This is topic Yet another question/idea about Bean and his children [possible SotG spoilers] in forum Discussions About Orson Scott Card at Hatrack River Forum.
It’s quite possible that this was addressed back when Shadow Puppets came out, in which case I’m sorry for the repetition.
Anyway, I was thinking about a passage from Ender’s Shadow.
Sister Carlotta contemplating Bean (Chapter six, p. 118 in the soft cover version):
“…after starving on the streets for all those years, even if he lived he was so malnourished he should have suffered serious mental damage. He should have been permanently retarded. That was why she could not abandon the question of Bean’s origin. Because maybe he was damaged. Maybe he is retarded. Maybe he started out so smart that he could lose half his intellect and still be the miraculous boy he is.”
So, do you guys think this is actually a possibility? Could it be that Bean is not as smart as he could have been? Or does that fact that his brain is continually expanding make up for his deprived youth? Does he reach his maximum intelligence potential, or did he lose ground when he was young?
And if he did lose something due to his malnutrition, what are the implications for his children with the key turned, who will not only have plenty of food, but will also have nothing to do on the spaceship but learn and think? Is it possible that their intelligence levels will be significantly higher than Beans?
I think it is a possibility that they are in fact significantly smarter than Bean. And with all of them on a spaceship together, a group of super intelligent beings who have other super intelligent being to bounce there ideas off of, who knows what they could come up with?
How this could/will all fit into the whole Enderverse, I don’t know. Sadly, as I was typing I kept thinking that it sounds more and more like they could have something to do with the Descoladores. However, I don’t really like that option. I prefer to think of the Descoladores as truly alien, not just super intelligent humans. However, I wonder what you guys think.
Posted by Geekazoid (Member # 7610) on :
Another reason they are definatly smarter than bean is that is that no matter what they have not only bean's but petra's genes in them too
And to answer your question yes i think it is possible and that it will be beans children who will find away to make peace with the Descoladores.
Posted by val (Member # 7687) on :
Of course, it may be possible that part of Bean's genius was developed *because* of his difficult childhood ("blooms in adversity" and that sort of thing)... His children may not have enough mental stimulus in such a tame environment ^^ Though the relative light speed does work in their favor - because time is essentially slowed down for them, advances on earth may be quick enough to keep up with them.
**SotG spoiler**
One thing I would expect from Bean and Petra's nineth child: if his surrogate mother raises him to see Bean and Peter as his father's murderers, I would expect him to look into Bean's background and have the intellegence not only to find records of Bean's condition but also see the similarity to his own... In short Achilles II should be able to figure out the truth behind his own parentage by the time he's 8.
***End Spoiler***
Posted by Sid Meier (Member # 6965) on :
Nope, all information on beans condition I believe soon becomes classified. And besides do you think whats-her-name randi will have him being examined by docters? For fear they'll match his genes with achilles? Randi is a very paranoid woman.
Posted by val (Member # 7687) on :
My point is this: they couldn't keep Bean from figuring out secrets, sometimes because he has access to military computers, but often by his own intellectual "hunches." If Achilles II is as smart as Bean, he should be able to find information on his "father's" killers, even if it is classified. At the same time, if his intellegence is not identified on his home colony (he pretends to be normal at Randi's instruction), he may never find himself in a place to investigate Bean and Peter. So it wouldn't be unimaginable that he never learns his true parentage, I just think his intellegence weights the odds in his favor.
Posted by MrSquicky (Member # 1802) on :
It might be important to remember that Bean was one of a batch of most likely genetically identical Anton's Key babies, but he was the only one to escape, which suggests that he was smarter than his crechemates. If they were identitical, then there must be some sort of environmental factor that gave Bean his superiority.
If, however, they were similar but not identical, then differences in the genes play a big effect on the Anton's Key expression. The Key is not merely a force mulitplier that enhances base intelligence by some mutliple. It's an entirely new way of augmenting intellect. It's possible that taking a baby who would have low intelligence normally and turning the key would result in an even smarter person than Bean or that doing it with one who was base more intelligent (which would be expected from a Bean/Petra pairing) would be less. It's entirely possible that Bean and Petra's kids aren't going to reach anywhere near Bean's potential, or that only one of them (i.e. the one Randi's carrying) is going to be on or above that level.
Posted by jongo05 (Member # 7580) on :
quote: It might be important to remember that Bean was one of a batch of most likely genetically identical Anton's Key babies
It illudes to the fact that Bean may have been the only baby/child in which the key was successfully turned, so his survival could be based on the fact that he had the key and the others didn't.
Posted by val (Member # 7687) on :
Very true, jongo. Also, while Nikolia (sp?) wasn't as smart as Petra, he wasn't exactally stupid, which suggests that Anton's key should have some effect on a person with above-average intellegence, though the effect may be greater on those with lower intellegence.
Posted by ChaosTheory (Member # 7069) on :
It's supposedly that if Bean hadn't been on the streets and starved that he'd be smarter. But if he never had the problem finding food then he would never have had the uber-survivalist mentality.
Posted by neo-dragon (Member # 7168) on :
It kinda makes one wonder about Achilles as well. He grew up starving on the street too (though not to the extent of Bean, since he was a bully and able to fend for himself better), but regardless of his insanity he was a genius. If he had had a normal upbringing, he might not have been homocidal, and he probably would have been selected for battle school at the usual age. He might have done well there, and even been a part of the jeesh. Okay, that's a lot of "mights" and "ifs". I guess we'll never know.