From:	justinf@****.caltech.edu (Justin Fang)
Subject:	Re: New plot
Date:	Wed, 20 Mar 1996 12:15:19 -0800 (PST)

Evan Hughes writes:
> Justin Fang writes:
> > 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.

> Uh, check out 2XS. Magic is used in the general sciences as an everyday
> tool. It's theory and use would probably be taught alongside simple
> biology in university...

This depends on how common magicians are. I was under the impression
they were supposed to be sort of rare, but that doesn't matter. I
didn't say that they were clueless or incompetent at magical stuff,
just that magic is outside their primary area of expertise. They can't
do the advanced magical research that would be required by the
artificial person project. Offhand, it looks to me that the sort of
thing you have to do to instill a spirit in an artificial person would
be related to what cybermancy does to artificially bind a spirit or
soul to a body after it should have departed, and I don't want to get
anywhere near *that*. Unless you want to say that it's something
absurdly simple that could be done without even knowing that you're
doing it, or that it's something easy enough that a few people
thinking about it for a couple of months could come up with it.

And besides, then *I'd* have to figure out what they did and why it
works, and other people would probably disagree with me, and FASA
would publish something that contradicts what I said, and it would
turn into a whole big mess. It's a thorny philosophical issue, and I'd
rather not have to deal with it unless there's a really good reason.

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