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It's a strange emotion to feel sadness for the mistakes of a "mad" scientist, and yet this is what the trilogy has left with me. The loss of life caused by a specific analysis of the world left to ferment in the special privacy of a hyper-capitalist surveillance state is a tragedy that seems as real as today's mass shootings in a world where genomes are just blueprints for corporate profit-making. And yet there is hope in this story, and it is borne of fighting for survival in solidarity with the other creatures of earth. I can clearly see the influence this had on Borne, but I think this one might do a better job making the parallels to our world more explicit.

In this reread (kicking off my goal to read the trilogy) I was struck but the way in which materials were discussed. The danger of glass when one has no shoes, how an ointment had the thickness of mud, and of course the description of the flesh of a Nubbin.

I enjoyed the reflections on risk (who bears the burden and why) that mirrored some of my thoughts during this trying pandemic.

The struggle against oppression is longer than a lifetime. I loved the dystopian future Korea and the letters between Frobisher and Sixsmith.

A extremely relevant discussion on the difficulties in disambiguating the behaviour of those who are processing Trauma and those who are exerting Supremacy that calls the us to more closely examine the ways in which we align ourselves with the participants in a conflict. Examples move through varying scales of human conflict in social relationships that are rooted in 1:1 interactions but build to a global scale.

A bit rosy view of the world.