Realm of the InterNutter

Well, the Numidid have the trope that to embrace science is to be mad… but it’s an occasionally useful madness that helps the species overall. So it’s strictly regulated.

Only humans ever came up with the Mythbusters. Blowing things up to encourage the young to engage in science? Madness.

Our mad scientists want to take over the world. Or show them all.

Their mad scientists merely want to prove a point. Often explosively.

Ah. Broadly. Yes.

You can tell a lot about people by the stories they love. Folk tales especially. In Russia, the Innocent Idiot wins because his heart is unsullied by temptation. In Europe, the self-sacrificing maiden is given to a prince as a reward.

Sometimes, quick-thinking or preparation are rewarded. But going by our fairy tales? We value selflessness, generosity, beauty, and valour.

Fantasy novels are a lot more complicated than that, but they generally work off the principle of a mythical

I still don’t think many humans would be that into making a Barrayar, though.

Plus I might get into trouble with Ms Bujold if I did name a Terran Colony ‘Barrayar’ or a recognisable facsimile thereof.

…but yeah. As chronicled in the books, the aliens would be looking for it because of what’s implied for the Time of Isolation. [“We can’t let cogniscents suffer like that! Not even Humans…”]

But

I need coffee.

Getting back to the questions as soon as I’m caffeinated.

…who’s working on the Wiki entry? Because I think these questions count as a published interview…

[Buy my books]

Ah. Yes. Well… That’s the problem.

Humans are the statistical outlier, as far as Galactic civilisations are concerned. They survived a Death World long enough to colonise other planets.They continue to treat mortal threats as fun. And generally should not be allowed near simple alcohol.

The working theory is that, should a species originate on a Death World, they go mad or they go bad [usually self-immolation, but sometimes, just avoided]. But there are very few examples that

Human science fiction mystifies aliens.

“They wrote this just after they had steam trains?” [Jules Verne, The First Man on the Moon]

“Yes…”

“And they wrote this just after they had electricity.” [Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, a Modern Prometheus]

“Yes.”

“And they filmed that before they set foot on any other celestial body?” [Star Trek]

“Yes.”

“And they thought it all up before they knew what was possible?”

Ho boy… In no particular order…

::deep breath of doom::

1. Our political leaders, the things they say on record, and the fact that we keep electing the buggers [coughScabbottcough]


2. Profits are more important than having crops [neocontids-v-bees]


3. Profits are more important than the environment we need to live [looking at you Monsanto/BP]


4. Profits are more important than having employees who can afford to buy your products [the minimum wage fiasco]


5. Profits are more important than people [ALL Big Business]

I’ve been given a lot of prompts that explore the Squick Factor. Primarily because folks love the Augments and the Uplifts I’ve conjured for them.

And there’s always that one scum sucker who thinks that, this time, they’ll succeed in creating the Enlisted Man or the Perfect Servant or whatnot. It never ends well.

But there’s other things. Mankind did not beat the common cold. They tamed it, domesticated it, and turned

Who, O'Ranges?

[I kid. I know you’re talking about Sahra Johnston]

“Body of a babbie, mind like Machiavelli on smart drugs.” (a brief pause) “I like her.”

A little from column A and a little from column B.

Mayhem has this Thing where he has to greet me every single time he sees me.

Chaos has this Thing where she just randomly decides to scream about something.

But they’re still adorable.

And they’ll say stuff that has me crack-my-ribs laughing because it’s (a) completely ludicrous, (b) scarily accurate, © unbelievably hilarious or (d) all of the above.

But I do have the ultimate

Possibly very confused.

It was a Yorkshire Terrier and she’d mistaken it for a toy, at first. When it first moved, she still thought it was a toy.

Then it did the excited-dog barking and running after its own tail. And jumping, which would have been terrifying for her if it was working dog-sized animal.

Then she asked if it was malfunctioning.

Which was when she found out it was a dog.

“So, wait. Humans bred wolves for domesticity

Preferably from a distance.

Even a simple take-turns-being-the-predator game like Tag would be a little too much for even a scientific Numidid mind to handle.

The young keets three generations hence might be prepared to actually participate… and the humans would have had rules for the Numidid in place way before that.

At the first sign of running humans, Numidid and many other aliens immediately take off for the nearest safe spot.

…which is going to be a bit of

The percentage varies from time to time. There’s this essence of scale-balancing going on in her background thoughts, but only some of the time.

It depends on the individual. Asshats get karmic re-alignment. Horrible people get their just desserts. Rael gets teased because… Shayde’s never really learned how to handle infatuation and tends to revert to defending against it [Long story. Might be a book one day].

Needless to say, she keeps doing nice things to/for

Do it!