So Typhon - as Pas - is present in
>> the resulting, somewhat confused, personage.
>
> I think people grossly overestimate Typhon's powers and urthly technology. 
> I don't find a single example, in all the books, of a power to engineer 
> minds. There's lots of technology around, from a photosynthesizing man to 
> sentient robots, but even the latter seem to have personalities not 
> designed by anyone. I see Typhon being able to produce beings of terrific 
> physical and intellectual abilities, but not to decide their ways of 
> thinking.

There may not be a technology to engineer minds and personalities as such... 
but there is certainly a technology to engineer certain mental abilities. 
Mucor is proof of this.  Her brain does not even resemble a normal human 
brain.

As for Silk, we are told he is a special snowflake, but it's not exactly 
clear where his powers lie. There seems to be general agreement that it is 
something to do with leadership, which makes sense in terms of Tussah 
wanting such an embryo.  Of course, leadership was a characteristic of 
Typhon too, which makes it harder to answer questions about whether Silk is 
genetically related to Typhon.  Really though, it's more the absence of 
something that might show a distinction between Silk and Typhon, rather than 
any sort of positive evidence either way.

- Gerry Quinn