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Category Story / Fantasy
Species Iksar
Gender Male
Size 120 x 120px
Listed in Folders
That feeling when you can just call up your dragon buddies and say, "Hey, can you drop an extinction-level meteor on the planet?"
But seriously, it is interesting how, by asking him to make the call, the dragons have now saddled Unkky with the burden of carrying the consequences. Because it was *his* decision to make, he is now implicitly responsible for whatever happens next; he cannot shunt the blame onto the dragons. I wonder if the dragons considered that when they asked for his input? Did they not want to take the blame for this? As a former organic, is it possible that Progon subconsciously wanted to avoid taking the responsibility for this weighty Morton's Fork?
But seriously, it is interesting how, by asking him to make the call, the dragons have now saddled Unkky with the burden of carrying the consequences. Because it was *his* decision to make, he is now implicitly responsible for whatever happens next; he cannot shunt the blame onto the dragons. I wonder if the dragons considered that when they asked for his input? Did they not want to take the blame for this? As a former organic, is it possible that Progon subconsciously wanted to avoid taking the responsibility for this weighty Morton's Fork?
Blame is pretty much a null program with the celestials. The only creatures capable of having anger with them are beings completely ethereal as far as they're concerned. Can't hear them, can't see them (save in a mirror), can't touch them (save for gravitic effects). And even less so for a mundane trying to interact with them.
Their "conscience" tends to be mostly cosmic pattern shaping and the new imperative toward art generation. Whether a species extincts tomorrow or 10 millennia from now, both infinitesimal fractions of how long they live. Like asking you if you want something done the next femtosecond or millisecond, both ridiculously small slices of time to you. Still, 10 millennia promises more art production than extincting a species tomorrow, so that's what they favor.
Dragons think in terms of what will happen and what's likely to happen, having these uber-computer brains. So that's as far as choices go, either something will happen, or (likely Progon's idea) something went wrong like the Cylon extinction. Their solution was simply to move Cylons somewhere, likely orbit of a magnetar, to restart and reboot them through the electromagnetic induction forces.
So although amazingly brainy, the third alternative wouldn't compute. It's not undoing a mistake and since they have a habit of hands off unless a contention between which species must go extinct arises, taking any other action just wouldn't occur to them. I'm sure there's a lot of species interference they could cause, not just extinction. Theory has it Earth got DNA seeded or the amino acids delivered by comet. Dragons could pitch organic-rich comets into a number of lifeless worlds and come back some million years later and find life, maybe sentience.
They knew full well Unkky wouldn't like Cylon resurrection nor really like the thought of letting Iksars be a fascist regime for millennia. This is as far as their processes allow. Since they recognized Unkky as the next better brain to their own, and with a more personal stake in this matter, it seemed logical to give him the deciding vote. I'm sure Progon was hoping for a third option where neither thing came true but without any collateral damage. Maybe Unkky's mind wasn't up to the challenge.
I guess it wouldn't have been much for the dragons to teleport each tribe/province of Iksars to other habitable systems, but at least in the back of his mind, the planet catastrophe still made potentials for Iksar replicants to be made - whether these are slaves as in Blade Runner, or workers with their own homes and income and freedom, hard to say.
Their "conscience" tends to be mostly cosmic pattern shaping and the new imperative toward art generation. Whether a species extincts tomorrow or 10 millennia from now, both infinitesimal fractions of how long they live. Like asking you if you want something done the next femtosecond or millisecond, both ridiculously small slices of time to you. Still, 10 millennia promises more art production than extincting a species tomorrow, so that's what they favor.
Dragons think in terms of what will happen and what's likely to happen, having these uber-computer brains. So that's as far as choices go, either something will happen, or (likely Progon's idea) something went wrong like the Cylon extinction. Their solution was simply to move Cylons somewhere, likely orbit of a magnetar, to restart and reboot them through the electromagnetic induction forces.
So although amazingly brainy, the third alternative wouldn't compute. It's not undoing a mistake and since they have a habit of hands off unless a contention between which species must go extinct arises, taking any other action just wouldn't occur to them. I'm sure there's a lot of species interference they could cause, not just extinction. Theory has it Earth got DNA seeded or the amino acids delivered by comet. Dragons could pitch organic-rich comets into a number of lifeless worlds and come back some million years later and find life, maybe sentience.
They knew full well Unkky wouldn't like Cylon resurrection nor really like the thought of letting Iksars be a fascist regime for millennia. This is as far as their processes allow. Since they recognized Unkky as the next better brain to their own, and with a more personal stake in this matter, it seemed logical to give him the deciding vote. I'm sure Progon was hoping for a third option where neither thing came true but without any collateral damage. Maybe Unkky's mind wasn't up to the challenge.
I guess it wouldn't have been much for the dragons to teleport each tribe/province of Iksars to other habitable systems, but at least in the back of his mind, the planet catastrophe still made potentials for Iksar replicants to be made - whether these are slaves as in Blade Runner, or workers with their own homes and income and freedom, hard to say.
You've put a great deal of thought into this! It is ironic how sometimes, the greatest minds yet unable to come up with certain solutions; getting "stuck" on a limited set of options or rigid thinking, despite their vast intellect.
As always, I'm curious to see how this will end up! (I know the next part is out already, but I mean beyond that)
As always, I'm curious to see how this will end up! (I know the next part is out already, but I mean beyond that)
They have the potential to run billions of alternatives, just no motivation to do so. As you said, despite the vast intelligence, certain kinds of intuition just don't occur. I may have come up with a change in that direction, at least for Progon, story after next.
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