On 7/14/2016 2:01 AM, Tim wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 13, 2016 at 05:37:00PM +0200, Abu Dhabi wrote:
>> I actually wouldn't be all that surprised that pureblood Terrans
>> exist in significant numbers. Endogamy is a thing.
>
> Not with an absolutely perfect record over more than three thousand
> years of being embedded within a highly mobile non-pureblood society,
> it isn't.

(snip)

> By the time of the Third Imperium, there are no longer any truly
> pureblood Terrans.  There are just those who might like to claim such
> a thing.

First, full disclosure - I have the usual(?) "Crazy Eddie" distrust of
absolute pronouncements like "never" and "impossible."

Second, it seems to me that there will be elements of the minority
society which are /not/ embedded within the society surrounding them,
and which may actively work to maintain that separation, with all the
tools available to them.  I can certainly imagine xenophobic enclaves
surviving, with TL 9+ medicine to mitigate the consequences of extensive
inbreeding and other TL 9+ methods to maintain social control.

They may not be large, they may not be relevant on the Imperial stage,
but I submit that you can no more declare with certainty that they would
not and could not exist than you can assert that no free trader named
Russell ever set a tea service adrift in Sol's outer system.

--
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Kelly St. Clair
xxxxxx@efn.org