Beyond Alpha Centauri::::::::Discussion Thread 8

[Mr. President]

Originally posted by Lonestar
Lasso'd in my hiney.

Damnit, we live in a society of laws....Diplomatic packets and everything! Does that mean you can rummage through personally delievered messages too?

The University is going dictatorian on us, after all.

[Sovereign]

Heh.

Lonestar, there will be a mutual exchange of maps, no worries about that.

About personal messages and stuff... for all the UA knows, a personal message could say "Authorization to bomb target 'x' in UA territory" or something to that extent.

As a result of the terrorists destroying UA property and the transition of power in the Sol system to UA hands, there can and are rebel elements. The UA is attempting to maintain an extreme level of security to prevent further loss of life and property from rebel and terrorist elements.

At any rate, the UA uses sophiscated scanners to scan all computerized chips and data chips of all kinds for key words such as "bomb", "target", "weapons", "packages" etc. If a match is found, the UA security will consficate the chip or document, as well as hold the person for questioning.

Also, the UA makes copies of all personal documents and uploads them to its Intel Agency. The agency will sift through for any indications or subtle references to terrorist and rebel activity. The copying / uploading is done discreetly, and if there is no "keywords" matches found, the person is let through.

The UA's Intel Agency won't use the private information aganist the person, unless that person is either a terrorist / rebel, or a suspect.

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.


The UA is becoming a totalitarian state, much like Nazi Germany, but without the evils and genocides. However, the UA permits democracy in many aspects of life such as corporations, schools, news networks (with the exception of negative feedback about the government), freedom to select food and enterainmnet, etc.

The military and government is all controlled by the Academician and delegated by his generals and ministers. Ultimately every decision is made by the Academician.

Hope I'm making sense.

Another way of looking at it.... the UA is a "Nazi Germany" that is aligned to Good rather than Evil, and the Academician is similiar to Hitler in his oratory skills, but doesn't have Hitler's evil tendencies or megalomnia.

I'm doing this perpsective because I've always wondered how the world would have been different if Hitler and the Nazis were good instead of evil. I've been reading some "alternative history" books lately, and this is another source of inspiration for me with the UA.

Do you know of Harry Turtledove? Or read any of his books?

[Sovereign]

Ah! I forgot to add... have any of you heard of parallel universes, or heard / seen the TV show "Sliders"?

I love the "what if" scenarios in history and parallel worlds. It's very interesting to see how history or people can be different from making simple choices.

For instance, I decided to register here on Apolyton. Then I found AC Fiction and became a BAC author. Then in a "parallel world" I never registered for Apolyton, hence BAC wouldn't have had me as an author. Wonder how different BAC would have been without me as a part of it.

Ditto for this world / universe where George Bush Jr. won Election 2000 with like 200 - 1000 votes over Gore in Florida.

What if several thousand people made the other choice, deciding Gore rather than Bush in an alternate universe. Then Gore will be president, not Bush.

Then how different will history be with Gore? 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, domestic affairs, etc?

Now see why this is very interesting for me!

[Lonestar]

I've read many of Turtledove's Books. You read his "Confederacy won the civil War" WW1 series?

[Sovereign]

Yep.

I thought it was interesting how Custer was alive and had a grudge aganist Teddy Roosevelt. Also, Jake Featherston seems to be extremely similiar to Hitler, hating blacks and creating the Freedom Party.

I have read every book except the newest one, the "Victorious Opposition". I have yet to get it in paperback.

But this poses a very interesting question. What about Adolf Hitler and Germany turning Nazi in that world? Also, if Hitler and the Nazis do appear, how would they react to Jake Featherston and the "Nazi Confederacy".

This is why I enjoy alternative history and fiction. Its great for your imagination, isn't it?

[Mr. President]

I've only read the World War series, where aliens invade the Earth in the middle of World War II. Hence I know where all your Dosi names come from, Lonestar.

[Sovereign]

Hah!

I have almost all of Harry Turtledove's books / series.

I read through the World War 2 saga, and it was pretty interesting. A lot of the stuff lizards use are very remisicient of our modern day stuff like CD's, lasers, tanks, hydrogen fuel, etc.

However, I think the Colonization series was kind of weak. The last book in that series left me going "WTF" without a good satisfying conclusion.

100's of nuclear bombs? Nuked most of Europe? People there still alive? Thats not realistic, since that amount of nukes would render Europe and Western Russia uninhabitable, as well as North Africa. Not to mention the places where the Lizards settled.

