[TML] Prototype

[Jerry W Barrington]

On 11/5/07 6:46 PM, James Ramsay wrote:

> Jerry W Barrington wrote:
>> If the Vilani had been that static, some neighbor would not have been.  And
>> that neighbor would have taken over the empire.  It's simply absurd to think
>> that the Vilani could stagnate, yet remain the big man on the block.
>>   
> 
> They didn't. We kicked their asses!

And then promptly gave it all back.  Sorry, things never go back.  They go
to a new place, that might or might not look somewhat like the old one.  And
then they keep going further.

> P.S. The Traveller proposition on tech is that Solomani development is
> super extraordinary. Thus the Viliani aren't technological
> conservatives, they are just conservative compared to Solomani.

Sorry, but arms races are built in.  It's the way biology and sociology
work.  Every "organism" want an advantage.

And it's not just Solomani versus Vilani.  Look at all the different
cultures in the Imperium.  Then add all the cultures in Aslan, Vargr, Hiver,
K'kree, etc., spaces.  *Somebody* somewhere in thousands of years would have
beaten the Imperium.  Many of them, in fact.  And beaten each other.

Change is.



On 11/5/07 6:46 PM, Bruce Johnson wrote:

> On Nov 4, 2007, at 10:31 PM, Jerry W Barrington wrote:
> 
>> I think to a large degree it's not about "human nature", but the
>> nature of
>> life in general.
>> 
>> The only constant is change.
> 
> That's a pretty sweeping statement to make, considering you're
> working from a sample size of *one*.

Not really.  We know there is variation.  That is inevitable.

Even if every "person" on a planet had the same DNA, obviously they cannot
all have the same environment.  So there will be variation among people.
Some will be more inclined to accept change and/or cause it.  Those will
learn and use new things that there "stable" cousins don't.  That will give
them an advantage, so they will take over.  Or they will destroy everybody.
Either way, things have changed.  Same applies between different cultures or
races on different planets and in different star systems.

That doesn't need a larger sample to make sense.