[What Came Before]

I may not be one for all that fancy pants logic and thinkenearing

Thinkenearing is my new favorite word.  Thank you BargiltheDestroyer, you made my day!

[What Came Before]

Or designed by sentient geese, elephant seals, bonobos...y'know, the really perverted rape-happy members of the animal kingdom.

I must wonder if there were ever any female Inchoroi, and if so, what happened to them...It's  possible gender originally had no meaning for them. It's easy to imagine them grafting new sexual organs to themselves to be compatible with whatever organisms inhabited the world they were culling.

On Inchoroi gender, aye, that's basically what I've wondered: what was their original form. I guarantee what we see at the end of TWP and False Sun is not what those critters originally were. They've been to too many worlds and enjoy Grafting way too much to compete with the new environ and species they encounter.

[What Came Before]

I suspect the Ark is Female, and the Inchies are male. Their inability to understand human intimacy may stem from their species not having any real pair bonding (think Mieville's Kephri).

The Inchies themselves seem like a death metal loving one-handed typist fulfilling the fantasy of being a Ridley Scott xenomorph.

I suspect there's a "User Illusion" in the Ark as well, with Inchie Bros and their buddies possibly being good with the Tekne "API" rather than understanding the underlying "OS" of the Bios. So the really masters of the Tekne, the geneticists and biologists, died out and the Consult has spent their time trying to reproduce the prior expertise of vastly superior intelligences. Aurang and Aurax surviving likely has to do with their ability to apprehend the onta and utilize the Maganecca's cants [rather than anything to do with their intellectual prowess compared to others of their race].

[What Came Before]

I think sciborg pretty much has it and I wish to subscribe to his newsletter.

[What Came Before]

Yeah, I agree. It can't be a coincidence that the only two of the six that survived the grafting process to grasp the Onta are also the only two that made it through the Nonmen's last assault on the Ark.

[What Came Before]

Though that doesn't mean they're not quite intelligent. Difference between ignorance and stupidity and all.

[What Came Before]

Though that doesn't mean they're not quite intelligent. Difference between ignorance and stupidity and all.

Or Neil Degrass Tyson's fascinatingly disturbing thought: That chimps and humans are about 1% different as far as genes go, and the smartest chimp might be about as smart as a toddler. So take another 1% in that same direction and the most brilliant human could be no more than a child to an Inchi.

[What Came Before]

I think it's fairly obvious that the Inchoroi are written to be humanity's darkest impulses taken to the absolute extreme, and I also think it's fascinating/terrifying that it is all made possible by the Tekne. If a sentient race could biologically program themselves to feel ultimate pleasure all the time, it's not so farfetched that they would go down that dark road with little or no hesitation.

I remember reading a study about a doctor (http://www.paradise-engineering.com/brain/) who directly stimulated the pleasure center of his patient's brain to study its effects, and the guy was begging him not to stop the experiment. There are entire dimensions of pleasureful sensation that the engineering of brains and bodies could open up, and if by some miracle humanity ever progresses to the point where that kind of technology is cheap and widespread, I really don't want to see it. It gives me the willies.

Looking at that paradise-engineering site, I think we got our first Inchie contenders right there. Jesus.

[What Came Before]

Honestly I think I'll pass on that site link. Thats a bit to creepy, especially considering the topic at hand.

[What Came Before]

Inchies understand pair bonding. When they captured a human tribe for interrogation, they let families and loved ones rejoin, then killed anyone who was alone.

[What Came Before]

Inchies understand pair bonding. When they captured a human tribe for interrogation, they let families and loved ones rejoin, then killed anyone who was alone.

This specifically so they can torment the captured more profoundly by violating said loved ones.

[What Came Before]

They can understand pair bonding as a phenomena without experiencing it themselves. Humans understand migratory instincts, which we do not possess. On the reproductive scale, we understand asexual budding. Doesn't mean it's not entirely alien to our way of life.

[mrganondorf]

@ anor277 - Wow!  Your idea that the Indigo Plague was part of the Consult's plan all along, is really interesting.  If they were close to 144k, then the plague might bring them there. 

I guess, in this reading, Mog is just a means to an end--the Consult can seal the world from the Outside because they got the right number on the right world and that's that?  This interpretation is neat, too, because it makes Anaxophus/Seswatha the witting/unwitting agent of the Consult.