message 0024

• Tape-teaching/Creativity/The characters of Azi

>From: Jo Jaquinta <jaymin>
>Subject: CherryhList Socialisation.
>Date: Mon, 2 Nov 92 9:55:03 GMT

> >From: nancy ott <ott@ansoft.com>
> On the other hand, I think tape could be used to condition people
> against being creative (and disruptive) by affecting their attitudes
> toward experimentation and conditioning them against certain types of
> behaviors.  
	That is sort of what I meant. Having been brought up on a calculator
I can do bugger all arithametic. Doing numbers in my head is a skill I've
never needed. Similarly if you mature in a system where if you ever want
to learn anything you can just plug into a tape you don't develop the
learning skills.

> Are the azi creative?  They are generically human, so the
> potential should be there.  Some of them are, such as Grant and
> Florian.  But these "alpha" types seem to be less stable and resilient
> (read: more like normal humans) than the run of the mill azi.  The azi
> are designed personalities, so it seems reasonable to assume that a
> great deal of creativity has been designed out of them.
	If one considers the azi to be the product of genetic engineering
and social/information engineering then the "alpha" azi represent just the
genetic end. Remember: Union genetically engineers its own citizens as well.
The alpha types are the products of genetic experimentation brought up in
a human environment. Thus socially they are human (and thus don't suffer
from a loss of creativity).
	Irregardless of weather tape physically inhinits ones learning process
I would agree that social conditioning can overcome virtually anything. Today
we take soldiers and put them through basic training to dehumanise them to the
extent where they can kill other humans. If you look at the azi in Serpent's
Reach we have humans with very differnt socialisations. I run a Traveller
Role-Playing campaign with strictly no aliens. I take the lesson from
Cherryh that humans can be socialised into creatures completely alien from
our social perspective.

			Jo

[BTW: Make sure CHERRYHLIST is in the title. If you just do a reply you
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