(urth) "been teaching literature for over 35 years"

[Gerry Quinn]

From: Jeff Wilson

> The black beans may have been seeds or kernels, quantum black holes
> humanly transportable and meant to grow later into larger ones. Some or
> most may have failed or merged, as it is later said that a singular worm
> gnaws at the heart of the sun. But that may be a bit if a gag on Wolfe's
> part, making them Mexican jumping beans!

I interpret them as seeds of what later became the undersea lords - Erebus, 
Abaia et al.

(My pet hypothesis, admittedly coming from SF of a later era, is that they 
are nanotech-based seeds of near-Singularity level AIs.)

- Gerry Quinn