Planetary energy grid

The ancient Chinese had a name for it: Feng Shui. We call it energy flow. It is the same thing, the same thought: energy is everywhere, but only a fraction of it is tapped by humans for their purposes. Now the Progenitors have taught us that we can tap not only our own latent abilities, but the latent abilities of the Universe itself.

— Prophet Cha Dawn, “Planet Rising”

The teachings of Feng Shui do indeed concern themselves with energy flows. These flows are, however, ever so slightly more metaphorical than Cha Dawn make it out to be. When applied to interior decoration – a topic both more and less science fiction than one would imagine – the gist of it is to keep the energy pathways clear, so as to allow it to flow freely throughout your domicile. When applied to one’s personal life, it centers on not leaving things undone or unfinished, since doing so will tie up your energies and prevent you from going with the flow (wherever it might take you). To phrase it inelegantly, it’s about not getting caught up in the past and allowing your present being to become the full extent of what it could be (a thought not too dissimilar from Aristotle’s notion of flourishing).

It makes sense to carry the analogy over to an energy based economy. The smoother, faster and more frictionless energy can move from one place to another, the more readily it can do what it needs to accomplish. Here, surprisingly, the Cultists find themselves in agreement with Morgan’s notion that energy is life, and thus that the more energy can be mobilized, the more life can be brought about. Where Morgan sees this through the lens of a relentless free marketeering ideology, Cha Dawn approaches it through the prism of Chinese philosophy. Both agree that the uninterrupted flow of energy is the way to go, but one wonders just how far this agreement will carry them.

As to tapping the energies of the Universe, it is an open question how much of this comes down to marveling at the Progenitor ability to perceive and alter resonance fields, and how much further Cha Dawn carries the principle into a more universalized notion of energy. It stands to reason that the colonists, upon having encountered the strange energy fields employed by the aliens, become fascinated by this new manifestation of reality that was there all along without anyone noticing. It also stands to reason that the same principle might apply to other previously hidden dimensions, just waiting to be discovered by intrepid researchers or spiritual seekers. The tangible economic results (such as the planetary energy grid) will ensure that no-nonsense, data driven researchers will keep searching for said dimensions using all available tools of the trade (tricks, as Becker would have it). The slightly less tangible results, in turn, will ensure that spiritual seekers of all stripes will dig in and use every secret recipe in their renegade repertoires to uncover yet another facet of the Mystery. It may very well be that resonance fields are the quantum mechanics of the 23rd century, sparking inspiring discoveries in the scientific realm and completely unrelated set of inspirations in its cultural counterpart.

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Thermocline transducer

The boundary between cold water and warm, the thermocline, has been important to undersea warfare for hundreds of years of man’s history. Now we have found a way to harness that power for constructive purposes. What once cloaked us can now feed us, what once shielded us from death, now brings us life.

— Captain Ulrik Svensgaard, “The Ripple and the Wave”

All water is identical, but not all water is created equal. This is an important feature of large bodies of water, where depending on what depth you are at, you encounter different temperatures. Ever so slightly counterintuitive, water becomes warmer closer to the surface, especially during sunny seasons; cold water is heavier than warm water, and thus trends downwards by virtue of gravity. The result is a heavily stratified body, with the coldest (albeit still unfrozen) water at the bottom, the warmest at the top, and a middling layer in the middle.

The thermocline is a very specific point where heat is exchanged between the warm water above and the colder water below. As with most places where heat is rapidly exchanged between one thing and another, this is a prime spot for energy generation; heat exchange being, in essence, energy in motion. Svensgaard calls it a lifebringer, and Morgan will (in a later chapter) go on to express his enthusiasm about the free energy just sitting there waiting for someone to tap it.

The thermocline is also, as you might imagine, very loud. A submarine hiding on the other side of it will be nigh invisible on sonar, shielded from listening ears by the roaring motion of water. This cuts both ways, as the very same loudness makes it difficult to ascertain where eventual pursuers are. They may or may not be in pursuit, but there is no way to know for sure unless they come down or you come up.

Svansgaard makes reference to this being a military technology now repurposed for civilian application. As readers will probably remember from previous chapters, this is a very common trajectory for technologies to have. As Virilio wrote about at length, these technologies do not completely lose their military origins, but instead contribute to an overall militarization of society, sometimes implied, sometimes overt. What was once used as a strategic feature of submarine warfare now becomes a fixture of civilian power generation. There is, however, nothing preventing these civilian installations to pull double duty as military sensors in search of enemy vessels; seeing as the construction juts out on both sides of the thermocline by design, they are perfectly suited for that specific purpose. Civilian and military applications are never fully disengaged from each other.

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Adaptive economics

Humans : correct in making the leap from wealth as currency to wealth as energy. But logic failure : wealth ultimately is extension of desire, fluctuating with emotions and state of mind. Desires : when all are supported in purely adaptable system, true wealth is achieved.

— Usurper Judaa Marr, “Human : Nature”

The introduction of alien factions in the Alien Crossfire expansion brings with it a host of questions, most of which relate to their modes of social organization. There is, by virtue of them being alien, bound to be quite a few and quite radical differences between how these aliens go about doing things and the more familiar human ways we’ve seen so far. They wouldn’t be alien if they simply conformed to the economic theory of this or that human thinker of centuries past.

This, however, points to an inherent contradiction of science fiction. Science fiction is by necessity written by humans, for humans, from a human point of view. No matter how elaborate, extrapolated or extraordinary the aliens depicted in sci fi writing become, they are still limited in scope to the point of view of a single species on a single planet. When authors seek inspiration for their strange and amazing extraterrestrial entities, this inspiration will by necessity come from somewhere close to home. Alien is as human does.

