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SyRauk posted:Is meditation just a human thing or do other civilizations practice it? Do they use meditation for the same reasons we do? Do other civilizations have something similar to Chakras? Or does this fall into the religion category that has of no use to higher beings? It's all religion. Alright, back soon, folks. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 13:05 |
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Orgasmo posted:Re-asking again because at least two-thirds of my questions are valid. I answered the first one - birds, because they remind me of the flying creatures on Ulath. Second - That I've seen? A couple of your guys showed me a video of some guy getting his head sawn off. That was pretty damn violent. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 13:19 |
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Yuki Akuma posted:Does your planet have any animals that are predisposed to living with melrins? Not really any more. Earlier in our development, yes - people would keep alys (small bipedal creatures with very small bodies and flat, wide heads poking out of them) and various other animals. As resources became more abundant, they undomesticated themselves and now they're all but wild again, though they tend to hang around [farms], as the owners of the farms are likely to give them any extra food. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 13:23 |
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Splatmaster posted:Welcome to Earth, and thank you for posting. I'd like to ask 2 questions, 1 serious and one not so serious. I have lived in [house]s with stairs. Ours are wider and shallower and tend to curve around the outside of the house. As for aquatic derivation, you are pretty on-the-button - after all, we have nothing like trees to dwell in, all our [plantlife] is on the ground. We never had a stage at which we developed technology as water-based life. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 13:28 |
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I really want to answer a few more questions today but there are people outside talking and I cannot concentrate. I'm going to go out for a while, I'll check in later. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 13:31 |
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Madox posted:Is there any concern that fewer and fewer people on your homeworld would be interested in the concept of having a child? You already said your planet is far less populated than Earth. If the population starts to get too small, and there is no governing body to address it and get the message out, what do you do? Nothing. Where is the problem? |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 13:56 |
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Demolisher posted:Have you answered mathematically challenging questions yet? No, and I've explained why several times. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 13:57 |
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Your voices are all so damn shrill, how do you concentrate on things, honestly? |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 14:00 |
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Madox posted:Well, on Earth if the population got too small, our current society would cease to function as we run out of specialized workers. There would have to be a drastic change in everyone's life. Isn't it like that for you? Also, we would be afraid of humans dying out. You make an interesting point, I haven't really thought about it nor heard of anyone else who talked about it. As far as I can reason, society would continue to function as normal. If someone wanted something manufactured, they would do it themselves or visit another networked planet for it. Nobody is particularly afraid of the dying of the species. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 14:04 |
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Rhymenoceros posted:Do you fear the inevitable conquer and subjugation of the galaxy by the human race? Not in the slightest. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 14:04 |
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Dan Didio posted:Because it's not likely? It's not, but if it were, nobody would be particularly bothered. Why would we? If nobody wants to have children, then no children are had and the species will live out the lifetime of it's remaining members, who will presumably continue doing the things they enjoy. If the last few melrins want company, they will travel elsewhere for it. What problem is it of theirs if the species dies out? |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 14:07 |
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Rhymenoceros posted:Why? Because you're all probably going to kill each other before you get out here! |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 14:08 |
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Sally Slug posted:Is there a reason you've skipped over my (and a few other people's) questions? No reason other than I am having trouble answering everyone's questions, since I have other things to do. Collectively you have a lot more time to post questions than I do to answer them, so some are going to slip through the gaps. If I don't answer your question after a few pages, by all means post it again. I am having particular trouble now with these humans outside who have been shrieking at each other for nearly an hour. They are so loud! They are mere feet from each other but talk loudly enough that I can clearly hear their conversation in the next room. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 14:13 |
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Favorabilis Solitud posted:What is a possibility of the orgins of life? If our planet was barren at one time. How about yours? I ask this hoping that maybe it is common knowledge to you. No more common than it would be to you if you all knew for sure. As I understand it, amino acids are a common structure throughout the universe and under certain conditions they wiill form proteins and self-replicating molecules. Once you have self-replication, natural selection kicks off and you get more and more complex development. And I can not sit here any more. this is intolerable. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 14:21 |
