(no subject)

[asklepian]

Posted: June 8th
From: Asclepius

Something I've found myself quite interested in over the last few weeks has been a question of...well, I suppose our existence.

Pardon me if this question has been asked before, I haven't seen it. I'd appreciate a summary of that particular conversation, if it has happened before.

Now, as a bit of background--I am from...a fairly significant amount of time in the future. I state that vaguely because there are rules against discussing it, we accidentally time travel often enough that there's protocol in place. But I feel fairly confident after my research that I am also in what I would consider a parallel universe. Those are also fairly well-documented in my time. (I must say this is far more pleasant than the last one I was in.)

Anyway. If all that is the case, I have to wonder: why do the divisions of god and shinki fall as they do? Whatever power brought us here evidently can reach through time and both physical and metaphorical space. Infinite realities mean infinite possibilities that in one or the other reality, we are either alive or dead.

Please keep all specific instances and examples private if you wish to give them. I don't want this discussion to be the cause of harm to anyone.

Comments

<Ixtlilton>

[giftedistheterm]

The older gods may have a better answer as to why some of us are gods and others are shinki. Though if it's not merely a matter of whether or not they bring a version of us that's alive or dead, something that really is trivial if you take into account supposed time travel and alternate realities, then they must look for something else. Some other marker.

[Simon certainly sat up and paid attention at the mention of Asclepius being 'from the future'...but the rest makes it clear that it isn't his future.

He isn't sure if he's relieved about that or just lonely.]

[asklepian]

It's possible. None of them have chimed in as of yet.

It certainly complicates things. And all of this is mostly wild speculation anyway. All I can draw upon is the history I learned in school. I happen to hold a particular interest in the hundred years between 1950 and 2050, which we happen to be right in the middle of.

[giftedistheterm]

I haven't notice them using these message boards at all. Maybe they're all Luddites?

History which may no longer fully apply. I can understand why you wouldn't want to share the specifics of what your history books contain, I wouldn't either rules or no. Though I confess I'm curious how much of what you were taught differs from my own lessons.

[asklepian]

They're here and there. Mostly when it strikes their fancy.

It's not exactly pleasant bedtime reading, which is why most of us don't exactly like to talk about it.

Using this year, 2016, as a reference point--65 to 70 years ago, humanity was extremely proficient in genetic engineering, to the point where genetic superhumans had been created. In the early 1990s, they took over all the countries in the world, dividing them amongst themselves in blocs of influence.

That prompted the Great Wars from 1992 to 1996, ending in the Augment control of Earth being broken and most of them killed. After that, there was a period of...relative political stability, but massive social unrest that lasted to the beginning of World War III in 2026. Which would be 10 years from now.

[giftedistheterm]

That is very different from what I was taught.

[Understatement of the year there, Simon.]

As far as I'm able to determine, if this timeline differs from mine we won't know for certain for another five years or so. There was no rampant genetic experimentation in my history books, and humanity managed to avoid finding other reasons for another world war.

[asklepian]

So I've been hearing from everyone else.

That is, historically, what we've been best at. It didn't get much better for us until after First Contact.

[giftedistheterm]

That at least seems to be a constant, yes. I suppose I should clarify: there were no additional world wars on Earth, but there was the Unification War that ended only five years ago. So really, humanity hasn't changed all that much over the centuries.

I assume you're speaking of finding alien life? I suppose that isn't as unusual as being gods...how did things improve?

[asklepian]

They found us, more like. After we first broke the faster-than-light barrier.

In...almost uncountable ways. War on Earth ceased, all of humanity is unified now. We were also able to eliminate almost all disease and poverty, reverse the trend of pollution that was on track to make the planet uninhabitable. We started exploring the stars.

There's been wars and skirmishes with other peoples, but most encounters have been peaceful. Not all, unfortunately...

[giftedistheterm]

So finding out we're not alone in the universe is the impetus needed to finally and properly pull ourselves together? I can believe that.

Though it sounds like your 'version' of Earth has advanced further than mine in several ways. We left Earth to settle on another system but had to do so without the aid of faster than light travel. There was an entire generation that never saw the outside of a space ship, as historians like to put it.

[asklepian]

More or less.

We didn't really leave Earth until after breaking the warp barrier. There were a few sleeper ships that left, but they were lost.

[It's sort of macabre once you think of it. There could still be sleeper ships out there, lost...and space is so large that they might never be found.]

Now, we can travel from Earth to the farthest reaches of Federation space in a few days. It'd take lifetimes otherwise.