Adrian Hurt [email removed] writes:
The catch is that in order for them to grow up as [similar to the
original as possible], their lives must be made similar to that of
the original. The implication here is that unless someone goes to a
lot of trouble to give Avery a good Imperial upbringing, i.e.
identical to Strephon's, then all he will turn out to be is someone
looking exactly like Strephon
For an excellent treatment of this question, look into ``Cyteen'', by
C. J. Cherryh. It's one of her Union/Alliance novels. Here the limiting
factor is real live parenting - the clones (``azi'' in the book, which I
assume is a contraction of ``azygotic'', a zygote being the technical name
for the fusion of sperm and ovum before it starts dividing) are brought up
on ``tape'' (some form of learning and psychological conditioning in their
sleep), because real people choose not to take the time to be with the
child azi 24 hours a day. Thus they grow up rather insecure (generally
psychologically addicted to tape) and very focussed. There are definitely
shades of ``Brave New World'' in there too.
Also, it should be mentioned that the article in the Economist on solar
sailing was one of their leaders, which are somewhat whimsical at times.
The serious article in the Science and Technology section about solar
sailing was pretty good, though.
Jonathan Clark
[email removed]