Re: David Gerrold - War with the Cthorr

On Mon, 05 May 2008 06:34:51 GMT, throopw@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (Wayne Throop) wrote:

>:: Arguably, yes, a remote chance.  The remoteness of the chance having
>:: essentially nothing to do with how well humans are controlling them. 
>
>: John Schilling <schillin@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>: I would argue that it has *everything* to do with how well humans are
>: controlling them.  We know perfectly well how to control, or even wipe
>: out, e.g.  AIDS.  We've had the technology and the understanding to do
>: so for at least a century. 
>: We just aren't *willing* to do so.  And rightly so, IMO - better to
>: live with the AIDS epidemic, than to live with what we'd have to do to
>: eliminate it right now. 
>
>Hrm.  I don't think we have the understanding and technology to
>totally wipe out hundereds of new diseases appearing suddenly, along
>with total ecological collapse.  In the case of AIDS, you just find
>those people who have the disease, and those who don't, and segregate
them.
>(Or at least, that's what I assume you mean by having the tech to do
>it for a century, or some variant thereof).
>
>The analogous draconian measure would be to segregate terran and
>cthorran ecologies.  Very simple, very easy.  Ie, evacuate to space.
>Which is indeed the direction things were going in the series.

The "Dr. Strangelove" solution would be easier, actually, and I don't
think you'd have to go even that far.  Mineshafts aren't as *fun* as
space****ps, so I'm not surprised SF authors usually prefer the latter
solution.

Hmm, wait a minute.  Strangelove had a solution for the "mineshafts
are no fun at all!" problem, didn't he...


>However, controlling the cthorran ecology while intermixed with the
terran
>ecology, with the large scale equivalent of radiation treatment followed
>by chemotherapy, is analogous to actually curing aids.

Controlling the Chtorran ecology is not the goal; exterminating it is.
And refusing to exterminate a chunk of Chtorran ecology, no, not just
refusing to exterminating it but actually ceding it to uncontrolled
Chtorrans, to serve as a reservoir for future infestation, just because
there's still bits of terran ecology in there we can't rescue, is silly. A
sea of glass serves human interests better than an uncontrolled
Chtorran ecology.

More like curing cancer by amputation.  With the advantage that ecologies
are much more divisible than bodies; there's basically nothing you can't
amputate if you really need to.


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