#I like looking at the sort of philosophy of the MTU

[trash-can-sam]

now I may be cornplating here but. One interesting thing I noticed about MTAS and MTAP is the difference in how the research is structured in terms of the roles the characters have in the system.

in the My Time Universe (MTU for short ig) its notable that the seperation between research and archeology is a lot less clear, with archeology informing researchers on how to view the machines theyre studying and what exactly to look for, and research informing archeology about the purpose of what they find. They are very much close together, as being a researcher is less about discovering new solutions and more about discovering how old solutions worked and how to reappropiate them in a world where they’ve backslid in knowlege. Archeology is still very much about the stories and history of locations where research is still very much about the science, but the line dividing what those two things mean is a lot more blurry.

Now, you can see this seperation a bit in MTAP, with Petra being more archeology focused and Merlin being more research focused, but both are still interested in the other fields, both of them wanting to discover both the how of the science and the why of the archeology. Merlin and Petra work closely together, overall united in their goal of discovery for the sake of discovery.

However, MTAS takes this more cooperative approach and splits it, into Qi and Grace, showing you both sides seperately through two people who do not get along, using their fields to say something about how they think as well, and I think thats an interesting change. It sort of shows you both parts seperately, but brings attention to how they are still closely intertwined.

Qi has no real interest in people or individuals, and doesnt really care about how stuff got there. He does still speculate, like when you find the equitorial mount and hes like “there was probably an observatory here” and he still has a lot of knowlege of old world stuff, obviously. But his focus is very much on the innerworkings of the technology, how he can use it and how he can improve it (and how he can make silly things that cater to his specific interests,) hes also not really interested in it for discovery itself most of the time and will just straight up avoid things he has no interest in (Rosy) despite the fact they would probably further knowlege.

Grace, although she also is interested in how the tech works and knows a lot (both because of her actual job and interest in archeology), is more interested in the personal side. I dont know if she was actually writing a research paper on the Breach or if that was a hoax, but I feel like regardless of if shes an actual archeology student on the side or not, she did take a class on it and it is an interest of hers, because I cant think of any other reason she would want the thing’s she asked you to get. Grace is more interested in what objects say about people than how they work. She also has a goal other than discovery itself, she wants to use this knowlege to help her discover how people themselves tick. 

This makes them sort of at odds with eachother, and although their actual fields dont really come up, its more of a symbollic type of battle. Is efficency more important or is the human experience? Do we focus more on the human component, truly understanding and engaging with the past, or do we focus on the best way to optimize and improve past technologies? And really, its a false dichotomy. Both exist, and they exist together and inform eachother, as shown with Merlin and Petra. 

I just find it interesting the approach they both take, MTAS taking the system shown in MTAP and elaborating on it with stronger personalities both interested for more selfish reasons. I dont really know if I worded this correctly but I tried I hope you see my vision.