"There are simple physical laws and everything obeys those physical laws. Your food thing might still obey them - probably does - but we don't understand it. Everything else we understand exactly how it results from the physical laws."

"How do brains?"

"Brains are made out of cells called neurons - about a hundred billion of them - which send electrical signals through them in response to the behavior of other neurons or in response to the world around us. They are connected to each other in very complicated patterns. It might be that if you just mapped all hundred billion neurons and their current electrical signal pattern on a computer that would be enough to have a person's brain, but more likely you'd also need to include some traits of the other cells in the brain surrounding the neurons and the neuron coatings which affect how quickly they fire and possibly even the placement of the ion channels that let neurons do electrical signals. But there is no reason to think there is anything to the brain which isn't in those cells, so if you got it all you'd have a brain."

"Wow."

"Technology is pretty cool!"

"Yes. I am glad we have technology and do not have to... not have it. What did people do before things were invented?"

" - depends what things. But they died, a lot. We used to not need population controls because probably only two of your children would survive to have children anyway."

"...that's a lot of dying."

"Yep."

"What did they die of?"

"Hunger, war, disease."

Nod.

"Population controls reduced war a lot. Since now everyone didn't desperately need more space."

"That makes sense. And it would help with hunger too probably."

"Yep. Food prices used to be one of peoples' major expenses. These days food is pretty cheap - the crisis was bad, but the rest of the time you can feed yourself even if you're poor."

"Did people starve then?"

"Not in Anitam."

"Why was Anitam different from other places?"

"We don't import that much food from Voa so we didn't see as much of a supply shock as Tapa or Voa itself."

Nod.

"Voa had a very bad time. A lot of people suffered. I really wish that blue had thought more."

"Why didn't he, do you think?"

"I'm not sure. Lots of people have been saying that probably Voan blues are stupider because of the child allocation system but I think in a country of a billion people there will be some stupid blues no matter how you pick them."

"Why would that system make them stupid?"

"Well, in principle, auctions select for the smartest, hardest-working and best-at-their-caste people, and so countries that have an auction have smarter greens and wiser blues and stronger faster greys and more conscientious and meticulous yellows and so on."