--- Scott Schultz <scott at cjhunter.com> wrote: > > > I agree that the characteristics of each House are genetic, > > but nothing says that those characteristics come from the > > *animal* genes that are built in. Could issola possibly have > > genes for courtliness, jhegaala for shifting (as distinct > > from a fixed sequence of metamorphoses), or yendi for > > trickery? I prefer the theory that the animal genes are > > markers and the Jenoine gengineered the Orca to like the sea > > without using orca genes. (The orca don't have to be > > attracted to the sea--they're stuck > > there.) > > Actually, I'm pretty sure Aliera says as much but I have no text handy > to quote. The way I remember it, she says it was a theory. Booksearch suggests it's chapter 9 of _Jhereg_ but I can't find the exact line (and my copy is AFM, i.e., away from me). > At any rate, I don't quite see the point of modeling a behavior after an > animal, inserting an animal gene as a marker, and then implementing the > behavior using ordinary "human" genes. > > Why do you prefer the marker theory? Because the Dragaeran characteristics are *like* the animal characteristics but not the same. Thus issola have genes for elegant egret-like shape and plumage and for hunting by standing still and then striking quickly, but I don't see how you can use such genes in engineering a humanoid to have elegant and polite behavior that might lull one's adversary. There's simply no connection between long necks and consideration for others. The same goes for many other Houses. A more technical point is that you wouldn't expect one animal's gene to function the same way when spliced into another animal. For instance, I could believe that Dzur are aggressive for the same reason the dzur are--say, for the sake of simplicity, testosterone levels. But to use dzur genes to make aggressive Dragaerans, you'd need their gene for their version of testosterone, their genes and promoters that control the levels, their gene for the receptor, and all this functions in dzur the way it does because of their testosterone metabolism and their brain structure. Maybe you could bring in the genes that control all that and make humans more like dzur. But I imagine it would be far easier to just increase the production of testosterone in humans by making one change. And throw in a bit of dzur DNA for a marker if it pleased you. -- Jerry Friedman _______________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Win 1 of 4,000 free domain names from Yahoo! Enter now. http://promotions.yahoo.com/goldrush