[TML] Prototype

[Jerry W Barrington]

On 11/7/07 1:44 AM, James Ramsay wrote:

> Your argument is flawed. Firstly, constant change and adaption are not
> required for an "organism" to be successful, there are plenty of
> organisms that have been in their niche for a long time. Also evolution
> stops working "naturally" once sapience is involved, as organisms can
> cheat (Homo Sapiens Sapiens cheated so hard we don't have any cousins).
> The Vilani gained the benefit of early momentum, and then changed enough
> to maintain their lead. Until the freakish Terrans came along with a
> much faster rate of advance then was normal for any other culture.
> 
> The Vilani were technologically conservative because they could get away
> with it.

The only organisms that haven't changed were those whose environments were
stable.  When the environment changes, the organism must keep up or go
extinct.  In a vast Imperium, environmental stability is horrifically
improbable.  The environment includes all those other, surrounding empires.

As for sapience, Homo Sapiens Sapiens stability hasn't been tested yet:
sapience has been applied for a very short time.  :)  In a few
years/centuries/whatever, we may do a lot more change to ourselves.

Even so, the change has shifted from the biological unit to cultural units,
and change continues.

You even said it yourself: "Vilani ... changed enough to maintain their
lead".  And the Vargr, Aslan, Zho, etc. (even their own sub-cultures), would
keep pushing, leading to more change.  I don't believe they *could* "get
away with it."