After all we know, that the MA had it on their long term plans just not for a few more centuries but once word about the Harrington genome gets out (it will eventually) they may just bring forward the odd decade or two.....
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Garth 2
Posts: 425
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Presumably, the development of the Human "mid-glow" and "mind voice" to the point were a "mind shield" can be implemented is the long term solution.
After all we know, that the MA had it on their long term plans just not for a few more centuries but once word about the Harrington genome gets out (it will eventually) they may just bring forward the odd decade or two..... ![]() |
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ThinksMarkedly
Posts: 4169
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I don't see how those correlate. Word of the Harrington line being a Mesan Alpha line will be disbelieved. There's no reason for anyone in the Alliance to take the Alignment's word for it. And it's not like the Harringtons are recent immigrants into the Star Kingdom. Stephanie is one of the most important people in Star Kingdom history, if you bother to search for it. I'm sure her detractors will use it in the press, but nothing more will come out of it. As for mind glow and mind voice, the MAlign may want to develop that, but that's a completely unrelated effort. |
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Garth 2
Posts: 425
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Apologises, should have been clear, I was referring to the fact she was an empath not that the Harrington line was at some point linked to the MAlign (which, I didn't feel was a need twist but it depends what author does with it). |
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cthia
Posts: 14951
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How can you be so sure of that? The revelation would have to come on the heels of divulging that Honor is a genie.* Being a genie is apparently still taboo in the Honorverse. Humanity has always been fickle about what is accepted norms. Which is the whole gist of the MAlign's plight. I'd be more interested in what Honor would make of it. She wouldn't simply dismiss it if there's some truth to it. And obviously there's some truth to it. When the author first dropped the kew on our heads, I never thought the MA would try to use it to discredit Honor, but to use Honor as sort of their model to lend credence to the idea of genies as a whole. *If that got out, along with other abilities, it might discredit Honor by sending ripples across space to Grayson about a certain can of worms opened here. Son, your mother says I have to hang you. Personally I don't think this is a capital offense. But if I don't hang you, she's gonna hang me and frankly, I'm not the one in trouble. —cthia's father. Incident in ? Axiom of Common Sense |
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ThinksMarkedly
Posts: 4169
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Because she's a national hero and has a reservoir of public goodwill. Genies are still taboo enough that she didn't go around publicising it, but she didn't hide it too much. I figure she can weather it, especially as the Queen & Empress will also reveal she is one too, as is basically the entire population of Grayson. They'll show how genetic mods are commonplace.
That is a good question. She's not one to leave that question alone. Her father, the physician, isn't likely either. More importantly, her mother, the Beowulfan-born geneticist, would never leave that alone! |
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Theemile
Posts: 5082
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You also have to admit that she never tried to hide it. Everyone who has worked with her knows about it due to her appetite and workout routine, and any search about Meyerdahl will show that all the original groups of Colonists were Genies due to the high Gravity. (and the Sphinx recruited from there aggressively for that very reason.) I would assume that everyone on Grayson knows about it - the media frenzy port assignation attempt in HoQ would have discovered that the reason she was so successful defeating the assassination was her strength due to her updated musculature, her Martial Arts skills. Post Young dual, no one in Manticore or Grayson doesn't know her Marksman skill due to her enhanced hand eye coordination, and that the only reason she didn't join (and Dominate) the academy pistol team, was she was looking for a challenge that pistols didn't give her, and joined Martial arts team instead. ******
RFC said "refitting a Beowulfan SD to Manticoran standards would be just as difficult as refitting a standard SLN SD to those standards. In other words, it would be cheaper and faster to build new ships." |
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orelsi
Posts: 23
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Granted, in the past they wouldn't have made the connection, but now when the cats are openly joining the war in large numbers it can't stay a secret for long. I'd guess it will even be public knowledge sooner or later. |
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cthia
Posts: 14951
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I've always wondered about the possibility of a natural counter to treecats by disciplining the mind.
Consider the following . . .
If the MAlign becomes aware that the treecats are being used as lie detectors or can read the emotions of deceit?, they can train their operatives to discipline their minds. It's called being calm under pressure. Even textev says treecats cannot outright lie to one another, but they do, sometimes, practice deceit, like Laughs Brightly. Son, your mother says I have to hang you. Personally I don't think this is a capital offense. But if I don't hang you, she's gonna hang me and frankly, I'm not the one in trouble. —cthia's father. Incident in ? Axiom of Common Sense |
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Theemile
Posts: 5082
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To have a system to beat something, you need to understand it. The polygraph works on heart rate and galvanic capacitance, so knowing that a controlling your heart rate nervous reactions, and sweat levels - and perhaps "flipping" those responses from the norm - throw off lie detectors, while hiding or distorting physical cues keep the professional who is evaluating the meter from reading it. But what triggers Treecats? Is it actual thoughts, or the body's autonomous reactions to those thoughts. Or something else? Without knowing more, how can someone even theorize what it would take to beat Treecats? ******
RFC said "refitting a Beowulfan SD to Manticoran standards would be just as difficult as refitting a standard SLN SD to those standards. In other words, it would be cheaper and faster to build new ships." |
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Jonathan_S
Posts: 8329
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Well it seems to be primarily based off emotions as treecats don't seem to be able to hear a human's mindvoice; only feel their mindglow. The question is whether knowing deception has a particular flavor or if the cats are actually getting the nervousness or panic of the interviewee (or possibly even relief or smugness at a lie not apparently being caught by the interviewer). If the cats are only detecting secondary emotions around lying then that should be much easier to defeat than if they can detect the lying itself. Still some measures seem like they could beat a cat based lie detection. The most obvious is when you were lied to and repeat what you think is the truth. But given the level of mental conditioning that seems to exist in the Honorverse it might also be possible to get some form of anti-interrogation conditioning where you can self-trigger a temporary state where you actually can't recall the specific things you're conditioned to keep secret; or where you honestly believe a false cover story. |
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