Zan replied to Anthony: > So if the rich people own 100 planets each and the richest have their > own Dyson spheres, that means people with only one planet are middle > class and the poor people get just a red giant with a half-mined out > asteroid belt.
Hello everybody, a conflict between societies might be more interesting than a conflict between individuals. The heroes are not just out for themselves, they're fighting for king and country or whatever and come home to a glorious welcome. Consider Banks' Culture, again, where many characters are acting for the Culture as a whole, or at least for a recognizable faction ... > Or, because humans like to have power or because they like to provide > for others, I can see TL16 humans using virtual computer environments or > bioengineering to create new beings dependent on them. The temptation to > play God. If badly treated or badly designed these new beings might > rebel and set out to rid the universe of humanity. The Traveller Ancients come to my mind. But lording over AIs or clones is not real power, right? > This desire for power and control will also lead to conflict between > humans. Here it gets interesting. Power over people who would like to dominate you, if they could. A true struggle. > It would be an overwhelming temptation to use your resources to build a > battle fleet and go FIX it so those other WRONG people do it the RIGHT > way. YOUR way. And even if your society would never want to dominate others, because you're the "good guys" and you want freedom and apple pie for everybody, even your enemies, there is the risk that the enemies would build a battle fleet against you. They're the "bad guys", after all. So with deep regrets you have to consider a preemptive strike. All for the good, even that of your enemies once they're properly reeducated. Regards, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
