Episode: 33 Xenogenesis - Adulthood-Rites: II: PHOENIX Chapter 6

XenoThesis

In this episode: Richard and Michael thank fungi for the lack of giant bugs. Akin engages in unintentional creepy child horror gas-lighting. We also see a reprise of the Agouti. Richard sells out humanity (again), but offers a cunning plan for their survival first. Also: This is the version Octavia toned down?

Timestamps

00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:30 - Preamble
00:01:47 - Predictions - will we reach Phoenix?
00:02:21 - Start of Chapter discussion
00:03:02 - ongoing mishandling of Akin is aggravating
00:04:30 - Does the absence of new children explain their apparent ignorance?
00:05:58 - But some of them had kids before?!
00:06:40 - Sub-par hygene and super-smell
00:07:10 - Akin can take better care of himself than a normal kid
00:07:40 - Testing the limits of Akin’s resilience?
00:08:13 - Our band of misfit kidnappers
00:09:57 - Planning a deception - for a change
00:10:40 - Contradictions of the group
00:10:51 - Approach to Hillmann
00:11:20 - A Ghosttown
00:12:21 - Damek dismissed Galt adressing Akin
00:13:34 - Go find something kid?
00:14:20 - Superstitions about the Oankali and constructs
00:16:48 - Akin smells blood and avoids it
00:17:01 - Agouti - Brazil nut ecology callback (episodes 19 & 27)
00:17:32 - Agouti: bigger more insectivorous - modded?
00:18:23 - Microorganism engeneering by the Oankali?
00:18:44 - BIG Ants (Dinoponera gigantea) [1]
00:19:50 - Microrobes and digestion
00:20:20 - Big Insects, Oxygen levels, & tree eating Fungi [2,3,4, & 5]
00:20:42 - * Richard meant Ligninases
00:20:58 - Thank Fungi for no more giant bugs
00:21:54 - Dragonflies are awesome but we are glad they ar not bigger [6]
00:23:10 - Akin smells some books
00:23:19 - The village ‘gave up’ and joined the ‘trade’ villages
00:24:07 - Richard sells out humanity
00:24:38 - How to keep ‘pure’ humans in existence?
00:25:46 - Put some gammetes on ice & form a conspiracy!
00:28:50 - Caches of pre-war tech? [7]
00:30:26 - How to evade the Oankali’s notice
00:31:16 - Granting we are undetected what next?
00:33:14 - We’d probably need computers
00:33:36 - Radiation hardened electronics [8]
00:35:46 - Abandon hope, work from the inside
00:37:00 - The killing of the Agouti
00:39:20 - dehumanisation
00:40:29 - Akin scares Galt
00:44:22 - Akin accidently gas-lights Galt
00:45:36 - Iriarte tells Akin the others are crazy
00:46:26 - Trading Akin for a Woman
00:47:00 - Chapter 7 Predictions
00:48:14 - Some of the village voted not to join the Oankali
00:49:35 - Speculations on Phoenix
00:50:18 - Living in a resister village
00:51:29 - Illusion of choice to resist
00:52:25 - Homestead over town to live out your days
00:53:16 - This is the version Octavia lightened up [9]
00:54:39 - Outro

References

Giant Ants:

• [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinoponera_gigantea

Big Insects, Oxygen levels, & tree eating Fungi:

• [2] Why Giant Bugs Once Roamed the Earth https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/110808-ancient-insects-bugs-giants-oxygen-animals-science
• [3] The Carboniferous Period – Coal and Giant Insects http://piecubed.co.uk/carboniferous-period-insect/
• [4] Can Oxygen Set Thermal Limits in an Insect and Drive Gigantism? https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0022610
• [5] Atmospheric oxygen level and the evolution of insect body size https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.0001
• [6] The clip of the Merlin trying and failing to catch a Dragonfly was fomr BBC spring watch but I can’t find it

Where you might find pre-war tech

• [7] missile silo appartments https://www.designboom.com/architecture/survival-condo-former-missile-silo-kansas-07-14-2020/

Radiation Hardened Electronics

• [8] NASA Radiation Hardened Electronics for Space Environments https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20070037453

This is the version Octavia toned down?

• [9] Ocatvia wanted to write a best-seller so an optimistic ‘yes’ book https://youtu.be/orrpN4JiYF0?t=847

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Intro: L’Etoile danse (Pt. 1) by Meydan Outro: Long Way Home by Spinning Ratio