#spacefaring civilization

[geopolicraticus]

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY

Further Elaborations on the Coming Coeval Age 

An essay of mine, “The Coming Coeval Age,” has just appeared in Isonomia Quarterly for summer 2024. This essay isn’t specifically about philosophy of history, but it does touch on some philosophical problems, so I will consider some of these problems in the context of philosophy of history. In particular, I will discuss the relative complexity of terrestrial history, which is the simplest history possible in a relativistic universe. When we have access to different inertial frames of reference, and the ability to travel between then, history will be dramatically complexified.  

Nielsen, J. N. (2024). The Coming Coeval Age. Isonomia Quarterly. Volume 2, Issue 2.

Essay:              https://isonomiaquarterly.com/archive/volume-2-issue-2/the-coming-coeval-age/

Quora:              https://philosophyofhistory.quora.com/  

Discord:           https://discord.gg/r3dudQvGxD

Links:              https://jnnielsen.carrd.co/

Newsletter:     http://eepurl.com/dMh0_-/

Video:              https://youtu.be/fvmCoRrBiEs   

Podcast:          https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/xkVzIKAcIJb        

Text post:        https://geopolicraticus.substack.com/p/the-coming-coeval-age  

[mikansei]

trying to figure out hsr's timeline is just pepesilvia.jpeg

when dates are labeled "AE" does that mean the WHOLE amber era, e.g. 2157 AE is the 2157th amber era, which itself lasted anywhere from 76 to 240 years?

was the swarm disaster in the 1300s AE ~770 whole ass amber eras ago (e.g. 60,000-180,000 years ago) from the present in 2157 AE, because that is an insane length of time?

the xianzhou fleet set sail in search of Yaoshi ~8000 years ago (whose years in what system???), and Yaoshi didn't exist during the swarm disaster, so is there just a huge gap between 60k-180k years ago & 8k years ago?

but the founding of the IPC is listed as occurring btw 1357-1387 AE, involving the same people who were presumably mortal, pre-Yaoshi, and didn't live for thousands of years, so that HAS to be measured as 30 years and not 30 amber eras?

but also the IPC claims one of those people contemporary to the swarm disaster is definitely still alive??? i mean sure they could mean it symbolically or sth, but man

man.

i understand the history fictionologists now. i too am about to start just making shit up

[beleester]

Also, while I'm here, a pet peeve:

Your aliens didn't just invent a spaceship, they invented the technology that goes into a spaceship.

In particular, they have access to enough energy to throw a multi-ton object through the air at orbital speeds (30 km/s on an Earth-like planet) and materials strong enough to survive being hurled like that.

Or in other words, stop doing the "aliens use ray guns that are strong enough to kill squishy aliens but not strong enough to hurt our mighty deathworlder bodies" trope (and its cousin, "alien shields can stop ray guns but are unprepared for the massive impact of an ordinary bullet.") Aliens are going to be familiar with materials that are stronger than the human body because they built their spaceship out of them. Armor that is tougher than a human body has existed since the literal Iron Age. Humans are tough, but not that tough.

Remember: Aliens Do Stuff Too

Okay okay okay. I’ve said this before a few times, but it bears repeating.

You can’t have Humans be the ONLY ones who do everything.

Your aliens got to space too, maybe even on their own!

Your aliens (probably) had wars too. (If they didn’t explain why)

Your aliens had an evolutionary history. They did not appear one day and then climbed into a spaceship and picked up your human.

Your aliens have accents and different languages.

Your aliens have bad days.

Your aliens can be petty

Your aliens fight.

Your aliens eat food.

Your aliens want to be their version of loved and feeling belonging

Your aliens do stupid shit.

Your aliens can do stuff Humans can’t.

A lot of Humans are X and Deathworlder and HFY and whatever phrase you want to call it stories have their Humans being these like, savior people. “Oh save me human with your binocular eyesight and ability to make war”

Please.

Your aliens aren’t stupid. They got to space too. They have civilizations too. They lived, they died, they loved, they had families.

The fun comes in exploring the differences. By all means, give your humans something that makes them unique, something that makes them interesting. But don’t give them everything.

Leave room for personality. Leave room for exploring the sames as well as the differences. Leave room for making connections from shared experience.

Just as boring humans are boring, OP humans are boring too.

But, I’m just some guy. Write your story. If you want your humans to be superpowered super people, then go for it.

[tlaquetzqui]

Because I am petty, all caseless ammunition used by humans in my scifi setting (apart from handloads) is manufactured by a company called Phantom.

