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Comment by rmellow | Hacker News Reader

> There was also a communications problem. Though they had an equivalent IQ of sixty, and could understand several hundred words of English, they were unable to talk. It had proved impossible to give useful vocal chords either to apes or monkeys, and they therefore had to express themselves in sign language

- Rendezvous with Rama (1973)

Guess it's more fiction than science fiction now.

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It would be impossible to give them useful vocal cords. Just not because of the vocal cords.

There should be a category specifically for invalidated science fiction. Things found to be unpossible in any timeline, assuming consistent laws of nature.

I believe this category is referred to as "uplifting" [0]. And while it certainly hasn't been proved to be viable so far, are you really sure it's time to rule it out as a possibility?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uplift_(science_fiction)

No, invalidated science fiction. The science being invalid. Meaning the vocal cords were the weak link. When it was not.

Eeh, just 'poorly aged'? I dont think how likely the principle of the thing was is all that important for science fiction which tends to concern itself with the consequences of a given technology.

Mind you, I tried to think up a fun word for this and failed which is why you're getting this answer instead of a word.

Just change the emphasis - "...give useful vocal chords...".

Important note on context - IIR, the "they" in that story were a spare-no-expense domesticated hybrid "working breed" of apes. Designed to replace expensive human astronauts doing repetitive, menial "housekeeping" jobs on space ships. One can read this as creative and edgy in context (1973, Civil Rights, "race riots", etc.) - but having the story's housekeeping apes able to talk might have gotten a "too big a risk" veto from the author's editor.

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