I have an idea of making super soldiers from people who already have the gene for self healing but have died in 'accidents'. What I would like to know is if as a reader you would prefer to know the tech behind how they come to life or if that should be left to the readers imagination. I would like input on this as it could be a very, very long explanation. Thank you. Echo.
I actually prefer just enough tech to make it plausible. I think too much jargon bogs the story down and makes me feel like an intellectual gnat.
Completely agree. Show a body being injected with some sort of glowing fluid while lying in a vat or a capsule with a person in a labcoat standing next to it saying, "They had the gene we were looking for" and I'm all set. Only explain as much as is necessary for the plot. If it matters later on that the fluid glows, explain why. If not, it just does. The reader likely won't care why or how.
I'm inclined to agree with Mr. Nomas, but I will add that plausibility in your technologies is preferable to me. For example, I'm not liable to believe it's really necessary to keep a person in a vat full of weird liquid unless you're willing to give me a slight explanation on why they're in a vat and not just on an operating table or something. And also, as I'll say to anyone who is doing anything to do with super soldiers, remember the eyes. The human body has a vestigial set of optical nerves that some people believe were from a more primitive species back in the chain that could potentially give infrared (basically) vision. So yeah... as well as your healing gene, keep in mind that you can be like, "We connected the secondary optic nerve and now they have infrared vision."
You need to explain why they have a self-healing gene but were killed. Otherwise it won't make sense.
I assume that the OP is talking about situations like perhaps a car crash where a large enough amount of physical trauma is caused to the body that their system cannot recover fast enough before it shuts down. I mean, it doesn't matter how fast you heal, if you get shot in the face, you'll die, you know?
If you're not a scientist, don't make up fake or unrealistic "science" that won't fly with people who know about that type of thing. Just say they knew how to extract certain genes and DNA fragments, and leave it at that. Cool idea, by the way.
Thank you all. I can some times ramble on things for pages and I think I will go with this. As for dying with a healing gene. The government is making the deaths look like accidents since they know these people have the gene they where looking for when really their just putting the subjects to sleep long enough with a drug that will make them look dead so they can collect their bodies after burial.
I still think you need to give a little explanation of what they limits are. Even later on in the story when someone is talking about them. Like mentioning that while it can regrow cells to what exact. It brings me to the TV Shows Heroes and Claire Benedict. She had the ability of Cellular Regeneration, to the point that when she became shot similar it might take away but she would 'repair'. Another character with Cellular Regeneration is lift in a grave for years and doesn't die for the same reason, his cell's are constantly fixing themselves. Wolverine is another example of this, the character is hundreds of years old (however doesn't remember) because his cells are constantly regenerating. It does bring in a cool side plot to your story, about people who they 'stole' the ability on the run from the soldiers or helping whoever is trying to kill the soldiers.
Hell yeah! Tell me how they were made, that makes it 10x more believable. The fun part about that is you can make up a bunch of bs and no one can call you on it. I used to make up nonsense words all the time around my friends to sound smart. If they called me on it I'd say it was a word from sci fi even though it wasn't haha. "That is a very discomposh way of doing something Marvin!"
Explanation of the healing factor is more important than the technology. With the state of sci-fi most of what you will be implenting should be understood by the average adult mind. You just have to set the limits of your universe.
This. And explaining too much of the science would be infodumping of interest only to hardcore science fans anyway.
Thank you all. I'm attempting to not go the route of Wolverine and Capt. America even thought I love them to death When it comes to their healing factor I know how I want to do it and it's not going to be something their hated for, it's going to be more of a blessing which gains the families more social status. The main focus of my plot is reintegrating these people who have been abducted from their families and given new lives, back in to their old ones. While they are not suppose to remember what had happened to them but they do and they don't know how to deal with the life they thought they had and the life they actually had. While I understand I cannot do that very realistically I also don't want people to think that I'm stealing from Marvel or Hero's. I need to research the plant they used in Sherlock Holmes that made the person look dead. That's what I'm going for when the government goes to abduct them. Again, thank you all for your input.
