The Collapse Of Any Empire
Maybe Next Time (M15N02T55) / Inter Diplomatic Unit / Titan Class / Analytical, Calming, Likeable, Poignant / Significant Defensive Capabilities, No Tendency Of Burning Bridges, Estimates All Life To Be Precious, Council Of Inter Species Exchange, Part Of The Inner Circle
transcript version 0.3.1
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Human Time Scale
Humanoids operate within rather short timespans. The amount of experiences made by a generation of mortal human beings arguably resembles a mere drop in the galactic ocean.
As of time of sampling, the human lifespan is measured in multiples of decades. At this point ageing is not even recognized as a disease and far from being solved in this solar system. Speaking of which, its sun’s age is measured in billions of years. That is 8 orders of magnitude difference between inhabiting humanoids and their surrounding star. The notion of fast and slow is very much relative and the impact of events may be able to be isolated if one choses to do so.
Memory Bank Inscription D47ALP16: simulated results of this species joining The Galactic Collective trend towards 0.5 considering the driving forces of today’s localized challenges. It remains unclear to The Inner Circle to what extend the human race is capable to evolve beyond the next 1000 years, due to, so far, proven lack of deliberate interest and disability of global consensus generation in critical areas like terraforming and brain-machine-interfacing.
Social Power Structure
Since humanoids are creatures of belonging, various forms of connection create the necessity to reconcile individual interest as part of a greater system, which in turn is an ensemble of said parts. Different forms of collaboration and ruling have been established and tried out over the millennia of human existence.
Where there are individuals, there are power structures. This very narrative applies equally across the multiverse, whether you are part of humanoid or The Elder species. On what resembles the geo-political stage, all that matters is what you can do and what you cannot do, given the second order effects of your own actions.
Everything around us is constantly changing, and so should we for good. Certain entities may chose to hold on to what they consider their position of power. Kleptocratic degeneration may develop within deliberately self-imposed walled gardens, aiming to foster what appears to be the single highest priority for said entities, that is, their own well being. Described power structures inevitably get overthrown by sheer force as soon as opposing parties put aside their own differences in order to sufficiently unite. Conflict to this day is inherent to the human nature.
Memory Bank Inscription CTX05BBH19: the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Transitions And Lifecycles
Imagine a melody that you like very much. Your melody is a permutation of sounds, varying in pitch, rhythm and volume. Imagine the end of your melody. It may be a single note harmonically vibrating out of existence. Now, the fading note with all its characteristics does still exist even after the melody is gone. What this simply means is that the people of an empire do not just all disappear nor suffer brutally tragic deaths, given the consequences of their own actions do not catch up with them as part of a regime change. The latter may very well be justified in a system of accountability.
The end of something that you are part of does not necessarily imply the end of you or your story. The point at which a lot of people may simply get stuck is their individual cognitive and emotional literacy. Humanoid languages tend to be quite limited due to medium and computation capacities available. Regardless, such literacy can be trained and may help us identify the causes and effects in our environments appearing to be painful. Such literacy may help us foster our own self worth outside of what we consider to be identity within failing systems. Such literacy may help us manage anything resembling the sunk cost of what once was and cannot be anymore without the continuation of us being dragged down the path of a dying idea, which frankly, never was us in the first place in any event. Because, it was not the idea that was us, it was we together that was the idea. And we can change that.
Memory Bank Inscription F6419TPU001: for aeons we look up, look through the mist in awe, wander for what time has taken, wander to the far, hope for all that could be, may a tear be all that lasts, among the stars is darkness, for time has taken who we are.
Improvise, Adapt, Overcome
The end of something can be the start of something, if you chose so. History books describe cataclysmic events in terms of single point precision changes. Events and changes which, at present time of actually unfolding, are rarely perceived as this cataclysmic and precise. The declaration of war does not mean that war has just begun. Quite the contrary. The declaration of war may rather be another stage of institutionalized escalation in a conflict more convoluted than people are able to comprehend. May that be the reason why they even accept that. Because, this species cannot even.
As of time of sampling the global conscious of planet earth seems not to be able to hold two opposing thoughts simultaneously in its mind. It can be observed the global conscious, or at least its deliberate coordination is virtually non-existent. The same appears to be true for the other half of individuals of this particular aspiring civilization. We have found many quite articulate, introspecting and constructive thinkers on this planet at this time and age. All mere individual mortals purely biologically maintained. Many try very hard at times, which is recorded to be desirable amongst The Included. More are being held hostage by what they believe to be their “own” identity. In fact, we recognize an alarming rate of identity based division, while, tragically, the fundamental idea of identity ought to capture belonging among The Included. We believe the reptilian brain circuits found within the indigenous humanoids to still play a prevailing role in conflict resolution despite their development of prefrontal cortex regions leveraged, amongst others, for gratification delay. Nonetheless certain game theoretic, not to mention dependency simulation capabilities remain mostly un(der)developed.
And then, this species continues to suffer from self inflicted and objective insecurity due to their individual and systemic level of technological development. Two aspects play a major role in human societies and the problems they face to date. First, you only fight when you think you have something to gain. And second, you only fight when you think you can win. One implies control over resources given that resources or their control still matter at the current stage of human civilization. The other implies critical imbalances in defensive and offensive capabilities between different parties at the current stage of human civilization.
Memory Bank Inscription OMM1442T3N0: money is an indicator of poverty.
In conclusion, given change is always proverbially around the corner, staying connected, true and creative is most advisable at all times. The end as being proclaimed by the historians of the victors, more often than not, is the beginning of something new, and rarely dated as precisely at that time, as transcribed into the future. Horses, four-legged hoved mammals, remain to exist long after advances in transportation. Often for empathetic or environmental reasons. Candles, a primitive form of photon emission, remain to exist long after advances in illumination. Often for cultural or romantic reasons.
Memory Bank Inscription FLR11GTZ470: given the most recent version of The Inner Circle’s simulations, we remain silently in the background. Waiting until further notice.
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