[minweber]

Necrons' whole "we are an extremely advanced spacefaring civilization but also Bronze Age Egypt" thing is funny in a lot of ways, but my favorite one just has to be the crypteks' whole deal.

Because they are, like, scientists. In the way that would probably be (save for those of T'au) closest to the way we understand the term. They have specializations. In fact, with how advanced necrontyr technology was, and how short their lifespans were, they would probably be incredibly hyperspecialized to the point that two plasmancers from slightly different sub-fields of study would barely be able to understand each other.

But in the necron society they play the role of the Wise Men, the Priests, the Scribes - old and wise keepers of all manner of knowledge at the king's side, always ready to talk at length about the mysteries of the universe...

Like, Trazyn's long-suffering buddy Sannet is a dimensionalist. Probably spent his entire mortal life to become one. But he works as a museum curator... because he is a cryptek. And it's crypteks who handle all the nerd shit like "writing things down", right? And yeah, I guess he needs the expertise to handle all of Trazyn's stasis toys (he is probably the one who makes them for him, come to think of it) - but it doesn't change the fact that my man is as far from his homefield as he could be.

Essentially, what I am saying is that Necrons treat PhDs in the same way that Hollywood movies tend to - as a mark of belonging to an order of mystics, not as a professional specialization. And I think it would be hilarious if it was ever acknowledged:

'Come, Zuldarekh, your phaeron calls. Tell me of this stellar anomaly and how I could use it for the glory of the dynasty!'

'I... uh.. fuck, man, I don't know. I am a floramancer. Do you want to know about the effect that cross-pollination strategies have on mutation rates in plants in a particular region of that planet over there?'

[transentiencestudios]

Just a couple of sketches of the alien shrimp bois I wanted to share—the Nar-Haan! They’re a peaceful, tribal-like civilization living deep within the caves of Blue Moon, a rogue planet orbiting a black hole. With Blue Moon, I wanted to emphasize the idea that life always finds a way—even in the most extreme and unexpected conditions.

The Nar-Haan never developed advanced technology, but they use bio-organic gadgets powered by natural biological processes to help them in their daily lives. While their intelligence is high enough that they could become a spacefaring species if someone uplifted them, nobody even knows they exist—until the crew randomly encounters one of them: Vek-Tor (the one with the purple face).

The only light source in the Nar-Haan’s caves comes from bioluminescent fungi growing along the ceilings. However, their environment is usually very dark, which is why their most important body regions can emit pulses of light to communicate over long distances.

When interacting up close, they use their feelers to physically connect, exchanging brain signals directly. This allows them to understand each other’s thoughts and even emotions without words. Their entire form of communication is based on electrical signals rather than spoken language.

I’ve already written some pages about their culture and other details, but I don’t have much time to fully develop them at the moment. I might, though—depending on how much people want to see more of these guys, lol. I’ve just been and still am extremely busy drawing art for our overall setting.

Hopefully, I’ll get the chance to develop Blue Moon in its entirety someday. It’s been my passion project for years—a way to explore a strange planetary environment in deep detail. Aside from my character (the Commander), it’s the only thing that truly reflects how emotionally connected and fascinated I feel to space and evolution as a whole.

- Eight

[theemeraldwings]

Yes, this does count as an aerospace question. And yes, their aerodynamics are quite bad. They would not fly very well with modern technology.

That "with modern technology" part is the key word, there. Because according to the lore, a lot of them can canonically fly very well.

Most canon speeds for 40k aircraft are 2000 kph or more, at about a mile above sea level. The speed of sound at that altitude is a bit over 1200 kph, for reference. Having 20,000+ km of range (eg they could fly from anywhere on earth to anywhere else on earth) isn't uncommon, either.

Many are also single-stage-to-orbit spacecraft (meaning that when they go to space, they take the entire spacecraft with them, and don't have boosters that they drop partway up like real world rockets), and all of those are reusable (meaning they can make multiple flights to and from orbit) and able to withstand reentry without any heat shielding beyond whatever armor they might have (and they are armored, with larger craft like the Thunderhawk being similar in durability to heavier tanks like Land Raiders).

There are a few conclusions you can draw from that.

Any of these aircraft would experience immense drag when flying (or when reentering the atmosphere). Not only does this mean that their airframes would need to be able to withstand the stress from that drag, they also need engines powerful enough to push them against it.

The combination of their range and single-stage-to-orbit capacity (and payload) means that they are powered by something far more energy-dense than any real world fuel.

