opnet [OpNet] Unconventional breeding

[Wakinyan]

Leliel commenting about being made totally of energy made me consider our little subspecies again. Someone mentioned in a thread recently that it seems we as Novas are all evolving into our own personal races. That seems to make things hard to continue our race if we all become so incompatible that we cannot procreate.

We all know that Novas in general have difficulty having children is this the root of it? Because one node goes a different way than another?

[Regina Newcastle]

More realistically, Wakinyan, what this indicates is that homo sapiens novus simply is not built to last. Our low percentage of reproduction could indicate that, thanks to nova longevity, our need for reproduction has decreased in response to that. After all, if the average nova lifespan is some five hundred years (for example), the urgency placed upon reproduction is significantly smaller. One child every two hundred years would be enough to continue the race genetically.

Unfortunately, the reality of the matter does not indicate as such. Animals with such increased longevity tend to breed infrequently (like novas could, in theory) and spawn a clutch of young, only a few of which make it to maturity (which novas would not require). However, in even the most long-lived, least fecund species in existence, fertility remains a prevailing sexual characteristic. The fact that so many novas are sterile and - as you pointed out, that so few novas are even physically compatible - doesn't indicate that novas have developed a new or somehow advanced form of sexual reproduction. On the contrary, it indicates that we are very likely a genetic fluke, and one that will quite possibly run its course.