February 4, 2009

Octuplets: Does purported dad "David Solomon" actually exist?

One of the creepier things about Octomom Nadya/Natalie Doud/Suleman is that she listed as the sperm donor for some of her earlier kids some guy named "David Solomon."

It's perhaps worth noting that "David" is an Anglicized version of "Doud" and "Solomon" is an Anglicized version of "Suleman," which just happen to be the two family names she has used at various times. So maybe there actually is a guy named "David Solomon," but then he'd almost certainly be a relative. Or maybe she just made up the name "David Solomon."

For some reason, I'm kind of reminded of that brilliant / sick-making Heinlein short story about the paradoxes of time travel, "All You Zombies," where one person is his/her own mother, father, son, and daughter.

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12 comments:

Anonymous said...

"It's perhaps worth noting that "David" is an Anglicized version of "Doud"

No, "David" is the Anglicized version of the Hebrew "David", which is spelled the same way in English transliteration but pronounced "Dahveed" in Hebrew. "Doud" (also spelled "Dawood") is the Arabicized version of the Hebrew.

- Fred

Anonymous said...

If she's that sophisticated then maybe she will have high-IQ children. Odds are against it though.

Anonymous said...

Heinlein didn't understand time travel.

Time travel as we know it, presupposes a model of infinitely numerous "universes" or timelines, in which when one "goes back in time" one creates a new timeline.

The principal problem in time travel is not "the grandfather paradox" but the conservation of matter and energy. If you go back in time to where you were ten years ago, let's say, the earth's mass has just increased by, say, 200+ pounds. Two of you now exist.

The binding curve of energy meets "Something's Got To Give". Since matter can not be created nor destroyed (except by sourcing or sinking energy) that 200 lbs has to be "paid for" by an amount of energy equivalent to a number of hydrogen bomb detonations (at 500 kT each) equal to your weight in dimes, since, a 500 kT explosion results in a loss of matter of about a dime's mass.

If you can pay that bill, and time travel is possible, going back in time and interacting with people back there creates a new time line. Let's say you "get there before your dad did" with regard to Mother. You have sired a whole new time line, of course, one on which you and the new half-you are co-travellers. Now you go back to your timeline (which might be the harder part, without say just holing up for thirty years.) There are now two new your-timelines you can go back to.

Anonymous said...

The Door into Summer - another Heinlein time travel story. Just thought I would mention it.

Anonymous said...

As an Iraqi woman, it's hardly unlikely that the sperm is from a cousin. Iraqi 1st cousin marriage rates are what, 60%?

Anonymous said...

RADM Bruce,

My favorite scene in "Napolean Dynamite" is when that guy gets his nads electrocuted trying to go back to 1982 to win the big high school football game.

Anonymous said...

The story was called "All You Zombies" and was of course wholly improbable. If you think about the logic, the DNA transcription enzymes in Heinlein's hypothetical autogenerative hermaphrodite would have to be 100% accurate, instead of the normal error rate of 1 in some 10^8 base pairs. And that's just not possible.

Anonymous said...

BTW, the most famous David and Solomon were father and son

B322 said...

Thank you, RADM Bruce. That is exactly what I've been trying to say about time travel for years, only more clearly than I could have put it.

A wholly different problem: atoms rebound off of each other because they have three-dimensional clouds of negative-repelling electrons around them. If you dropped in another atom from the fourth dimension, you could have a positively charged nucleus sitting right next to an attractive electron. My grasp of nuclear physics was never all that good, but it seems like in this case the electron would fall into the nucleus, effectively turning a proton into a neutron - and changing the atomic number of the atom.

Anonymous said...

You are all wrong about time travel! Time travel is based on 4-dimensional Time Cube!

:-)

Seriously, can we hold off on the time travel physics assertions until we have actual time machines working? Then you will have some chance of persuading me.

Anonymous said...

Regarding all those kids, it might be their grandfather is also their father?

Poor kids, in any case.

Anonymous said...

Nadya is completely and utterly looney:

Angelina Jolie 'creeped out' by octuplets' mother after receiving letters from her - and hearing rumours of her plastic surgery