TLEILAXU: DNA is relatively inert, it contains only instructions for the machines that read it to make more machines.
Ehh, I can quibble but you are mostly right. Fine, RNA then!
For those who are not familiar with this topic, this has to do with a debate on the origin of life. Specifically, the question is which came first, the code (nucleic acid) or the machinery (protein)? As things stand now, the code (DNA) is, as TLEILAXU says, mostly inert; it contains the information on how, when, and in what quantity to build the machinery of life (proteins); the machines (proteins) do the works of life, including making more DNA, but contain no transmittable information. Right now they work in a perfect partnership. Most people, however, believe that it's improbable that both should arise simultaneously. One proposed solution is that in the early days of life, a generalist did both (encode information and act on it), such as RNA, and only later this job was split into two and handed to two specialists (DNA and protein).
So when an RNA molecule transmits information to itself and modifies itself, is it not in sense acting both as a subject and an object? Is not the world SEALED AGAINST THE OUTSIDE?!
TaoHorror: ...in real time read, it wasn't hitting home with me that the entire thing could/would unravel from the Daimos. This being my favorite fiction of all time, it is imperfect and I think Bakker thought a little too much of us to get some of this
These are exactly my thoughts. Looking back Kellhus' solution makes sense, but as the story was told, there were just too many other things going on and I didn't really see it coming.
BTW this would make a good poll question (if it had not been asked before on this forum): how many people saw the Ajokli (or some sort of god) solution coming?
Also, it's interesting to trace Kellhus' possible logic. Once he began to understand the nature of damnation, Daimos, and Gnosis, he sought to "come before." But how do you come before the gods? You have to have god-like power and knowledge ("Gnosis" is thus the perfectly named double entendre). But then why did the other surviving Dunyain not come to the same solution? Maybe it's a matter of lack of time. Or they just never learned Gnosis (all the Erratics are nuts so they don't make good teachers; Aurang could have taught them, but perhaps he/it was just too busy humping some corpse somewhere?) It should be noted that Moenghus (Kellhus' old man) also did not learn the Gnosis, and Kellhus judged him to be a Consult-member-in-waiting and shivved him.
If Kellhus did sought to "come before" Ajokli, then it's interesting to speculate what his real plans were. Near the end when his head became "a jetting torch" and was ranting and raving about the world as a "pierced fruit," it's clear that it was not Kellhus but Ajokli talking. But when Kelmomas came, Kellhus seemed to snap back. This means the possession was not complete, and Kellhus was still at least in some control. So I think Kellhus' plan was to lure Ajokli into our world, use its power to destroy the Consult, and somehow stab it in the back.
themerchant: Akka's changing dreams or indeed the dreams themselves are another thing that just exists.
I think they revealed to him how to find Ishual, so there was some purpose. But I also seem to remember them implying Nau-Cayuti was Seswatha's son? If so, then Achamian and Mimara's baby was also a candidate for the no-god sarcophagus? Maybe that's why Mimara's Judging Eye was struck blind when she tried to look at her own belly.
