Stabilization, which lasted through the following ten generations or so as Y chromosomes were patched up, lingering genetic mistakes were fixed, and members of different Strains began to interbreed to produce hybrids within their own racial groupsĪt this point the decision is made not to revert back to the original human genetic template: “Correction” was the name given to the phase that had begun after the first round of Gestations, when Eve Moira had fixed errors that had led to several nonviable infantsįollowing this there is a period of mixing in the single Cradle habitat: Part 3 lists several stages in the development of the races.įollowing the establishment of the seven races, there is a period of weeding out the worst genetic errors: Is there any in-universe explanation which would justify the extended racial separation of the Seveneve's bloodlines? Out of universe, I think that Stephenson just enjoyed his different archetypes of women enough that he figured it would be more fun to project them forward 5000 years, even if there's no possible way that such racial separation could have been achieved.
In story, I feel like Stephenson needed some sort of absolute prohibition on sexual intercourse, so that all babies would be generated via IVF (maybe to combat solar radiation?) in order to hold out the possibility that racial purity could be maintained. Or, for examples of enemies's children getting together, read Romeo and Juliet. For example, look how much black blood has intermixed with whites (and that's just over a few hundred years, not 5000). In such a scenario, wouldn't the Eves's grandchildren be getting it on constantly? In such a scenario, I can't understand how racial purity would have been preserved, and certainly not how it would continue for 5000 years.
But look at the (later) attraction of Kathtwo and Beled, and imagine a world where frequent sexual reproduction and avoiding inbreeding were absolutely essential to the survival of the human species.
If each Eve and her offspring were physically separated, this might make sense. And yet, there is no explanation of what prevented racial mixing between the grandchildren of different Eves. Moira is able to synthesize a Y chromosome to create boys for the second generation of infants on the Cradle.
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