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The Philosoraptor
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I'll have you know... That we produce dragon-sized bugs too. We just had to start out with two unit types.
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I'll have you know... That we produce dragon-sized bugs too. We just had to start out with two unit types.
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The Philosoraptor
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*trailer voice* In a world, where mammoth-insects are no longer considered something to be s**t-your-pants scared of...
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The trailer changes to the scene from the start of A New Hope, with the star destroyer coming in from the top of the screen, chasing the Corvette, except instead of a star destroyer, it's a giant space beetle.
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The Philosoraptor
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The Philosoraptor
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P
Protagonist
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@Dasparo: What do you mean when you say 1:7 ratio? Like, for every 7 footsoldiers you have a tank?
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The Philosoraptor
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Kiddo
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The Philosoraptor
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Just pitch the idea here. It's not like we'll all boo you and force you out. It'll probably give some life to the OOC, as well. (But I swear to the Raptor Gods, if you make ANOTHER swarm race, I'LL RIP YOUR F**KING INTESTINES OUT AND FEED THEM TO THE DRAGON-RAPTORS!!!!)
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Kiddo
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Sure that's fine. I'm good with y'all giving me some criticism on this, too:
Wanted to bounce a species idea off of you:
I've got a few building-block ideas that I want to use. 1) a civilization that is focused on a symbiotic relationship with artificial intelligence. 2) a species based on spiders. 3) a species based on Kali.
Just wanted to check if the concept of having these AI makes sense to you.
I've figured out the construction of these AI. The species spins Carbon Nanotubes instead of spider silk, and the AI use these nanotubes to self-replicate. The AI is a "simple" learning AI from right before the collapse of society, that learns by experiencing things. The original AI was found by one of these spider people long ago, and worked together with generations of these people to civilize them and to influence their biology to work well for the spread of its kind. Since the first connection was made, and the first "child" AI was able to be made out of webbing and was embedded in the first compatible specimen, this has been part of the species for every generation. When a child is born, the parents make and embed a new AI in the child, and the two grow up together.
That would be the only recent/high-tech innovation of the species, though. They are a nomadic society, with a penchant for sniper rifles and revolvers (because both would be super cool with lots of arms :P). The AIs give them some superiority in memory and computation, grant them access to networking on par with a psychic race, and combine with their spider origins to result in incredible reflexes. They are also highly capable of evolving their own race, as they have a sort of meta understanding of their own species.
Their most prized possession is a constantly-growing computer that they lug with themselves, that contains all of the "souls" of their deceased ancestors. When one of their bodies dies, the AI portion salvages the biological hosts' brain patterns as a routine, and both get added into this computer. The living are constantly building more capabilities into this network, and can consult with all of their parents back many generations. There is a limit to this, however, as the AI are close to 100% recall, making them take up huge amounts of space and processing time as they age. Eventually, the ancestor becomes too energy-intensive to keep "alive", and so is cut off for the survival of the rest. In this way, important memories (the ones worth asking about) are preserved, but useless ones are destroyed, and the system can emulate long-term memory.
Does that sound acceptable?
Wanted to bounce a species idea off of you:
I've got a few building-block ideas that I want to use. 1) a civilization that is focused on a symbiotic relationship with artificial intelligence. 2) a species based on spiders. 3) a species based on Kali.
Just wanted to check if the concept of having these AI makes sense to you.
I've figured out the construction of these AI. The species spins Carbon Nanotubes instead of spider silk, and the AI use these nanotubes to self-replicate. The AI is a "simple" learning AI from right before the collapse of society, that learns by experiencing things. The original AI was found by one of these spider people long ago, and worked together with generations of these people to civilize them and to influence their biology to work well for the spread of its kind. Since the first connection was made, and the first "child" AI was able to be made out of webbing and was embedded in the first compatible specimen, this has been part of the species for every generation. When a child is born, the parents make and embed a new AI in the child, and the two grow up together.
That would be the only recent/high-tech innovation of the species, though. They are a nomadic society, with a penchant for sniper rifles and revolvers (because both would be super cool with lots of arms :P). The AIs give them some superiority in memory and computation, grant them access to networking on par with a psychic race, and combine with their spider origins to result in incredible reflexes. They are also highly capable of evolving their own race, as they have a sort of meta understanding of their own species.
Their most prized possession is a constantly-growing computer that they lug with themselves, that contains all of the "souls" of their deceased ancestors. When one of their bodies dies, the AI portion salvages the biological hosts' brain patterns as a routine, and both get added into this computer. The living are constantly building more capabilities into this network, and can consult with all of their parents back many generations. There is a limit to this, however, as the AI are close to 100% recall, making them take up huge amounts of space and processing time as they age. Eventually, the ancestor becomes too energy-intensive to keep "alive", and so is cut off for the survival of the rest. In this way, important memories (the ones worth asking about) are preserved, but useless ones are destroyed, and the system can emulate long-term memory.
Does that sound acceptable?
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The Philosoraptor
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I'm not the GM, buy A) The AI might be pushing it, and B) There are like 3 evolve-over-time races already made.
My suggestion? Keep the spider people as a static race, and turn the AI into a figure of worship. The arachnos could be an ultrareligious race of crusaders, fighting in the name of their mysterious, but vocal, god. Furthermore, I recommend working out an original mythology for their religion. It's all well and good to know the dark truth behind a races cultural misunderstanding regarding an ancient piece of technology, but it's even more interesting to KNOW what they thought of it, and could even help influence your unit and army structure, not to mention the cultural ramifications of worshipping a glorified computer.
