The "other item" we haven't touched on from Chapter 10 just yet, which has be mildly annoying for Fel as well, as I think he was half-way hoping someone might find a way to solve the problem for him. There is a vocabulary challenge in the making.
“Krazrou…has a point,” Sk’Vrae injected. “If this is true, that Generations can spontaneously produce the retrovirus, then we would be looking at two options. Either walling ourselves off from the universe, or accepting that eventually, perhaps next year or perhaps in ten thousand years, it happens again and new Generations are born from another virus. And that eventually, the virus will become a pandemic that will sweep across the galaxy. Walling ourselves off from the universe is not a realistic alternative,” she said calmly. “Not when the universe now has such a vested interest in keeping us from isolating ourselves. So I think we should discuss the idea of a summit, with the objective of ensuring that the Generations do not become the enemy of the unchanged. After all, they will eventually become us, so we should not fight them.”
“Okay, that is the creepiest freakin’ thing I have ever heard you say, Sk’Vrae,” Jason grunted. “The unchanged? They’re not eggs, or raw material! They’re people! Giving them a label like that suggests that they’re not fine just the way they are! We are not better than them, Sk’Vrae, we are simply different! Good grief, it’s that kind of attitude I’ve worked my ass off over the last fourteen years to prevent! It’s that mentality that made me glad the Merranes destroyed my ancestors, because the idea that they were superior to the rest of the Faey had taken hold of the Generations of that time!”
You have a paradigm of thought where you're basically looking at the Generations, and the not-yet-Generations. Alternately, Generations(which is now a huge group), and non-Generations. But it still comes back to Jason's complaint about "Giving them a label like that suggests that they’re not fine just the way they are! We are not better than them, Sk’Vrae, we are simply different!"
So how do you acknowledge the difference exists, without either implying they're "incomplete" or even "deficient" (in a way they can "correct" no less) if a person/race
chose to
not transition to being a Generation?
How do you also go about doing so without creating imagery or other associations that religious nut-jobs across the Galaxy wouldn't find a way to latch onto in order to make it the new "mark of the beast" as well?
Of course, the "walling off" and going into seclusion as Sk'Vrae mentioned(and Jason has even contemplated) might need to work in reverse as well. Any race that
doesn't want to have
their entire race potentially transition as the Faey, Terrans, Urumi, and Kirri have done will now henceforth need to consider having "protocols" in place with respect to any and all trade that passes through a shared atmosphere with where a Generation is known to be present. The Generations are now the penultimate Typhoid Mary, only unlike Typhoid Mary, you could go years, decades, or even centuries between "communication events" taking place, but once it happens...
I guess it is a good thing bionoid's are so common these days. Resonant Tech may help things even further if it can give the Bionoids the ability to telepathically communicate with others near it, rather than being stuck with either verbal communication or commune. Edit: Because otherwise visiting Earth while unprotected, or any other Generation occupied world for that matter is to risk becoming one yourself. Bionoids, rather than environmental suits work around that issue to some degree. Stay in a nice safe, and secure facility in orbit with your body, with no Generations around, and use a Bionoid for everything else earth-side. Remember, Karis and Terra alike both have Kirri symbioties in their environment, and they're a vector too, so now the Kirri Symbiotes are highly problematic for anyone trying to not get up in a future retrovirus outbreak. Bionoids don't need to worry about getting you sick, and don't make you have to spend weeks at a time in quarantine, where you'd wish you had a Bionoid anyway. /end edit
Which I guess is the other "mystery box" in regards to that particular tech, if they can incorporate resonate tech into a Bionoid, will that possibly change how the bionoids "feel" to the telepaths around them?
I guess the more extreme iteration of it on further thought, is considering the proliferation of cyberjacks, could the Resonant tech be incorporated into a cyberjack gestalt and used by a non-telepath to do (some) telepathic things?
Obviously Fel has established some of it is literally physiological, as witnessed by response times for a telepath vs non-telepath. So there likely would be a speed/"bandwidth" constraint in play at that point. But cyberjack gestalt's could already commune with the assistance of biogenics(or gravband, etc). So why wouldn't a 'jacked individual be able to do the same with the resonant technology?
The real question would be if it can do more than just communication. Much like while a 'jacked person could use commune, they can't use the cyberjack to merge with a tactical gestalt and boost any other abilities they might have. So while they might be able to talk to, or even "listen in" on telepathic chatter with resonant tech, that doesn't mean they can shield their mind, attack others psychically, etc. Although I'd suspect someone clever enough might be able reproduce "the biogenic effect" for Generations with telepaths if they hit the right combination of things. Even if the applications are more defensive in nature, for varying definitions of "defensive" as witnessed with armor and shields. If it can understand and communicate with telepaths, it can probably give telepaths a solid case of "being bothered" if somebody at 3D decided to be naughty.