Candidates for future Nemfection?

[Bad Alias]

Sounds like you had bad teaching going on. Sorry for your lost hours during childhood.

That was the end of college, so maybe childhood isn't the right term, but I do believe I've "wasted" a lot of time on education as I don't really think much is gained after 8th grade. After 8th grade, about 90% of the new information is in math classes, and the first year or so of college is basically the last two years of high school.

And I doubt it was a bad education because I went and looked for a better definition of species, being sure I was receiving an incorrect representation of scientific consensus, and couldn't find one. Not that I looked too hard. More google (or maybe it was yahoo back then?) and less library/scholarly journals.

I did point out to the professor (not in front of the entire class, teachers don't like that) the definition proffered required humans to be outside of and above nature, thus supernatural beings. He simply agreed with me. Maybe it was a bad education, but it's not like the subject matter of that class was going to add much/any value to my life even if taught impeccably. It just met a requirement for my degree plan.

[T]he books don't have to follow evolutionary theory TOO closely, they're fiction (with magic!) after all.

Agreed, but it is at least usually, but not always, an inherited thing, JB tries to make the stories fit the real world as best he can, so it stands to reason that genetics are probably one of the mechanisms that determine whether and to what degree one is a practitioner.

[morriswalters]

Jim wanted Molly to be a wizard.  The outcome then, is, inconsistency by retconning.  I don't have a problem with that. However I called wizards quasi humans and that is incorrect given how the word human is defined


@Bad Alias

I did point out to the professor (not in front of the entire class, teachers don't like that) the definition proffered required humans to be outside of and above nature, thus supernatural beings.

His response should have offered you some insight to the nature of the problem.

[Kindler]

LOL
I just imagined talking to my bosses about wizard genetics. Either they would laugh and hope I made a joke. Or they would instantly fire me. Or they would keep me on probation but I would definitely loose lots of competence points. 

I have a drafted nonfiction book called "The A$$hole/Competence Matrix: How to Keep Your Job Forever." Basically, the idea is that you can be an a-hole OR incompetent and avoid getting fired for a while, but if you're both, you're let go pretty fast. If you're nice and competent, you'll hang around as long as you like. Obviously, layoffs, cutbacks, downsizing, and reorganization happens and there's little you can do to influence who gets let go during an organizational change like that, but assuming that the business will stay in business, staying in the correct quadrant the A$$hole/Competence Matrix will make sure you to keep your job as long as possible.

[Kindler]

On the First Wizards:
The books state outright that vanilla mortals can do magic, it's just really, really, really, really hard, to the point that it is impractical (when you could get the same or similar result using another method). Blood Rites included that mollochio (mallochio?) entropy curse ritual that could have been done by vanillas, presumably, since the power doesn't come from within themselves.

I believe it's also possible for vanillas to cut deals for power. Contact a demon or powerful Nevernever denizen, sell them an extra baby you had lying around, and get access to enough power to do real magic. I had assumed that's what Victor Sells did originally—he had a minor talent, worked at it, found a Sponsor, and used ritual magic to do his nastiness, with a side helping of thunderstorm-derived power.

Considering that Wizards' long lives are, per WoJ, a side effect of them using magic rather than a genetic anti-aging trait, I think it's possible that the first naturally-born wizards were those descended from vanilla mortals who cut deals or used enough ritual magic. It's closer to Lamarck's Acquired Traits theory than natural selection + Darwinian evolution, I think.

That could also partially explain why most wizards inherit their magic from their maternal line rather than paternal: their mothers were using magic while in the womb.

Obviously this is all speculation.

[Mira]

That could also partially explain why most wizards inherit their magic from their maternal line rather than paternal: their mothers were using magic while in the womb.

Or magic is a sex linked gene carried by the mother..  It could also be recessive,  which might explain how a future wizard can pop up in a family of vanilla humans..

[Kindler]

Makes me wonder what that gene would do. Simply unlock a kind of sixth sense that lets Wizards perceive magic better, maybe?

[peregrine]

Or magic is a sex linked gene carried by the mother..  It could also be recessive,  which might explain how a future wizard can pop up in a family of vanilla humans..

Harry's grandma wasn't magical.

[Bad Alias]

Makes me wonder what that gene would do. Simply unlock a kind of sixth sense that lets Wizards perceive magic better, maybe?

That's basically my view of it. I'm sure it's more complicated because everything is usually more complicated. I'd guess that it's a number of magic genes because different wizards, and lesser practitioners, have different areas of innate talent and levels of strength, so it is probably a combination of multiple genes and environmental factors. And that is only what sets the stage for possibilities. The individual would then have to develop the inborn talents or set them aside like Charity did.

[Mira]

Harry's grandma wasn't magical.

  Exactly,  but that doesn't mean she didn't carry a recessive gene for it...  Like blue eyes are recessive, yet two brown eyed parents can have a blue eye child if the combo is right.

[g33k]

... Considering that Wizards' long lives are, per WoJ, a side effect of them using magic rather than a genetic anti-aging trait ...

Is there (a WoJ on this)?

I was presuming it worked that way from how the books seemed to be written, but hadn't known of this WoJ.

I am presuming it's also responsible for the wizardly "can heal almost anything" effect...  Is this also WoJ'ed?

[Kindler]

Is there (a WoJ on this)?

I was presuming it worked that way from how the books seemed to be written, but hadn't known of this WoJ.

I am presuming it's also responsible for the wizardly "can heal almost anything" effect...  Is this also WoJ'ed?

Yes:

I’ve been wondering, is a magic-users longevity/ability to repair themselves due to their use of magic, or is it because they are able to access magic at all?
It’s because they /use/ magic.
Charity Carpenter was able to use magic at one point; will she have an extended life?
Not unless she takes it up again, which would be extremely difficult and which she doesn’t want to do.
And is the longevity tied to strength levels, as in do stronger wizards live longer?
Indeed. In the Dresden Files universe, magic is the essence of creation itself. Constant exposure to it through use changes the person who uses it in a number of ways, not all of them as obvious as physical recovery and longevity. The more exposure, the more dramatic the changes.

Source:  http://wordof.jim-butcher.com/index.php/word-of-jim-woj-compilation/woj-on-magic-in-the-dresden-files/
Ctrl + F Longevity. All three of these questions are right after the other.

[g33k]

Yes:

Source:  http://wordof.jim-butcher.com/index.php/word-of-jim-woj-compilation/woj-on-magic-in-the-dresden-files/
Ctrl + F Longevity. All three of these questions are right after the other.

TYVM!
(your reply just rocks, btw -- quotation and citation!)

[Kindler]

One of my degrees is in History. Quoting and citing is about 3/4s of what you have to do.