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In the Vorkosigan Saga, the "uterine replicator" appears as a minor but persistent future-technology, where the main selling point is Not Dying To Your Stupid B

by Terr_ 2y ago

In the Vorkosigan Saga, the "uterine replicator" appears as a minor but persistent future-technology, where the main selling point is Not Dying To Your Stupid Biology, followed by convenience. > "[The] debate that will fundamentally alter Barrayar's future is being carried on right now among their wives and daughters. To use it, or not to use it? Too late to keep it out, it's already here. The middle classes are picking it up in droves. Every mother who loves her daughter is pressing for it, to spare her the physical dangers of biological childbearing. They're fighting not the old men, who haven't got a clue, but an old guard of their sisters who say to their daughters, in effect, We had to suffer, so must you! Look around tonight, Mark. You're witnessing the last generation of men and women on Barrayar who will dance this dance in the old way." -- Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorkosigan_Saga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorkosigan_Saga

int_19h 2y ago
Bujold also made an explicit point on several occasions in this book cycle that without this kind of tech, there's no true gender equality, because the burden of childbearing is just too much of a penalty.
- Terr_ 2y ago
  > without this kind of tech, there's no true gender equality Right, and partly to forestall any appeal-to-nature responses, I'll borrow from another top-favorite author, with emphasis added: > The Patrician took a sip of his beer. “I have told this to few people, gentlemen, and I suspect I never will again, but one day when I was a young boy on holiday in Uberwald I was walking along the bank of a stream when I saw a mother otter with her cubs. A very endearing sight, I’m sure you will agree, and even as I watched, the mother otter dived into the water and came up with a plump salmon, which she subdued and dragged on to a half-submerged log. As she ate it, while of course it was still alive, the body split and I remember to this day the sweet pinkness of its roes as they spilled out, much to the delight of the baby otters who scrambled over themselves to feed on the delicacy. One of nature’s wonders, gentlemen: mother and children dining upon mother and children. And that’s when I first learned about evil. It is built into the very nature of the universe. Every world spins in pain. If there is any kind of supreme being, I told myself, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior.” > The two wizards exchanged a glance. Vetinari was staring into the depths of his beer mug and they were glad that they did not know what he saw in there. -- Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett
- ConspiracyFact 2y ago
  It's both a curse and a blessing. Women have a degree of control over reproduction that men can never have.

by Terr_ 2y ago

int_19h 2y ago

Bujold also made an explicit point on several occasions in this book cycle that without this kind of tech, there's no true gender equality, because the burden of childbearing is just too much of a penalty.

Terr_ 2y ago
> without this kind of tech, there's no true gender equality Right, and partly to forestall any appeal-to-nature responses, I'll borrow from another top-favorite author, with emphasis added: > The Patrician took a sip of his beer. “I have told this to few people, gentlemen, and I suspect I never will again, but one day when I was a young boy on holiday in Uberwald I was walking along the bank of a stream when I saw a mother otter with her cubs. A very endearing sight, I’m sure you will agree, and even as I watched, the mother otter dived into the water and came up with a plump salmon, which she subdued and dragged on to a half-submerged log. As she ate it, while of course it was still alive, the body split and I remember to this day the sweet pinkness of its roes as they spilled out, much to the delight of the baby otters who scrambled over themselves to feed on the delicacy. One of nature’s wonders, gentlemen: mother and children dining upon mother and children. And that’s when I first learned about evil. It is built into the very nature of the universe. Every world spins in pain. If there is any kind of supreme being, I told myself, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior.” > The two wizards exchanged a glance. Vetinari was staring into the depths of his beer mug and they were glad that they did not know what he saw in there. -- Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett
ConspiracyFact 2y ago
It's both a curse and a blessing. Women have a degree of control over reproduction that men can never have.