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BlackJosh posted:Also I feel you guys (you Network guys, if other races have the same mindset) are incredibly arrogant and short-sighted. Any problem with your system you say "That can't happen." like psycopaths or alien invasion. But it doesn't happen! In half a million years it has never happened! From all the planets we have studied there is nobody in a position to threaten twenty-plus planets, even if we had to fabricate defenses when they arrived! This is not arrogance, this is knowledge. How can you accuse anyone of arrogance when, without any knowledge of my society, you can tell me that it's the wrong way to live? |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 16:55 |
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Holy Calamity! posted:Honestly, with this line of thinking, we're far more likely to simply blow ourselves up before we develop FTL capabilities. This is what I've been saying. It is a wonderful defense mechanism for the galaxy. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 16:57 |
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Yuki Akuma posted:Did your wars happen before the 'eugenics' that caused you to all be the same race? I'd expect they were mostly motivated by the fact that, say, the other guys had green skin rather than grey. The eugenics happened shortly after war was all but eradicated, and were nothing to do with skin colour. They were more about what was, at the time, considered 'disease'. Genetic disorders, and some people were prevented from breeding in case they spread certain viewpoints. It was not much less reprehensible than full-on war. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:00 |
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Yuki Akuma posted:You mentioned being able to "fabricate" money if you had any need to. How would you accomplish this? Did you bring equipment with you from your craft? Would you have to go back to it? Yeah, it's all on my craft. Kind of like the replicators you have in science fiction, only you need raw materials to make it work, and a sample of whatever you're trying to copy. It's complex stuff and doesn't work with everything. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:02 |
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Zinc Teeth posted:I don't get this. In 800,000,000 people, no one wants to get on top? EVERYONE gets along great? You are not born to fight, you are taught to fight. While it may be true that eugenics attempted to reduce the fighting instinct, it didn't work, it was developed socially. If we were to bring a human child up on Ulath, they would not immediately want to take over. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:04 |
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toehorse posted:Mr. Boone, I'm answering this tomorrow along with other questions related to stages ofdevelopment. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:05 |
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Shoe of all Cosmos posted:AWESOME! Why can't we do this on Earth?? You did. In all likelihood, you will again. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:05 |
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Firequirks posted:I guess what I'm saying is that, while you insist that the chance is remote, it still seems to me like it's going to happen sometime. Everyone buys a ticket, but eventually someone wins the lottery. But it hasn't, in half a million years. Nobody wants to take over because there would be so little benefit. Everybody's happy now. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:06 |
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Zinc Teeth posted:This is why you have no great people. There's not a single living person on your planet you can point to as someone to emulate or admire. Because you got rid of everything that wasn't an easy-to-handle Average. Correct me if I'm wrong. You are. There are many great people. They have contributed vast amounts of scientific research and technology to the network. Their names are there, you can find them if you want, but there is no reason to do so. They do what they do because they like to, so they remain unsung because that's not what it's about. People don't do hard work to get famous, they do [work] they like so that they are happy. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:09 |
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Philly posted:A couple things, now that I've caught up. 1. I have less than an hour remaining tonight, so writing will have to wait a day or two. 2. There are competitive games and sports for those who want to play them. However, it's always friendly competition, and aggressive sports involving violent physical contact are not so popular. More popular are sports requiring finesse and skill as opposed to brute force. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:12 |
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Holy Calamity! posted:But how can you say everyone is happy if you admit you don't know about everyone? Everyone is generally happy, I didn't mean it in an 'everyone is 100% happy all the time' sense. If they are unhappy with their lot, they go find a lot they are happy with. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:14 |
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Zebadaiah posted:So mistakes that cost melrin lives simply do not happen? If someone comes up with a new technology and someone else ends up dying due to a fault in the design, what then? Do you forgive and rest assured that the inventor won't make another similar mistake? If there is a chance that something is going to explode, it will be done far away from anything it could kill. I'm sure there have been isolated incidents like you describe, but I have never known any. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:15 |
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Holy Calamity! posted:Are there gay aliens? Yes, although I think homosexuality is less common on Ulath. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:16 |
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Arthe Xavier posted:I find it odd that you do not ponder about birth and death anymore. The very fact that life exists is, in my eyes, a mystery. Yes, I might learn about the definitions of life, and why - in biological terms - life occurs, but what is your answer to "why is there life at all"? I understand that one must focus more on 'here and now' to lead a happy life, but I also enjoy the passion which lies underneath the process of thinking about these big questions. Has your society really lost the interest in this? The question "why is there life" is not considered a valid line of enquiry. It's the established view that there is no why, it's simply the result of randomness arranging the way it did. toehorse posted:In other superlight civilizations has the death of religion typically been a slow process in response to the advancement of science and technology or has it been violent and quick? It happens slowly, with more and more people becoming non-religious as more scientific evidence comes in. It speeds up as the churches find themselves un-needed and eventually religion shuts down entirely. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:19 |
