privy council comments

[dacole]

Ok couldn't find anywhere where anyone made comments on the winning story by hydro so I thought I would post some. First GREAT STUFF!! Very interesting and plausible. Going to have to see if I can find the Clarke story at some point. I love the description of the obelisk ring and the space elevator. I kept trying to figure out which of the cites each place was but the only one I could place for sure was the hive and gaians.

Which game ending happened or did any of them happen? I almost think the gaians transcended and where protecting the planet. Would be interesting to see what they did when more of a fleet came. Again great job!

[Hydro]

dacole,

I’m glad you liked it! You are correct that I described rather than told the reader what was seen since it was from the vantage point of someone who had no knowledge of Chiron or its history. Plus, it is fun viewing a place or object from another perspective, especially if you can put yourself in the mindset of the individual or group and can view it through their eyes (and biases).

As to the ending, I purposefully let that be ambiguous. There is ample evidence for transcendence, the return of the Progenitors, or a full fledged Flowering (and the extinction of humanity on Chiron). Take your pick. Regardless, it was supposed to be a truly frightening situation for the haughty Third Empire of Man.

Clark’s Report on Planet 3 should be in any good Clark short story collection. You may have to hunt in a used book store, which is where I’ve gleaned much of my older and sometimes out of print SF book collection. My copy is a collection of short stories that is actually called Report on Planet 3. I think you’ll like it, and you’ll clearly see where the germ of my story came from. I’d bet you can find it on Amazon or a good book store like Barnes and Nobel.

As I recall I described three cities in detail – Uni, Gaian, and Morganite – and I mentioned Hivean cities in passing, too. University Base had the space elevator, and the Shining City was supposed to be a Morganite city of brash glass and metal. If you had a hard time figuring out which city was which then (obviously) I need to write more clearly!

Anyway, thanks for the feedback!

Hydro

[dacole]

I don't think you need to write more clearly I just don't think there is a good view of what each city should look like except for the believers, the gaians, and the hive. The others I always said you noticed based on how the people acted rather than the way the city looked. A UN city and a morgan city I'm not sure would look all that different and other than being more technical the uni city should look somewhat the same as well.

Yea it was great fun to read it from another perspective. I love the way they acted like the UN was a world government and had an independent army (man I really wish they did sometimes). Great stuff! The idea that the UN would send battleships along with the one ship they sent hilarious!

[Hydro]

Dacole,

Humans have an innate need to understand, and in the absence of information they will fill in the gaps based on what they need or their preconceptions. In my view this is the reason for the ancient myths (gods, demons, angels, etc), myths of today (anal probing space aliens, ghosts), and for all of the world religions I am familiar with. All of these help people cope with their surroundings. While they are initially helpful they can be, in the long run, not helpful since they can make people incapable of understanding what is truly happening to them or around them. That is the reason the Third Empire in my story had the wild notions of the First Empire UN – they superimposed their reality on that of a very foggy past. It also blinded them to what was likely happening on Chiron and led to some rigid thinking that likely led to the destruction of their fleet.

So, yes it is very interesting to explore these ideas. And SMAC/X is a great venue for doing so!

Hydro

[dacole]

Yup I agree the ideas are always interesting to explore. I am not as jaded as you about religions yet even though I am a scientist by training. I guess I would call myself an agnostic leaning toward being a deist. That is a completly different discussion really.

I have thought of doing a story where Lal uses the strength of the several religons that exist in his faction to combat the warfare of the believers, never got around to it though.