Intergalactic Summit

Stop that. Right now.

The problem with Gallente Prime is that it is full of Gallente.

You can call it a satanic grin if you want, and if you want the roleplay, I'll dye my hair blue,

But I'd soooo like to go full out bastardization bonobo with either of you, GP and Diana. And better yet, at the same time!

Send a mail if interested.

I disagree completely. I am defined by my choices, my decisions and my opinions, not by the complicated strip of acid in each of my cells which itself is just a careful high-fidelity copy of the one that occupied my original body which in any case became an interesting smear of organic compounds on the leading edge of a smartbomb detonation about seven years ago.

Every time a pilot clones, they prove that the body and the DNA contained with in it are completely unimportant. It's the brain-state that matters, and there is nothing stopping me from using a blank "stock" clone not seeded with my genetic profile, if I so wish. The result would be functionally identical - Verin Hakatain, the infomorph would still be walking around and doing what he does, but instead of the handsome and hirsute appearance I have chosen to maintain (which is, I freely admit, an... "enhanced" version of the original), I'd be a pale featureless everyman.

Now, I have considerable respect for my ancestors, as should all Caldari. But if I don't consider my DNA to be important for anything more than maintaining a certain physical appearance that I have, again, chosen to retain, then my regard for my ancestors is NOT for the DNA they contributed to my birth body, but instead for the culture they built, the history they wrote and the legacy I'm trying to find a place in.

As I said - it's the brain-state that matters, and I've even tweaked that with neural remapping technology in the last few years. There is nothing about my physical being that is not open to modification, augmentation and improvement. Has that changed me as a person? I would argue no more so than living from day to day did. A person is not a static and unchanging thing, our reality is an ever-moving moment of subjectivity, and I'm privileged to have a tighter and more direct control over that moment than is afforded to most people. I have greater freedom to choose who I am and wish to be, and have exercised it.

I would expect a fellow infomorph to at least grasp the concept of mind/body dualism and to recognise that it is the FORMER that matters.

Their worthiness will be determined by their deeds. One could argue they have greater inherent potential, yes. But how they unfold it and to what end they later apply it is not programmed from birth.

The spiral fingered arms of helicase will mould
All life and thought, all beating hearts will yield.
Yet in that lover's grasp, all thoughts enfold
And blossom forth from Xanadu, old laws appealed
To find new suns, new worlds,
A brighter day,
And not to lose ones path along the way.

Maybe at first, when we are still developing. But I am no longer an embryonic being. I could choose to abandon my DNA if I so chose, and doing so would have zero noticeable impact upon my abilities, limitations, gifts and flaws.

Besides, even if we go back to my first body, even that did not have entirely natural DNA. My parents paid for a course of in-utero genegineering that fixed my maximum body fat percentage, boosted my natural muscle tone and density, compensated for family histories of myopia, bipolar disorder, aortic stenosis and diabetes mellitus, and prevented a femoral anteversion before it ever even developed. They also made damn sure I'd inherit my father's blue eyes. My siblings underwent the precise same therapy. It won't be long before such antenatal genegineering programs begin to include the genetic components necessary for capsule use.

You can continue to assert that genes are important if you wish, but repeated assertion is not a route to factual accuracy. I can demonstrate through argument and reason why my genetic heritage simply isn't important. The best you can do is continue to assert your irrational belief that it is.

Our genes aren't important: they're a tool.



I will absolutely not agree that! There are brilliant scientists out there whose bodies are wasted and all but useless thanks to the effects of some genetic condition that was only detected too late to be corrected. One of the women responsible for the modern starship jump drive can only speak thanks to the medical implants in the speech centers of her brain. It's a well-established historical fact that the re-discovery of calculus on Caldari Prime was accomplished by an individual described by contemporary commentators as "a cripple".

The only hardware that counts is the brain, and that gets precisely copied and reassembled upon cloning without regard for the genetic composition of the body around it. If by some accident you were to be cloned into a body that had been prepared for a Gallentean pilot, I think your reaction would be completely predictable. Why? Because your bigoted little mind is in no way influenced by the body it's in, but by the brain, which is copied with extreme fidelity when you are cloned. You would still be Diana Kim in all her narrow-minded and nationalist glory, no matter the shape of your cheekbones.

Incorrect.

We Return

Well, then I'd like to remind our 'no longer embryonic being', that the moment you abandon your DNA, generation of proteins will stop, cells will stop working, and die, and so will you.
Have a nice sleep.


So I was trying to demonstrate too. But whatever, it's your genes, do with them whatever you want. As for me, I am proud to be who I am.


I think I already told you that cells can't function without DNA. DNA affects proteines, proteines affect reactions, rate of reactions affect power of apprehension. There is a number of different neuromediators, affecting different signals. Thinking is not just a couple of electrical signals, it is a complex network of different and balanced chemical reactions, catalyzed by your proteins, synthesized from your DNA. Easy like that. You can copy current state of the brain, but further evolution will depend on DNA in brain cells.

you're either deliberately misinterpreting me for what you think is comic effect, or you just suck at basic reading comprehension.

When I say "abandon my DNA" I don't mean abandon DNA in general. I mean abandon MY DNA. The particular sequence that I had when I was born. I don't have to have it. So long as my genetic code falls inside the spectrum of the human genome, it doesn't technically matter which specific genes I inherited and from whom I inherited them, other than for reasons of nostalgia.

The fact that I have Civire genes is completely irrelevant to the good functioning of my body. They are, effectively, cosmetic.