Lo Teks
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Lo Teks |
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Lo Teks - Data Panel
Definition: generic term for tribal bionts that prefer robust and adaptable low (or sometimes high if reliable) tech solutions to unreliable ultratech. Similar to prim but more advanced. Differ from ludd in that they are not technophobic or ai-phobic Toposophic Level: usually Baseline Equivalent, occasionally higher Major Sophont Phyla: mostly bionts. Usually nearbaseline (almost never pure genome baseline), splices, rianths, provolves, or tweaks. Not infrequently individual vecs, bioborgs, syborgs and cyborgs may join or associate with a lo tek group or tribe; it is rarer but not at all unknown for non-bionts to form their own lo tek tribes or clades Affiliation: either non-aligned/independent, or in symbiotic association with larger habitat or ship Tech Level: despite their name, lo teks don't only use low tech! They incorporate anything from prim tech through to High Tech and UltraTech. Their only requirement be that the devices be robust, reliable, and easy to use and - if need be, repair. Objects that cannot be repaired are simply discarded. Lo Teks often scavenge around junk piles, refuse heaps etc, looking for useful stuff. Symbiotic Lo Teks are generally provided with the attributes (usually bioborgization or bionanoborgization augments) required to fulfil their role Metapsychology: young lo tek clades and non-affiliated individuals are intelligent, problem-solving, love to improvise, and individualist, older clades are traditionalist and entrenched Metaethics: tribal/communal clades - cooperation within the group or with others of like mind, non-affiliated individuals - tend to be strongly individualist, mischievous, radical, and anti-authoritarian, older clades - tend to heavily rely on tribal law, or overdependent on the intelligence of the habitat or ship in which they dwell, have a strong sense of duty (symbiotic clades) and/or be authoritarian within the group Social Structure: anything from solitary individuals to loose affiliations of friends and/or small family or pair-bonded groups, to small tribes to large hereditary tribes and clans. The latter have entrenched cultures and traditions, with their own language, folklore, and religion, and may persist with little change for centuries. However, they are less stable than prims, and may sometimes merge with a larger culture or society Religion/Ideology: varies, but usually a mixture of animism, lotechnoshamanism, and and original technoshamanism Culture and Art: individualistic in young clades or non-affiliated individuals, stylised and traditional in old clades Representative Clades and Subcultures: any number of "feral kids" "jungle boys/girls" "lo teks" "tribalists", "habrats", and "symbiotics" in any large Orwood, habitat, or ship complexes Socio-Ecological Categories: commensals, symbiotics, parawild, wildhu, societiums Current Galactographic Distribution: found widely distributed throughout the civilized galaxy and beyond, as individuals, clades and microsocieties embedded in worldships, civilization ships, large and complex habitats, especially orwoods, and anywhere else they can establish themselves or find a niche. Due to their low energy and resource requirements lo teks are remarkably widespread, but population and tribal density is generally low. Power and Influence: Symbiotic clades contribute to the optimal ecology of larger habs. Non-symbionts may add local color, or are simply tolerated because they do no harm to the surrounding infrastructures. In some cases lo teks, especially less regulated individuals, and tribes that have lost their cohesiveness, may resort to petty crime. Some Characteristic Polities: none |
Like Haloists, Lo Teks are one of a large number of socioforms that have found a niche for themselves on the fringes of the civilized galaxy, and in so doing contribute to the overall ecology of the terragen sphere. Although Lo Tek communities and individuals vary greatly, what they have in common is a love of syncretisation and hybridisation. Communities may include representatives of many different clades and sophont phyla, including vecs and cyborgs (although bionts tend to predominate), and incorporate the psychology, ethnology, and technology of any number of nearby cultures, societies, and civilizations where Lo Teks have scavenged, as well as whatever lore transapient and habitat Minds pass down to them. Combinations of prim tribalism, Lo Tech and High Tech, dry tech, biotech, and even infotech devices and social structures are common. A few adaptable lo teks have even incorporated elements of Ultra Tech societies and cultures.
Lo Tek communities will generally form camps in wilderness or abandoned regions away from well populated areas or habsections. Especially in vaster and less densely populated habitats, some communities may have no contact with other societies for years or even entire generations, enforcing strict taboos and xenophobia. Others will happily associate with the settlement- or arcology- dwellers, sell trinkets at stalls, or exchange their wares for other artifacts and devices, although they may be considered undesirables in some areas and chased away by security bots. Lo Tek individuals have less independence than communities, and tend to live in shanties and hastily erected bucky domes near autofacs, recycling depots, and junk yards, where there is no shortage of material to scavenge. Many Lo Teks might wear frightening masks or strange body decorations, or unaesthetic augments, to intimidate the arcology- or town- dwellers or put them off guard.
In a few cases, Lo Teks may become bandits, rebels, or guerrilla fighters; especially if harassed too much by the local authorities, or if food or other resources are scarce. In this role they can be extraordinarily resourceful, as many an overconfident paramilitary or militia force commander charged with their capture or extermination has found out too late.
But such instances are rare, and much more often Lo Teks live in harmony with their environment and their neighbours, adding to the cultural and sophont diversity of a large habitat, worldship, or biont-compatible megastructure
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