Sustenus Paul said:
It's a matter of minimum effort needed to accomplish your goal effectively. Since the serviles are social creatures with human or near-human level intelligence, they would be able to function on their own unless they were somehow intentionally crippled (in other words, it would require more work to create human-like organisms incapable of surviving on their own than the opposite). While I certainly wouldn't put it past the Shapers to include some sort of genetic "booby-trap" to keep them dependant, we see no evidence of this and, if something of the like did exist, it certainly doesn't work very efficiently (since the serviles were doing pretty well under the circumstances). And why would they include something like this for the weakling Serviles, but not the uber-powerful drakes who had absolutely no problem surviving independantly (and, in fact, prone to rebellion).
The Shapers strike me to be very methodical. If they make a creature, they would try the hardest they could to eliminate all of its weaknesses. Attributes such as loyalty would be genetically imbued. They would have to be, otherwise the creatures are inherently dangerous, which is why they don't create Drayks (I think that's the correct spelling) anymore. Serviles were essentially the servants of the Shapers, cooks, cleaners amd secretaries, I'm dubious about farming, as they don't seem to have the right characteristics for it, there was probably another variety of servile for hard labour, which we don't see on Sucia, because it was a research facility and food was likely imported. Anyway, as those types of servants are in a position to do great damage, unalterable loyalty is a must, otherwise the Shapers would be vunerable to attack. The Shapers aren't the sort to let that weakness exist. In my opinion, there has to be some kind of genetic trigger for loyalty, even if it only works for the creator of the individual servile.
There are numerous instances of serviles on the island that aren't rogue, you can try to free them, but they don't understand the meaning of freedom.
Comparison to domesticated animals are disingenuous, because dogs aren't sapient, while Serviles unarguably are.
Not really, if you take into account the traditional ideas of the Shapers. They were servants, and that is all that they were. The Shapers treated them as domesticated animals. This is an innacurate belief, but since domesticated serviles were treated pretty much the same way as dogs, there is bound to be similarities.
It could make for an interesting (although unethical) social experiment in the real world.
Well, consider the circumstances. They are beset by rogue monsters, incapable of using the powerful abilities they'd need to defeat them, and you show up bearing the robes of a society with the power over life and death. They needed your help, not because they were "inherently dependant", but because you had access to a lot of power that they didn't.
It could be argued that the very fact that you are more powerful than them makes then inherently dependent upon you. It may not be genetic, but the whole "Shaper = god" thing features heavily in all of the groups, even if they don't want to admit it and even fight against it.
And, as to the genetic trigger thing, it's all speculation. I include it again in the first paragraph about "minimum effort". If they are taught from birth to be servile and have nowhere near the raw physical power to rebel against their masters, I would say it was likely further genetic coersion would prove unneccessary, and therefore left out.
Well, yes, I'll agree that it is pretty much all speculation, but such things make sense when you take into account the character of the Shapers.
Er... the Sholai? Why? How? Are you talking about the rogue canister using Sholai? In that event, it would amount to the same thing. It was exposure to the unnatural influence of the Geneforge and the canisters that rendered them cookoo, and their position was neither rationally viable nor proof of some inherent psychological flaw in their genes. As for your latter point, that's probably a definite influence, but it wouldn't account for the truly wierd/pointless stuff they started doing (like defacing statues or adopting that wierd dialect).
I was thinking that the change was partly due to Trakjov and his augmented Sholai stirring them up more against the Shapers. As for their strange acts, they're not so strange if you look upon it as stereotypical adolescent behaviour (Fight the power). It's possible that the servile mind is little more than that of a childs.
Well, they had no higher authority to appeal to. If they knew it was possible for a Shaper to "go rogue", they had no recourse for determining this other than their own judgement, based on the teachings of the Shapers they had formerly served under. Again, they were serving "the Shapers", not "a Shaper". Remember that they didn't necessarily consider themselves subhuman, they simply felt they owed a debt to the Shaper society for their creation (some even thought that after a period of service, they might be worthy of freedom [as if the Shapers would agree to this]).
The whole thing reeks of hypocrisy. Their knowledge of the Shapers after hundreds of years without contact is likely misunderstood, so they are no authority on the matter. And when they do consider you a true Shaper, the leader starts giving you suggestions that sound mightily like orders.
Moving on (since I think we're starting to exhaust the possibilities of discussion about servile culture), here's an interesting ethical question: The Shapers made these creations, do they have the right to enslave them?