[Dragaera] Thoughts on age and experience on Dragaera

[Jon%20Lincicum]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Rapaport" <steve at rapaport.com> 
To: "Alexx Kay" <alexx at panix.com> 
Cc: dragaera at dragaera.info 
Sent: Monday, February 8, 2010 9:36:13 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific 
Subject: Re: [Dragaera] Thoughts on age and experience on Dragaera 

>Yes, Alexx, I agree there's plenty of textev to that effect. 
> 
>But it stops my suspension of disbelief for three reasons: 
> 
>1) I can't see the need for such a slowed learning ability 
>2) I can't see a rational possibility of it -- does it mean, for example, 
>that you'd have to repeat something 20 times more to get a Dragaeran child 
>to learn it, than to get a human child? How would you construct such a poor 
>brain? 
>3) I can't see it as a reasonable side-effect of genetic manipulation for 
>longer life 
> 
>The only way to my mind that this would make any sense from the point of 
>view of the powerful Jenoine is if such a slow-learning brain were the only 
>way to construct a 20-times-more-intelligent adult in the end. But I 
>haven't seen much evidence that Dragaerans come out that way either. 
> 
>But if as you say this is just how it is on Dragaera, then I'm surprised 
>Vlad (and all the other Easterners) aren't constantly thinking rings around 
>the Empire. Not because they're smarter, but because they don't need to be 
>instructed 20 times to get it. 


I've seen recent studies about human adolescent brains that seem to indicate that human teenagers actually have problems learning and making decisions because their brains are "overwired". They have "extra" pathways between their thinking centers that cause confusion and cause them to make poor decisions. As they mature, these "extra" connections go away, and they are better able to process the information that their senses relay to them, and more efficient about integrating new experiences. 

It would seem to me that this could be a plausible explanation for why a Dragaeran of say, 60-190 years would have a slower developmental rate mentally than an Easterner. It takes far longer for their brains to become efficient analytical machines. 

Even amongst adult human beings on earth, however, it sometimes takes many many times for a person to learn from their experiences. Say, such as learning not to top-post on mailing lists, for example. :-) 

Majikjon