(urth) The green man is fake

[António Pedro Marques]

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.)