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Total Members Voted: 0

Voting closed: April 07, 2013, 10:34:35 am

[piecewise]

Spoiler: On the 4th day of ERistmas Introspection gave to me (click to show/hide)

It's not really a secret, more of a bit about the future.

As ARM forces liberate the planets under UWM rule, there will be questions that have to be addressed; options to be considered. Which of th bans of the UWM do we repeal? The Tech ban? The Genetics ban? And if we do repeal those bans, what will the worlds we visit look like to you soldiers? To you centuries old men to whom society is viewed in photo-like glimpses separated by decades. And what will it mean for ARM in general? Will you, with your weapons from a distant era, be able to keep up with the new technologies of the societies you freed? And what of the quiet worlds? What would happen if, one day, we were to drop in from a jump and find out destination to be nothing but a silent desert of glittering chrome and high technology?

When faced with the opportunity and the threat of humanity's ambition and inventiveness unrestrained, will we let them go and hope they do not destroy themselves, or reign them in, stagnating our species but remaining safe?

And  whats more, how will they react to these efforts, whatever they shall be? How will the leaders of this new government deal with its rebels? Because there will be rebels. And assassins. And political extremists. And Loyalists to the old government. And every shining general of the rebellion will become a gray and monolithic pillar of the establishment, with a bullseye painted on their chest.

[TCM]

Big important questions.

((Shit, I miss when things were simple. Shoot these people. Rescue those people. Get that thing.))

[GreatWyrmGold]

Big important questions.

((Shit, I miss when things were simple. Shoot these people. Rescue those people. Get that thing.))

Wait, missions used to be simple?

It would be kinda hypocritical if we didn't repeal the genetics ban and such despite all our biopunk freaks. Aside from that...we need to make sure we spend enough time at each world to learn of new developments in all fields.
Also, what's the Tech Ban?

[WhitiusOpus]

Marcius, his hatred softened by this mans words.. For the moment...

 "I guess you are correct... And I hope to find these rebel groups soon. But please, now that you know my story, how hath you come to this vessel?"

[swordsmith04]

((The tech ban is a ban on all or most technological development, especially on weaponry. It's why the literally-thousand-year-old Gauss and laser rifles are still 'current'.))

[kisame12794]

Big important questions.

((Shit, I miss when things were simple. Shoot these people. Rescue those people. Get that thing.))

Wait, missions used to be simple?

It would be kinda hypocritical if we didn't repeal the genetics ban and such despite all our biopunk freaks. Aside from that...we need to make sure we spend enough time at each world to learn of new developments in all fields.
Also, what's the Tech Ban?

((Missions were simple in that they were: Go here, grab that, don't die.))

[Radio Controlled]

((Shit, I miss when things were simple. Shoot these people. Rescue those people. Get that thing.))

((Things could still be easy for May, nobody is forcing her to participate in the hard discussions. If you want, you can still just wait till somebody tells her what to kill or protect or fetch and let other people carry the responsibility. Though the unavoidable discussions will most certainly foul up the OOC, no escaping that.


Anyways, I think that we should hang on to the tech ban, at least for a while. Since the UWM already has it now, it'd be easy to just continuing with their system, we just look at the institutions and regulations they had and alter it where needed. Then, we can limit who does the potentially dangerous research (weapons, advanced genetics, space magic) by only allowing 'sanctioned' tech labs to do it, for the others the ban would still be in place. Yes, I know of the problems and pitfalls with government-funded research (or companies, or anything really) but we have Steve, a vast distributed intelligence to help us manage things and avoid at least part of the problems that come with maintaining a big empire. We're really lucky to have instant communications in this setting, imagine if we hadn't. That'd be problematic on a gigantic scale.

What I'm fearing most in the tech ban respect is that, while we continue bringing down the UWM, that their control of other planets/systems will wane so much that said planets can declare independence before we get to them. If they then start doing unrestrained !SCIENCE! we could have a real problem there. If I recall well, one of the reasons the Altered strain developed was because unsupervised genehacking went horribly wrong (or horribly right, perhaps).