I have a feeling that a space marine (talking about in armour here btw) might actualy be more earodynamic than any of the space marine planes

You know what? Yeah

[lngellvar]

In the year 2148, explorers on Mars discovered the remains of an ancient spacefaring civilization. In the decades that followed, these mysterious artifacts revealed startling new technologies, enabling travel to the furthest stars. The basis for this incredible technology was a force that controlled the very fabric of space and time. They called it the greatest discovery in human history. The civilizations of the galaxy call it... MASS EFFECT.

[dumb-ghost-child]

Humans are weird: Music

Ok so y’all seemed to like the one about intrusive thoughts, so I figured I’d do one about music too because it’s a super interesting topic to me!

The “Guide to Handling Humans” was ever-increasing, but one particular article seemed to confuse many. Spacefaring civilizations had dealt with adrenaline, extroverts, introverts, those who had a compulsive need to pat everything they saw and those who wrote stories of worlds that never existed (called “fantasy”). But one thing they never thought of was music.

Sure, other species had music. But none had focused so much of their civilization around it.

Clara was chatting with Indigo one day, and the topic of celebrations came up. The woman smiled, a gesture Indigo had learned meant that she was either about to do something utterly wild or share an entirely insane story, and started- “Oh! That reminds me, a few years ago I went to this one music festival, right? And there I saw the most amazing bands! I mean, I did lose my voice for a week after but it was totally worth it.”

Indigo was shocked; “Human-Clara what do you mean you ‘lost your voice’? How does one do that?”

“Well basically when someone yells- or does some other stuff- too much for too long, your voice can get messed up. Sometimes you can’t speak, sometimes it’s just super quiet, but it goes away after a bit,” she grinned as she spoke as if this horrifying experience was a positive one. “Have you got music on your home planet?”

Xe thought for a few moments before responding, “Well, yes… but it does not result in losing one’s ability to speak!”

Clara laughed, another positive expression that Indigo had learned about, “Eh, that’s just sometimes. And it just happened because I was singing along really loudly.”

The more Clara explained, the more confused Indigo was. Humans gathered together in crowds that could rival the sizes of some armies in order to celebrate the music of one individual? And sometimes they would be too loud that they would lose their speech? It was shocking to xem.

“Plus,” Clara continued, “some people use music to help them focus or deal with sensory overload. I know a few people on other ships that do it- if you ever go to the Sarina-XI crew, you’ll see a few other humans walking around listening to music, it helps them keep their focus.”

“So.. who creates this music?” Indigo was now more curious than ever, xir quills raising somewhat in curiosity.

“Oh, loads of people! It really depends on what genre it is. But some of the most popular are musicians like Taylor Swift.. her fans are a little scary,” Clara laughed again, “you diss her in front of them and they’ll actually tear you apart.” Indigo’s quills raised more, changing to a color of concern, so Clara clarified- “No, they won’t actually hurt you. They’re just really dedicated.”

To Indigo, this culture was.. odd. Humanity confused xem once again with their obsession with music. Treating ‘idols’ like practically gods, worshipping them and their songs.

The Qu’ral were a people who enjoyed music. The humans were a people who worshipped it.

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

The whole Star Wars universe is so insane actually it's making my head hurt

Putting aside the fact that the entire galaxy is interconnected via space travel with more cultures and societies than the human mind can comprehend, the history is so, so old. The spacefaring history of the galaxy goes 100,000 years into the past, that's twice as much as the time between today and the extinction of neanderthals. And look how long it took us to figure out space travel, the history of individual planets will be even older. Look how long ago before the movie timeline SWTOR takes place, and there's already so many ancient ruins. No matter how far back you go, there will always be something older. Lost cities, technology, cultures covering the surfaces of planets. Entire civilizations built on whalefalls they believe to be mountains. So many remains of space vessels scattered on planetary surfaces, and even more that were left to float through space forever, their crews long dead. The spaces between planets are vast and there is nothing that would allow corrosion and decay except the UV radiation from stars. Stray too far from regular hyperspace routes and you might encounter these ghosts.

