How do Reavers pilot ships, them being insane cannibals and such?
POSTED BY: chrisisall
UPDATED: Thursday, December 2, 2021 20:06
VIEWED: 48258
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The people who know are researchers who work with mice. For those who don't know, a human is essentially a mouse for all practical purposes (human is a monkey, and monkey is an evolution of mouse.)
Yes, gov. think tanks know alot more than the general public thinks they know. I know this first hand, but I'm not a psychiatrist or researcher. I was refering to the psychiatrist down the street in his office, but even the uber-geeks that have million dollar budgets to do research with are still stabbing in the dark and will be for many more generations.
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Removing the balance that makes us "normal" would not make us a genius. It can be done with drugs, temporarily. You can create a sense of much heightened awareness. It's important to realize that River was already a genius before they did this to her. We gather she was an einstein level genius.
I would say well beyond Einstein, they wanted a combination ultra-genius and ultra-aware. Remove the part of the brain that seperates the more "primitive" parts of the brain from the conscious.Give River access to her intuition, i.e. the part of her brain that observes evrything. I received the impression that they were stabing in the dark also and she was their only semi-success.
All I can say is I love this show.
It's my day off I'm off to see the movie again.
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Wish I were off to see the movie again, that was tonight's plan, but I am still sick :( so I am in bed.
I meant that before they did this to her to make her a perfect agent, she was an einstein genius. Simon's commented on it before, and we saw the flashbacks.
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Ah, seems the original script called for a female Reiver to participate in the town attack outside the bank vault. Now I didn't see 'her' in the film but possibly the script got changed but it definitely adds support to the idea of female Reivers as equals theory...
"Every heist, he's gotta start yelling my name..."
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I am obsessed with the Lord of the RIngs
so I compare the Reavers to the Orc-kai, they are able to make talk and stratagize so they obviously have some intelligence but that does not keep them from tearing eachother apart and eating eachothers flesh when they get angry, or hungry, or bored, or if the other one gets on their nerves.
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I've seen the paradoxial effects of medicine myself.
That's why sometimes it takes tries of several different meds and doses in order to find out what works. Been there and done that with my daughter who has mild Asparger's Syndrome(Asparger's Syndrome-normal to genius level brain function with borderline autistic tendancies. Mainly problems interacting with other people socially. She is a A-B student when she applies herself and is happiest behind a computer keyboard. She embraces her geeekiness and was the one that introduced me to Firefly and Serenity).
The problem is that with the medicines we know of now require continous dosing in order to get the effects. Reavers must have some sort of the supply of the Pax or it must have changed their DNA.
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Wow, I just found this thread and it's full of great ideas. Sorry my post is long, but I just read the whole thread.
1) I think relatively intelligent Reavers (enough to pilot ships and set traps) is scarier than mindless killers. I find Hannibal Lecter scarier than Jaws. I believe they are only REALLY aggressive around human prey, and that’s how they can function. I like the telepathic idea a lot, although there’s no evidence. Flesh-craving, rapist Borg.
2) I prefer the PAX explanation to the vastness of space driving folks batty. The Reavers seemed pretty concentrated around Miranda rather than randomly from every planet on the edge. Plus they all seemed to have gone nuts in just the same way. And what about the long trip out from earth? I think blaming the emptiness of space was partially an Alliance rumor and partially a projection of the fears and loneliness of space crews.
3) I love the prion idea! Although PAX was a chemical rather than a protein (something hydrochloride, so as a chemist I’d like to see the real name!), there are chemicals which can cause prion-like symptoms. Why not a chemical which causes some crucial protein to malfunction, creating a prion? In most people PAX screws this one important protein such that you lose the will to live, but in others it causes a slight misfold in that same protein and it’s now a prion which makes you crazy and can be spread to others. Of course, in humans prion diseases take years to develop and kill within about 6 months of the first neurological symptom, but that’s why I like science fiction! The best way to spread a prion disease is by direct exposure of your nerve tissue to infected nerve tissue (like brain surgery instruments), but consuming infected tissue would be a great way (dramatically speaking) to make new Reavers. What if Reavers eat normal people because they need a normal form of that protein to live? That’s a big vampire parallel. Based on Mal’s prediction of the Bushwacked guy’s becoming a Reaver I imagine he’s had a more intimate experience.
4) I’m against Reaver children. Somehow it makes Reavers less savage and scary to me. Plus, they rape people to death and live with a suicidal lack of core containment on their ships, so I just can’t see it. I think Reaver numbers are growing (Mal’s seen some converts and Reaver territory is expanding), but spreading a Reaver disease is way creepier to me.
5) I don’t think River is a Reaver, although there are some really good literary parallels there (intentional, I’m sure). As has been stated before, I think the Alliance was trying to make the ultimate Operative. Strong governments fear there own people more than anything else. I agree that the Alliance didn’t deal with the Reavers 1) so they wouldn’t draw attention to their mistake, and 2) because it keeps the rim worlds scared, dependent, and distracted.
One movie and 14 TV episodes? What a tease!
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No reason why a protein can’t be hydrogenated, and chlorinated.
Also, might be to do with epigenics- the protein might methylate nucleosomes with behavioural genes. If methylating the glucocorticoid receptor genes can make a mammal introverted, who knows what could be done in 500 years.
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I don’t think the pax actually created the rage within the Reavers. The rage exists within us all but it’s just buried deep in our mind. The pax simply removed all of the Reavers’ inhibitions, reducing them to an instinctual level. The effects of pax probably wore off long ago but the psychological damage it has done cannot be repaired.
"I swallowed a bug." -River Tam
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In a way methylating the nuclesomes would be like 'releasing the rage'- methylation simply prevents transcription of a gene that’s already there, it blocks a part of you. If the targeted gene function was to promote neocortical control, suppressing it would permanently (until the gene was 'switched on' again) remove inhibition. There would have to be some kind of pleiotropic effect, where the targeted gene had more than one terminal function, to explain the pack behaviour.
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Originally posted by ncbrowncoat:
The problem is that with the medicines we know of now require continous dosing in order to get the effects. Reavers must have some sort of the supply of the Pax or it must have changed their DNA.
I disagree. You assume that the Reavers’ condition is still a result of the PAX, but that isn’t necessarily true. The condition could be a result of that result.
Look at most ongoing situations and you’ll see that the effects far outlast the first cause. All that the PAX would need to do is get the ball rolling and human nature would carry it along.
This is the case with just about everything. If you’d like I can give examples from number of children in a family to the places people sit alone.
All that you need to do is cause something once and after that habit takes hold. When you have an entire group in that one habit the habit becomes culture and the culture perpetuates itself.
The movie says that the PAX created the Reavers, it never implied that it sustains them.
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