Poul Anderson's Technic History concludes by recognizing our current predicament:
"According to historical records, Earth herself rain into the problem, and not terribly long after the industrial era began.'" (p. 790)
- the problem of overheating. Technic civilization moved industry into space.
After completing a chromosome analysis, Jaccavrie informs Laure that the Kirkasanters are not human. (This explains her discouragement of Laure's interest in Graydal, the captain's beautiful daughter.)
The Kirkasanters:
have lost night vision;
can ingest arsenic and other heavy metals unharmed;
in fact, metabolically require arsenic;
have a high radiation tolerance;
in fact, can repair radiation damage rapidly and flawlessly;
are no longer interfertile with other human beings;
are instinctually compelled to have children.
Laure and Graydal cannot marry.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
At least Daven and Graydal won't be able to marry without first agreeing to difficult compromises.
Ad astra! Sean
There would probably be a genetic-technology fix for the lack of reproductive compatibility -- the Kirkasanters are a -closely related- species, after all.
I have my doubts about their differences. Would a small initial population have been able to adapt to an environment that hostile without going extinct first?
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Assuming a sufficiently advanced medical science, your first point makes sense.
Your second comment requires a more complex response. I agree, with a planet as harsh as Kirkasant, with only a very small number of humans settling there, it's more likely than not that the colony would have died out. We should think of Anderson speculating on what might result if the colony MANAGED, however narrowly, to survive.
Ad astra! Sean
Laure reflects that their survival is a miracle.
Kaor, Paul!
I agree. Plus, Anderson has more than once made comparisons with the Norse colony in Greenland. A remote, isolated settlement in an already austere environment where conditions worsened. In addition to being cut off from Europe. The Greenland Norse seems to have died out by 1400.
Ad astra! Sean
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