- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
They exist.
The Practice War [Complete]
- Thread starter Snowfire
- Start date
- Original Sci-Fi
To quote a most sagacious and insightful individual:
"Friends", Kendl. The word you're looking for is "friends".
This is in notable contrast to the Shiplords, who arrogantly assume that, in the end, all species will calmly accept their callous disregard for not only the "needed" suffering and death they've inflicted on everyone around them, but the almost certainly needless suffering and death they've been tossing in as well.
Yes, proving that Mary is, if anything, more bullshit than all of the Potentials combined. The woman has spearheaded the discovery of two Secrets in a little over a decade (the Fifth apparently can't be attributed to her since IIRC it was the teams taking about the Tribute Fleet that discovered it because of nat 100s); that's got to be a hands-down galactic record.
Right; I don't think that Kendl is really thinking that humanity is going to take the Shiplords' place as violent, dictatorial oppressors. Rather, I think she's worried that, should humanity take over, there won't be anything for the rest of the galaxy to do.
"We can give you anything you want, save relevance."
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Kalilah: "I blew up a Tribute battleship with a spear and some very unkind thoughts."
Galaxy: "We're impressed."
Mary D'Reve: "I led the teams that discovered two Secrets."
Galaxy: "...We are redefining the word 'impressed.' All previous impressive things have ceased to impress us. This is now 'impressive.' Sorry, Kalilah."
Amanda: "I said a word that wiped out all Shiplord infiltration systems in a fleet, without killing the victims."
Galaxy: "Sorry. We mean seriously, we're sorry. But that's just not impressive anymore."
Kalilah: "I did a... thing... that annihilated two fifths of a Regular armada."
Galaxy: "Look, we are really sorry, but we are still not impressed. We're trying, we are really really trying because thank you. But we can't be impressed. That word is broken forever now."
Kalilah: [fumes]
Galaxy: "We're impressed."
Mary D'Reve: "I led the teams that discovered two Secrets."
Galaxy: "...We are redefining the word 'impressed.' All previous impressive things have ceased to impress us. This is now 'impressive.' Sorry, Kalilah."
Amanda: "I said a word that wiped out all Shiplord infiltration systems in a fleet, without killing the victims."
Galaxy: "Sorry. We mean seriously, we're sorry. But that's just not impressive anymore."
Kalilah: "I did a... thing... that annihilated two fifths of a Regular armada."
Galaxy: "Look, we are really sorry, but we are still not impressed. We're trying, we are really really trying because thank you. But we can't be impressed. That word is broken forever now."
Kalilah: [fumes]
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Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Yes, proving that Mary is, if anything, more bullshit than all of the Potentials combined. The woman has spearheaded the discovery of two Secrets in a little over a decade (the Fifth apparently can't be attributed to her since IIRC it was the teams taking about the Tribute Fleet that discovered it because of nat 100s); that's got to be a hands-down galactic record.
That isn't quite that simple, to be fair. You've had Potentials helping, and her primary skill has been in learning how Practiced creations lead back to the Secrets behind them. This was part of why discovering the Third took so long, because you were working from an actual, functional example instead of Practiced insanity. Mary and her teams are brilliant, certainly. But they're set up for research in a certain way, profiting from the ability of Practice to break the restrictions on technology wholesale.
Also, thanks for the link to that webcomic story. It was an interesting one.
Give it time
Also what annihilated all those ships was Kalilah. Just Kalilah.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Acknowledged and updated accordingly.Give it time
Also what annihilated all those ships was Kalilah. Just Kalilah.
Huh, so we might have gotten to the Third faster by having Amanda make a Practiced version of the Emitter and have Mary reverse-engineer that? Might be an interesting route to take in the future; certainly we need to look into an AI Secret next, and studying Iris and Vision seem like the way to go. Oh, and if we used Practice to enhance any of those Departmental VIs too; can't forget that.
And yeah, Dresden Codak is a great comic series, even if the writing gets extremely dense at some times. I also secretly hope that someone at Nintendo somehow discovers and buys his Legend of Zelda idea.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I'm not sure that would have worked, given that we didn't have a very clear idea of what the Emitter would do. Practice tends to give us things with clearly comprehensible effects.
