High tech "primitive" sci-fi

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Hm. It seems the trick here is that they FOUND technology.

I'd hazard a guess that a culture that develops advanced tech would, in the process, lose their "tribality".

Roger, wasn't that a theme in one of your pre-Charley-fallout stories?

Tech that was advanced ENOUGH might actually encourage tribalism. For example, imagine a world where we take sustainability issues seriously, and as a result start focusing on food regions and local economies. Everyone's connected to the internet, everyone has access to fairly high levels of education, and the population has gone through a period of decline before stabilizing. What we might end up with is cities, surrounded by farmland, in which most people live, work, and attend school within their neighborhoods. A city would, in a sense, become a coalition of tribes, with each tribe recognizable by its neighborhood.

[Buckaroo Banzai]

Hm. It seems the trick here is that they FOUND technology.

I'd hazard a guess that a culture that develops advanced tech would, in the process, lose their "tribality".

Roger, wasn't that a theme in one of your pre-Charley-fallout stories?

Hmmm, I'd say not necessarily in regards to tribality being a transitional stage into a society like ours. That presupposes that cultural evolution somehow as an inevitable set end result. The society we live in today is really something of happy accident.

[Buckaroo Banzai]

Hm. It seems the trick here is that they FOUND technology.

I'd hazard a guess that a culture that develops advanced tech would, in the process, lose their "tribality".

Roger, wasn't that a theme in one of your pre-Charley-fallout stories?

Tech that was advanced ENOUGH might actually encourage tribalism. For example, imagine a world where we take sustainability issues seriously, and as a result start focusing on food regions and local economies. Everyone's connected to the internet, everyone has access to fairly high levels of education, and the population has gone through a period of decline before stabilizing. What we might end up with is cities, surrounded by farmland, in which most people live, work, and attend school within their neighborhoods. A city would, in a sense, become a coalition of tribes, with each tribe recognizable by its neighborhood.

Indeed! I'd read the hell out of a story set in a world like that. While I'm not sure how likely this is it certainly seem possible to me. As an anthropologist I'd also argue that humans fundamentally drifts toward a tribal state and we subconsciously try to recreate it through social clicks, trends, nations, ect.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Hm. It seems the trick here is that they FOUND technology.

I'd hazard a guess that a culture that develops advanced tech would, in the process, lose their "tribality".

Roger, wasn't that a theme in one of your pre-Charley-fallout stories?

Fuck if I know.  The only story I can remember from that time is the train robbers thing.

Or maybe the King Pellinore bit.

[LMNO]

I dimly recall that the aliens in the train robbers story didn't really know how it worked, because it was found.  Or something.

I'm probably mixing this up with something else.


Ah.  District 9, perhaps?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I dimly recall that the aliens in the train robbers story didn't really know how it worked, because it was found.  Or something.

I'm probably mixing this up with something else.


Ah.  District 9, perhaps?

Actually, they didn't know how it worked because it worked so well that it never needed to be fixed.

So more like Pump Six.

[Cain]

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[The Good Reverend Roger]

Uh, Firefly?  You had the Reavers, who were basically every nightmare of the "brutish savage" rolled into one, and some very uneven technological distribution.  It wasn't "primitive", but it was very frontier (which was, of course, the whole point).

Yeah, and that's as tribal as you get, story-wise, even if it's a western in space.

But the OP is looking for a "literary erection", so, you know, take it for what it's worth.

[Cain]

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[The Good Reverend Roger]

Yeah, I saw that.  I agree with the criticisms posted afterwards.

I don't think BB is actually an anthropologist.

[Chelagoras The Boulder]

This thread actually reminded me of a story idea i had: the concepts was there was a highly intelligent insectile race, with the intellect, drive and will to create advanced technology, but no concept of society. they are born alone, raise themselves, feed themselves, teach  themselves and whatever they create in their lifetime is ultimately lost, because it either goes unfinished or is looted by some other insect who wants their raw materials for their own project. Basically it's what a race of people would LITERALLY have to be in order to truly be everything that RUGGED INDIVIDUALISTS claim to be.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

This thread actually reminded me of a story idea i had: the concepts was there was a highly intelligent insectile race, with the intellect, drive and will to create advanced technology, but no concept of society. they are born alone, raise themselves, feed themselves, teach  themselves and whatever they create in their lifetime is ultimately lost, because it either goes unfinished or is looted by some other insect who wants their raw materials for their own project. Basically it's what a race of people would LITERALLY have to be in order to truly be everything that RUGGED INDIVIDUALISTS claim to be.

If they don't pass on their knowledge to others, they don't get past the "picking up a sharp rock" stage.

[Chelagoras The Boulder]

This thread actually reminded me of a story idea i had: the concepts was there was a highly intelligent insectile race, with the intellect, drive and will to create advanced technology, but no concept of society. they are born alone, raise themselves, feed themselves, teach  themselves and whatever they create in their lifetime is ultimately lost, because it either goes unfinished or is looted by some other insect who wants their raw materials for their own project. Basically it's what a race of people would LITERALLY have to be in order to truly be everything that RUGGED INDIVIDUALISTS claim to be.

If they don't pass on their knowledge to others, they don't get past the "picking up a sharp rock" stage.

the way i pictured it, they function kinda like the Brain Bugs from Starship Troopers, they can attack other members of their species and learn what they know by eating the loser's brain. This triggers the insect's body to disintegrate, leaving an egg that will hatch into another insect, who will know only some of what their parent did.

[Buckaroo Banzai]

But the OP is looking for a "literary erection", so, you know, take it for what it's worth.

Whoa whoa whoa buddy, I said "supple literary erection", I am no cretin, I have a collection of smoking pipes which receive intermediate use thankyouverymuchly

I don't think BB is actually an anthropologist.

My degree and status as an unemployed person beg to differ sir

[Buckaroo Banzai]

This thread actually reminded me of a story idea i had: the concepts was there was a highly intelligent insectile race, with the intellect, drive and will to create advanced technology, but no concept of society. they are born alone, raise themselves, feed themselves, teach  themselves and whatever they create in their lifetime is ultimately lost, because it either goes unfinished or is looted by some other insect who wants their raw materials for their own project. Basically it's what a race of people would LITERALLY have to be in order to truly be everything that RUGGED INDIVIDUALISTS claim to be.

the way i pictured it, they function kinda like the Brain Bugs from Starship Troopers, they can attack other members of their species and learn what they know by eating the loser's brain. This triggers the insect's body to disintegrate, leaving an egg that will hatch into another insect, who will know only some of what their parent did.

That sounds like a fantastic moral parable the likes of which old school Trek used to play with. A race whose existence is both fantastic and futile, who together could conquer the cosmos and leave a legacy amongst the stars if banded together but on their own are cursed with the Sisyphean task to reinvent the wheel. Would read