Amentans colonize amaliens
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Huh! How do they control evolution? 

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They only let the animals have babies if they're good for the purposes they have in mind! Obviously they can't tell if an animal is tasty before it has babies but it also works if you analyze them on the level of breeds or strains. They also do it with plants!

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Huh! That's cool. 

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Like cats! They gave cute ones more food. 

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Yeah, like that! And since Amentans are a kind of animal and have babies they can even do this to themselves.

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One of the ash covered amaliens would like to know why they made themselves look all ... long.

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They didn't, they haven't chosen everything about themselves. Before they had invented things like bags they were already like this as adults. Here are pictures of Amentan kids though!

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Huh. Why arn't there any kids with them?

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Kids haven't learned how to do spaceship jobs and also they weren't sure if it might be dangerous and prefer not to put kids in dangerous situations.

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Why haven't they learned? Do the kids prefer the adults be put in the dangerous positions too?

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- Amentan kids are very young. Like this one in this picture is, uh, 984 days old.

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And it takes more than 984 days to learn a spaceship job?

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It takes more than 984 days to learn to be a person! Amentans that age are still working on talking clearly and reading and stuff.

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Huh! How old are all of you?

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They give their ages! They range from nine Amentan years* (the grey Fika had a sleepover with) to thirty-one (one of the linguists).

*36 in Earth years.

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Huh! Why arn't there any who are as big as the amaliens, like that boy in the picture?

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Amentan kids that size could theoretically have learned to do some spaceship jobs, but they often don't have very good judgment yet, and usually want to do things other than learn all day, like play and learn stuff that is not directly relevant to spaceship jobs.

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What does he mean by they don't have very good judgement? 

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Also, does that mean that the not-kids don't like playing or learning new different stuff?

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Not-kids still like those things, but they have had enough time to learn spaceship things at a more sustainable pace.

Amentan kids are often bad at judging risks and choosing priorities and following instructions, which are all really important in some possible situations on a spaceship.

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And the not-kids are good at those things?

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Not all of them, but they make sure they will be before giving them spaceship jobs.

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And none of the kids? Lucien looks mildly skeptical.

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There's a lot of competition for spaceship jobs! In principle people as young as 5 could have had all the training they'd need for some positions but the youngest person on the ship is 8 because they count relevant experience when deciding how qualified someone is.

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Are any of the people who looked liked them in the pictures 5 or older?

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