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Masters topic, spoiler alert

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Wed, 2010-01-13 22:46

Sepherim

Masters topic, spoiler alert

Ok, this is a topic in which I want to discuss a particular couple ideas I have about background that should not be known by players, so please, if you are a player, stop reading this or the game will lose part of that "discover the secrets of the universe" feel to it. I warned you! ;) Ok. This is about our old friend, the ETI. The game offers a couple motivations for their participation in all the events, but I'm sure we all have some more. I have come up with two more, and I would like to know what you think about them, and what others you may have come up with. :) -Evolution: first, we know the McLeod breed of the Exurgent made the transhumanity evolve into a new form, with the arrival of the psi powers (which we couldn't have obtained in other way). So, may it be possible that it was sent to infiltrate bodies, and investigate which are suitable to evolve, and destroy the rest? -Time travel: another topic in this subforum gave me the idea. What if the ETI was humankind itself, but of the future? I know it goes against cannon, as it states the ETI has been here for millenia, but what if they had found out we are going to create a major harm, and decided to step back to when it was manageable. Somewhat akin to The 4400 or an inverse reason for the Apocalypse Day in Terminator.

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Thu, 2010-01-14 05:36

Re: Masters topic, spoiler alert

- Toying : transhumanity is just a toy. Quite harmless and quite benign, given to a youngster ETI. We are effectively like an ant farm. The ETI took good care of us by erasing the TITAN menace and is watching with curiousity how we will handle the Factors and where we will stumble through the Pandora Gates. - Non-existent : ETIs are a myth the Prometheans use to maintain coherence at the higher echelon of Firewall. - Gardeners : ETIs have several factions/families/nations/civilizations that take pride of the lower intelligence they harbor. They have for us a plan that is to design us in a way they deem artistically interesting. - Entropian : The goal of ETIs is to see transhumanity suffer and destroy/be destroyed in the most violent and spectacular way. They quite enjoyed giving evil memes to the TITANs and were happy we survived. Now they are waiting for round two, preparing the exiled TITANs for "more fun". - Religious : As a GM, having the ETIs religious is a good way to have them do whatever you think is interesting. Any apparently incoherent action can be explained as a complex ritual beyond our understanding. - Crazy : ETIs are a mad buffalo, with no special purposes and random action.

Mon, 2010-01-18 18:30

Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture

Re: Masters topic, spoiler alert

The best of all possible worlds - just like in some answers to the theodicy problem, the horrors of the Fall are really necessary for a *very* good future. In fact, this future is so amazingly good that any amount of mere transhuman suffering is worth it. A few millennia or eons of TITAN-infested hell? It is just a small sting before the true renaissance of the universe. If moral agents really could understand this they would realize (assuming they are consequentialists) that the Fall indeed is worth it. CTC wars - ETI possesses closed timelike curves, and they can be used for computation. Hyperturing computation that allows you to act optimally, do amazing amounts of computation and distribute your thought processes along the timeline. The only problem is that there are other intelligences (or groups of ETI) that have the same tech. When two CTC intelligences interact very weird things happen (try figuring out game theory between them). The whole mess we see in EP is just a small move in a trans-time chessgame exploiting transhuman and TITAN quantum behavior and FTL signalling for some grand strategy. ETI are negative utilitarians. What matters is to minimize suffering. If they could, they would turn off the universe. But they have the next best thing in the Exurgent virus, which at least stops the emergence of superintelligences that would have the potential for truly profound pain. Mopping up transhumanity is next on the agenda.

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