Spoiler for "What Price Victory"

tlb wrote:

cthia wrote:But the truth of the matter is that Allison will not be tackling mankind's biggest problems. There is no doubt that Allison is one of the galaxy's best geneticists, and for that reason alone I am not surprised in the very least that she solved Grayson's problem and that she was able to assure Emily a child that would regenerate. But at the risk of sharpened pitchforks again, I always felt those accomplishments should have been child's play for any good geneticist; which didn't need the big guns represented by Allison.

tlb wrote:The text specifically said that the problem of regeneration in the bulk of Mayerdahl-B genies had NOT been solved by Beowulf.

cthia wrote:See? They needed her.

You are trying to have it both ways. You probably were correct the first time and it could have been solved by any good geneticist. Which means that Beowulf is not looking at any list of mankind's greatest problems. The way it works at a big research establishment, is that the most important problems are the ones with the biggest funding; because big establishments require big bucks to keep to them running. You only need to look at the list of orphan and rare diseases to see what is being ignored today.

Problems like failure to regenerate among most Meyerdahl-B genies or sexual disparity among Grayson births don't get the funding, so do not get the attention.

The regen problem is limited to a small minority of humans, thus isn't exactly among mankind's biggest problems.

There is no reason Allison could not have also made it a pet project of hers while on Beowulf.

And you do realize the problem has not been solved, but simply sidestepped.

tlb wrote:You only need to look at the list of orphan and rare diseases to see what is being ignored today.

Problems like failure to regenerate among most Meyerdahl-B genies or sexual disparity among Grayson births don't get the funding, so do not get the attention.

cthia wrote:The regen problem is limited to a small minority of humans, thus isn't exactly among mankind's biggest problems.

There is no reason Allison could not have also made it a pet project of hers while on Beowulf.

And you do realize the problem has not been solved, but simply sidestepped.

You do not know whether the affected population is of significant size or not; now that prolong is wide spread, I see no reason to say it does not count as a big problem.

It has been solved in the same sense that Grayson's birth problem has been solved: now that the responsible gene is identified, nanites can eliminate gametes with the defect until a more permanent cure is developed.

PS: If you demand that only problems that affect large numbers of people over multiple planets can be put on the list, then it is not clear that there is even a top 5 set of problems that only a geneticist can fix in the Honorverse (note that cancer was cured a long time ago). The two, where Allison has identified the cause, are among the few that we know.

tlb wrote:

tlb wrote:You only need to look at the list of orphan and rare diseases to see what is being ignored today.

Problems like failure to regenerate among most Meyerdahl-B genies or sexual disparity among Grayson births don't get the funding, so do not get the attention.

cthia wrote:The regen problem is limited to a small minority of humans, thus isn't exactly among mankind's biggest problems.

There is no reason Allison could not have also made it a pet project of hers while on Beowulf.

And you do realize the problem has not been solved, but simply sidestepped.

You do not know whether the affected population is of significant size or not; now that prolong is wide spread, I see no reason to say it does not count as a big problem.

It has been solved in the same sense that Grayson's birth problem has been solved: now that the responsible gene is identified, nanites can eliminate gametes with the defect until a more permanent cure is developed.

PS: If you demand that only problems that affect large numbers of people over multiple planets can be put on the list, then it is not clear that there is even a top 5 set of problems that only a geneticist can fix in the Honorverse (note that cancer was cured a long time ago). The two, where Allison has identified the cause, are among the few that we know.

Only a small percentage of Meyerdahl B mods are affected. That makes it a small subset of a small subset.

Prolong does not affect the fact that the problem is in the minority population of mankind as a whole. As the number of affected people grow, so does the much larger population of mankind.

Again, the problem has not been solved, it has been sidestepped. And who is to say the BME hasn't been sidestepping the problem as well. Text says that the BME did not solve the problem. It did not say the BME was not sidestepping it as well. Which would mean the affected population has been declining.

cthia wrote:Only a small percentage of Meyerdahl B mods are affected. That makes it a small subset of a small subset.

