How come the Vilani are still alive?

[prognosticValtiel]

My understanding of the lore/cannon is that the Vilani (by being transplanted) simply just had little to no microorganisms that were directly capable of interacting with a Human. If you take Earth for example we would have much more in common with a Coniferous Pine than, say, a Vilani would with a Vland ape analogue.

Because they didn't have these microorganism that would become accustomed to Vilani (mixed with the heavily processed nature of their food) they just never got sick because it just didn't happen.

In various incidents of people getting sick a common example is cross transmission from animals to people such as a bat eating mangos with Rabies transmitting that to humans because a random person picked it up and ate it (people be starving) or eating sushi for example and getting parasites from the raw food.

Vilani are far more superstitious about their food and what goes into it than we are (the wiki even says something to the effect of a Vilani saying being "It's not food if it isn't cooked") so because of that I imagine that cross transmission too would be very minor from that vector as well.

Additionally what is known about the Ziru Sirka is that the vast majority of people were more tied to their worlds than in the Third Imperium and trade much more limited/restrictive, thus furthering the limit of cross transmission events to prop up.

It's really just the perfect storm of Vilani society fundamentally being incapable of developing any illness and even spreading it, because of the nature of their environment.

 

[RossWinn]

It's really just the perfect storm of Vilani society fundamentally being incapable of developing any illness and even spreading it, because of the nature of their environment.

Yes but isn't it also the perfect storm of viral vulnerability? I would think there'd be a much less robust physical reaction to any epidemic or contagion. So while I believe that the homogenous Vilani genotype would exist, it would be muddled into the other genotypes mixed within Humaniti. Much like "Irish-Americans" etcetera.

 

[aramis]

I don’t know that I buy being dropped in an alien biochemistry translates to complete ignorance of germs. Humans need their gut flora so that couldn’t be eliminated, that’s a Petri dish of sources for mutation of diseases.

I don't think DGP did, either; V&V makes it clear they had a clue about microbes, as they used them to make the local stuff edible; they just were unaware of viruses. And the Duskir Plague is an airborne virus.

 

[mike wightman]

In the 300,000 years since transplantation the biotics carried by the humans would have made their way into the Vland biome and adapted or died off, in a similar way the Vland biota would have adapted to the humans. 300,000 years ago or so bacteria and fungi couldn't digest lignin, so trees turned into coal, today trees just rot.

 

[Condottiere]

At some point, they must have considered eating each other.

There's a Poul Anderson short, explaining about hormones being the reason.

 

[mike wightman]

That is a very good point - Vilani would have no problem eating other Vilani...

Is this a secret history of the Vilani thing - they practiced cannibalism?

What is the Vilani word for "long pig"?

 

[Enoki]

They were genetically modified by the Ancients to be alien microbe resistant. It wasn't until they encountered Terran diseases that had 300,000 years of co-evolution with humans that their immune systems couldn't cope.

I would assume, much like humans and something like smallpox, that even if something like 95% of Vilani were killed off by some disease some small portion would survive and become largely resistant or immune to that disease. Wash, rinse, repeat, a few times and the resulting generation(s) become resistant to whatever it is that's making them believers in their equivalent of Nietzsche.

 

[whartung]

Well then the real question is why did the Terrans survive. They're just as vulnerable to whatever the Vilani have managed to be exposed to and learned to cope with where the Terrans have not, plus the Vilani were scattered hither and yon across many worlds to offer safety and isolation compared to the Terrans single world. So, even with just dumb luck, the Vilani have a much better chance to survive a Terran plague than the other way around.

 

[Enoki]

Well then the real question is why did the Terrans survive. They're just as vulnerable to whatever the Vilani have managed to be exposed to and learned to cope with where the Terrans have not, plus the Vilani were scattered hither and yon across many worlds to offer safety and isolation compared to the Terrans single world. So, even with just dumb luck, the Vilani have a much better chance to survive a Terran plague than the other way around.

We're the same way. Look at the recent discovery of vast pre-Columbian civilization in the Amazon basin recently. It's estimated that millions lived there until Europeans made contact and gave the population smallpox. That killed off something like 98% of the population and the area became a wilderness taken over by rainforest.

 

[Condottiere]

Apparently, the Terrans were more advanced in pharmaceuticals, and one would assume, found the cure rather quickly.

 

[Krikkitone]

In the 300,000 years since transplantation the biotics carried by the humans would have made their way into the Vland biome and adapted or died off, in a similar way the Vland biota would have adapted to the humans. 300,000 years ago or so bacteria and fungi couldn't digest lignin, so trees turned into coal, today trees just rot.

That was 300 Million years ago not 300,000.

Human microbiome on Vland would include microbes that can only live on humans….if the Vland native biome was too difficult to adapt to.

 

[TamsinP]

That was 300 Million years ago not 300,000.

Human microbiome on Vland would include microbes that can only live on humans….if the Vland native biome was too difficult to adapt to.

No - 300,000 years ago is correct. 300 million years ago predates the dinosaurs; Hominidae first arose somewhere from 4-8 million years ago and Homo sapiens about 3-4 hundred thousand years ago.

 

[mike wightman]

That was 300 Million years ago not 300,000.

Human microbiome on Vland would include microbes that can only live on humans….if the Vland native biome was too difficult to adapt to.

Thanks for the catch, I missed three zeros, too late to edit it. I am well aware it was 300,000,000 years ago, there is even an epoch named after it

 

[mike wightman]

No - 300,000 years ago is correct. 300 million years ago predates the dinosaurs; Hominidae first arose somewhere from 4-8 million years ago and Homo sapiens about 3-4 hundred thousand years ago.

He's right about my lignin/coal analogy, I should have typed 300,000,000 but typed 300,000. I find it increasing difficult to spot mistakes due to eyesight deterioration - corneas are disintegrating.

 

[mike wightman]

In the 300,000 years since transplantation the biotics carried by the humans would have made their way into the Vland biome and adapted or died off, in a similar way the Vland biota would have adapted to the humans. 300,000 years ago or so bacteria and fungi couldn't digest lignin, so trees turned into coal, today trees just rot.

Should read

In the 300,000 years since transplantation the biotics carried by the humans would have made their way into the Vland biome and adapted or died off, in a similar way the Vland biota would have adapted to the humans. 300,000,000 years ago or so bacteria and fungi couldn't digest lignin, so trees turned into coal, today trees just rot.

 

[TamsinP]

Ahhh! My mistake - I was assuming he was referring to the first part, not the lignin digestion.

 

[mike wightman]

It was my mistake, totally my fault.

 

[TamsinP]

It was my mistake, totally my fault.

I bear some blame - commenting when not fully awake and lacking coffee.