XPost: rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.books   
   From: robban@clubtelco.com   
      
   On 11/08/13 10:07 AM, Your Name wrote:   
   > In article , Robert Bannister   
   >  wrote:   
   >> On 10/08/13 1:42 PM, David DeLaney wrote:   
   >>> On 2013-08-10, William December Starr  wrote:   
   >>>> lal_truckee  said:   
   >>>>> "mana" (aka magical power source) is known to be impossible in the   
   >>>>> world we actually inhabit   
   >>>>   
   >>>> It is?  How do we know this?   
   >>>   
   >>> Well, for one thing, we observe absolutely no plants or animals (or fungi   
   or   
   >>> protists etc.) that DO anything with it. Now this isn't a full-blown   
   > proof of   
   >>> impossibility - it's pretty hard to find ones that use radioactivity, aka   
   >>> weak force - but if using mana for any kind of power source WERE practical,   
   >>> and didn't -require- things that Only Humans Can Do Because We're Special,   
   >>> you'd expect some insect to have accidentally managed to tap into it and   
   >>> then outperform its fellow ecological-niche travelers, which leads to the   
   >>> scenery found in Xanth for example.   
   >>   
   >> But how do caterpillars turn into butterflies and how do they know how   
   >> to do it?   
   >   
   > Duh! Like everyone else, they read about it on Wikipedia ... there's   
   > little else to do when you stuck in a cocoon.   ;-)   
   >   
      
   I should have known.   
      
   --   
   Robert Bannister   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)