Nyrath patreon

Beta and Higher Patron Notice for 07/30/2021

🕑 Added 2021-07-31 00:17:43 +0000 UTC

Comments

Michael Hutson

re. Peace Enforcers: the conundrum for peace enforcers is as George Carlin said, "'Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity". They have to walk the fine line between being mostly ineffectual and becoming the violence they're supposed to prevent. re. Fences: in addition, a fence is a near-perfect undercover identity for secret police, It allows the authorities to keep a finger on the pulse of what's really going on in the criminal underworld, gauge how well or not the regular police are succeeding in suppressing crime, sometimes allows for quiet restitution of valuables to their rightful owners, and can give the authorities a lead when something extraordinarily hot has been stolen.

John

Working on the background for my SFRPG _Pastoral_, I've come to the realization that there is no "interstellar government". It's more of a cooperative, or consensual arrangement, where each world, wormhole station, space colony, etc. handle their own issues. Decisions are made by everyone. How? AI that can multitask, coordinate conversations, provide feedback, and act as a middle man for billions of people. Everyone gets heard, and a compromise is always reached. Is it 100% agreed on? No, but those who disagree or have concerns are heard and some effort will be done to minimize any problems they may incur. It's not the Tyranny of the Masses, it's the best system that they could come up with. Not every issue needs to be discussed by everyone. If the issue would only affect a small portion of the population, it's their call on how it's handled. And the system is layered. At the world of Pastoral, each city has its own AI that coordinates these discussions. The space borne portion deals with their issues with their own AIs. And for the entire colony, 55 Rho Cancri, there is the Colonial AI that handles that. AIs are the colonial managers, handling the day to day operations of the colony, it's maintenance, and upkeep. But when there's an issue that comes up, or a new technology that's proposed, then the layers start working on a consensual agreement. And the AIs have a stake in this too, as it means their continued existence in some cases. The AI is the only being able to coordinate all the various opinions, concerns, questions, and other issues. If a question about something requires an expert's answer, they are brought into the conversation with those that are asking the question. Information flow is key and the colony would collapse without it.