(urth) (no subject)

[Lee Berman]

>nate jarvis: I've been wondering if the inhumi's secret isn't that, if once given
>consent to drink from a human, they then require consent to drink from
>a human. It's the only thing I've thought of thus far that seems to
>offer a practical threat to the inhumi if revealed 

In the Nick Gevers interview, Wolfe is asked, in complex fashion, about the secret of the Inhumi. 
Here is Wolfe's answer:

>If human beings did not prey on one another, the inhumi could not prey on us. That's all. It isn't 
>complicated, and I thought that everyone would get it. Maybe the thought of human beings not preying 
>on their own kind is just too foreign. 

Wolfe's answer does not (to me) address nate's concern. Horn is clear that the secret of the Inhumi 
must be something which, if revealed, would threaten their entire race. I'm not sure if Wolfe is being
deliberately unclear or whether he had forgotten this aspect of it with this answer.

My own answer tries (weakly) to springboard from Wolfe's answer. Those humans who prey on other humans
generally rely on stealth and deception. Especially if we buy into Daniel Petersen's ideas regarding
Wolfe's libertarianism, humans who prey upon other humans are to be considered parasites. One way of
being a parasite is to be a stowaway.

Apologies for rehashing a previous discussion but I think that's the inhumi secret which, if revealed,
would threaten their species. A parasitic species needs to be able to travel. Stuck in one place, they
would quickly deplete their hosts and be left without food. The secret is that inhumi cannot, as they
claim, fly through space. Given Wolfe's awareness of scientific detail, I don't think the impossibility
of unassisted biological space travel is something that escapes his attention.

So, the inhumi are, by nature, a species which specializes in imitating a host and getting rides to other
 planets on their spacecraft. We see this practice in two of the best known inhumi, Quetzal and Krait.  If 
this secret was revealed, the awareness and precautions would end up restricting the Inhumi to Green and 
end their species existence or at least their ability to expand outward.