Re: Re: Loskalmi Dissertation

From: Jane Williams <janewilliams20_at_...>
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 07:23:03 +0100 (BST)

Now *that* sounds interesting, whch to me a copy of medieval western Europe isn't. It's so alien to any real-world culture, and to any others it'll meet when the Ban comes down. I've read a few science-fiction books that deal with that sort of culture clash, though they generally only deal with one aspect at a time.

No internal conflict. Not just effective ways of dealing with internal conflict (justice, trust, that sort of thing) but no conflict in the first place. Nothing to cause it, presumably - no want, no divisions, no unsatisfied needs of any sort, not even immaterial ones. They don't even have writers blocks (though I'm unsure to what extent creativity is driven by conflict - maybe they don't write in the first place?)

Never mind how this is achieved (it's magic, OK?), just look at the results. These people have no idea how to handle any sort of conflict, when they meet it. They have no conflict resolution system. It isn't just that they don't know how to fight, they don't even know how to negotiate, to bargain. The idea that someone else could have an unsatisfied need that they could meet is beyond them. Never mind going in there with an army, try going in as friendly explorers.

How much of human behaviour is actually a conflict-resolution system? How long have these people been in this Utopia? How much of normal human behaviour do they still have left?

A lot of what we regard as "manners" is conflict resolution, or conflict-avoidance. Or just a means of stopping conflicts from escalating - the idea of limited war, non-lethal combat. These people won't have any of these safe-guards. Once they catch on to the idea of conflict, you hand them a weapon, they'll use it, with no inhibitions about how bad the results will be. No compassion - how can they empathise with suffering when they have no idea what it is?

They're going to have the ethics of a new-born baby. And combining that with any sort of power is a pretty terrifying thought.

Maybe this is taking the idea too far to extremes to be useable, I'm not sure. It may well make them so alien as to be unplayable, like dragon-newts or elves. Worth a look though - because if you put in the right sort of triggers, I think your Utopia turns into the Kingdom of War.                 



Switch an email account to Yahoo! Mail, you could win FIFA World Cup tickets. http://uk.mail.yahoo.com

Powered by hypermail