It's deeply amusing, to Tarantulas, how Vika insists on bringing up his mental issues and anti-social tendencies over and over. It barely even sounds pejorative anymore, more like a simple descriptor. He can picture her pointing him out of a crowd to some newcomer, saying something like, 'Oh, there goes Tarantulas, the big purple mad scientist.'
"That's understandable, given how you were raised." He acknowledges her suffering with a sympathetic nod. "But for the children of loving parents, it seems..."
He pauses for a moment, to consider his words. "When organics reproduce," he begins again, "they give of their own genetic material to create a new being. The code of their physical existence, stripped down and recombined to create an entity that is like them without being a copy. Even species that reproduce via natural cloning will experience genetic drift over time, although it is usually to their species' detriment. But when a sapient organic raises a child -- and I should mention that sapient organics usually do, I suspect the selection for close parent-child bonds is a necessity for developing true social intelligence -- they are contributing something else as well. The parent's memes are passed down; the components of their beliefs, their values, their morality and history. A genetic tie is not necessary for this to happen; anyone who interacts with a child for any length of time will do it. But in the parent-child bond I see something special. Something that Cybertron has always lacked."
cw: richard dawkins
"That's understandable, given how you were raised." He acknowledges her suffering with a sympathetic nod. "But for the children of loving parents, it seems..."
He pauses for a moment, to consider his words. "When organics reproduce," he begins again, "they give of their own genetic material to create a new being. The code of their physical existence, stripped down and recombined to create an entity that is like them without being a copy. Even species that reproduce via natural cloning will experience genetic drift over time, although it is usually to their species' detriment. But when a sapient organic raises a child -- and I should mention that sapient organics usually do, I suspect the selection for close parent-child bonds is a necessity for developing true social intelligence -- they are contributing something else as well. The parent's memes are passed down; the components of their beliefs, their values, their morality and history. A genetic tie is not necessary for this to happen; anyone who interacts with a child for any length of time will do it. But in the parent-child bond I see something special. Something that Cybertron has always lacked."