I don't think AI is a Secret separate from the Second Secret- machine life is still life and it's the Second that lets you create sapient life.
Ooooh that is a GOOD one.
"And was involved with the birth of an AI".
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Mary wasn't actually involved with that. That was all Vision and Jonathan Regrye.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Interesting question, because she's not actually leading that research. Iris is.
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I wasn't talking about the AIs ...
- Location
- Ekaterinburg, Russia
That only makes Mary's accomplishment more impressive and you know it Snow.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
It appears to vary rather wildly, though some point remain at least similar. Shiplord subversion is essentially another layer of control, used to prevent polities from working together or breaking up any that get too large. Sometimes this takes the form of intervention, and their subtle war with the Nileans is a good example of this. More usually it takes the form of simple observation and low-level cultural manipulation, towards certain goals. The primary one, of course, being control. You've seen an example of this in the Sarthee.
Shard
One and Many
- Location
- Malaysia
Theory:
The SLs are trying to recover the 'Lost Glory' that is the Truth of Practice, which has been demonstrated to violate Entropy. They do this via Tribute fleet cycles to slowly 'replenish' it, along with Uninvolved who do the same as being Uninvolved expands your sapient capacity such that replenishing that 'Lost Glory' is their only moral option. The reason they do this is because the 'Truth behind Practice' is the only means by which Universal Entropy can be reversed. Essentially, they are Reverse-Kyubeys. They don't want you to be magical girls and actively exterminate all MGs so the Entropy-defying force does not get wasted.
The SLs are trying to recover the 'Lost Glory' that is the Truth of Practice, which has been demonstrated to violate Entropy. They do this via Tribute fleet cycles to slowly 'replenish' it, along with Uninvolved who do the same as being Uninvolved expands your sapient capacity such that replenishing that 'Lost Glory' is their only moral option. The reason they do this is because the 'Truth behind Practice' is the only means by which Universal Entropy can be reversed. Essentially, they are Reverse-Kyubeys. They don't want you to be magical girls and actively exterminate all MGs so the Entropy-defying force does not get wasted.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Remind me what we saw with the Sarthee?
The Uninvolved movement.
Which "coincidentally" ties up the internal politics of the most militarily-significant, and oldest member of the G6 in existential navel-gazing.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
This:
Entirely coincidentally, good citizen. You wouldn't want to accuse your benevolent overlords of such blatant and malicious manipulation, would you
You absolutely would and you'd be right to. The Nileans, as well as sections of the Sarthee government, are highly suspicious of certain aspects of their Uninvolved movement, and Insight looked into it after the Contact Fleet left. It's absolutely a result of Shiplord subversion. But then, getting a race to choose to become an Uninvolved is just easier than all the messiness of having to wipe them out yourself. Much more efficient, you know.
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- Location
- PA
So be Cattle or be on a reservation.
Can't say the Shiplords don't give other races lessers.
Probably feels like we never got that option because we kept ripping out the Shiplords control networks that they would normally use to offer the choice of not being involved/Uninvolvement. Important to note that.
Oh, as for your reaction to my last post? It's cool, I think it's probably just down to me not thinking through the implications of the way Humanity in the Practice War behaves when I see them on-screen.
Can't say the Shiplords don't give other races lessers.
Probably feels like we never got that option because we kept ripping out the Shiplords control networks that they would normally use to offer the choice of not being involved/Uninvolvement. Important to note that.
Oh, as for your reaction to my last post? It's cool, I think it's probably just down to me not thinking through the implications of the way Humanity in the Practice War behaves when I see them on-screen.
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well, no, it isn't. Send two regular fleets instead of a tribute fleet and you are done.
For a post-Tribute race of that age? Unlikely.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
As @uju32 has implied, crushing the Nileans without the use of a War Fleet would be...challenging. And doing so with one, now that the Nileans actually understand what they're fighting, might not be that easy. The C3 network of a War Fleet is highly advanced, but it's not all that removed from that of a Regular Fleet in terms of basic architecture.
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
... if the target wasn't to get more Uninvolved but to simply be king of the heap, eradicating potential problems wouldn't be a problem at all for the SL. Going to all this hassle with subversion etc. means something (obviously, and commented on on multiple occassions).