I hated the whole "nonviolence" thing because, really, when you think about it, there is no way to define the term "nonviolence" in any concrete sense. So the fact that he was programmed with "nonviolence" is not only stupid but impossible. Technology and robots need to be given concrete, precise instructions. Yes/no, not something so abstract. And the real kicker is--does Erek have free will? I mean the Chee can have opinions, they can disagree with each other, and yet this "nonviolence" clause (whatever that means, the authors sure don't) stumps them all. I mean, for 12-year-olds it's kind of a brilliant plot device because it's one of those non-barriers that is only a barrier when it needs to be, and 12-year-olds don't know anything about philosophy or the morality of violence, so yay! Kind of lazy storytelling!
I think, to be totally frank, the nonviolence thing was consistent up until book 53. Up till that point it is pretty concrete--we can't directly hurt anything. They were pacifists--that is, they're not allowed to get involved in any direct conflict. So in 53, if we'd stayed with that, the Chee would have just stayed out of the fight like they always had, but in that book we're suddenly given this "well you can't let me hurt anyone either, right! I can totes manipulate you!" It made no sense. It contradicted the rules we'd gotten earlier, which were there for good reason. The second the Chee can do anything substantive, the war is over. Look what fucking happened.
So overall, "nonviolence" is a cool thing to play with if you're actually going to play with it and not just have it mean whatever you need for the current plot.
And yeah, their holograms were pretty inconsistent. In AppleGrant books, I think they mimicked not only the look, but FEEL of human skin, but there were a couple of books in there (I think 45 specifically) where people reached through the hologram and felt skin. IDK, STAR TREK VS. FIREFLY HOLOGRAMS
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I think, to be totally frank, the nonviolence thing was consistent up until book 53. Up till that point it is pretty concrete--we can't directly hurt anything. They were pacifists--that is, they're not allowed to get involved in any direct conflict. So in 53, if we'd stayed with that, the Chee would have just stayed out of the fight like they always had, but in that book we're suddenly given this "well you can't let me hurt anyone either, right! I can totes manipulate you!" It made no sense. It contradicted the rules we'd gotten earlier, which were there for good reason. The second the Chee can do anything substantive, the war is over. Look what fucking happened.
So overall, "nonviolence" is a cool thing to play with if you're actually going to play with it and not just have it mean whatever you need for the current plot.
And yeah, their holograms were pretty inconsistent. In AppleGrant books, I think they mimicked not only the look, but FEEL of human skin, but there were a couple of books in there (I think 45 specifically) where people reached through the hologram and felt skin. IDK, STAR TREK VS. FIREFLY HOLOGRAMS