Prolong does not affect the fact that the problem is in the minority population of mankind as a whole. As the number of affected people grow, so does the much larger population of mankind.

Over 80% of people with the Meyerdahl-B mod CANNOT regenerate; that means you do not have your facts straight.

This is going nowhere, particularly when it involves assuming things that are not in the books. You can (and will) believe whatever you want and I most certainly will believe that you are wrong. So this is where we are and will be; nothing more need be said.

tlb wrote:

cthia wrote:Only a small percentage of Meyerdahl B mods are affected. That makes it a small subset of a small subset.

Prolong does not affect the fact that the problem is in the minority population of mankind as a whole. As the number of affected people grow, so does the much larger population of mankind.

Over 80% of people with the Meyerdahl-B mod CANNOT regenerate; that means you do not have your facts straight.

This is going nowhere, particularly when it involves assuming things that are not in the books. You can (and will) believe whatever you want and I most certainly will believe that you are wrong. So this is where we are and will be; nothing more need be said.

Oops! I misread the 80% of Meyerdahl Bs.

But point still stands. Meyerdahl B is a small percent of the human population.

tlb wrote:Over 80% of people with the Meyerdahl-B mod CANNOT regenerate; that means you do not have your facts straight.

This is going nowhere, particularly when it involves assuming things that are not in the books. You can (and will) believe whatever you want and I most certainly will believe that you are wrong. So this is where we are and will be; nothing more need be said.

cthia wrote:Oops! I misread the 80% of Meyerdahl Bs.

But point still stands. Meyerdahl B is a small percent of the human population.

Name a genetics problem in the Honorverse that affects a larger percentage of individuals and prove it by textual evidence.

tlb wrote:Name a genetics problem in the Honorverse that affects a larger percentage of individuals and prove it by textual evidence.

The only large genetics problem, affecting a significant chunk of individuals, seem to be the genetic slaves and their list of various problems due to various Mesan slavers simply not giving a shit at best.


According to the text a lot of the galaxy still has at least some negative views about genies which include genetically modified slaves, as holdovers from Earth's Final Conflict even if it has muted over the centuries. If a problem ONLY seems to affect a, relatively, small group of genies, then it's going to be treated less than something that affects everybody regardless of 'blood purity'.


Case in point... Look how long we've, more or less, ignored HIV/AIDs due to the original belief (from rumours I think?) it only infected gay people. It wasn't infecting a lot of people at the time we originally found it, and since it was believed to only infect homosexuals, which at the time weren't thought well of, it kept all the 'straights' from really caring or demanding action on it.


Further question, why did we react so hard to COVID? We developed not one but multiple different types of vaccines in less than 2 years, plus take lots of other actions. Because it was infecting a significant chunk of the planet, with no barriers coming from race, gender, or sexual orientation.

Conversely we did almost nothing about the 2003 outbreak of SARS, despite how both SARS and COVID shares many traits with one another. But SARS only had a relatively small outbreak, around 8000 or so with only about 780 deaths, so overall the public just didn't really care.

tlb wrote:Name a genetics problem in the Honorverse that affects a larger percentage of individuals and prove it by textual evidence.

Somtaaw wrote:The only large genetics problem, affecting a significant chunk of individuals, seem to be the genetic slaves and their list of various problems due to various Mesan slavers simply not giving a shit at best.

Very good and we know from text that specific slave types (even to the batch number) have problems unique to them; so not that all slaves have the same problems. That means you cannot put a name or number on any specific problem that the slaves may have. It also means that Beowulf has been tackling them as they are identified.

But there are still the orphan or rare genetic problems that do not receive attention nor funding. As you say, the attention and attitudes of the public often determine whether action is taken.

I was making the point that cthia does not really have a "point"; only a group of unverifiable suppositions. This might add up to an unverifiable conclusion in his mind, but there is no reason for me ever accept any of it.