DNA and Trickle Down Economics

I’ve been thinking about the dynamics of self-modification, DNA, and genetic trickle down economics. We live in a society that encourages modification of one’s self. If those modifications were made on the genetic level, and those modifications happened to be dominant, what would the population look like in 100 years? 500? 1,000? For the sake of Smuggler’s Pursuit I’m taking a look at that. Granted that the world in question is hot and  swampy with large, nasty predators, what kind of modifications would be most popular in the wealthy segments of the population that would be able to afford to have them done?

Yes, I’m headed off in the lizard man direction. Mammalian apex predator-based modifications would still have fur and nasty dampness to cope with, and exoskeletons are impractical on a wet world.  On this world, considering the feudal system of government, it’s quite likely that only the Lords and their families would be able to afford to be directly modified, so the nobility would tend to be most reptilian, perhaps even to the extreme degrees that I’m positing for the civil war. However, if those modifications are genetic and dominant, we would run into the spread of those modifications through the serf population by means of lordly indiscretions, droit de seigneur, and youngest sons marrying higher-ranking serfs or skilled laborers in guilds.

Naturally, the nobility would keep the much more extreme levels of the modifications, but the genes would spread, particularly over an extended length of time on an isolated colony world. In some demesnes the serfs would be much closer to ‘pure’ unadulterated human, if the lords were particularly moral about taking advantage of them for many generations, in other demesnes the serfs might be nearly identical to the nobility in cases where the nobility’s depredations were pervasive for many generations.

Throwing Melia and Sophocles – 100% pure human Amazon and 100% pure antique human stock with a huge dash of metal enhancements – into this scaly society should prove interesting. Since Amazons are violently opposed to any enhancements or modifications whatsoever, what will Melia think of the relentless ‘self-improvement’ of the nobility and its spread to the serfs? What will Sophocles think of serfs at all, considering his views on the evils of government with too much power over the populace?

In other news –

I have at least one more Beta reader; thank God for volunteers! I may have another, but I haven’t heard back yet. I’m honestly surprised by the difficulty I’ve had in finding Beta readers. I’ve immersed myself in reading science fiction and fantasy since I was 7 or so and discovered J.R.R. Tolkien, Ray Bradbury, and Isaac Asimov, so I’m pretty firmly attached to speculative fiction, which may explain why it never occurred to me that so many people don’t like the kind of fiction I like.  I really want informative reactions, though, so I’ll keep trying!

On the home front –

Little man pulled out another tooth, but he wasn’t upset about it this time. Now, Himself freaked out when Little Man was giggling happily while spitting out blood, but at least it wasn’t the huge trauma the last three teeth to come out were. We still haven’t found the tooth, though!

And they call it…

I’ve got ‘Bella Notte‘ running through my head and I’m muttering to myself about the title of book #2 in the series. The first, of course, was Smuggler’s Justice. Should the second be Smuggler’s Capture or Smuggler’s Pursuit? I’m leaning towards the latter, since it focuses more on the pursuit of Melia’s quarry. The former could be seen as misleading the reader. I don’t know about you, but as a reader I get pretty peeved with writers who give books in a series titles that sound like spoilers and then go in an entirely different direction from that hinted at in the title.

I’m still hunting for Beta readers for Smuggler’s Justice, so even that isn’t as complete as I would like. I also need to do further research into agents and publishers, particularly with a view towards a publisher who would be interested in a science fiction series rather than a one-off. At this point I can’t see an end-point for the series, so I don’t know how long it’s going to be. So far I’ve got six books rough-plotted and material enough for at least three more after that.

I’ve turned on my Spotify for tonight’s writing. I believe I like Spotify better than I like Pandora because I don’t get “stuck” listening to songs that I don’t like. On the other hand, Pandora gives me a new song or two to throw on my Spotify playlist. Of course, my writing playlist – Writing – is already a day’s worth of music, so I’m in no danger of running out. I may throw some more mellow music at it tonight, though, since I’m in the mood for a more Dean Martin / Perry Como / Frank Sinatra vibe. Probably not great for writing dystopian science fiction with a space opera bent, but there you have it. I could just listen to my Mellow playlist, but I do want to get some writing done tonight.

Editing – sadly, at least for me, I’m all done with editing January Black. I enjoyed working with Wendy S. Russo and I’m really going to miss her characters. I know, as an editor I need to learn to distance myself more so I don’t get so sad when I’m done with a book! On the other hand, it’s probably a good sign for the book’s prospects if I do get a book hangover rather than being heartily sick of the characters by the third – or fifth, or fifteenth! – read-through. I’ll probably wind up e-mailing Marlene at Crescent Moon Press for another book to edit before dawn, but that’s just because I don’t cope well with no work to do.

On the home front –

The teenager is at loose ends, since the girlfriend is heading off for an out-of-state visit with family… I think. I get a lot of information second-hand around here; it’s one of the hazards of sleeping during the day and working nights. I still haven’t heard one way or the other if the girlfriend plotzed over the pendant and chain.

Little Man is quite delighted with himself, his bucket of plastic horses, and his twinkle lights. He’s added his dozen or so new horses to his plastic and resin menagerie of toy animals, introducing them to the rest with a lot of ‘horse noises’, which are apparently going to be a somewhat drier version of a raspberry. He loves farm things. We had a short chat via Facebook’s chat feature with his very best friend, who goes to the farm with him on Wednesdays. He’s missing her and his weekly visit with the Angora bunnies something fierce!

Himself would be enjoying his vacation more if Little Man would sleep past 3:30 a.m.

As for me – I had a sad spell. For just a moment, that moment between sleeping and waking, I could almost believe that the last 5 years and 5 days was a terrible dream and the voices I could hear of a gaggle of little girls were my little girls. I try to push all that emotion off and ignore it as much as I possibly can, but I did wind up having a crying jag. Thankfully, most of the time I don’t have a sonic assault creep up on me when I’m vulnerable so I can keep it under control and soldier on. On the up side, the neighbor’s daughters and their friends seemed to be having a good time selling hot cocoa despite what is shaping up to be another miserably cold evening. It was good to see their happy little faces and get Himself some fairly watery warm cocoa – it definitely wasn’t hot cocoa anymore by the time I got it back across the street, not in this weather!