1n1REzE

Peter Watts 86 Blindsight
"Empathy for sociopaths isn't common," I remarked.
"Maybe it should be. We, at least—" he waved an arm; some
remote-linked sensor cluster across the simulator whirred and
torqued reflexively— "chose the add-ons. Vampires had to be
sociopaths. They're too much like their own prey—a lot of
taxonomists don't even consider them a subspecies, you know that
Never diverged far enough for complete reproductive isolation. So
maybe they're more syndrome than race. Just a bunch of obligate
cannibals with a consistent set of deformities."
"And how does that make—"
"If the only thing you can eat is your own kind, empathy is gonna
be the first thing that goes. Psychopathy's no disorder in those
shoes, eh Just a survival strategy. But they still make our skin
crawl, so we—chain 'em up."
"You think we should've repaired the Crucifix glitch"
Everyone knew why we hadn't. Only a fool would resurrect a
monster without safeguards in place. Vampires came with theirs
built in: without his antiEuclideans Sarasti would go grand mal
the first time he caught close sight of a four-panel window frame.
But Szpindel was shaking his head. "We couldn't have fixed it.
Or we could have," he amended, "but the glitch is in the visual
cortex, eh Linked to their omnisavantism. You fix it, you disable
their pattern-matching skills, and then what's the point in even
bringing them back"
"I didn't know that."
"Well, that's the official story." He fell silent a moment, cracked
a crooked grin. "Then again, we didn't have any trouble fixing the
protocadherin pathways when it suited us."
I subtitled. Context-sensitive, ConSensus served up
protocadherin γ-Y: the magical hominid brain protein that
vampires had never been able to synthesize. The reason they
hadn't just switched to zebras or warthogs once denied Human
prey, why our discovery of the terrible secret of the Right Angle
had spelled their doom.
"Anyway, I just think he's—cut off." A nervous tic tugged at the
corner of Szpindel's mouth. "Lone wolf, nothing but sheep for
company. Wouldn't you feel lonely"