So yeah, I'd say we try to walk the middle road between complete stagnation and complete freedom. Where this balance lays, and how we enforce this, will be a tough nut to crack.))

And  whats more, how will they react to these efforts, whatever they shall be? How will the leaders of this new government deal with its rebels? Because there will be rebels. And assassins. And political extremists. And Loyalists to the old government. And every shining general of the rebellion will become a gray and monolithic pillar of the establishment, with a bullseye painted on their chest.

(("Each Revolution devours its children."
-Jacques Mallet du Pan, 18th century French journalist-))

[GreatWyrmGold]

((Missions were simple in that they were: Go here, grab that, don't die.))

((And any of the three steps sometimes lacked massive, very un-simple complications?))

If I recall well, one of the reasons the Altered strain developed was because unsupervised genehacking went horribly wrong (or horribly right, perhaps).

((...What purpose could the Altered have possibly gotten horribly right? It's not even "horribly right" for a weapon system--weapons need to be able to not kill the people using them.))

[syvarris]

"If you ever do find one of those groups, be warned that they aren't all good or heroic.  Many of them are known for seriously harming innocent people, just because it hurts the UWM.  But anyways, my story..."

Steve pauses for several seconds, collecting his thoughts.

"I am.. was a doctor's assistant to Dr. Anderson, at a hospital.  A pretty cold guy, but he wasn't cruel or anything.  Didn't seem to take his job seriously, but I figured that was just due to him being experienced."

Steve scowls in anger as he continues

"Then, one day, I found out that he had prescribed the wrong medication to five patients.  He had given them an immune system suppressant instead of the strengthener they were supposed to get!  They had serious infections, and they died because of that.  I confronted Anderson about it, and he didn't care!  He said they would probably have died anyway because the infections were already really severe, and he told me not to tell anyone about his mistake, or else he'd ruin my career.  Naturally, I told our employer.  But Anderson told him that I had done it.  It was Anderson's word against mine, and he had been working there for far longer.  So I was arrested for the murder of five people, and Anderson got off scot free."

Steve sighs.

"They put me in a stasis pod, and shipped me to this prison.  But the worst part is that I know Anderson's still working there.  And other people will probably die from his negligence."

((I apologize to the medical people who no doubt winced at inaccuracies while reading that.))


@Sean
Yeah, I was fully aware what I was doing when I named my char Steve.  I figured it could lead to some good/humorous RP.  He'll switch to using "Saint" (his last name) when he realizes there's trouble with that.  I could switch now if it's an actual problem for people, but he acts entirely different from Steve, so I didn't think it would cause trouble.


@The future of ARM Bans
While I have no real say, I support the idea of having sanctioned research labs where all the science is done.  Preferably on remote moons or something, considering the... volatility of ER science.  Other worlds should be very limited, although scientists should be capable of offering to join those science bases.

And when new breakthroughs are made that are proved not to be reality-destroying, they should be released to the public.  That alone is a huge step up from the UWM.


@GWG
Perhaps the Altered were the final step in evolution, perfection.  Perhaps the only reason they "attacked" us, was so that we could be assimilated into the perfect conciousness.  Perhaps our life is a pitiful and torturous mockery when compared to the Altered.  Really, there's too much UWM propaganda for us to know.

[GreatWyrmGold]

"But the worst part is that I know Anderson's still working there.

((Unlikely, it's probably many decades if not centuries after Steve's incarceration.))

@GWG
Perhaps the Altered were the final step in evolution, perfection.  Perhaps the only reason they "attacked" us, was so that we could be assimilated into the perfect conciousness.  Perhaps our life is a pitiful and torturous mockery when compared to the Altered.  Really, there's too much UWM propaganda for us to know.

((Neither evolution nor morality work like that.))

[TCM]

((Shit, I miss when things were simple. Shoot these people. Rescue those people. Get that thing.))