The entire galaxy is a graveyard

[geopolicraticus]

Friday 24 January 2025

Grand Strategy Newsletter

The View from Oregon – 325

The Spacefaring Inflection/Expansion Matrix

…in which I discuss spacefaring breakout, early and late inflection, rapid and slow spacefaring expansion, large-scale structures of history, gold-rush mentality, growth after stagnation or collapse, rock-by-rock through the solar system, making the leap from one planetary system to another, and my thought experiments in civilization… 

Substack: https://geopolicraticus.substack.com/p/the-spacefaring-inflectionexpansion

Medium: https://jnnielsen.medium.com/the-spacefaring-inflection-expansion-matrix-520a2f6088e1  

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/The_View_from_Oregon/comments/1idb368/the_spacefaring_inflectionexpansion_matrix/

[saturniandragon]

Hopefully humanity dies out before becoming a spacefaring civilization. We can barely hold ourselves on Earth let alone in the expanse of cosmos.

[judgeitbyitscover]

The Warlock in Spite of Himself (1969) by Christopher Stasheff

Cover art by Stephen Hickman

Ace Books, 1978

Skeptical, cynical Rod Gallowglass is a spacefaring man of science who does not believe in magic. He's also an operative of the agency SCENT, tasked with finding lost colony planets, then guiding them toward democracy and eventual membership in the galactic community.

But when he stumbles across the strange new planet Gramarye, he's shocked to discover a medieval society full of witches and warlocks, elves and monsters. How is it even possible? Worse, Rod's advanced technology quickly gets him labeled a warlock, despite his constant denials.

Moreover, the Kingdom is in political turmoil, with a young girl-queen on the brink of civil war with her rebellious lords. Rod slowly discovers off-world organizations are behind the unrest, trying to subtly corrupt Gramarye away from democratic rule. His mission is threatened at every turn by fascists, anarchists, and double-dealing royalists playing vicious political power games for the future of the most unique--and perhaps most important--planet in the galaxy.

Aided only by a coven of teenage witches, a ragtag army of beggars, and his epileptic robot horse Fess, Rod decides the only way to thwart these destructive influences—-both native and off-planet—-is for him to become a part of the local fabric and lead Gramarye as one of their own. But to do so, Rod Gallowglass must put aside his own convictions and beliefs, and become a warlock, in spite of himself.

[inbarfink]

So here is a thing that I noticed going over the sort of weird expressions that Zim uses in canon. When Zim doesn’t know the human term for something, he will make up some bizarre word combination of his own… but he will hardly ever substitute an Irken term for it. You know, when he first comes to Earth, he doesn’t call Human children ‘smeets’, he calls them ‘worm-babies’. He doesn’t assume the Earth is controlled by a Tallest, he just calls President Man ‘the Earth Leader’. 

And that… makes sense, Irk is a spacefaring empire which clearly had contact with other alien civilizations for a very long time. Zim would have some frame of reference to know that, for example, Vortians don’t call their children ‘Smeets’ and therefore he has no reason to assume the distant alien planet he just landed on would use that term either. I mean, yeah, Zim is often irrational - but that’s one point where he is surprisingly reasonable…. Well, until he needs to think up what he assumes the proper inconspicuous earth term would likely be and comes up with the most ludicrous option available.

And sometimes, and especially later on in the series, it’s clear that he does know what the Correct Earth Term is but is just looking for an excuse to insult humanity again by using a derogatory term he made up. 

And, like, you know… yeah, it is actually kinda obvious why he wouldn’t use the Irken term in that context. He thinks Irkens are inherently superior to humanity. Calling human children ‘Smeets’ would be comparing them to Irken children which would be a compliment to the ‘filthy humans’ that he would not be able to stomach. And like, I know a lot of ‘Alien Among Us’ stories get a lot of their comedy from, y’know, cultural differences and assumptions clashing. But I would argue that while IZ does that sometimes, a lot of Invader Zim’s comedy is actually based on Zim’s immediately assuming Earth Culture has to be as alien to Irken Culture as possible, when they are actually not so different. 

But also I want to take a moment to address the one time where Zim does seemingly uses an Irken term for a human, and that’s when he address the McMeaties clerk guy as ‘Burger Lord’ in ‘Germs’4

Which is probably related to the Irken title for a high-ranking frycook being ‘Frylord’.

But that actually makes sense both in the sense of, like... this term is in use on Foodcourtia, and Foodcourtia, although clearly a part of the Irken Empire, is frequented by many different alien species. So due to the planet's importance as a galactic center for fast food, the term ‘Frylord’ and its derivatives have spread beyond the Irken Empire. Or maybe it was an alien term to begin with and it spread into Foodcourtia through its non-Irken customers. Whatever it is, Zim would at least have a reason to think this might be a universal term and not an Irken-specific thing.