The ending in the 3rd book of the Colonization series really sucked. Harry needed to make a conclusion, such as the Humans defeating the Lizards, or the Humans have the lizards relocate to Venus or Mars, something like that.

Or, Harry continues with a 4th book, set maybe 10 - 20 years after Colonization, with a Human Fleet orbiting the Lizard's homeworld. I'd like that kind of full circle thing. The plot seemed like half finished in the 3rd book.


But I think World War 1 and World War 2 series (not colonization series) were Harry's best work to date. In both series, there's a good plot, a balance between good and bad events, etc.

Ok, enough ranting.

[Mr. President]

I also thought it was strange when everyone started to nuke the Lizards indiscriminately. I lost count of how many got set off (counting the retaliatory strikes by the Lizards).

And I also thought it was kind of corny how Atvar and his people kept almost destroying that stupid Hanford town where the American nuclear program was based.

[Sovereign]

Hanford? I remember it being first Chicago, then moved to Denver.

Earth would definitely be a radioactive ball after all that nuking. Perhaps one way of looking at it is that in that universe, uranium and its waste doesn't generate radiation due to some sort of altered atomic structure or whatdoyoucallit?

[Frankychan]

You guys have really spammed the BAC discussion thread man....

[Sovereign]

Welcome to the Spam-hood! Brother Franky, spam away!

Just kidding.

At any rate, looks like its just me and Prez debating. I guess Lonestar did one of his "disappearing acts" again.

[Mr. President]

Originally posted by Sovereign
Hanford? I remember it being first Chicago, then moved to Denver.

Earth would definitely be a radioactive ball after all that nuking. Perhaps one way of looking at it is that in that universe, uranium and its waste doesn't generate radiation due to some sort of altered atomic structure or whatdoyoucallit?

Oh, that's right. Hanford was the town where they were considering relocating it and sent Larsson (or Lehmann or whatever that character's name was) to scout it out.

And then he got shot on the way back.

Re the nuking, I think maybe our friend Harry got a little carried away. Or else he thought he'd shock and horrify people like that.

[Mr. President]

Originally posted by Frankychan
You guys have really spammed the BAC discussion thread man....

Well . . . it's not like we were using it for anything else.

[Sovereign]

It was Jensen Larssen who went over there to check out the town.

Poor dude got shafted big time.

First, his wife thought he died, then had an affair (sort of) with Sam, a soldier. Then the wife and Sam had a baby together and married.

Then Jensen got VD disease from having sex with a "hooker" on the way to Hansford. When he came back to Denver, he went nuts after dealing with all the "whammies" with the wife and Sam.

Thats just plain bad luck, circumstances, and fate all rolled in one. No wonder Jensen wanted to kill Sam after all the stuff that went down.

I think that was a good character development by Harry. He explored war-time relationships pretty well, both in WW2 and WW1 series.

However, the WW1 series had far more deep character development and many more perpsectives. I think there were like 15+ different perpsectives in that story.

IIRC, it was...

1. George Custer / Abner Dowling
2. Nellie and Edna Semproch
3. The Canadian family that ends up friendly to the Americans
4. The Canadian family that ends up terrorists / patriots aganist the Americans
5. The tank developer (forgot his name) and his wife
6. Jake Featherstone (very similiar to Hitler)
7. Anne (manor owner in the South)
8. Scipio (black slave turned escapee)
9. Cassius (Black leader that led the rebellion aganist Anne's manor / plantation.
10. Slyvia Enos
11. Fiona Blackford (A Socialist leader in the US / Union)
12. George (American airman turned lawyer, helps Canadians and marries an Canadian woman)
13. Theodore Roosevelt
14. A Mexican family
15. A steel mill worker that went to war, came home and got betrayed by his wife and best friend
16. Roger Kimball (Confederate submarine commander)
17. Sam, a soldier in the US / Union army (no relation to Sam in WW2 / Lizard series)
18. An Irish / scottish religious soldier that does great feats for the US / Union

Thats as many as I can remember. There's probably a few others I forgot. As you can see, all these perpsectives and characters had a full plot, and interact with each other at several points. That's what makes the WW1 series the best work Harry has done, surpassing even the WW2 series.

Lonestar, where the hell are you?

[Frankychan]

rofl.


Good to see that you guys haven't changed.