From the Begining New Chapter Added (9/12/06)

[Starhawk]

Starhawk, thanks for clarifying the Icaran view of adulthood. It's interesting that the advanced educational practices in the story result in a social situation reminiscent of "primitive" Napoleonic Europe, when "children" labored alongside adults in the fields, shops, and armed forces, and often married in their early teens. The lack of automation in Icaran society (explained in an earlier post, as I recall) would tend to provide ample opportunities for inexperienced workers.

Yeah I sort of wanted to play on that in a unique way, after all with the science and technology to advance your education at an accelerated rate do you really get to stay a "child" in the eyes of society or are you expected to do what every other adult does and play your part?

However, recent scientific studies suggest that the Icarans may be employing more than just advanced education here. Apparently the part of the human brain affecting judgment, self-control, planning, and organization doesn't fully develop until age 20 or after. If so, it would seem even highly trained teenagers would be at a disadvantage in unfamiliar situations, compared to their older peers.

Well your not about to see any 16 year old officers and as I said most of the "youths" are in positions of relative unimportance during their training and indoctrination, the ground combat forces only recruit at age 17+ because of physical and mental maturity which is not AS Important when your just a naval gunner or mess cook.
Other then that it is possible they use "artificial" means to develope the brains of the youths I haven't quite decided on this point just yet.

On the other hand, the Icarans can probably pick and choose the best young recruits (even for the Working Navy), and teenagers tend to live up to what's expected of them. Under a strict merit system, the Icarans can promote the mature teens and defer promotion of the late bloomers. I found it interesting that the youngest crewman mentioned in the story is a female; even in the future, perhaps females still mature earlier than males?

Yeah the navy in particular is picky about their recruits and they have about 700+ billion humans on hundreds of worlds (that are all required to meet recruitment quotas) to chose from.

And heh yeah the reason the youngest crewmembers you'll likely see are female is because (not only in scientific) but in my own personal experience girls mature far faster then boys so they'd rather have mature crewmembers who can be more easily trained and disciplined.

As for jailbait, if the Icarans only recruit "adults" then the "problem" doesn't exist (presumably the age of majority is also the age of consent). However, the view that all the older "adults" would prefer their own company to that of the younger "adults" seems a bit naive--the novel "Lolita" isn't entirely a work of fiction. As an Icaran ship's captain, I'd tend to keep the cabin boy away from the chaplain, "adult" or not.

Well I'm not going to get into a debate about pedophiles here as that would just derail this whole storyline but I will say that most people I've met prefer company more their own age then those of people much younger then themselves.