Plot twists that WON'T happen

cthia wrote:Of course neither of them can be culled. Neither of them are Mesans.

But if they are descended from that line, then it is possible, maybe even likely, that they have some of the same genotype. And do consider that the quirks of a particular genotype may not manifest itself for generations. In-between those generations specific individuals of lines could have become lost.

No, the point about the Bardasano line was that it was being changed in the lab at each generation and so what happened was that her two most recent predecessors were killed; however her genotype was so useful that they are now making corrective changes to preserve what is valuable and remove what was unwanted. Again from chapter 20:

But some of those "hedonistic sybarites" were anything but useless drones, and Bardasano was a prime example. In fact, she was the prime example. The Bardasano genotype had been notable for at least half a dozen generations for its intelligence and ruthless determination. There'd been a few unfortunate and unintended traits, as well, unhappily, and at one point there'd been serious consideration of simply culling the line's last several iterations and starting over again from a significantly earlier point. The positive traits had been so strong, however, that a remedial program had been instituted, instead, and Isabel was the current example of how successful it had been. It had been necessary to eliminate two of her immediate predecessors when their inherent ruthlessness had made them just a bit too ambitious for anyone else's good, but intelligent ambition, properly tempered, was always a useful thing, as Bardasano herself demonstrated. And if there was still a slight tendency towards sexual disorders and mildly sociopathic behaviors, neither of those posed any serious handicap, especially for someone whose area of expertise was covert operations. Of course, they'd have to be dealt with in the next generation or two if the Bardasano line was going to earn back permanent alpha status within the Alignment, which Isabel understood.

Note that they could have dropped back a couple of iterations to erase the unwanted changes. The point about a "lost" line is that it could not have any of the recent changes.

You are correct that a child of a "lost" line could have something bad from the original genotype; but that would not be a problem with someone descended from a very early Bardasano line, since the serious problems were introduced in the last few iterations. Also if they derived from further back than a dozen generations, then they would miss that the "Bardasano genotype had been notable for at least half a dozen generations for its intelligence and ruthless determination".

tlb wrote:

cthia wrote:Of course neither of them can be culled. Neither of them are Mesans.

But if they are descended from that line, then it is possible, maybe even likely, that they have some of the same genotype. And do consider that the quirks of a particular genotype may not manifest itself for generations. In-between those generations specific individuals of lines could have become lost.

No, the point about the Bardasano line was that it was being changed in the lab at each generation and so what happened was that her two most recent predecessors were killed; however her genotype was so useful that they are now making corrective changes to preserve what is valuable and remove what was unwanted. Again from chapter 20:

But some of those "hedonistic sybarites" were anything but useless drones, and Bardasano was a prime example. In fact, she was the prime example. The Bardasano genotype had been notable for at least half a dozen generations for its intelligence and ruthless determination. There'd been a few unfortunate and unintended traits, as well, unhappily, and at one point there'd been serious consideration of simply culling the line's last several iterations and starting over again from a significantly earlier point. The positive traits had been so strong, however, that a remedial program had been instituted, instead, and Isabel was the current example of how successful it had been. It had been necessary to eliminate two of her immediate predecessors when their inherent ruthlessness had made them just a bit too ambitious for anyone else's good, but intelligent ambition, properly tempered, was always a useful thing, as Bardasano herself demonstrated. And if there was still a slight tendency towards sexual disorders and mildly sociopathic behaviors, neither of those posed any serious handicap, especially for someone whose area of expertise was covert operations. Of course, they'd have to be dealt with in the next generation or two if the Bardasano line was going to earn back permanent alpha status within the Alignment, which Isabel understood.

Note that they could have dropped back a couple of iterations to erase the unwanted changes. The point about a "lost" line is that it could not have any of the recent changes.

You are correct that a child of a "lost" line could have something bad from the original genotype; but that would not be a problem with someone descended from a very early Bardasano line, since the serious problems were introduced in the last few iterations. Also if they derived from further back than a dozen generations, then they would miss that the "Bardasano genotype had been notable for at least half a dozen generations for its intelligence and ruthless determination".

I would imagine the MA kept a meticulous track of the progress of any line. But if the subject became lost, then any quirks that may have manifested itself in that subject may also have been lost. The MA may have proceeded on faulty data inasmuch as the current abnormalities may have stemmed from a very earlier treatment that is just now manifesting itself. Very latent effects.

cthia wrote:The MA may have proceeded on faulty data inasmuch as the current abnormalities may have stemmed from a very earlier treatment that is just now manifesting itself. Very latent effects.

The Board has done extensive research for hundreds of years and has had the opportunity to study each subject for decades. It is more likely that a recent change to the genome has had an unexpected interaction with an earlier change. If you wish, you can blame that on the earlier change now manifesting itself through that interaction; but we can also blame it on an unwelcome side effect of the latest change.