Backstory tweaks: no mind-meld, more rational cortex, and a few details

[SirCactuspad]

Here's what I changed and why

• Entirely removed man putting their own minds in machines, as that seems to be the current direction in other story discussions.
• Reworked the cortex motivation to be an exercise of Darwinian concepts, which should still sufficiently explain an endless conflict and individual characters in the cortex.
  • The "stop suffering by killing everything sooner" is a contradiction in my mind: ending suffering (intrinsically empathetic) leading to kill everything now (not empathetic without serious copium) just can't ideologically sustain an entire society (very few empathetic minds would inhale those copium levels). Destiny 2 only (kind of) gets away with this same idea because the singular antagonist (who is a master manipulator) has a perspective completely outside of mortality and the finite universe. TBH i didn't like it there either, so -maybe- it's me. /rantButHopefullyLogical
• Also, i fit the phrase "beyond all reason" into this new Darwinian cortex philosophy, and i quite like it.
• Cleaned up some details in the armada. i.e. transcending the universe isn't the same thing as delaying entropy
  I appreciate your time!

EDIT: well, the PR grew. probably well beyond original scope. I can rework changes into another branch if necessary,
Be warned, this may happen again if unaddressed XD

• refined the notes.md file to align with above changes. and to use "raptors" instead of "chickens"
• added a first pass at adding Legion into the backstory, in a file marked as WIP, to note that revisions are expected.
• added other brainstorms there as well, mainly to record thoughts made here (now removed from github for readability) and to address/record implications from other ideas
• added a proposed roadmap for lore so that if momentum builds, we can know exactly where in the process for making the lore we are, and what is expected at each stage.

[halosammy]

I approve of most of this and left a long speech in the Discord explaining why it aligns with the themes being worked with.

With that said, I will reiterate my suggestion to make it so that it’s possible to create new machine minds.

[jrfondren]

Your Cortex have a motivation to attack the Armada, but also a motivation to attack each other. It fits games with games with mixed commanders per team.

Why would your Armada ever attack Cortex, or anyone? Are they always on the defensive? Do they only attack as an intervention to prevent anyone from achieving a Civilization "Cultural Victory" that would lead to too much uniformity of thought? Do they attack to expand Armada-controlled space which has more diversity of thought and is more likely to lead to the insights necessary to escape entropy, vs. 'wasted' (Cortex-controlled) space? Or does Armada attack because Armada includes warlike subfactions and there's no faction-wide motivation? The last would also fit with mixed commanders.

[halosammy]

Your Cortex have a motivation to attack the Armada, but also a motivation to attack each other. It fits games with games with mixed commanders per team.

Why would your Armada ever attack Cortex, or anyone? Are they always on the defensive? Do they only attack as an intervention to prevent anyone from achieving a Civilization "Cultural Victory" that would lead to too much uniformity of thought? Do they attack to expand Armada-controlled space which has more diversity of thought and is more likely to lead to the insights necessary to escape entropy, vs. 'wasted' (Cortex-controlled) space? Or does Armada attack because Armada includes warlike subfactions and there's no faction-wide motivation? The last would also fit with mixed commanders.

I believe that whatever “great work” Armada needs to escape the universe demands resources that the Cortex use to fuel their evolution.

[jrfondren]

I believe that whatever “great work” Armada needs to escape the universe demands resources that the Cortex use to fuel their evolution.

That would fit as a subfaction motivation, but if Armada is confident on a method to escape entropy, why would they care anymore about diversity as a means of discovering the method? If they're not confident, it becomes strange again to destroy other groups and therefore prevent those other groups from discovering a method to escape entropy.

[halosammy]

That would fit as a subfaction motivation, but if Armada is confident on a method to escape entropy, why would they care anymore about diversity as a means of discovering the method? If they're not confident, it becomes strange again to destroy other groups and therefore prevent those other groups from discovering a method to escape entropy.

Because the point of escape instead of evolution is making sure that everyone gets a seat on the proverbial lifeboat. Evolving until a single form of “life” exists that can beat entropy defeats the purpose.

[jrfondren]

OK, that's roughly my

Do they only attack as an intervention to prevent anyone from achieving a Civilization "Cultural Victory" that would lead to too much uniformity of thought?

option, but it's no longer the same motivation as in the PR, emphasis added:

They look for strength in diversity, every entity capable of thought is a possible source for this escape.

It's not a hard contradiction. On the contrary it makes complete sense for Armada to first want diversity for a particular result, and then drift to wanting diversity for itself. But I ask because there's a gap that needs to be bridged. The lore's describing two groups that are in constant conflict, right? Why are they in conflict? From Cortex's backstory there's an easy immediate answer to that question.

[halosammy]

The lore's describing two groups that are in constant conflict, right? Why are they in conflict? From Cortex's backstory there's an easy immediate answer to that question.

If I were in charge of the PR, I’d describe it as a resource issue on both ends. Cortex for self-improvement and Armada for whatever project they’re chasing.

In this sense, exhausting the universe’s resources in war accelerates entropy and is utterly pointless in regards to what they want. Beyond all reason.

[SirCactuspad]

This is great discussion! Here are some quick thoughts I've had from it, as it plays well into a fantastic campaign idea I had:

• Armada respects and adheres to individualism, which will naturally result in many schools of thought forming. This enables intra-faction politics to emerge, especially when war from cortex is an added external pressure.
• while Armada wants to pursue an existence beyond the known universe, I don't think it's strictly necessary that this desire is benevolent. Probably I'd have the faction begin benevolent, but as it grew a science-first-ethics-second school of thought may have outgrown the more stoic old guard. Juicy political shenanigans are possible in this context. (Great campaign fuel!)
• why science? I do think Armada's desire for discovering the nature of the universe (to ultimately usurp it) would steer the culture over time to be more scientific in general.
• I do agree, I think it has to be a resource driven conflict for armada, since devoting resources to war will take away from the resources going into different research fields, which delays (eventually destroying the potential needed for) the great discovery that they are seeking.

The current ideas in the PR show the founding principles, but they haven't really explored that universe or either faction as having existed over time. I'll need some time to develop and incorporate these thoughts, and I would like to add similar depth to the Cortex.

[SirCactuspad]

@halosammy @jrfondren I've made a separate branch on my lore repo to explore some of the ideas I mentioned in my above comment, I don't want to bloat the PR. I might have gotten carried away and spat out an entire campaign idea outline.
Also, I typed it out on mobile, so be warned it has so, so many typos. I'll clean it up tonight.