sophont rights
[Imported from a post I made to my old blog, 10/12/2007.] I tend to think “human rights”, per se, are a speciesist concept. (As a transhumanist by philosophy, I have to think about the possibility of alien species, human speciation by bioengineering, artificial intelligence, and so forth. A
worldbuilding
Perhaps, if it turns out transhumanism (or, rather, its polyspecific analog, transsophontism) is the development path all species end up taking once they have the ability to do so, the problem is that once they’ve spent much time and effort on engineering themselves into ever-more brilliant and beautiful forms,
meta
As long-time readers of my assorted blogs will be aware, I’ve been engaged in large-scale worldbuilding and committing occasional acts of fiction for many a year. Thus far, except for that one competition, it’s been just for my own personal benefit, it being a satisfying creative outlet in
picofiction
Oops! Space doesn’t fold that way. Prime Directive? But they have money! Contragravity? But this is a spin… faster than light. We are travelling I’ve invented a memetic weapon… aaaargh! Night falls. But no! Orbiting dreadnought.
meta
(Strictly, this isn’t about my worldbuilding, but about BioWare’s worldbuilding for their Dragon Age series. Nonetheless, I think it covers some important territory about worldbuilding in general, and so, it goes in the Relevant category.) So, having pleased some people with my post on Dragon Age and sexuality
diplomacy
(So, I believe I promised y’all a story? Here it is. One 496-word piece of speculative flash-fiction, coming right up.) So, gentlesophs, you’re all familiar with how things work in the Associated Worlds, or at least in the broad consensus of the friendly Associated Worlds. You live there,
meta
So, back in January I entered this writing contest? Well, I just popped by the site again today, and the winners have been published! No, I’m not among them. However, I did qualify for an Honorable Mention, which frankly I’m quite delighted by, seeing as this is the
non-canon
If someone had run the linguistic corpus from the first scout probe, the one that it had derived from the planetary data network, past some competent sophont linguists, they might have pointed out the problem. Alas, such are scarce in the far reaches of space, and so the contact probe
eldraeic language
So, over in the worldbuilding department, thinking about the Chant of Light from Dragon Age has inspired me to do some polishing of the holy books that exist in my universe, and specifically some of the more commandment-y parts. And then, in thinking about them, I not only came up
etiquette
“Whatever you may do at home, do not, under any circumstances, kneel. It is an insult that will kill you. Also, don’t bow any deeper than forty-five degrees, stand up straight while you talk, do look your interlocutor in the eye, even if it’s the Empress Herself, and
worldbuilding
So, I’m doing a worldbuilding exercise that is, basically, writing the TV Tropes page for your setting/novel/work-in-progress, and seeing what inspiration you come by along the way. Which is going pretty well, so far. This example will not be included in the canonical version, but it seemed
seed AI
The ultimate test of a civilization’s ethics and morality is to program them into a recursively self-improving AI seed, fire it up, and still exist a year later. We strongly recommend not attempting to pass it.