On Dec 18, 1:41 am, Tim Bruening <tsbru...@pop.dcn.davis.ca.us>
provided this handy spoiler space:
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Now that I've had more time to think about it, what was Dan's
original mission?

I can't come up with anything besides "ballast", nor a reason why
that mother and son were particularly worth saving. (I thought the
resolution usually shows some greater good the saved person or people
accomplish later on.) Otherwise we're almost at the "wishing you had
the power of teleportation so you could catch up to the bus you just
missed" level.

--
- David Chesler <chesler@post.harvard.edu>
Free Cory Maye

David Chesler <chesler@post.harvard.edu> wrote in news:d9dadf69-cce9-
43b8-8777-40dc175a87de@l1g2000hsa.googlegroups.com:

> On Dec 18, 1:41 am, Tim Bruening <tsbru...@pop.dcn.davis.ca.us>
> provided this handy spoiler space:
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> Now that I've had more time to think about it, what was Dan's
> original mission?
>
> I can't come up with anything besides "ballast", nor a reason why
> that mother and son were particularly worth saving. (I thought the
> resolution usually shows some greater good the saved person or people
> accomplish later on.) Otherwise we're almost at the "wishing you had
> the power of teleportation so you could catch up to the bus you just
> missed" level.
>

I assumed that the greater good was the son's being inspired by his
mother's condition to develop an ocular implant for people who were
going blind. Can't do that if he's dead. The digital camera thing was
just a complicating factor.

On Dec 19, 3:42 pm, Geoff Warren <gm...@REMOVETOREPLYcomcast.net>
wrote:
> I assumed that the greater good was the son's being inspired by his
> mother's condition to develop an ocular implant for people who were
> going blind. Can't do that if he's dead. The digital camera thing was
> just a complicating factor

You may be right. I rejected that because he was using CCDs for the
implants, presumably something he learned from the camera, and Dan was
not supposed to leave the camera behind (the subprime directive.) Was
there something else that the Controller thought he would invent if he
lived? Did it not get invented? Is that why they can't make an ear
bud that stays in my ear?

--
- David Chesler <chesler@post.harvard.edu>
Free Cory Maye

David Chesler <chesler@post.harvard.edu> wrote:

> Geoff Warren <gm...@REMOVETOREPLYcomcast.net> wrote:
>
>> I assumed that the greater good was the son's being inspired by
>> his mother's condition to develop an ocular implant for people
>> who were going blind. Can't do that if he's dead. The digital
>> camera thing was just a complicating factor
>
> You may be right. I rejected that because he was using CCDs for
> the implants, presumably something he learned from the camera

Why? The story that Dan was viewing on his PC was something that
was happening *now*, not something that had happened sometime
between 1984 and now. There's no reason to believe that it was
based on present-day technology that Christopher learned in 1984
from the camera rather than on continuing advances in technology
over the course of the past 20 years.

-- jayembee