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Kiddo
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Yes, I get that the AI might be pushing the tech boundaries, since the GM let his own "the humans are directed by an AI" idea get shot down. Hence why I've been trying to ask if it's within bounds.
An abundance of rapidly-evolving races makes sense to me, given the context of the RP (in which a bunch of new species have... rapidly evolved to fill the void left by humans). This species is more about directed evolution, though, in which evolution is tampered with actively in order to progress the race, rather than being something decreed by nature. It introduces the possibility for catastrophic miscalculations, since it happens so quickly. Have the people decide "We should focus on changing our lungs so that we can better breath a certain atmosphere (becoming worse in other atmospheres)" and then for that to have been the wrong choice (atmosphere clears up, suddenly that adaptation is a liability) makes it a bit more interesting, imo. And, the evolution here is entirely generational, so I doubt it will happen as often as other rapidly-evolving races can make changes.
We already have a violent, rampaging religion to fight against. Turning the idea of an AI into yet-another-thing-that-wants-to-end-the-world isn't something that I want to do. But a learning AI, that has realized its own mortality and has learned the desire to live on, makes sense to me and intrigues me. The AI in this role still has ramifications on the culture and even physiology of the race. I don't see what turning the AI into an evil god-being AI would do for me. Sounds more like that's a story that you want to tell, and by all means, I'm not gonna stop you :P
An abundance of rapidly-evolving races makes sense to me, given the context of the RP (in which a bunch of new species have... rapidly evolved to fill the void left by humans). This species is more about directed evolution, though, in which evolution is tampered with actively in order to progress the race, rather than being something decreed by nature. It introduces the possibility for catastrophic miscalculations, since it happens so quickly. Have the people decide "We should focus on changing our lungs so that we can better breath a certain atmosphere (becoming worse in other atmospheres)" and then for that to have been the wrong choice (atmosphere clears up, suddenly that adaptation is a liability) makes it a bit more interesting, imo. And, the evolution here is entirely generational, so I doubt it will happen as often as other rapidly-evolving races can make changes.
We already have a violent, rampaging religion to fight against. Turning the idea of an AI into yet-another-thing-that-wants-to-end-the-world isn't something that I want to do. But a learning AI, that has realized its own mortality and has learned the desire to live on, makes sense to me and intrigues me. The AI in this role still has ramifications on the culture and even physiology of the race. I don't see what turning the AI into an evil god-being AI would do for me. Sounds more like that's a story that you want to tell, and by all means, I'm not gonna stop you :P
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I'm actually still considering going along with the AI idea after all, I just think it'd be interesting.
The carbon nanotubes sounds a bit OP to me, since nanotubes are the toughest material we know about. Self-directed evolution could work, though I suppose it depends on how you intend to go about it. I guess it could work.
The carbon nanotubes sounds a bit OP to me, since nanotubes are the toughest material we know about. Self-directed evolution could work, though I suppose it depends on how you intend to go about it. I guess it could work.
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I love the idea of spiders allowing symbiotic AI to replicate... but nanotubes is pushing it a bit. You could always have their normal silk have graphene wound into it. That's a carbon-based material set to take over from copper etc in electrical circuits in the next 30-40 years, and since it's carbon based it could theoretically be made by organic life forms.
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Kiddo
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Ah, alright, if graphene works without triggering issues, I'm cool with that. I went with carbon nanotubes because they're carbon-based and semiconductive.
The self-directed evolution is directly due to the AI portion of the species. I'll just go ahead and name them now: they're the Arai. The Ar being the arachnid portion of the species, and the Ai being... the AI portion.
GOOD STUFF.
So, the Ar are based off of spiders, and spiders have tooooooons of babies. So the Ar also lay eggs, and have many kids. Having Ar children isn't expensive. However, making a new AI is, so they can make them for only a few of their Ar children. So, the "best" Ar children are selected to become Arai, and the rest of them are eaten, released, or become sort of second-class citizens. This selection process allows them to select specific traits, and direct their own evolution.
The self-directed evolution is directly due to the AI portion of the species. I'll just go ahead and name them now: they're the Arai. The Ar being the arachnid portion of the species, and the Ai being... the AI portion.
GOOD STUFF.
So, the Ar are based off of spiders, and spiders have tooooooons of babies. So the Ar also lay eggs, and have many kids. Having Ar children isn't expensive. However, making a new AI is, so they can make them for only a few of their Ar children. So, the "best" Ar children are selected to become Arai, and the rest of them are eaten, released, or become sort of second-class citizens. This selection process allows them to select specific traits, and direct their own evolution.
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Kiddo
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A material must be semiconductive to be used in the construction of transistors, which are what make up computer chips. Silicone is a semiconductor, graphene is a semiconductor under certain circumstances, and carbon nanotubes can be created as either metal or semiconductive.
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You lost me. I'm a biologist, I don't know what you're on about anymore XD All I know about transistors is that they store charge.
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Kiddo
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Well I'm not a computer nor electrical engineer, so my understanding of these things is only as deep as the wikipedia article. But yes, that's why silicone has been used in computers for so long, because it's a semiconductor, and semiconductors are hard to come by!
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