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taking a break from answering questions for now, but am open for discussion about things. Don't blame me if I disappear for a bit to go talk to some people, though.Dirty Job posted:The main difference is that the world outside of Nazi Germany wasn't completely smarmy and bland. This constant accusation of blandness is a little irritating. There is nothing bland about life on Ulath or any other networked planet. How could there be when everyone gets to do what they want? If you find something bland and boring you don't do it. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 15:11 |
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Holy Calamity! posted:Your world does not have any violent activities to speak of. No monster trucks, no big ass fucking explosions, no Jackie Chan. No football, no rugby, no hockey. No paintball, no target practice, no donkey punches. It's bland as hell as far as humans are concerned. So your definition of blandness is a lack of things hitting other things? You could play football on Ulath if you wanted to. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 15:18 |
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Lockback posted:I think the blandness is due to no challenges. Something most people find fulfilling. So set your own. I don't understand the problem. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 15:19 |
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Gryfft posted:When we get out there-- and I intend to be one of the ones who does-- we're going to instigate a revolution. Not a violent one, and fuck you for thinking that. We're going to eradicate the content, the silent bliss, and replace it with drive, passion, zeal, and a desire to achieve. What you are suggesting is that you take happiness and replace it with unhappiness for the sole purpose of striving for happiness. Most melrins would find that idea ridiculous. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 15:20 |
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Holy Calamity! posted:Yeah, but no one else would want to, because your race is bland and would see it as pointless / barbaric My race and twentyfive others. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 15:21 |
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niethan posted:You missed my question Yes, we would help him. No, we won't help you. Apart from me, barely anybody even knows about you guys. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 15:22 |
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Gryfft posted:Football presents a challenge. It presents a reason (albeit contrived, artificial, and arbitrary) for a person to spend his or her time building one's body into a competitive machine. You make a lot of vague statements about people doing whatever they want-- but you never present a reason why someone might want to really try to advance themselves. And that's the way a species is advanced-- competition or cooperation. You present neither as an option, only languid whims. But there are people who compete, and our entire society is built around co-operation. It just so happens that your idea of 'fun' competition is not the same as ours. It's more violent, and I've been dancing around the term 'base' for a while now. I could get more patronising and go with 'primitive'. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 15:24 |
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Spidermatrix53 posted:I figure you could use a break from all the irratating "Why don't you blow something up, Mr. Blandy?" questions. I haven't seen that movie, but if the title is anything to go by it sounds like a pretty good idea of how you guys are going to go. As for swearing, we don't really have offensive language on Ulath, there being little desire to offend anyone else. A desire you guys could all do without. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 15:28 |
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niethan posted:Why won't you help us You'd evolve too quickly, might not eliminate the negative and warlike aspects of your culture, and might develop the technology to travel to another planet before you've evolved past the particularly strong urge your species has to murder them. That's the last time I'm answering that particular question. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 15:30 |
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wicka posted:That's odd, you guys have gotten rid of offensive language because you don't want to offend others, not because you have gradually realized that words should be offensive. Words should be offensive? I'm not sure I understand. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 15:31 |
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Gryfft posted:Especially considering he's lumping chess, mathematics, science, industry, logic, video games, sports, fiction, and any bloody thing that is creative or fun, as "violent" and "primitive." No I'm not. I said that parts of some of those things were primitive. You've ascribed the rest yourself, apparently. I am sure some of you will find deep insight in that. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 15:33 |
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Gryfft posted:Mister Boone, out of trillions of beings with access to interstellar travel and all your incredible technology, not one has purposefully or accidentally accelerated a culture to become both starfaring and warlike. Not a question. Merely a statement. A correct one. It would be difficult to accidentally do it, and nobody wants to cause likely harm by deliberately doing it. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 15:36 |
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Spidermatrix53 posted:To play off of whatever muttled bizarreness was posted by "wicka": I swear here because it allows me to put particular emphasis on concepts and words more easily. Otherwise I have trouble communicating the intention of some sentences. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 15:37 |
