"I guess when we can get on the Cortex we could see if everybody here has a gender or not. Majority rules, as it were."

"That works. I'm trying to imagine what kind of knock-on effects everybody having a gender would have...I guess preventing scandalous pregnancies by separating men and women would be more effective, if everybody fits one or the other and everybody who's the same gender has the same bits...you might have more gender segregation?"

"We prevent unwanted pregnancies with contraceptive drugs. ...also if you were trying to prevent scandalous pregnancies you could presumably do it by plumbing regardless of what any of the people in question had to say about their plumbing."

"What, just go around demanding to know if it didn't match? Nobody fancy enough to care would be rude enough." 

"I was imagining if necessary checking people's birth certificates."

"Their what?"

"I don't think of birth certificates as a recent invention but I guess that's only one reason you might not have something. Where we're from people get a document when they're born which says among other things whether they're male or female."

"What about home births? People who leave places and start over with a new name?"

"I think home births still get birth certificates, just I guess not from the hospital? I have never had a baby so I don't know exactly how it's done. People who move and start over will be inconvenienced if they don't have any identificatory documents, though you don't need a birth certificate specifically that often - you do often need a driver's license or equivalent as an adult, though."

"Huh. Well, people come to the Neath to get away from their pasts all the time, I don't think that would work so well there."

"Guess that makes sense."

"Anyway, things don't always end up how you'd guess, and this," she gestures at the book, "is probably more important."

"Yeah. Sorry, it's easy to get distracted."

"It's good to know! And we're doing this because we have a few days to kill." 

"Yeah." But she reads quietly for the next while.

That's totally acceptable. Future science is so cool!!!

Eventually, though, bellies will start grumbling. 

"Let's go see what's available for lunch."

"Place is half Chinese, right, maybe they have hot 'n sour soup."

"What is hot 'n sour soup."

"It's a soup I like at Chinese restaurants? It is hot. And sour. - hot in the spicy sense. There's tofu in it? I think?"

"What is tofu." 

"...a mysterious Asian food that is probably made of ingredients."

"It's made of soybeans."

"Those I think I have heard of." 

Hot and sour soup is available. Lucy is quietly bewildered as to how sour soup is desirable and decides she has to try it because otherwise she is going to go on being bewildered, isn't she. 

"Okay, I think I like tofu," is the thoughtful verdict, "I'm less sure about the concept of sour soup, but I've had much worse, so." 

Isabella has dumplings. She lets Lucy have one.