Genetic resistance to prolong

Greetings and sorry if this question has been asked before.

There are people in the Honorverse, such as Honor herself, for whom regeneration therapy simply doesn't work, apparently for genetic reasons.

Are there people for whom prolong doesn't work? I've not seen any suggestions in the books that this is the case.

Peregrinator wrote:Are there people for whom prolong doesn't work? I've not seen any suggestions in the books that this is the case.

And that's all we know about this issue

The E wrote:And that's all we know about this issue

I did not know whether I had perhaps missed something or whether it's an issue that had been addressed in an infodump somewhere.

If DW wants to hold this particular card to his chest, fine by me.

http://infodump.thefifthimperium.com/en ... ngton/25/1

So there is some variability in prolong effectiveness, based on which generation of treatment. But it sounds like they worked out all the bugs for 3rd generation prolong.

Duckk wrote:http://infodump.thefifthimperium.com/entry/Harrington/25/1

So there is some variability in prolong effectiveness, based on which generation of treatment. But it sounds like they worked out all the bugs for 3rd generation prolong.

Thanks for the link, which I had actually just read (and just as quickly forgotten). My guess is that, currently, only Mesa is doing any substantial genetic modification, and if they produced a line for which prolong therapy did not work, that line would be culled.

On the other hand, there are probably a few backwater planets whose genes might have been engineered for certain conditions and who were never exposed to prolong.

Forgive me if I missed this somewhere, but are specific ramifications given regarding exceeding the age to receive prolong? In that case, does it just not offer any benefit at all?

It seems that the treatment can know a person's age somehow. Yet, people age differently. I think twenty-five was the cutoff age, but it seems that 25ish would be more probable. Seems such a shame that some of the poorer systems Manticore will be assisting will miss out on prolong by mere years. Seems there should be a test to test for prolong viability and that some people might be treatable near 30-yrs-old.

Is this in some of my missing homework reading assignments as well in this great a detail?

cthia wrote:Forgive me if I missed this somewhere, but are specific ramifications given regarding exceeding the age to receive prolong? In that case, does it just not offer any benefit at all?

It seems that the treatment can know a person's age somehow. Yet, people age differently. I think twenty-five was the cutoff age, but it seems that 25ish would be more probable. Seems such a shame that some of the poorer systems Manticore will be assisting will miss out on prolong by mere years. Seems there should be a test to test for prolong viability and that some people might be treatable near 30-yrs-old.

Is this in some of my missing homework reading assignments as well in this great a detail?

Can't remember any specific additional detail. You're likely correct that the exact age probably varies a little from person to person, but I'd be surprised if David allowed it to vary by the +/-20% it would take to still be effective at 30 if the average cutoff of 25.

About all we get is the stated max effective age for the different generations of treatment. But if you're too old for even the original 1st gen drugs/treatment then it seems there's no "partial" prolong for you -- just whatever normal life expediency improvements you might get through access to medicine a couple thousand years more advanced.

We saw thing on Grayson, where more than one named character was just a couple years too old. And there was concern that the kids from Parmley Station needed to get the treatment soon as some were on the cusp of aging out. Both of those argue against too much flexibility. And Grayson in particular was a great shame; and one destined to be repeated across the Talbott Cluster and beyond.



I do wonder how much effort has been put into attempting to increase the maximum age you can begin prolong treatments. I suspect fairly little, since the people who can afford it would presumably be more interested in targeting additional improvements in longevity - rather than wider availability to systems that already can't afford to give the current treatments to those citizens within the applicable age band.

Peregrinator wrote:
Thanks for the link, which I had actually just read (and just as quickly forgotten). My guess is that, currently, only Mesa is doing any substantial genetic modification, and if they produced a line for which prolong therapy did not work, that line would be culled.

On the other hand, there are probably a few backwater planets whose genes might have been engineered for certain conditions and who were never exposed to prolong.

Only in their aApha through Gamma lines. I doubt they would really care if they developed slave lines resistant to prolong since they are already genetically engineered to destruct before the 3 score and 10 years given in the bible. Something IIRC about designing them for three score and not daring to presume upon the design of God. Which is pretty hypocritical for a society based on genetic modification of God's design.

WeirdlyWired wrote:

Peregrinator wrote:
Thanks for the link, which I had actually just read (and just as quickly forgotten). My guess is that, currently, only Mesa is doing any substantial genetic modification, and if they produced a line for which prolong therapy did not work, that line would be culled.

On the other hand, there are probably a few backwater planets whose genes might have been engineered for certain conditions and who were never exposed to prolong.

Only in their aApha through Gamma lines. I doubt they would really care if they developed slave lines resistant to prolong since they are already genetically engineered to destruct before the 3 score and 10 years given in the bible. Something IIRC about designing them for three score and not daring to presume upon the design of God. Which is pretty hypocritical for a society based on genetic modification of God's design.

I believe that comment was a sarcastic aside, as opposed to a statement of Mesa's intent. I certainly took it that way.

fallsfromtrees wrote:I believe that comment was a sarcastic aside, as opposed to a statement of Mesa's intent. I certainly took it that way.

I suppose with respect to the slave lines it could depend on what the customer wanted. (And in any case, would it be Mesa or Manpower that administers the prolong treatment, or the customer? I tend to think the latter.)

That said, if one views the slave lines as a test bed for genetic improvements to be applied to the alpha/beta/gamma lines, it's unlikely that Mesa would deliberately introduce any genes that caused the subject to be resistant to prolong. Though they might try this or that modification that had the ultimate effect of doing so.