(urth) FW: May 2014 Wolfe interview in _Technology Review_

[Gerry Quinn]

On 10/08/2014 19:46, Lee wrote:
>> Gerry Quinn: In fact the scenario of two independent abo races..
>
> As I have explained several times, this is not my view.
>
> My view is that there is one shapeshifting, imitative race from Ste. Anne. Since Ste.
> Anne is a rather desolate planet, this species started as a somewhat shapeless,
> formless being(s), likely without a sense of being divided into individual organisms
> and bodies.
I meant the Shadow Children and the Hillmen/Marschmen, which would - 
whatever their origin - appear to nowadays have the characteristics of 
different races if not different species.  If there is an imitative 
species such that the individuals appear to always imitate their parents 
(Sandwalker was born apparently in the form of a human baby - his breech 
delivery is described) and retain similar characteristics throughout 
life, but allowing for some originality in the process - that species 
would appear to have acquired the ability to further speciate.

It matters not: the Old Wise One spoke of "two peoples" and we can 
substitute the word "people" for "race" or "species" if you prefer.

>
>
> When a human ship crashed onto the planet, the first attempt at imitating them wasn't
> especially good, hence "Shadow Children" an apt name given that they are derived from
> shadowy being(s). The very process of being individuals has not been accurately copied
> and thus Shadow Children do still blend and meld into one another.
>
> Part of their disguise is that they have forgotten that they were previously
> shadowy formless beings, though the Old Wise One briefly remembers it. They tell a false story about being degenerate humans to enhance the disguise.
They also understand space travel and general relativity, remember 
places on Earth, and can point out Sol, their "old home" in the night sky.

And the drug-plant they talk about - a pre-determined cover story? Do 
all Shadow Children chew it, just in case a curious 'Shadowfriend' is 
unconvinced by the basic storyline?  Sandwalker was suckered for sure - 
if Wolfe wanted to indicate that this was a lie shouldn't he have 
dropped a hint?

But this is beside the point.  Your "scenario 1" here is reasonably 
coherent, but - contrary to what you posted earlier - it is not given in 
the text at all, in contrast to the detailed "scenario 2" in which the 
stories of the Old Wise One are essentially correct. He never referred 
to three peoples, always two.

>
> The third attempt at imitating humans by this same species are the humans who populate
> the towns and cities of Ste. Anne and Ste. Croix. This attempt is good enough to fool
> most other Earth-origin humans but some cracks in the façade still appear here and there.
>
> As would be expected, the more primitive Abo are found only on Ste. Anne and the even
> more primitive Shadow Children (if any still exist) are only found in the deeply rural
> and "backwoods" areas of Ste. Anne, or (if none still exist) only in stories.
And nobody noticed this takeover of two separate planets?  I could 
imagine Peter F. Hamilton, say, writing a lively story of an 
interplanetary war between humans in which it is discovered that one 
group is being taken over by imitative alien parasites who wish to 
spread to the other.  It is hard for me to imagine that Wolfe would 
present such a thing simply as a fait accompli.  I mean, he could at 
least have put a war story in which a captured soldier was the image of 
somebody known to be dead, or something.

VRT explicitly rejects this concept in the passage ending "I am Liev and 
I have left."

Of course there may well be abos even on Sainte Croix - I believe there 
is a hint of this in No. 5's comment about a "planetary face" which is 
not found among the "gypsies and criminal tribes". (There's no direct 
suggestion that Marsch looks like them, though.)

> Wolfe describes an engineering principle in the text in which "relaxation" technique can be used to solve a seemingly unsolvable problem. One makes a real-world model approximation, does measurements and then uses a second and third attempt and further adjustments to more closely approximate the result you are trying to achieve. Eventually, you can create a prototype which works well enough for your purposes (though perfection is impossible).
>
> This principle comes up in a conversation between Dr. Marsch and Number Five and is
> rightfully ignored by Number Five since he (and his predecessors) are not using
> relaxation.  They are copying themselves without appreciable adjustment or change each
> generation although he argues with Marsch over this issue.
>
> It is the native, imitative species who has engaged in relaxation and Dr. Marsch, now being almost undetectable as a native, is a wonderful example of it.
I believe you misunderstand the reference.  The series of clones create 
their own environment, and consequently stabilise into a solution that 
does not change with time - No. 5 is essentially identical to his 
father.  Formally one would say the series converges to a fixed point. 
(Wolfe was writing before the popularisation of chaos theory.)

Who is doing the measuring?

Also, according to your theory, Marsch is surely a very poor example!  
He would be a second-generation type incapable of properly holding a 
pen, not one of the hypothethical third-generation super-abos who live 
indetectibly as members of a space-age human civilisation.


> This is my view of the story. If others have a different view, that is perfectly fine andI make no claim of superiority for mine, nor a claim that anyone else ought to adopt my view. 		 	   		
>

I point out only that another view can be put forward in which much less 
of what we are told needs to be discarded as misinformation.

- Gerry Quinn