With the body of Young Valentine and a mind spread over the Mother-trees and the Ubernet of the Philotic connections Jane seems to have almost god-like power.
However she is anchored in an mortal body and that may mean that she is limited to a mortal span of years, then a fall into a dark age of light speed limits and human processing speeds.
I believe however that no such limit needs exist. Apart from the fact that Jane could probably do something on the cellular level with science to extend her life, it seems obvious that she could also do as Miro did and renew her body as she needs to.
However I am curious about what kind of power she will endow her children with.
BC
Posted by Julie (Member # 5580) on :
You might want to put a spoiler warning in the suject.
I don't think she's immortal necessarily, but I don't see her dying anytime soon. (And by anytime soon I mean the next couple of millenium in the book.) Edit: The reason I don't think she's immortal is because while I don't doubt that she could last forever, there are always little mistakes that happen and if she makes the wrong mistake at the wrong time who knows what could happen.
[ January 16, 2004, 03:34 PM: Message edited by: Julie ]
Posted by Bean Counter (Member # 6001) on :
True I think that if she is stepped on by an elephant while making love to Miro she is likely to be done.
However she could make herself very hard to sneak up on, very quick to get away, and very well protected. I could see her making an entire secret service devoted to nothing but keeping her alive to keep civilization going.
BC
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
Am I missing something here? Won't her body just get old and die like anybody else?
Posted by Julie (Member # 5580) on :
Her body would die but her auia (did I spell that right?) would live on in the mother trees and the computer network. I don't see Jane creating a secret service. She doesn't want to die, but she isn't particularly selfish. I find it more likely that she would just try to keep an eye out for herself.
Posted by Koga (Member # 5646) on :
I wonder if her human body died suddenly how much control she would have over where her auia/soul went from there. Since she was able to leep from the philotic web to the mother trees, and back, and even into a body which she was able to leave the body to move the ships it seems like she has alot of options. So if she were getting old her soul could likely just abandon the body and it would probably turn to dust like Ender's did, but what if her death were a suprise some how?
Also I haven't read the books in a while so if this was stated than I have forgotten, but is she allowed to be Baptized, and even married now? Since the Bishop had refused to let the new forms of Peter and Valentine be Babtized as they had no souls of their own, could they now since her soul is that of a being that has never been Babtized, and is its own entity, and Ender's soul occupies the body of Peter so shouldn't he get the same deal as Miro did? Just another ceremony for the new body, just to be on the safe side.
Posted by Julie (Member # 5580) on :
Well, those characters that are kind of in a gray area like that are the ones that, in my opinion, wouldn't necessarily want to be baptized. The combination of Ender and Peter? Ender isn't particularly religious and only picked catholisism because he wanted to marry Novinha and to make the bishop not want to kill him. Peter seems "programmed" if you will to not want to be "good." The combination, to me, means that Ender-as-Peter wouldn't want a baptism. And the Jane-as-Val, maybe she would want to be baptized. But it seems to me that Jane knows so much that she might be like the buggers, she thinks that it would be a waste of time. I don't know. Maybe Jane/Val would want to be baptized, but for Ender/Peter it seems unlikely.
Posted by Princess Leah (Member # 6026) on :
Kind of on subject, are there sequel-ish short stories or anything, or a book planned to continue the Speaker series? Everytime I read Children of the Mind I practically go insane because I want things sewed up all pretty. Oh, wait, it's Card. Well, I want things sewed up.
Posted by Bean Counter (Member # 6001) on :
quote: Her body would die but her auia (did I spell that right?) would live on in the mother trees and the computer network.
I think that everybody missed my point, so long as her Auia can go outside, it can recreate the Valentine body as often as she needs to. She need never die at all, she can just keep moving into a new house every fifty years or so, or perhaps just refurbishing.
BC
Posted by SouljaKlipp (Member # 6092) on :
jane never created the body she is in. she never created anything when she went outside. miro was able to create a new body because he loathed his crippled one so much and loved his old vision of himself. it was the image he held dearest in his mind. whose to say jane could create a new body at all? she has never created anything from outside, so how do we know she can do it at all? even supposing she could hold in her mind an image of a new form, miro only jumped because he hated his crippled form. klipp
Posted by Bean Counter (Member # 6001) on :
It is clear that Jane can and does hold the images of those she translates outside, herself included, given her computerlike ability to edit I would say she can extend that ability to making changes, transfers, and new constructions.
To put it another way, Jane is greater then Ender or Miro therefore anything they accomplished outside she can do better.
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Well, I want things sewed up.