question:  What is the significance of the Maternite?
context: It was a day soft and clear; a day accepted by the young, cherished by we old. In whose names Man killed and plundered, while struggling up. In whose names Man finally left this earth, to seek his cousins among the stars. "Sias," they were saying, "the Maternite's gone." Everything has evaporated in Maternite. They are of an age to enter manhood, and have all the energy such young men do. They were aware that they stood in the midst of an unprecedented happening; indeed, an emergency. They were created so long ago, indeed, that the ignorant believe them to have been constructed by the gods themselves. Indeed, the watcher is more a tradition than a necessity. At such a time, many men feel impelled to make speeches, and one must not be disrespectful. Prayers and supplications were offered to the gods, priests were sent to sacrifice, and finally, as the light of the sun was falling between the pillars, the High Priest of the Maternite Machine was heard. Know, then, that once granted a few cells of Prelife, it is an easy matter for the Maternite Machine to add more and more; thus assuring us, as has always been, a continuous source of Prelife to be born by the Generating Machine as children. The machines bear the exact number of children each year to balance the number of us whom the gods claim. Such it has always been from time immemorial." "But now," he continued, however, with less assurance and indeed with even a stutter here and there, "an unprecedented situation has arisen. For the M-Maternite Machine has actually failed." It is at such times that I most revere the wisdom of the ancients, who decreed seventy years the minimum age for a member of the Conclave.
output:  It determines how many children will be born in the span of a year
options:  It determines how many children will be born in the span of a year  It reduces the prevalence of female biological sex organs  It produces enough breastmilk to sustain newborn infants  It decides which of the elders will be sacrificed to the gods