What if a pocket empire emerged post virus that...

[JcFalkenburg]

I've recently reread the dune series, and I think that the forces of the Butlerian Jyhad that force the hyperspecialization of the human race were probably a lot less traumatic than the pressure of virus. What about a pocket empire that relied on humans and their intrinsic abilities to forge a space faring empire that was "virus-proof" ? You know human computers, Navigators that could do jump calculations themselves, etc. What do you guys think ?

 

[Colin]

That's a pretty cool idea, actually. Especially if you are talking minor Humans that already had a degree of specialization going on. You could make them like Mentats, or they could even be idiot-savants, biological computers hardwired into the ship by way of a neural link.

 

[Peter Schutze]

the problem with such specialisation is time

the issue i have especially with the Dorsai Chylde cycle is that such radical changes /specialisations appear in a few 20 year generations rather than I'd guess 50 for it to take effect naturally

Of course with gene tailoring it shouldnt be hard to force such "monstrous" changes in only a few generations but the sheer computer power to run such a large and long running program should be a prime target for virus anyway

That then raises the problem of similarity .... why cant virus attack a human brain that is specialised enough to function hardwired into a ship ?

Also why wouldnt you follow a much simpler and "less monstrous" route and just un-network your systems ? Creating idiot savant computer systems would seem to be a much simpler route especially if built from the ground up like 80s computers rather than "black box" ing fairly common underlying software like most current era systems are

 

[Whipsnade]

JcFalkenburg,

A human minor face, the Floriani, are diamorphic with a "brains" sub-race, the Barnai, and a "brawn" sub-race, the Feskel. The Barnai were supposedly geneered by the Ancients for "mentat"-like activities.

IIRC, there's also a Vargr sub-race with Ancient geneered mental abilities.


Regards,
Bill

 

[Max]

Peter,

with regards to Dorsai/Chylde cycle the changes took place over centuries, at least back to Foreman in the 1970s. Admittedly it required a time traveling uber-man to start the differentiation, and he may have started back in the middle ages, but we know he was working on evolving the race in the 1970s.

Genetically breeding human computers wouldn't work in the time span however fetal surgeries should be able create tailored idiot savants to act as computers. If we were ruthless enough we could probably do this now with early 21st century technology, although some people might object to creating thousands of children with scrambled brains to get one "usable" idiot who can replace a computer.

 

[FreeTrav]

I've not read the Dune series - quite frankly, I couldn't get into Dune itself - but another take on the basic idea can be found in Vernor Vinge, A Deepness In The Sky. The culture in question is portrayed as the 'bad guys', but Vinge still gives a good look at them, sufficient to be able to use them in a role-playing game, and quite possibly for the purpose you propose here.

 

[Theophilus]

Let's not forget the "Starfisher" series. I really liked the idea of human brains preserved and wired into the massive symbiotechnic dreadnaughts. What's behind the black curtain, Lucan and his sycophants, hardwired into the largest dreadnaughts the Imperium ever produced fighting an endless war against the Virus/Silicone based enemy he created.

Gives me an idea.

 

[JcFalkenburg]

I was thinking about something a little simpler, say an empire that relied on psionics, as written, specifically the special talent to bring about some of the changes necessary, think awareness for some of the mentat tricks or some of the " self " focused talents for some of the physical. Or, Gestalt/ group teleportation, or psionically triggered jump drives; something that didn't require altering the feel of the OTU, like extensive pervasive geneering, but different in the context of the rules as written--- not that the ideas sounded bad ( i'll have to check out some of the books mentioned).
As far as time, I was thinking about using 1248.

 

[JcFalkenburg]

I was also thinking that necessity would be a hell of a motivator !!!!

 

[epicenter00]

The Zhodani do something vaguely like this IMTU to run their psionic shifting drives. IMTU, Psionic Shifting puts tremendous strain on the Psion operating the drive - fatally burning them out if they do it too much - each shift leaves them haggard and basically chops some months off of the end of their life.

However, when occasion requires, these psionic shifters first need to "see" where they plan to go (which replaces a lot of the complex calculations), but the shift itself still requires calibration of fields and so forth. They do this by basically getting a crew of born math geniuses as crew. The Psion simply goes into the heads of the math genius proles (who also serve as crew) and uses their brains to each do some of the calculations necessary. Then the psion uses psionic techniques to directly input the information into the control consoles (which are computers too dumb to process the Virus, even if infected).

I could imagine certain Solomani worlds becoming very interested in the idea of specializing humans - while they might not have anything approaching people able to replace a jump computer, I'd imagine a number of Solomani worlds would have begun eugenics/genetic engineering breeding projects designed just for such an end. The early results of such a program would probably be more interesting from an RP standpoint than actual finished specimens.

After all, you could have people who are pretty far along in the traits the Solomani want, but also have some undesirable traits ... like they're serial killers.

 

[kafka47]

To take a slightly different take - a transhumanist oriented government (thanks to Mongoose these now are part of the OTU) started a breeding program centuries ago for such an eventuality (all sorts of weird prophetic cults exist IMTU). The kicker would be it would be a hobbyist Virus who took over the breeding program...

 

[JcFalkenburg]

Staying on my horse until its dead, I found this in the t4 Psionic institute book ( no, I haven't read it, don't know if its any good, I do however have two copies, let me know if you are interested...)
Shig(Massilia/0510)
This high population world has built its culture around psionics. One of its inland lakes has the curious property of interacting with the psionic powers of those who go beneath its surface. The first time a person with psionic potential immerses himself in it , his powers are unlocked....pilgrimagaes to the lake are required of every citizen upon reaching adulthood...


in the latter part of the 3I , Shig is Cluseret. With its rlative proximity to capital, I don't know what happened to its traditions post psionic suppression, but I bet that post virus , they would have made a come back. In any case, I don't really have a bunch of info on Massilia in the new era, I know its really close to the black curtain, but I wonder if the people turned back to their cultural traditions in the face of technology gone wild, what would emerge ?

 

[BardicHeart]

Could always go with the "Pilgrims" from Wing Commander, people (possibly psionic) who can intuitively calculate jumps that even jump computers can't. How they developed is another story... an Ancient artifact zapped them... survivors of a 3I black project... newly rediscovered psionic ability (it was always there, just supressed during the 3I).