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Emily Alexander-Harrington

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Emily Alexander-Harrington
Post by dvarnes   » Fri Jul 17, 2015 12:46 pm

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I understand that Emily did not regen like Honor did not, but I have always questioned why she did not take advantage of a full body prosthetic, its not like they could not afford it, and their tech base is very good Honors own arm was almost not detectable if you did not know it was not her own. So was it something medical or something moral that kept her from using the tech to live a more normal lifestyle
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Re: Emily Alexander-Harrington
Post by JeffEngel   » Fri Jul 17, 2015 12:58 pm

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dvarnes wrote:I understand that Emily did not regen like Honor did not, but I have always questioned why she did not take advantage of a full body prosthetic, its not like they could not afford it, and their tech base is very good Honors own arm was almost not detectable if you did not know it was not her own. So was it something medical or something moral that kept her from using the tech to live a more normal lifestyle

Honor outright lost her arm and suffered irreparable damage to her eye. Emily, by contrast, has abdominal organs that work with help, a pretty usable arm, somewhat damaged spinal cord, and a brain doing fine.

So, what do you do with Emily's torso for prosthetics? Are there prostheses that do all the liver, kidney, lung, and digestive functions? I don't think we can treat ourselves to that assumption, not based on heart, limb and eye prosthetics.

Could they replace the life support chair with a life support torso wrap, with prosthetics for two legs and the other arm? Or, for that matter, waldo supports along the outside of those limbs, so that the originals remain just fine inside? (Okay, no worse.) I think that's about the best we could suppose in reasonable confidence, but her life support system is tapped into her spinal cord and regulates her breathing, at least. Is it worth that kind of risky surgery to be standing instead of sitting and get another arm back in play?

I can't blame her if her answer there is "no".
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Re: Emily Alexander-Harrington
Post by Dauntless   » Fri Jul 17, 2015 1:18 pm

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I'd say Jeff pretty much covered it. a case of the better being more risky then the good enough.
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Re: Emily Alexander-Harrington
Post by dvarnes   » Fri Jul 17, 2015 1:54 pm

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that's not exactly true, I'm not sure of the exact book but I'm sure i read that when describing Honors substitute parts that some planets went with whole body replacements. sure it wasn't the norm but not unheard of.

The closest she'd ever been able to come to defining the difference even for herself was to think of what she saw through her left eye as a very, very good, three-dimensional flat screen presentation. Again, she'd often wondered whether or not replacing both eyes, so that she no longer had the "distraction" of her natural eye's input, would have ameliorated the problem in time. And, again, she had no intention of ever finding out.

But there were people who'd made the opposite choice. Indeed, in some of humanity's far-flung cultures, like Sharpton, where the cyborg was a sort of cultural icon, it was as routine for an individual to replace limbs and eyes with artificial improvements as it was for someone on Manticore to have her teeth cleaned and straightened. Or her ears pierced, for that matter. Personally, Honor couldn't imagine doing such a thing. In fact, the very thought made her uncomfortable -- probably because she'd spent so much of her life in space. After so many years in an artificial exterior environment, she felt no temptation whatsoever to turn her own body into an artificial interior environment, whatever advantages over mere flesh and blood it might have brought with it.
Last edited by dvarnes on Fri Jul 17, 2015 2:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Emily Alexander-Harrington
Post by Spitfire80   » Fri Jul 17, 2015 1:55 pm

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From what we gather from honor's inner thoughts, the tactile sensations from her artificial body parts, just aren't the same.

Having one real hand to touch her loved ones with, now including her spouses and their two children, might also be a factor. Remember, Honor wanted her weddingband around her live finger.

Granted she spent plenty of time, without babies to touch, so it might not be that. ;)
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Re: Emily Alexander-Harrington
Post by SharkHunter   » Fri Jul 17, 2015 2:50 pm

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It's also the difference between a high spinal injury and anything else. I have a good friend whose wife (from Polio) is essentially at Emily's level; just a few motion related nerve pathways in one extremity, a few more in the sensory bundles. Even with the newest tech, she's still limited by that fact.

When there's no effective neurotransmission path, there's no way to connect high CNS processing to any "Honorverse" cyber-tech like Honor's prosthetics. Even Honor's cybernetic eye relied on the fact that her optic nerve wasn't seriously compromised by the original injury or the Peep/SecState burning out the implant.

Emily's injury is high-spinal. Nearly impossible to survive, and heavily tech-reliant afterwards, like Christopher Reeve following his tumble from the horse.
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Re: Emily Alexander-Harrington
Post by JeffEngel   » Fri Jul 17, 2015 2:51 pm

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dvarnes wrote:that's not exactly true, I'm not sure of the exact book but I'm sure i read that when describing Honors substitute parts that some planets went with whole body replacements. sure it wasn't the norm but not unheard of.

But there were people who'd made the opposite choice. Indeed, in some of humanity's far-flung cultures, like Sharpton, where the cyborg was a sort of cultural icon, it was as routine for an individual to replace limbs and eyes with artificial improvements as it was for someone on Manticore to have her teeth cleaned and straightened. Or her ears pierced, for that matter.

Bolded for emphasis. As far as this goes, it's not evidence for the replacement of most vital organs too.
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Re: Emily Alexander-Harrington
Post by Somtaaw   » Fri Jul 17, 2015 3:59 pm

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for internals, it appears the Honorverse relies primarily upon regen, and those few who can't regen just have to deal with it.

McKeon got regen to replace the teeth he'd lost in Barnett, getting smashed in the face by the pulser butt. Sarnow's legs were regenned over months and he was savaged by the metal splinter above mid-thigh.

Susan Hibson and Bosun McBride also have taken absolutely devasting injuries, that without regen would have put them damn near Emily's state.

Beowulf, and to a lesser point Manticore have been trying to find a way, but when it's something that only affects, I think less than 10% of humanity, with its near trillions of people? It's a low priority research to anyone except someone who has direct experience with it.
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Re: Emily Alexander-Harrington
Post by aairfccha   » Fri Jul 17, 2015 5:04 pm

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Somtaaw wrote:Beowulf, and to a lesser point Manticore have been trying to find a way
Their skin replacement technology should have given them that ability, at least for most people and probably outside the central nervous system: The inability to regenerate is genetically determined, so a local genetic modification to the patient should do the trick unless you mess with antigens and tissue rejection becomes a problem.

For that matter, might the Mesan Star Lines have a sort of permanent regen factor built in? IIRC we know they have a considerably increased lifespan even without prolong on top.
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Re: Emily Alexander-Harrington
Post by Imaginos1892   » Fri Jul 17, 2015 8:19 pm

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How about telepresence? Link as many of her sensory and motor nerves as possible to a transceiver and build a complete robot body. She stays in the chair, but gets at least some of the sensation of walking around on her own. One of Anne McCaffrey's Brain-ships did that.
Somtaaw wrote:Beowulf, and to a lesser point Manticore have been trying to find a way, but when it's something that only affects, I think less than 10% of humanity, with its near trillions of people? It's a low priority research to anyone except someone who has direct experience with it.

That would constitute a market with 70 times the current population of Earth. I can't believe SOMEbody wouldn't be interested.
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