"Fifteen. Ah - younger than anyone here, but not very much younger."

"And what do you do up to that point, try to give them all the same math education? Some of them should stop math before that age and some of them should already have very advanced knowledge."

"It varies by the world and the circumstances. I think people self-sort by genetics enough to get most of the benefits of sorting them yourself, and sorting them yourself is ugly."

"I'm curious now, what would you do if Amenta landed in your lap castes and all. With respect to this topic, not 'I'd start by unifying the place'."

“I don’t actually know that I would unify it. It’s needed here, it’s not needed everywhere. I think permitting emigration might undo most of the annoying effects from the castes. I don’t think I’d let you take it to more planets.”

"I mean, you permit emigration to places that currently have a two-per birthrate via soft incentive without any laws about it, and in a few generations we're everywhere."

“This isn’t obviously undesirable. There are trillions of humans, you don’t seem obviously worse than humans though maybe your lives are much worse when you can only have two children?”

"Depends how bad we spring. I'm a little better than average, I haven't even propositioned Cam yet, and Aitim's probably lots better than average though I don't know directly."

"What? Who's propositioning me?"

"Me, if you're ever not so terribly busy."

"...hit me up in six days if I'm still here then or if I ever look really frustrated with my computer for more than ten minutes in a row."

"Noted."

The Osirians all look horrified.

"If that's what I think it is that's really dumb, you know -" Rabiah tells Pelape.

"He isn't going to get me pregnant, if that's what you're worried about, we're different species and my planet has contraception."

"Also I'm infertile."

"I have heard that one from people who were lying."

"My entire species is infertile. I could get someone pregnant but I would have to do magic and would not have to touch them. And I would have a conversation about that first."

He raises an eyebrow at the pharaoh.

"Other priorities," he says tersely.

"Policing my sex life shouldn't even make the list of priorities! I apologize for mentioning it at the dinner table if that was going to scandalize people!"

"Oh, no, it wasn't that, he was contemplating whether he could get Cam to get his wives for him, since he can't figure out how."

"Regrettably it is somehow impossible for me to have a conversation with them about that. Maybe even if the express end goal of the conversation were for me to get them pregnant! Also other priorities, if nobody needs second helpings of anything I'm about ready to excuse myself and go work on your internet some more."

Some people want second helpings!

Cam refills dishes by popular demand and ducks out.