Gen Shortage (Term)

Source: Jean Lorrah, e-mail, 2013: A Gen shortage occurs when there are not enough Gens to serve the needs of the simes.
In Sime Territory, before Unity, there were many communities that experienced times when there was a shortage of Gens, leaving the simes short of selyn, without Gens the simes would not survive the month and would often raid over the border, Killing and capturing Wild Gens.
Zelerod, a sime mathematician, calculated that as long as simes continued the junct lifestyle of Killing approximately 12 Gens a year each there would come a time where there would be no more Gens and simes would turn on each other until there were none left. Humans would then become extinct.
The Householdings had one answer to holding off Zelerod's Doom through the channels, a lifestyle of non Killing, which for many years was rejected by the general society.
In the novel Zelerod's Doom, the Gen shortage problems come to a head and only through the cooperation of the Sime and Gen armies can the mass of  Freeband Raiders be headed off.
Category:Terms