OK, I'm having a little trouble getting my computer to transfer Read e-mail into Send e-mail (this is what I get for using the computer I found in the bottom of a box of Cracker Jacks), so, please, pardon the lack of previous statements. I should have this fixed soon.

As a biological experiment to predict human evolution, Terminal is either worthless or dealing with something undisclosed (maybe past nuclear wars have damaged a lot of DNA on Earth and it is only aggressive controls we never hear about that keep the damage results in check [unlikely, but it's all I could think of]). Evolution should be better referred to as adaptive mutation. Specific mutation can only be predicted in a limited way (as with cancer and knowing that a person has cells that are prone to that malformation). But, remember, wolves and deer are supposed to share a common ancestor. Long term trends are hard to predict. Given certain factors, certain trends seem _likely_ - but that doesn't make them inevitable (sea turtles have been around since the dinosaurs but still lay eggs on land. Whales, relative new comers, give birth at sea).

Terminal was useless precisely because of the variables introduced to make the experiment work.

1) The process was sped up.

I assume this means mutagenic factors were introduced to the environment - rather like having people living in a high radiation zone and taking the results as normal for everyone outside it. If reproduction was effected - quicker growth followed by more rapid reproduction - it's again useless because it's getting rid of essentials - intelligent lifeforms need more time to raise and train offspring, so this scenario favors instinct over intelligence.

2) The environment was changed.

Put a tropical creature in an artic environment. Assuming it survives (big if), eventual evolution might give you something like a polar bear or (ahem) a penguin. You can't then go and say "Ah-hah! Ostriches are evolving into penguins!"

Take a space faring species with broad avenues for technological development. Trap it on a single world where technological development will always be artificially controlled to keep them from circumventing the experiment (there are probably other altered variables, but those will do). The results aren't comparable.

3) Single solution evolution is balderdash.

See reference above to deer and wolves being related.

So, what was Terminal?

1) Further evidence of Federation decay.

The Federation shows signs of having decayed from a prewar civilization. In some cases, technology has been preserved but underlying principles were either lost or are known only to the groups who control it, like the Clone Masters. There may have been enough ignorance to make enough people in power think Terminal was a good idea for the reasons given.

2) Terminal was for something else.

There might be experiments were Terminal conditions could be useful. Example: a sped up life cycle to track specific genetic or biological experiments. Like an SF novel that had deliberately created, fast aging humans to track treatments for a genetic disease that manifested in biological middle age.

Then, Terminal was abandoned and the lab rats (probably already altered to links or pretty close) got to struggle on.

Ellynne ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.