The Orion's Arm Universe Project Forums





Better late than never
#8
(03-20-2018, 05:46 AM)extherian Wrote: The fact that humans are so powerless and utterly unable to affect the direction that Terragen civilisation takes. In our present world, the way our society develops is largely down to the collective input of the people that make it up, through politcs, economics and cultural change - all of it driven by beings like us. In the Orion's Arm civilisation, if it suits the gods to cause something like the Version War to happen, no amount of modosophont diplomacy will amount to anything.

That's true. OTOH, if a nearby star were to supernova, or a gamma ray burst went off in the right spot and direction from us - there'd be nothing we could do about that, at least not now. Human ideas of control and self direction are often rather...limited...when it comes to considering the full range of what can happen. For the humans/modosophonts of OA, the field of play has grown enormously, both in terms of what they can handle (most Earthly natural disasters, and even a fair number of cosmic ones, would be little more than an annoyance to them) and what they can't. The transapients/archai fall into that latter category.

(03-20-2018, 05:46 AM)extherian Wrote: I see living in the Sephirotics as being like living in a benovelont version of Soviet Russia or Communist China. Humans in the Orion's Arm universe aren't a small part of a greater whole, they aren't part of anything at all. They're not even equivelant to bacteria, so much as inanimate matter. Whatever illusions a 21st century human might have about the value and meaning of their life would be impossible to maintain in Y11K.

That's one possible way to look at it. However, there are others. For example, the fact that the archai do act to nurture and protect their modosophont citizens could be seen as the modos being part of something much larger than themselves - the Sephirotic Empires, which apparently have at least some small degree of importance to the archai - since they do put some effort (even if quite small into them). The citizens of the sephirotics may see themselves as very much part of something vastly greater than themselves.

Another way to look at this (which is pretty much my view on things) is that existence has no inherent meaning or value or purpose. Therefore, we are free to decide/determine any meaning/value/purpose for our existence for ourselves.

(03-20-2018, 05:46 AM)extherian Wrote: In real life I've always been interested in the "Prepper" movements in the United States that don't trust the wider society they live in, or groups like the Amish that just ignore the wider world around them in favour of life on their terms. If I had to live in the Terragen Sphere, I'd volunteer to be part of a Baseline reserve and turn my back on it all.

And if you wanted to do that, no one would stop you - in fact they'd actively help you. That's an element of the Sephirotics that sometimes seems to throw people for a loop - sophonts are free to do almost anything they please - including rejecting the whole shebang and going somewhere else. In fact the right to 'vote with your feet' is a fundamental one in Terragen civ.

Note that you could also engage in any of a wide range of options if you wished to live away from the Sephirotics. Including doing what the Leavers do and just taking off into deep space.

(03-20-2018, 05:46 AM)extherian Wrote: Then again, I place a great deal of importance on freedom and autonomy in real life, whether at the level of the individual or the wider society. These things aren't important to OA citizens, since for some strange reason the gods see to their every need. But it is important to me, and the cultural shock would be more than I could handle.

Actually most OA citizens would likely claim that they enjoy vastly more freedom and autonomy than you doSmile They enjoy an enormous number of options to explore, up to and including becoming transapients (And perhaps even someday archai) themselves is they want to and are willing to put in the work.

Just a question to think about - what can you do, that the citizens of the sephirotics cannot? Specifically in terms of freedom and autonomy.

(03-20-2018, 05:46 AM)extherian Wrote: It's for these reasons that I'm most interested in the Periphery and non-Sephirotic regions of the Terragen Sphere. The Hiders, the Deeper Covenant, the Seams, the Baseline reserves, Tribe Luxia and the Laughter Hegemony are all topics that interest me greatly. Another keen interest of mine is the limits of what's possible for sub-singularity humans, hence my questions about the Highbrows and Yas Om.

Sub-singularity humans are actually hugely capable in their own right. Most of the technology they use was actually invented by them, for example. That includes most of the tech they use to take care of their needs and wants. The transapients provide direction and the archai set the...tone...but in most places modosophonts handle the day to day stuff. And there are lots of places (even in the sephirotics) where the transapients aren't and where modos run things.

ToddSmile
Reply


Messages In This Thread
Better late than never - by extherian - 03-19-2018, 10:06 PM
RE: Better late than never - by Rynn - 03-19-2018, 11:46 PM
RE: Better late than never - by Drashner1 - 03-20-2018, 02:52 AM
RE: Better late than never - by extherian - 03-20-2018, 05:46 AM
RE: Better late than never - by Rynn - 03-20-2018, 06:02 AM
RE: Better late than never - by Drashner1 - 03-20-2018, 02:07 PM
RE: Better late than never - by extherian - 03-20-2018, 06:40 AM
RE: Better late than never - by ProxCenBound - 03-20-2018, 07:45 AM
RE: Better late than never - by extherian - 03-20-2018, 07:15 PM
RE: Better late than never - by Vaktus - 03-21-2018, 02:56 AM
RE: Better late than never - by Rynn - 03-21-2018, 04:32 AM
RE: Better late than never - by extherian - 03-21-2018, 04:58 AM
RE: Better late than never - by Tengu459 - 03-21-2018, 04:30 AM
RE: Better late than never - by Drashner1 - 03-21-2018, 05:09 AM
RE: Better late than never - by extherian - 03-21-2018, 07:17 AM
RE: Better late than never - by Drashner1 - 03-21-2018, 08:53 AM
RE: Better late than never - by ProxCenBound - 03-21-2018, 08:56 AM
RE: Better late than never - by extherian - 03-21-2018, 09:49 AM
RE: Better late than never - by Drashner1 - 03-21-2018, 12:56 PM
RE: Better late than never - by Tengu459 - 03-21-2018, 10:40 AM
RE: Better late than never - by extherian - 03-21-2018, 10:50 AM
RE: Better late than never - by QwertyYerty - 03-21-2018, 12:24 PM
RE: Better late than never - by extherian - 03-21-2018, 07:17 PM
RE: Better late than never - by Tengu459 - 03-22-2018, 08:14 AM
RE: Better late than never - by extherian - 03-22-2018, 09:10 AM
RE: Better late than never - by Tengu459 - 03-22-2018, 11:09 AM
RE: Better late than never - by JohnnyYesterday - 03-23-2018, 06:20 AM
RE: Better late than never - by Drashner1 - 03-23-2018, 01:08 PM
RE: Better late than never - by Alphadon - 03-24-2018, 04:20 PM
RE: Better late than never - by Tengu459 - 03-24-2018, 07:08 PM
RE: Better late than never - by Alphadon - 03-24-2018, 07:38 PM
RE: Better late than never - by Drashner1 - 03-24-2018, 11:05 PM
RE: Better late than never - by selden - 03-25-2018, 12:29 AM
RE: Better late than never - by extherian - 03-25-2018, 12:41 AM
RE: Better late than never - by selden - 03-25-2018, 12:45 AM
RE: Better late than never - by Alphadon - 03-25-2018, 04:56 AM
RE: Better late than never - by Rynn - 03-25-2018, 05:13 AM
RE: Better late than never - by extherian - 03-25-2018, 05:50 AM
RE: Better late than never - by Rynn - 03-25-2018, 05:58 AM
RE: Better late than never - by extherian - 03-25-2018, 06:45 AM
RE: Better late than never - by Drashner1 - 03-25-2018, 07:50 AM
RE: Better late than never - by Alphadon - 03-25-2018, 05:27 PM
RE: Better late than never - by extherian - 03-25-2018, 08:51 PM

Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 3 Guest(s)