roseembolism (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
roseembolism) wrote2008-09-11 05:55 pm
roseembolism) wrote2008-09-11 05:55 pm
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I define Under the Green Moon as a "Far Future Post-Technological fantasy". Since it's set 30,000 years in the future, one thing I've grappled with is the common idea of the Singularity essentially stopping history. I finally decided that rather than choosing between a Singularity or the growth-collapse cycle of civilizations, I'd have the Singularity be one cause of the growth-collapse cycle. I decided that at least three or four civilizations have grown up to the point where they have experienced Singularities,/Ascensions/Apotheosis/Whatever, transforming fair-sized chunks of the Earth before leaving for Elsewhere, and allowing the "unfortunate" people left behind to start building their own civilizations. As a result, the main effect of Singularities in this world is to leave a lot of interesting and mostly useless junk lying around. Which means I don't have to detail them all that much.
The natural question that occurred after I mentioned this idea was : Why should a Singularity civilization leave Earth? So i came up with some reasons which may or may not factor into the game:
1: Earth is paradoxically too central and important to be left to one faction, so at this time it's regarded as a combination nature preserve and farm club- any civilization that achieves Transcendence is asked to leave and clear the field for new groups. Some civilizations may resist, which has resulted in some geographic changes over the years, such as new seas.
2: For a number of civilizations, transcendence may require the resources available in space; I have actually described the solar system as a partial Dyson Swarm, though I'll leave it open (and irrelevant) as to how many of them are actually functioning. Alternatively, moving into hyperspace or whatever may make communications far more efficient. Thus, the leave.
3: Who says they're gone? Do ant's in a garden really know what humans in the house are doing? Likewise, the current native of Earth don't really notice any transcendent activities inside the scattered arcology-sized crystal monoliths scattered around the world, or in a particularly tenacious plant that has a mycelium network reaching practically everywhere, or in floating dust particles that may for the basis for what the current natives call "magic". If there's the occasional odd outbreak of auras or earthquakes, well, "strange weather we're having".
The natural question that occurred after I mentioned this idea was : Why should a Singularity civilization leave Earth? So i came up with some reasons which may or may not factor into the game:
1: Earth is paradoxically too central and important to be left to one faction, so at this time it's regarded as a combination nature preserve and farm club- any civilization that achieves Transcendence is asked to leave and clear the field for new groups. Some civilizations may resist, which has resulted in some geographic changes over the years, such as new seas.
2: For a number of civilizations, transcendence may require the resources available in space; I have actually described the solar system as a partial Dyson Swarm, though I'll leave it open (and irrelevant) as to how many of them are actually functioning. Alternatively, moving into hyperspace or whatever may make communications far more efficient. Thus, the leave.
3: Who says they're gone? Do ant's in a garden really know what humans in the house are doing? Likewise, the current native of Earth don't really notice any transcendent activities inside the scattered arcology-sized crystal monoliths scattered around the world, or in a particularly tenacious plant that has a mycelium network reaching practically everywhere, or in floating dust particles that may for the basis for what the current natives call "magic". If there's the occasional odd outbreak of auras or earthquakes, well, "strange weather we're having".