And also, this is a rare occasion where Zim is kinda, like, trying to genuinely get on the good graces of a human and is treating human technology (SPACE MEAT) with an unusual amount of respect - and he just doesn’t really have the mental focus to start condescending to him right now. So kinda reflexively using an unusually respectful Irken term for a mere Human Fast Food Worker makes sense considering his emotional state. He’s probably too germ-panicked to remember he’s not supposed to remember his time in Foodcourtia as well. 

Like, yes, I am aware I am probably looking too deeply into the continuity of this one line. “Germs” and “The Frycook of What Came From All That Space” are so far apart in the timeline that the actual writers probably weren’t thinking about this, right? I just think it’s Cool that one can fit this little ‘Burger Lord’ detail so neatly and so consistently into the lore and with Zim’s characterization.

[someoneoffthestreet]

MAWS s2 thoughts before the finale:

I’ve been thinking over what we’ve seen of Krypton this season. Mostly how, even though it feels like a lot, we haven’t actually seen much at all.

Notably, most of the information we have received about Krypton is actually sourced from Brainiac, which- well. Brainiac is a certified liar, or at the very least, has a very skewed perspective of Krypton and what it was supposed to be. I do not doubt that Krypton was at one point a warmongering planet that benefited off of others’ suffering (Jor-El’s account backs this up,) but dialogue from Brainiac in 2x08 suggests that, towards the end at least, Krypton was moving away from this and pursuing a more peaceful existence.

(Speculatively, this could have angered some Kryptonians ((it’s been 20-something years and Brainiac still sounds pissed off about it)) and instigated a coup that then led to the attempted invasions against Darkseid/Apokolips and Earth, and we know how that went.)

The images we see of Krypton show the Kryptonians with superpowers on their home planet. But we don’t? Actually know? If that’s completely true?? Because it seems strange that the show would have this, but keep the red sun weakness. Did Krypton not have a red sun in this universe?

Pushing on that, the images of that Krypton are from the Black Mercy, which Kara outright states is Brainiac’s domain. The world Clark is trapped in is based off of the one Kara shows him in 2x05, but we don’t actually know where that vision originated from. It couldn’t have come from Kara, because she was also an infant when Krypton was destroyed and would have no natural memory of it. So whose memory is that? Is it a memory at all? How do we know Brainiac didn’t tamper with it?

(Like in all likelihood it was just a throwaway line, but my brain keeps getting stuck on Clark noticing Ma and Pa’s doppelgängers in Kara’s Krypton, and I keep wondering if maybe that was a result of Clark’s subconscious infecting the simulation because it isn’t an actual, tangible memory, but Kara doesn’t seem to notice anything unusual with the memory so maybe I’m stuck on nothing.)

More on that, is how all of this interacts with what we see of Krypton from Jor-El’s memories. Admittedly he gives us very little, but the contrast is pretty stark. And maybe it’s just because the planet was mere moments from exploding, but the Krypton we see back in 1x02 is a wreck, in very stark contrast to the peaceful paradise that was Krypton’s Last Days as shown in 2x05. Even more notably, neither Lara nor Jor-El do anything superhuman in Jor-El’s account. Think about that. They are rushing to save their infant son’s life, but they aren’t using flight or super speed: they are very much earthbound.

Now to be fair, there’s another explanation. Krypton was already a spacefaring civilization before the fall, so they definitely discovered how their biology reacted to different suns. Maybe they created some kind of device that could simulate the yellow sun on Krypton (like the red solar shielding around Cadmus in s1) that “blessed” all Kryptonians with superpowers; and then this device was damaged/shut off in the time before the planet’s destruction.

Like it could be both: the above point being true and Brainiac still omitting/manipulating things about how Krypton was, maybe to better preserve his idea of what it should have been.

[mawofthemagnetar]

I need to talk about my Wels headcanon.

Welsknight is actually from a hyperadvanced spacefaring civilization whose home is a giant artificial ring orbiting an artificial star. Wels considers a faster-than-light spacecraft engine the way we consider a toaster; so boring and domestic it’s barely worth mentioning. Hence why he was able to slap together a spaceship at the end of S8; it was trivial because he learned how to do it in school.

HOWEVER.

Wels’ people are obsessed with “the medieval times of Earth” the same way we are with dinosaurs. And since they don’t have all the information, they do their best with what little they have. So Wels thinks being a knight is all armour and lutes and fun, and has no idea about the Hundred Years’ War, about plagues and the church and any of that nonsense. They LARP as knights because their civilization has advanced past all mundane problems, and their understanding of that period is...vague at best.

And THAT is my Wels headcannon.