((Things could still be easy for May, nobody is forcing her to participate in the hard discussions. If you want, you can still just wait till somebody tells her what to kill or protect or fetch and let other people carry the responsibility. Though the unavoidable discussions will most certainly foul up the OOC, no escaping that.))

((It's not even about May. It's everyone as a whole. Watching TV. Having wrestling matches. Jim and Feyri going on dates. Tinkering around. Setting up on-ship tournaments and events. Stuff like that. Now it's all big plans and debating the future of humanity. I miss just being a couple dozen rag tag people trying to survive going to weird places.))

[syvarris]

((Unlikely, it's probably many decades if not centuries after Steve's incarceration.))

Yeah, I know.  Steve doesn't.  If you're gonna pick apart the timeline errors in that post, I'd figure it would be the first bit about China-9.

Also, the Sword landed on Hephaestus for resupply, so Steve might be a "new" inmate.

((Neither evolution nor morality work like that.))

*sigh* That was sort of parodying the standard hivemind/assimilation villian speech.  And was intended to be very tongu-in-cheek, although there's no good way to denote that.

I also might disagree with you on whether morality works like that.  But that argument would be half semantics, half flames, and all derail, so I won't start it. 

[Harry Baldman]

((What I'm wondering is why should we care about those questions, really, or why would Steve ever give us the opportunity to determine any of this. It simply makes no sense, considering that absolutely zero of the current revolutionaries are equipped to make far-reaching decisions on a basically galactic scale. The human mind cannot comprehend the size of the galaxy or even a timeframe longer than two centuries or so, so asking any inmates about empire policy is completely pointless, as their decisions will be uninformed, ineffective and based on reasoning that is rooted in their own prejudices and intellectual limitations.

I mean, I thought the revolution was all Steve's idea, as he is the man with the plan and the brain amalgamation actually equipped to handle all this crap (not to mention that he knows a whole lot about the Altered, has actual experience overseeing vast organizations and acute knowledge of the failings of human self-government on a galactic scale). If he lets us decide all this, what's the point of making a revolution to reshape humanity into a more survivable form in the first place? The convicts sure aren't the ones to ask when you want to know what's wrong with society. None of them even know what the UWM is actually like and how galactic society even works - most or all of them were put in stasis two or more centuries ago, and most of them are also either dangerously unhinged, incompetent, dangerously well-meaning or worse.))

[GreatWyrmGold]

*sigh* That was sort of parodying the standard hivemind/assimilation villian speech.  And was intended to be very tongu-in-cheek, although there's no good way to denote that.

((I hate when that happens.))

I also might disagree with you on whether morality works like that.  But that argument would be half semantics, half flames, and all derail, so I won't start it. 

((The way I look at it is like this: Is it right to force someone to be a freeman in Hell?))

-snip-

((It's not the place of the characters to decide, but it is the place of the players to contemplate.))

[Xantalos]

((What I'm wondering is why should we care about those questions, really, or why would Steve ever give us the opportunity to determine any of this. It simply makes no sense, considering that absolutely zero of the current revolutionaries are equipped to make far-reaching decisions on a basically galactic scale. The human mind cannot comprehend the size of the galaxy or even a timeframe longer than two centuries or so, so asking any inmates about empire policy is completely pointless, as their decisions will be uninformed, ineffective and based on reasoning that is rooted in their own prejudices and intellectual limitations.

I mean, I thought the revolution was all Steve's idea, as he is the man with the plan and the brain amalgamation actually equipped to handle all this crap (not to mention that he knows a whole lot about the Altered, has actual experience overseeing vast organizations and acute knowledge of the failings of human self-government on a galactic scale). If he lets us decide all this, what's the point of making a revolution to reshape humanity into a more survivable form in the first place? The convicts sure aren't the ones to ask when you want to know what's wrong with society. None of them even know what the UWM is actually like and how galactic society even works - most or all of them were put in stasis two or more centuries ago, and most of them are also either dangerously unhinged, incompetent, dangerously well-meaning or worse.))

((I'm guessing some sort of Three Laws-type programming.
Also, lift the tech ban! We might get lucky and develop faster FTL.))