From: O'Regan, Emlyn (Emlyn.ORegan@actew.com.au)
Date: Thu Jun 03 1999 - 20:19:51 MDT
>----------
>From: EvMick@aol.com[SMTP:EvMick@aol.com]
>Reply To: extropians@extropy.com
>Sent: Friday, 4 June 1999 9:50
>To: extropians@extropy.com
>Subject: Re: jeff's cyborg cells
>
>In a message dated 6/2/99 12:13:38 PM Central Daylight Time,
>ewbrownv@mindspring.com writes:
>
>> If you want to implement anything that consumes significantly more energy
>> than normal tissue, you'll have to build a cooling system to carry off the
>> excess heat.
>
>Larry Niven obliquely visited that problem in two of his books...I forget the
>exact titles but i think they had something to do with Beowulf. The monsters
>were grendels. Both were good books...i highly recommend them..
>
>EvMick
The original book is called "The Dragons of Heorot", and I think that
the sequel is "Beowulf's Children". Excellent hard SF (as always from
LN). The Grendels (scary monster lizard things, bitey) can use far more
energy than normal and do scary things, but they heat up and need a heat
sink (body of water) or they die! If I remember correctly, they have
some kind of sac of speed-up stuff that squirts into their circulatory
systems (super adrenalin?), to trigger this acceleration.
The twist re: reproduction is a doozy (in dragons of heorot), but not on
topic, and also should not be laid bare here for those who might read
the book.
Anyone read his short story "Locusts", about human evolution with a
really off the wall twist? That theory is something that extropians
might like to ponder, considering the imminence of off-world
colonisation...
Emlyn
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