07-20-2020, 02:01 AM
One concept I've been thinking about for a while is rewriting either the Ambi Limis or Restored Ambi Limis articles along these lines. Essentially, the idea is that the human colonists of the Perseus rift decide to recreate the traditional hierarchy that the Conver Limis built themselves on. So they have Superiors/Cyborgs at the top, with Provolves and Vecs serving their as pets and workers, but the twist is that the humans engenerate themselves as these beings. Rather than enslave non-humans, the humans themselves are roleplaying as both the masters and slaves.
All of this is enforced through psychoware and a hivemind topology that manages the responsibilities each type of being has towards the others, in a manner not unlike Confucianism. The 'rulers' of this system have a responsibility to provide stimulating work and challenges to amuse the 'lower' beings in the hierarchy, who 'serve' the interests of their 'rulers'. In reality, the whole charade is something closer in nature to the Silent Ones and their mysterious traditions rather than the supremacist empire that the Conver Limis was.
Since these beings function as hiveminds, they have an intuitive grasp of their role within the collective and instinctively adjust their behaviour according to the needs of other beings in the hierarchy, often in strange and counterintuitive ways like mock warfare or ritualised economic crashes. They operate at the transapient level and live out archetypes from Conver Limis history whose significance is beyond the ability of modosophonts to appreciate.
Outsiders might mistake it for a conventional Great House at first, only to notice recurring patterns and historical cycles over a long enough time period, as if the citizens were incapable of learning from their mistakes, when repeating these mistakes in new and interesting ways is the entire point of the culture. I imagine that it would seem profoundly disturbing to someone from the Utopia Sphere or Communion of Worlds.
All of this is enforced through psychoware and a hivemind topology that manages the responsibilities each type of being has towards the others, in a manner not unlike Confucianism. The 'rulers' of this system have a responsibility to provide stimulating work and challenges to amuse the 'lower' beings in the hierarchy, who 'serve' the interests of their 'rulers'. In reality, the whole charade is something closer in nature to the Silent Ones and their mysterious traditions rather than the supremacist empire that the Conver Limis was.
Since these beings function as hiveminds, they have an intuitive grasp of their role within the collective and instinctively adjust their behaviour according to the needs of other beings in the hierarchy, often in strange and counterintuitive ways like mock warfare or ritualised economic crashes. They operate at the transapient level and live out archetypes from Conver Limis history whose significance is beyond the ability of modosophonts to appreciate.
Outsiders might mistake it for a conventional Great House at first, only to notice recurring patterns and historical cycles over a long enough time period, as if the citizens were incapable of learning from their mistakes, when repeating these mistakes in new and interesting ways is the entire point of the culture. I imagine that it would seem profoundly disturbing to someone from the Utopia Sphere or Communion of Worlds.