Inside Job by E.S. Strout

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K._Vesi

Inside Job by E.S. Strout

Post by K._Vesi »

HA! HA! This would make a good Outer Limits story, too.<br><br>Excellent writing--strong word choice. Some interesting use of imagery: the way some of the story is told only through dialogue. That way the reader is left to wonder about what is happening, building up more suspense.<br><br>Like this kindof story--its suspenseful but I can't help but laugh.<br>
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Robert_Moriyama
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Re: Inside Job by E.S. Strout

Post by Robert_Moriyama »

... What they said. The mention of The Outer Limits was funny in the same way that the inclusion of cartoons featuring the Big Bad Wolf was in The Howling (the first one = the good one -- the sequels were terrible). Like Dan, I expected some kind of mutant pregnancy -- twins, triplets, and up -- with telepathic fetuses (feti?). Or impregnation by aliens, or demons. (Githros! What have you been up to between stories?) The idea of an intelligent cancer was different (although I THINK I may have seen something along those lines years or decades ago) ...<br><br>Actually, pregnancy has been compared to a sort of cancer or disease. A separate entity, with its growth-regulating mechanism disabled, develops inside a woman, feeding off her body's resources ... it is genetically distinct from her, sometimes even having an incompatible blood type; in some cases, its development can be harmful or even fatal to the host -- er, mother. But I don't think a developing fetus could jump ship to survive (especially not into a man's body). Rosemary's Baby for the X-Men generation!<br><br>Robert M.
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kailhofer
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Re: Inside Job by E.S. Strout

Post by kailhofer »

This is an interesting story. Cognitive cancer. <br><br>Very creepy notion.<br><br>I don't have a medical background (my family were all printers and newspapermen), so was wondering about the real-world possibility of a few things:<br><br>Can you convey thoughts or speech along the nerves and into the brain? Nerves seem to be a lot less complex than the host of connections betwixt ganglia, so are the nerves themselves capable of transmitting that kind of information??<br><br>Then, if it can transmit this, is there actually any structure within the connections that could translate this input into language that the rest of the brain can interpret?<br><br>That is, unless the growth was in the brain to begin with, or the messages were audio in nature. I was just wondering in case I ever tried to write a cyborg or other 'joined being' story.<br><br>Also, in the speech of the growth it says, "no programmed suicide." Why would it be "programmed?" I was confused by that.<br><br>Since E.S. Strout is a staff member at U.C. Irvine Medical Center, as well as being a very prolific (and very good) author around the Net, perhaps he can be coaxed out to say a thing or two about it.<br><br>Nate
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Robert_Moriyama
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Re: Inside Job by E.S. Strout

Post by Robert_Moriyama »

... Can you convey thoughts or speech along the nerves and into the brain? Nerves seem to be a lot less complex than the host of connections betwixt ganglia, so are the nerves themselves capable of transmitting that kind of information?? ...

Also, in the speech of the growth it says, "no programmed suicide." Why would it be "programmed?" I was confused by that.

Nate
<br><br>I ain't no medical expert neither, but obviously you can convey SOUND (as encoded in nerve impulses) along the AUDITORY nerves to the brain, where the squishy Black Box interprets it as noise, music, or speech. Of course, if the cell colonies in the story WEREN'T in the brain, your question becomes, can you convey impulses from nerves ELSEWHERE in the body so they reach the auditory nerves, after which the squishy Black Box ... I would suspect that the answer to the latter question is yes, otherwise devices that depend on bone conduction to carry sound (as vibration) through the skeleton wouldn't work.<br><br>As for the latter question, one of the areas of research into aging and death is the built-in self-destruct mechanism of healthy cells. Part of this lies in structures within the DNA (I think) called telomeres -- kind of a string of beads that protects the integrity of genetic information that gets shorter with time. When the beads run out, the information needed to generate new proteins, repair damage, etc. or whatever is corrupted and the cell dies. There are also biochemical cues that come into play that cause cells to function less efficiently and break down ...<br><br>In cancer cells, two mechanisms are absent: the one that tells cells to die when they are worn out, and the one that tells cells to stop dividing (lest you wind up with a Heart As Big As All Outdoors -- literally). Thus, a "no programmed suicide" instinct in a sentient cell would qualify that cell as cancerous; a "never stop dividing" instinct would qualify that cell as malignant.<br><br>Dr.(?) Strout, kindly unscramble the above and correct my no doubt numerous errors and misconceptions!<br><br>Robert M.<br>
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

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lokifan

Re: Inside Job by E.S. Strout

Post by lokifan »

OK, you guys all seem very clever and now I'm a little freaked out. But I loved the suspense in the story. Nice twist at the end.<br> Just out of curiosity - Robert M. mentioned telomeres. How do they break down? Intervention by another cell, or is it pre-programmed into that one? Just nosy and OK at science, sorry if getting you too far off-topic.
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