[X] My Assistant

[PirateChef]

I concur with you, for the most part. Just to qualify your position a bit, though, differences can be magnified by social conditions, training, even (un)natural selection. Take for example, the situation of a two-year old child running, squealing and waving her hands. Now, have her observed by two dogs, a Labrador Retriever and a Border Collie (I won't pick on the obvious breed everybody picks on). Same species, inter-breedable, but the responses to the stimulus will be very different, even if the individuals receive the same basic training.

And I concur with you for the most part because as you will leap to say, people are not dogs.

Actually, if all of them have received the same training, then they will all act the same. B/c training supercedes any deviation in brain formation / chemistry that would dictate otherwise. That's the point of training.

[Ravor]

In a perfect world maybe.

[pbangarth]

Actually, if all of them have received the same training, then they will all act the same. B/c training supercedes any deviation in brain formation / chemistry that would dictate otherwise. That's the point of training.

Well... two things. First, that's why I said 'basic' training. The Border Collie will be desperate to control that chaotic thing and make it stay still, or better yet come back and stay still. The Labrador Retriever will be "Yeah, whatever." So, both of them can be trained to leave the kid alone, but the Collie will need a lot more training than the Lab to do so. Second, instinct is powerful, and training can be overriden in trying circumstances. "But he's been around children for years, and he's never done anything like this!" Every animal, including a human, has a breaking point. That's the point of breaking.

[Ravor]

Meh, when certain breeds account for such a large majority of serious attacks I have severe doubts about that.

[BlueMax]

Well... two things. First, that's why I said 'basic' training. The Border Collie will be desperate to control that chaotic thing and make it stay still, or better yet come back and stay still. The Labrador Retriever will be "Yeah, whatever." So, both of them can be trained to leave the kid alone, but the Collie will need a lot more training than the Lab to do so. Second, instinct is powerful, and training can be overriden in trying circumstances. "But he's been around children for years, and he's never done anything like this!" Every animal, including a human, has a breaking point. That's the point of breaking.

I thought the point of braking was to avoid rear-ending the car infront of me.
You learn something new on the trix every day kiddos.

BlueMax
/former Labrador and Rottweiler owner

[BlueMax]

duplicate

From the dept of redundancy dept.

[Neraph]

Odd data: Humans as we know them today, has jumbled DNA/scrap DNA, that the human molecularscientist has no idea what is for. Weird, eh?

The more of the DNA that scientists actually decode (last I heard they decoded 4 of the 46 we have [23 pairs]), the less "junk" DNA we figure out we have. I think we have "junk" DNA because scientists have no idea what they're looking at. Put a 4 year old under the hood of your car and tell him to take out anything he doesn't think you need. Same concept.

EDIT: Also, the more we learn about DNA the larger the gap between chimp/ape DNA and human gets. It started off like 1.5% and has grown to (last I heard, probably higher now) 7.5% difference. IIRC, a 0.5% difference will result in the death of a creature.

[cndblank]

If anything, I think Shadowrun underestimates the reaction people would have if magic started working again. Do you really think the Department of Homeland security would tolerate the thought that someone could just conjure up an elemental and rip an engine off a plane in mid flight without anyone being able to stop it? Or political leaders having to wonder if someone in the crowd during election season was reading their minds?

I think the government would freak. They'd have a full on psychotic break, and start rounding up everyone with the Talent and consider permanent imprisonment and isolation.

No they would not.

The NAN just kicked their asses.

They would be trying to find anyone with magicial talent and get them trained so that they didn't fall behind in "Magic" arms race.

Mages would be able to write their own ticket.

Especially with the Corps doing the same thing with more money.

But I could really see that happening if nothing else was going on.