Bean Couldn't Have Survived

[nigel%rodolfo@hegemon.gov]

Living for so long on the streets of Rotterdam, wouldn't Bean have gotten some disease, which he would have not been healthy enough to fight off?

Also, how would he have survived through winter, where he surely would've had at least gotten pneumonia and died from that if not anything else brought on by cold temperatures.

[powerfulcheese04]

That's not how medicine works. There are plenty of children who survive in poverty conditions into adulthood. Especially when they gang up.


Also, pneumonia isn't brought on by cold temperatures. It's brought on my infection in the lungs. I had pneumonia in August in Texas...

[mr_thebrain]

i thought his story was really far fetched. and no, i don't think he would have lived.

god i hate those books. why couldn't he have just kept him a small kid and not some mutant put on earth to play down ender's greatness?

[Froth]

If you hate the books, why are you even here?

Tons of kids survive harsh winters, also many die. Same with Rotterdam. Him being a genetically altered human had nothing to do with it. And I thought that was a cool twist in the story. Him being not just a normal kid.

[mr_thebrain]

i meant that i hate the bean books. i love the ender books

[Froth]

I still dont understand the argument though. Perhaps we should bring statistics in?

[nigel%rodolfo@hegemon.gov]

Also, pneumonia isn't brought on by cold temperatures. It's brought on my infection in the lungs.

Ah, sorry, I meant that the cold would have made him more susceptible to diseases, such as pneumonia.

I had pneumonia in August in Texas...

Wow, not something I expected. Must have sucked.

[nigel%rodolfo@hegemon.gov]

Tons of kids survive harsh winters, also many die.

Hm, it is possible he snuck into an apartment building and slept next to the boiler. That's what I would do even if I weren't a 4-yr old genius.

[Janus%TheDoorman]

The other thing that bothered me about Bean's story - the living in the toilet. Wasn't it mentioned at some point that Bean was actually brain damaged as a result of that, but it just didn't appear so because of how his brain developed?

I supposed Anton's Key and the growth there could help mitigate some symptoms, but as far as I know, it's not like kids born with Cerebral Palsy or something similar just grow out of it.

[Froth]

Its like a cut. New skin will grow over it. Most humans minds dont grow at the same pace as Beans, and eventually all our minds stop growing. But for Bean, his brain constantly grew and was able to make connections in different ways than a human mind would.

For instance, there's this lady who was once blind in one eye. Her brain made an alternate route through her brain, so now she can see out of it. I cant remember how well, but she can. The brain tries its best to adapt. If your brain grows as fast as Beans, Im sure it could make connections like that, and not only faster, but much more stronger.

Or the other option. He is brain damaged, but he is still so advanced beyond us that its not apparent.

[Joshvillen]

One thing that I’ve been constantly thinking about. Do you think Bean lived longer due to his malnourishment? With the lack of food he was ingesting, wasn’t it stunting the rate of his growth? Which gave him a few more years than he wouldn’t have had if he ate on a constant schedule?

[Froth]

Interesting concept. That could be. Usually I would have said no because malnourishment usually just kills you faster, but malnourishment isnt what killed him, and had no contributing factor (as far as we know).

[Person122]

Something on the subject of medicine in Ender's Shadow, this is something I thought of a while ago. In Ender's Shadow, Ulysses is run over by a truck and has to spend sometime in a hospital. My question is, who pays for his medical bills?

[neo-dragon]

Silly American. Ever hear of free health care?

[Jeesh_girl15]

In Ender's Shadow, Ulysses is run over by a truck and has to spend sometime in a hospital.

I thought he was hit with bricks by Achilles and his "family."

[Person122]

If I remember right, he was beaten up and then thrown into the streets.

[Person122]

Silly American. Ever hear of free health care?

Having heard a whole bunch of stuff on the news about people not being able to pay medical bill and not having insurance, it's hard to think otherwise.

[Peterlover14]

Guy's lets not fight. Really? It's a story. A very good one. I'm pretty obsessed with them but it wouldn't be a good story of Bean died of pneumonia or hunger.

Oh, and why didn't you like thr shadow series? I likes those the best.

[perspicacious.emperor]

This is set sometime in the future, so I'm going to infer that people are less supsceptible to disease and the like. Technology would be more advanced, and so would medicine. Plus, even though Earth is overcrowded, no one is confident enough that the numbers are big enough the buggers won't blow every last person up. Instead of letting disease reduce the population, they would probably want to preserve it in the rare chance that even if the buggers blow up the earth, not every one will die. I mean, soon after the Third Invasion, they've prepared a ship for colonization. Somewhere in the books, someone said humans should spread out into the world so that no aliens will ever destroy mankind completely.

So they will make better medicines, for sure. Maybe they release a kind of filtered air into the atmosphere, and it destroys airborne viruses. Maybe edible antibacteria chemicals is put into food to boost the immune system. Use your imagination a little.

Eugenics may also play a part. Nikolai was artificially inseminated, so they probably chose the best of the crop, and discarded the rest. And Bean is pretty much Nikolai's twin, right? He probably also have the best genes, like Nikolai, so he can survive, right?



((Truth: I love Bean too much for him to die of malnourishment/disease before he gets to do something cool.))