From:	justinf@****.caltech.edu (Justin Fang)
Subject:	Re: New plot
Date:	Wed, 20 Mar 1996 01:57:13 -0800 (PST)

Evan Hughes writes:
> Mark L. Neidengard writes:
> > Well, if you have a living, fertilized ovum being grown in the artificial
> > wombtanks, I don't know why it wouldn't qualify as "alive" =) I
suspect
> > we'll get to see interactions with enough of the sucsessful births to
> > judge whether they seem like real people or not...

> *grin* Here's hoping. Could the presence of some type of spirit be
> required to facilitate the fertilization?

That would be rather odd.

> Evan -- Really doesn't want to let go of this one. =)

I'm afraid I can't see why. There's another problem as well: This group of
people is very very good in their area of specialization: biotechnology,
including genetic engineering and related fields. In any other field, their
competence ranges from okay to terrible to none. Specifically, they aren't
exceptional at magical research, and I don't *want* to make them exceptional
at magical research, which I would have to if they need to do some sort of
magic in order to produce the artificial people. I'm trying to avoid the
"we can do *everything* well" munchkinism here. I think it's best to just
leave the whole "spirit" issue vague.

Justin Fang (justinf@****.caltech.edu)
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