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The Year 20XX posted:Hello Mr. Boone, interesting thread. No. A child is considered a melrin who cannot fully speak. After that you are an adult, and are free to seek education as you wish. There are a lot of melrins who like to teach, so if you need education you can find it from them, or you can study the databanks. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:21 |
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toehorse posted:Also how long ago did the oldest race of the 'superlight 20' attain superlight travel? It's more than twenty, and the oldest race still in the network is 400,000 years old. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:21 |
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Zinc Teeth posted:What if I'm happy with your lot? Give it to me. You can have it, but you wouldn't take mine. It would be easy to get your own, so do so. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:22 |
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Digeridude posted:
No. I do not think you know as much as you would like people to think you know. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:23 |
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toehorse posted:Is there evidence of previous superlight species? What I am getting at is why all of the technological emergence in that last 500,000 years? 500,000 years ago is where the first civilisation made the first connection with another. It grew from there as more were discovered. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:24 |
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Firequirks posted:I know you mentioned earlier that you have no need for money. So I'm sorry if I missed this point: I say I am a tourist. When pressed I will say I work in retail management, as was suggested to me by a human friend. My account was bought for me by the man who introduced me to Something Awful. He did not ask for payment, but he asked that I did not name him. I have not yet encountered a situation where I have needed ID. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:27 |
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toehorse posted:So there is no known precursor to the current galactic network? Not one that is known to the current network. There are doubtless others elsewhere. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:27 |
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Lockback posted:Mr. Boone, I think you are trying too hard to convince a gecko to fly. It's ancestors may get there one day, but for now it only knows how to scurry. When I became a child of speaking age, I wandered around for a while interacting with other melrins. For ten years I moved in and out of a few social groups, then decided to build my own dwelling and see if new groups would come to me. They did. After a few more years I took a scientific interest in the development of civilisation and travelled around the superlight planets talking to others with differing and common interests. During this time (some fifteen years) I gained a knowledge of some of the sciences using the databanks. After a while I obtained my own craft in the manner I have described and started visiting planets. That leads me to now. There is little to my life when described in these general terms, but so much when you know of all the interactions I have had. I consider myself an extremely socially aware being. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:34 |
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Zinc Teeth posted:Yeah, but fuck you, I want yours. Until you have tried the alternative you cannot make that call. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:35 |
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Digeridude posted:Aww hell naw. See, that writing was a simple substitution cypher for an English word with actual letters skewed to form the symbols. I would have thought his translation system could handle it. Read again: It was ENGLISH. Take THIS: I assumed it was English. I still could not read it. I still do not think you know as much as you claim. My English does not come from a translation device. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:36 |
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Arthe Xavier posted:We humans tend to be arrogant this way, though. Meaning that we can only understand and relate to the way we behave and live. There is no alternative, and there can be no alternative. Our way is the best, and all deviations are either bland or impossible. That is not news to me. 
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| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:38 |
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Duckrasta posted:How did you travel to other countries without any ID or passport? Do you have some other method to transport around the planet? It doesn't seem like it is worth the trouble to haul out the old spaceship. It's a lot faster to travel in my vessel than it is by plane. If I wanted to take a plane, I could get on without ID by my own methods, but it is not convenient. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:39 |
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Yuki Akuma posted:You keep using smilies. Is this something you picked up in your one-two years on Earth? Does your species have similar facial expressions? No, our expressions are pretty dissimilar, but smilies are not a particularly difficult concept to learn and use. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:41 |
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Arthe Xavier posted:It probably didn't take you long to realize this, either. I will read it soon, then. I am going to have to stop answering questions for around a day. I will leave the thread open for half an hour for you to get any burning issues in, then close it until tomorrow after answering any questions I particularly like. You can also email me at boonefromulath@googlemail.com |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:45 |
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Zinc Teeth posted:You've never had to work for anything in your entire life. Everything you have, from the food in your belly to the ship that got you here, you mooched off of other people. You've traveled and seen some amazing things but what are you going to leave behind, what's going to be the point when you die? You are determined to offend, but the concept of a 'moocher' really does not apply to anyone in the network. I ate food that I grew, and when I didn't it was willingly offered to me. And I am not obliged to contribute. When I die, I will leave very little, but I will have enjoyed myself. I would rather enjoy my time myself than have other people enjoy my legacy. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:47 |
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Digeridude posted:Well honestly, there IS no *point* to life. It happens, and we want it to have a point because we're here and self-aware. What's the point of a mountain? First sensible thing you've come out with.
