From: "Roy C. Lackey" 
Subject: Re: (urth) Poor Moly
Date: Mon, 2 Dec 2002 13:44:19 -0600

Crush wrote:

>Ok, Roy, I think I got it now. Your contention is that Silk was so clueless
>that he wasn't aware that prosthetics were available even though there was
a
>sibyl (just across the courtyard) who was about half artificial. Horn was
>equally clueless.

One more time. Yes, Silk was clueless. So was Mint (see below). None of them
knew, then, that the Ayuntamiento was composed of chems, or of Tarsier's
engineering abilities, abilities you persistently ignore. And Rose was
_"largely"_ artificial.

>Also, within the same space of time since Kennedy was shot, the craftsmen
>who used to build bio-prosthetics (specially designed to look old) and chem
>replacement parts all died out without training any protégés.

I definitely didn't say that, or even suggest it. Quite the contrary; they
could be had, for a price. Rose didn't have the price anymore, and servant
chems _never_ had it. In addition to the quote I have given in a previous
post, which stated that Rose got most/all of her prosthetics at a time when
they were not hard to come by, forty years or more ago, here is another,
which should settle the matter once and for all. It is on the fourth page of
chapter 2 of CALDE, where Mint is giving her opening remarks at Rose's final
rites.

"I have heard it said that she was the oldest biochemical person in this
quarter, and it may well have been true. _She belonged to the last of those
fortunate generations for which prosthetic devices remained_, devices whose
principles are lost even to our wisest." (emphasis added)

The question of whether or not prosthetics can still be made, or are being
made, becomes moot for purposes of this argument. The quote establishes,
once again, that Rose got her prosthetics many years ago (two generations),
when they were still readily available. That suffices to undermine your
theory that they came from Betel, who had taken them from a
murdered/martyred chem maid. There was no need for that.

>Finally, Hammerstone was never curious enough to enquire where his fiancé
>was employed (because if he knew what she was doing at *any* time he would
>know if she was not constantly employed at the cenoby).

Except for paint, to show rank or which city to whom they belonged, the
soldiers all looked exactly alike--they were mass-produced by the millions.
There is no reason to believe that it was any different for the servant
chems. Molybdenum looked just like Magnesia who looked just like every other
femchem. That's what made it so easy for Marble to lie to Hammerstone about
being Moly--he couldn't tell the difference. She didn't have a faceplate
anymore, anyway. How was he to know one femchem from another, especially
since he was so eager to find _any_ femchem available for reproduction.
Marble could have been a slut from another city for all he cared. She was
female and would have him; that's all that really mattered to him. He wasn't
going to look a gift-horse in the mouth.

-Roy


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