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ExtraNoise posted:These annoying threadshitters are making him miss my question. And they have apparently made you miss my statement that I am not answering questions right now, simply discussing issues. I actually like this a lot more - all you guys seem to want to ask about is what cool gadgets I have with me, anyway. That and trying to make me prove I'm an alien. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 15:39 |
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wicka posted:You said you don't have offensive language because there is little desire to offend others, implying that you got rid of words and phrases that were offensive rather than realizing that the idea of a singular word as being "offensive" for no reason is absurd. The concept does not apply. We didn't have words that were particularly offensive, as you understand them. We had linguistic structures made up of ordinary words designed to offend. The closest alternative I can think of in English is "to hell with you". That is how our 'offensive language' worked, but nobody uses it any more. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 15:43 |
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niethan posted:I guess I don't see any harm in getting rid of AIDS. Am I correct in the assumption that you value human life less than that of you own species, but more than that of animals? Get rid of AIDS yourself. It's all part of your own development. To paraphrase one of your own authors, it may well be that you contract newer diseases in the future that make AIDS look like a runny nose. You're going to have to sort that out yourself, too. Why should we step in and kill bacteria and viruses to save you? |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 15:45 |
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bhig3 posted:Also, I'm confused about what you said about Artificial Intelligences. I don't consider them alive, because they are not 'alive'. If you want to know whether they are sapient, then you're going to have to give me a method of measuring "sapience". It was 'ended' because it's development served little purpose. A few people enjoyed building AI, and some still do, but we don't want or need it to run our planets. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 15:47 |
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Gryfft posted:Can an intelligent, non-biological being "Do whatever it wants to do"? Interesting question. If it expressed desire to, I see no reason why it would not be allowed to. If there are any that have, I don't know of them. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 15:51 |
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Lockback posted:My question is never answered, or discussed. =^( I am missing a lot of questions, and it seems like that is going to be a running theme. Other Stage III civilisations are generally similarly structured to your own, although generally single governments spread over larger proportions of the planets. Whether this is good or bad I leave as an exercise to the reader. Probably because of this, there is less war (although still a lot of war). The ideas of fascism and democracy permeate the planets in differing measure. Where there is semocracy, the ideas of right-wing and left-wing generally apply - traditional values versus moving forward. Not many species have an embarrassment about sex, as humans do, and most think violence is bad but engage in it anyway. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 15:58 |
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.haze posted:I'm still interested in seeing what your writing system looks like. Oh, I did that. Hold on. This is a horribly crude approximation and would be nearly unreadable to a melrin, but here is the general look of it. 
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| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 16:04 |
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niethan posted:What do the different greys mean, are they relevant to the content? Isn't that annoying like don't you need three different pens or something It stems from ancient, carved writing, which denoted different words depending on the depth at which lines were carved. Yes, you need three [pens] or pen colours. The shades of grey are meant to represent it but seem to not do that very well since they don't interact like they would on a writing surface. It's difficult to replicate with a mouse but I'll try to find something more suitable and scan in a more accurate version. Mr. Boone fucked around with this message at Apr 17, 2009 around 16:10 |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 16:08 |
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Spidermatrix53 posted:Oh, and what does this writing say? Name, rank and serial number, Sir! First one's my name, second one is the best I could come up with for retail-management tourist, third's the name I use when submitting things to the databanks. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 16:12 |
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Holy Calamity! posted:Someone posted this earlier in the thread to troll Boone, but it's a good example of the concept of 'line weight': Yes, line weight was the wrong term to use for me. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 16:14 |
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Spidermatrix53 posted:Then did you mean depth? Is your writing in Three Dimensions? Yes, though not fully. Like I said, it stems from ancient writing practices where words were carved rather than written. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 16:17 |
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toehorse posted:You all realize that hes gonna go back to his Utopia and live for a few more centuries and that before his life is over there is a very large likelihood we will have been reduced to organic residue. Indeed. Alright, I'm going to get some sleep. You guys want I should shut up shop till tomorrow, or leave the thread open where you can all argue amongst yourselves about the one point which matters least? |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 16:21 |
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winvirus posted:I vote close the thread. The votes are in! See you guys sometime tomorrow. Probably later on. |
| # ¿ Apr 17, 2009 16:25 |
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