Well, it was written in 1986; it does show its age.
Watsonianly speaking, though, my personal workaround is that the tech is there (now), but Athos is big on The Way We Have Always Done Things and was founded before the replicators had been tested with embryos of nonstandard origin. It'd be too much financial investment and cultural shift to switch to a new method at this point, so they just go with it.
(It doesn't seem like much of stretch to me! I mean, they've kept the same 200 ovarian cultures going for umpty-hundred years?! Athos places a lot of cultural weight on both tradition and frugality; it's also big on following clearly defined paths to major life goals.)
no subject
Watsonianly speaking, though, my personal workaround is that the tech is there (now), but Athos is big on The Way We Have Always Done Things and was founded before the replicators had been tested with embryos of nonstandard origin. It'd be too much financial investment and cultural shift to switch to a new method at this point, so they just go with it.
(It doesn't seem like much of stretch to me! I mean, they've kept the same 200 ovarian cultures going for umpty-hundred years?! Athos places a lot of cultural weight on both tradition and frugality; it's also big on following clearly defined paths to major life goals.)