So, I’ve recently been working on answering the “Ethnographical Questionnaire” set of worldbuilding questions for my conculture – not quite this version, but another version by the same person, I think – in the interest of, by so doing, expanding on all sorts of areas and possible unconsidered lacunae in my
Conspicuous Consumption: Hard to tell sometimes (because Only Electric Sheep Are Cheap), but by and large, what you see is not conspicuous consumption – because they’re not all that fond of consumption – but rather the side-effects of massive for post-scarcity values of massive wealth – noting that gold is a glut
“It is easy to use entropy to solve our kind of problems. We may say this; we are sentinels, those sanctioned to use it when necessary. It is the natural tendency of this universe, after all, to break down – and trivial, then, to use that against anything within it. If
Only Electric Sheep Are Cheap: …sort of. Hydroponically grown food and meat out of the carniculture vats is cheaper, for example, yes. That’s what mass production is for. But it’s not like anyone’s going to go broke buying a nat-steak dinner. Sure, people aren’t going to
“This didn’t come off a noetic bridge.” “Of course it — this is perfectly legiti –” “Rule number one: don’t fib to your reincarnator. You’re handing me this soph’s mind-state. If you can trust me with that, you can tell me what I need to know to bring
SYSADMINS WANTED, INFOMORPHS PREFERRED – Site systems administrators wanted to manage long-range extranet relay stations in the Expansion Regions. Infomorphs preferred, cybershells and bioshells accepted but must provide own IMS44 hab module and breathing gases if necessary. Companions accommodated at own expense. Skills required: IIP, extranet interchange routing, cloud servers, auton
Computer Voice: Played straight with house brains and some institutional computers that talk to everyone around. Played somewhat straight with muses, terminals, and various other more personal machines, with the twist that they’re talking to you inside your own head, on a secondary audio channel that doesn’t interfere
The Second Guideline of Temporal Communication, should you happen to find yourself in the position (possible, albeit rare outside navigational errors, advanced relativistics classes, and other esoteric situations) of being the subject of a closed timelike curve formed by the appropriate combination of wormhole traversals and near-luminal travel, or alternatively
Companion Cube: This tendency has only amplified the traditional animist features of eldraeic religion, the more so since there are lots of AI-driven machines exhibiting quirks of personality and intentional behavior around these days. (In-world, this memeplex is called mechanimism.) And while everyone understands that mechanimism isn’t literally true,
“The Academy of Relativistics and Temporal Mechanics proposed that relevant precedents from cases yet to be tried should be admissible in court. After consultation with the emissary incarnation of Esseldár, the Curia ruled by vote of three to two that the principle of local causality should be enforceable at law
Comm Link: In the modern era, the ubiquitous neural lace, which is actually built into your brain, or at least, wrapped around your brain so you can talk with your thoughts. Earlier than that, the wearable virtual interface, which was worn as fancy glasses and a few other discreet devices,
(See part 1 here.) The second triad is that closely held; Lore, wealth, and oaths surround. Before all else is lore; knowledge of the world. Unstudied, the greatest powers are impotent; The wise may split a mountain with one blow. Next comes wealth: in tools and riches both. The one