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| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 17:54 |
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Wolfsheim posted:Is it just me, or did you go from being very casual and open to very cynical and vaguely passive-aggressive about everything? I don't hate humans at all. I'm not trying to be passive-aggressive, but I get exasperated trying to explain it to people who seem to be directly opposed to people being happy, so sorry for blowing up a little earlier. Alright, tomorrow I'll answer some of the questions I put off, see if I can get a copy of that Spore creator thing and maybe do some writing. I'll answer some of the questions I've missed and answer new ones, but I'm tired so I'm going to pack up and go to sleep. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 18:20 |
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Zebadaiah posted:Please elaborate on how it's less convenient than going back to your vessel which is "hidden in a place that would require a lot of organisation to get back to". I'd have to go back to my vessel to enact the methods anyway. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 18:21 |
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Forgot to close the thread. One last question.Theaetetus posted:This quotation bothers me greatly and makes me think you have not fully comprehended (grokked) the English Language. Knowledge is facts, such as knowing the chair is on the floor or the sky is blue. Kant defines knowledge as the synthesis of two pieces of information in a matrix to produce one complete "picture". Wisdom, however, implies comprehension and understanding. Knowing 2+2=4 greatly differs from understanding why and how the addition of 2 and 2 makes 4. Knowing a sum is knowledge. Knowing how the sum works is still knowledge. Knowing the implications of the sum is still knowledge. 'Wisdom' is a fairly human construction. (I use 'human' here to denote your species and species at your general development level). Anyway, sleeping time. |
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2009 18:27 |
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Hey everyone! Had a great night and morning, thanks for asking. Hopped on a ride to the south-west of England this morning after hearing about the opportunity from a friend yesterday. Had interesting conversations with the two firefighters. At last, I'm able to have whole conversations without saying something that makes my companions give me a strange look. Anyway, I tried to answer a couple of long-answers but ended up only doing this on an old laptop I borrowed from my Something Awful friend. Hopefully this will answer a few of them anyway, and I'll try to answer ones it doesn't apply to later today after answering some more short questions! quote:Here's one of the things I promised yesterday, but typing out histories and long-answer questions takes longer than I'd thought, so I ask for patience. This should give you more of a context for some of the things I'm telling you. I use Roman numerals because I think that's what you guys would use for something so important. Alrighty. Feel free to ask more questions, and thank you for all the emails! There are a couple of questions I got through email which I will answer in the thread later, leaving senders anonymous. Mr. Boone fucked around with this message at Apr 17, 2009 around 05:31 |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 05:29 |
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whoopsie! sorry, ignore this, clicked quote and not edit. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 05:32 |
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winvirus posted:Do you have dreams when you sleep? Have you guys studied the importance of dreams (if there is any)? I don't think we dream the same way you dream. From what I can gather, you guys have complex simulated realities kicking around in your head when you dream, which is a weird concept. We have thoughts that occur in your sleep, but they are thoughts and not images. You think of a surreal concept that makes no real sense, and get confused and wake up. They have been studied, and they're just semi-random thoughts that the dormant brain generates. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 05:36 |
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winvirus posted:Might you have any examples of melrin art? I know this is kind of a longshot, but it'd be definitely interesting to see something like that. Didn't bring anything with me, no. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 05:49 |
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Motorball posted:And a great thread is back. 'Impressive' gets the square parenthesis, but I particularly like the deserts. I haven't yet been to any, but I love how alien they are. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 05:52 |
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Averrences posted:answer my questions, pretty please Endothermic. Half-way between mammals and reptiles is the best approximation I can come up with, but the concept doesn't really apply. We can digest and use glucose and cellulose and most other sugars, along with various other substrates humans would not really consider 'food'. At a very generalised level, we need proteins and carbohydrates, the same as you guys. I'd have to know a little more about ATP to know if it were the same as our own method, but I have a feeling it is. I'll let you know when I find out. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 06:00 |
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Couple from email from someone who's decided I'm a fiction writer.quote:A few short questions for the thread if you're so inclined: No. There is no need. A 'personal crisis', as you put it, would be resolved by communication with friends, or you'd resolve it on your own. However, in many cases, what you consider a personal crisis is simply a change in desire, so you'd just go and feed whatever desire it happened to be. The same principles we apply to each other apply to animals, too. If they are not deliberately harming us, we will not harm them. They are less intelligent, so we make concessions to them (if they want our [land] and don't want us in it, we'll find somewhere else). When travelling, I will occasionally eat meat, but only because it has already been killed and there is no further harm I can do to it. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 06:14 |
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