Read Online Insistence of Vision by David Brin - Free Book Online
Authors: David Brin
Tags: Fiction, Science-Fiction, Short Stories (Single Author), Collections & Anthologies, Hard Science Fiction, Alien Contact
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wow! I haven’t heard applause that wild from a live audience since we had both Anvil and Triumph on the show, playing together in Ottawa. Settle down folks. Professor Wang, may I ask how you feel about the way pop culture is interpreting some of this? A cluster of quickie-horror pollywood flicks have suggested that this awakening of long-dormant traits might go awry in spectacular ways. Have you seen any of these cable-fables?
BW: Just one, Sandra. At a lab party, some of our students played It’s Reborn! for laughs. We all found it hilarious.
Sandra: So we won’t be seeing all sorts of ancient throwbacks coming out of these cocoons? No bodies repairing and restoring themselves back into, say, Neanderthals? Or dinosaurs? Or gross slime?
BW: Not any Neanderthals or dinosaurs, I promise. And there’s a reason. Because all of us, from you and me down to a newborn baby, are in our final, adult form.
Sandra: Babies... are adults?
BW: This may take a minute. You see, all animal life originally passed through multiple phases, and it is still true for a majority of complex species, like insects, arthropods and most fish.
Mating adults make embryos or eggs. Eggs create the larval stage, in vast numbers, whose job it is to eat and grow. A small fraction of larvae survive to transform again – as when insects pupate , for example a caterpillar’s cocoon – turning at last into the imago or adult form, whose primary job is to complete the cycle. You know... with sex.
Sandra: Clearly a favorite word for some of you out there. Settle down. So Dr. Stimson, what does this –
BW: But some life orders have abandoned the old process. For birds, reptiles and especially placental mammals, all the early phases seem to have been compacted down into the early embryonic period. It all takes place within the egg or the mother’s womb. Though incomplete and neotenous, our human infants are born already in the adult stage. And hence when a patient undergoes recuperative chrysalis –
GS: – none of them ever comes out with ancient traits like bony eye-ridges or tails or swinging from lamp posts. At least, none so far!
Sandra: So far? You mean there’s still hope! I was sort of hankering for a nice tail.
GS: If it ever proves possible Sandra, I promise you’ll be the first one we’ll tell.
Tadpole swishes tail
Breathes water, while preparing
Brand new lungs and legs
Lab Notes: George Stimson - 8/8/2030
I was annoyed with Beverly. We had been asked to keep things light, not wonkish, for the CBC broadcast. She gets so pedantic and lectury.
And yet, her ad hoc little rant about stages of life kept prodding at me, afterward. Of course I already knew all that – about embryo-larva-pupa-adult metamorphosis. It’s basic high school bio. Still, the notion would not let go of me. And I wondered.
We’ve accomplished “miracles” by uncovering traits, tools and processes that have lain dormant in the human genome for a hundred million years, ever since mammals abandoned organ replacement for a quick and agile lifestyle. By learning tricks to fill in the lost portions of code and re-start the processes of organ regrowth, Beverly and I have guaranteed ourselves lasting fame. And the techniques helped save both our lives, staving off our own health problems for the time being, letting us enjoy our renown for a little while.
That may satisfy her, but I’ve always been kind of an insatiable bastard. And I can’t help wondering.
Despite all our progress, we’ve only explained another five percent or so of the mystery DNA. Even after filling in methods of organ regrowth, lost since the Triassic, there remains another whole layer of enigmatic chemistry. Huge stretches of genetic code that are both still unknown and clearly even older than a mere hundred million years!
Oh, it’s pretty clear by now that the bulk of it is somehow related to organ regrowth, but in some way that I still don’t understand.
It’s infuriating! I’ve
BW: Just one, Sandra. At a lab party, some of our students played It’s Reborn! for laughs. We all found it hilarious.
Sandra: So we won’t be seeing all sorts of ancient throwbacks coming out of these cocoons? No bodies repairing and restoring themselves back into, say, Neanderthals? Or dinosaurs? Or gross slime?
BW: Not any Neanderthals or dinosaurs, I promise. And there’s a reason. Because all of us, from you and me down to a newborn baby, are in our final, adult form.
Sandra: Babies... are adults?
BW: This may take a minute. You see, all animal life originally passed through multiple phases, and it is still true for a majority of complex species, like insects, arthropods and most fish.
Mating adults make embryos or eggs. Eggs create the larval stage, in vast numbers, whose job it is to eat and grow. A small fraction of larvae survive to transform again – as when insects pupate , for example a caterpillar’s cocoon – turning at last into the imago or adult form, whose primary job is to complete the cycle. You know... with sex.
Sandra: Clearly a favorite word for some of you out there. Settle down. So Dr. Stimson, what does this –
BW: But some life orders have abandoned the old process. For birds, reptiles and especially placental mammals, all the early phases seem to have been compacted down into the early embryonic period. It all takes place within the egg or the mother’s womb. Though incomplete and neotenous, our human infants are born already in the adult stage. And hence when a patient undergoes recuperative chrysalis –
GS: – none of them ever comes out with ancient traits like bony eye-ridges or tails or swinging from lamp posts. At least, none so far!
Sandra: So far? You mean there’s still hope! I was sort of hankering for a nice tail.
GS: If it ever proves possible Sandra, I promise you’ll be the first one we’ll tell.
Tadpole swishes tail
Breathes water, while preparing
Brand new lungs and legs
Lab Notes: George Stimson - 8/8/2030
I was annoyed with Beverly. We had been asked to keep things light, not wonkish, for the CBC broadcast. She gets so pedantic and lectury.
And yet, her ad hoc little rant about stages of life kept prodding at me, afterward. Of course I already knew all that – about embryo-larva-pupa-adult metamorphosis. It’s basic high school bio. Still, the notion would not let go of me. And I wondered.
We’ve accomplished “miracles” by uncovering traits, tools and processes that have lain dormant in the human genome for a hundred million years, ever since mammals abandoned organ replacement for a quick and agile lifestyle. By learning tricks to fill in the lost portions of code and re-start the processes of organ regrowth, Beverly and I have guaranteed ourselves lasting fame. And the techniques helped save both our lives, staving off our own health problems for the time being, letting us enjoy our renown for a little while.
That may satisfy her, but I’ve always been kind of an insatiable bastard. And I can’t help wondering.
Despite all our progress, we’ve only explained another five percent or so of the mystery DNA. Even after filling in methods of organ regrowth, lost since the Triassic, there remains another whole layer of enigmatic chemistry. Huge stretches of genetic code that are both still unknown and clearly even older than a mere hundred million years!
Oh, it’s pretty clear by now that the bulk of it is somehow related to organ regrowth, but in some way that I still don’t understand.
It’s infuriating! I’ve
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