Stupid idea. I don't know what mind numbed brain trust came up with this notion, but I sure as hell wish they could apply it to me and the San Mateo county health system.
Planets have human rights (in the Imperium)?
- Thread starter DaveChase
- Start date
BlackBat242
SOC-14 1K
Isn't that what the environmental laws and government organizations such as the EPA are intended to do already?
Sounds like this is intended to take the environmental protection functions of the government and hand them over to private organizations to apply however they see fit.
For "make a case" read "make a large enough bribe".
In other words, all this is is (depending on your point of view) a way for the environmental lobby to get filthy rich by extorting payments from industry... or a de-facto tax on industry to support the continued parasitical existence of a set of lawyers and "environmental experts" that simply duplicate (in a less-efficient and less-consistent manner) the current governmental agencies.
Last edited:
Peter Schutze
SOC-12
Personally I **can** see a world being redzoned because it acts in a not Gaia-like or actively communicating but agressively intelligent way.
Several SciFi books come to mind as showcasing candidate planets but with this damned flu clogging the works, my memory fails me
Picture a planet with a very rich and diverse ecosystem. depending on the explorers actions the ecosystem reacts appropriately.
if they just scan the wildlife, drink a bit from the local stream etc everything co-operates by pausing just long enough for the scan to finish etc.
If its a survival situation eg they build a small campfire and obviously need it .... deadfall seems to accumulate near them. continued good behaviour sees other survival neccessities like berries and fruit start sprouting around them. all visitor species specific that plantlife doesnt seem otherwise indigenous to the area
When a different group start building a bonfire they get the impression the wildlife is deliberately screwing with it by shaking wet branches, dropping a blizzard of wet leaves etc
the worse (as in destructive or excessively consumptive) behaviour becomes, the more hostile the local wildlife becomes in an apparent acceleration of evolution until plasma weaponry is de rigeur for small groups to survive an area .... it probably also gains a reputation as a plague world as the single cellular life joins the fight
strangely though individuals even a few dozen kilometers away who do no harm, still get treated nicely and its even possible for small "at one with nature" communities to survive regardless of the hostility reaction occuring elsewhere
Several SciFi books come to mind as showcasing candidate planets but with this damned flu clogging the works, my memory fails me
Picture a planet with a very rich and diverse ecosystem. depending on the explorers actions the ecosystem reacts appropriately.
if they just scan the wildlife, drink a bit from the local stream etc everything co-operates by pausing just long enough for the scan to finish etc.
If its a survival situation eg they build a small campfire and obviously need it .... deadfall seems to accumulate near them. continued good behaviour sees other survival neccessities like berries and fruit start sprouting around them. all visitor species specific that plantlife doesnt seem otherwise indigenous to the area
When a different group start building a bonfire they get the impression the wildlife is deliberately screwing with it by shaking wet branches, dropping a blizzard of wet leaves etc
the worse (as in destructive or excessively consumptive) behaviour becomes, the more hostile the local wildlife becomes in an apparent acceleration of evolution until plasma weaponry is de rigeur for small groups to survive an area .... it probably also gains a reputation as a plague world as the single cellular life joins the fight
strangely though individuals even a few dozen kilometers away who do no harm, still get treated nicely and its even possible for small "at one with nature" communities to survive regardless of the hostility reaction occuring elsewhere
Last edited:
I think Deathworld by Harry Harrison is an extreme version of what you describe - and may be one of the books you're thinking of.
Much like Pandora/Eywa in Avatar, you mean? (granted, Eywa had to be given a bit of a kick up the backside to get going, but when it did notice, the fight was over pretty quickly).
There are at least two different versions. A) where the world's biosphere is sentient and b) where the world itself is. Pyrrus (from Deathworld) is neither; the escalating deadliness of the flora and fauna has a different cause. Alan Dean Foster's Midworld is type A. So is a world from one of Keith Laumer's Retief stories. I vaguely recall a haunting short story about a Type B world that, unfortunately, evidently wasn't haunting enough to make me remember the author. Murray Leinster, perhaps? There's also a living world among the gallery of foes fought by the Fantastic Four.
Hans
Hans
Last edited:
Beat me to it.
Interesting seriesSo once a planet is given near human rights, does that allow me to sue for losses when a tree falls over on my car?
Only if you are willing to stand up for the counter suit against you crushing it friendly neighbors the grass, insects, and that bee on the wind shield.
Dave Chase
Captain Midnight
SOC-12
Do it five times, and shoot any psychic who comes up with a result that is different from the results obtained by the other four. Keeping the individual psychics from determining what results the other four have already come up with is an exercise for the reader.
Hint: "Truth drug" is your friend in these cases.
The big problem with negotiations is figuring out just what a sentient (or semi-sentient) planet would want, and how you can deliver. Otherwise, you're in a deep hole as far negotiating goes -- if the other party doesn't want anything you can deliver on, force becomes your best option, and that's tough to manage on this scale.