This is something of a drawback when it comes to empirical correctness and science-based science fiction. It does not, however, invalidate the notion of writing about aliens in the first place. They are not meant to be depictions of actually existing little (or, in the case of the progenitors, quite large) green men, but rather to perturb and upturn our habitual conceptions of what it means to be human. By confronting the Other, we mirror ourselves.

We can see this at play in the quote above. Marr comments on the limitations of human economic thinking, and points out that there is a better, more logical way of going about things. Wealth seen as merely the fulfillment of flimsy and temporary impulses is short-sighted, and tends to lead to the accumulation of ever more useless trinkets as one momentary fad gives way to another; wealth becomes the ability to give in to desire yet one more time, as the mood shifts. Marr’s alternative, then, is to move the ability to satisfy desires from the individual to societal institutions, in such a way that everyone can do it, whilst also contributing to the overall economy. An adaptive economy does not consist of wealthy individuals, but rather of a set of economic institutions which allow for the wealth to be realized where it needs to be, regardless of the size or nature of said need.

It should come as no surprise that Marr has Planned as his preferred societal choice; what has been said so far resonates with the old adage “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need”. Perhaps it is only fitting that Marr’s ambition to become the supreme overmind of the galaxy is built on the backs of well-cared for citizens. Indeed, it might be the only way. If this is how he treats his minions before achieving godhood, the thinking might be, then imagine what manner of wealth he might bestow once the Transcendence is completed. It would, all things considered, be a very human thing to believe.

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Green

As the third and final economic policy option, Green completes the triad begun by Free market and Planned. It is worth noting that the first two options are found in chapter 2, at an earlier stage of colonial evolution. This comes down to two factors. First, both free markets and planned economies have precedents on Earth, and are thus readily available for local adaptations as soon as the infrastructure is in place. Second, while there are ecological schools of thought available to us at present, they are (by virtue of our being on planet Earth) not developed with a radically alien ecology in mind. For an economic system to be green, it has to be based on a firm understanding on the ecology it finds itself in. This understanding only manifested itself after the attainment of Centauri empathy. It is, as a popular cultural icon once noted, not easy being green.

As with the other social choices, Green does not represent a single fixed ideology, but has to be read in conjunction with the other choices made. The differences between a green fundamentalist faction (the Cultists spring to mind) and a green police state are not subtle, and neither can be confused with the economically optimized (an Efficiency rating of +4 is not to be trifled with) combination of a green democracy. The stark differences aside, what unites them all is an informed decision to make every effort possible to not disturb the local ecology more than absolutely necessary.

The commitment to not cause ecological damage is, at its core, a scientific endeavor. Although motivated by ideology, it takes quite a bit of empirical observation to determine whether one action or another has actually made an impact or not. Ecological cycles are slow, complex and encompass vast ranges of territory, meaning that a local mindset simply will not do. Monitoring the ecology requires extensive infrastructure of sensors, monitoring stations, and institutions to go through all the collected data. Said data then has to be used when making decisions as to what to build, where, at what scale and (in ecological terms) at what cost. This data-driven economy is a very different beast indeed compared to a profit-driven alternative.

The benefits of this mode of economic governance are obvious. Once the data is collected and assimilated, making good decisions becomes second nature (or, at least, not making atrociously bad decisions). It does, however, take quite a while to get into the mindset (individual and collective) that enables this mode of social organization to come into being. A person is not born as an environmental analyst, but is made into one. The individual and social learning curve involved with implementing a green economy is steep, and thus there is an inherent risk of developing into a technocratic mode of governance where only those steeped in the intricacies of ecological processes are able to form useful and actionable opinions on further economic development. Being ecologically sensitive does not preclude the potential to perpetuate a class society; indeed, it is arguably better at it than the alternatives.

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The Empath Guild

Symbols are the key to telepathy. The mind wraps its secrets in symbols; when we discover the symbols that shape our enemy’s thought, we can penetrate the vault of his mind.

— Lady Deirdre Skye, “Our Secret War”

With the advent of Centauri empathy, it follows that there will be specialists focusing on this specific area of inquiry. Modern societies rely on an ever fine grained division of labor, and it is only natural that communing with the ecology in general and Planet in particular becomes another field of expertise. While everyone is affected by technological changes, only those involved with developing or applying it will see the nitty gritty details of the process. The rest will see the results of said process, but will mostly be too preoccupied with their own specialization to pay any further heed than that.

The quote suggests that the new emotional maturity attained through researching the prerequisite technology is weaponized against other factions. By means of semiotics – the study of signs and symbols – the secret of mind reading will finally be unlocked. Backed up by the Secrets of the human brain, this might be more literal than a first glance would suggest. The image of supercharged 20th century media studies scholars running roughshod over the unwitting minds of 23rd century colonists is too good to pass up.

Empathetic readers might detect a slight case of scepticism on my part as to the feasibility of this approach. This is partly due to my background in media studies, where semiotics used to be the big thing but (with apologies to Barthes) has been demoted to the status of a commonly known trope, and is mostly taught as a means to give historical context to the development of the discipline. More importantly, it is due to the dissonance between the implications of the parent technology and the explications of this secret project. It makes sense for it to allow the creation of a guild of especially adept diplomats, able to broker deals and facilitate beneficial developments through strategic application of understanding and empathy (with all the advantages that comes from being a first mover). It does not, however, make sense to posit said guild as a pointed intelligence force masterminding its way into the semiotic secret vaults of one’s enemies. It is an ambition that is too emotionally small for the level of maturity it presupposes.

One might object to this by pointing out that I’ve somehow gotten stuck on the image of warrior media studies scholars. Which would be true. But I maintain – channeling the spirit of Barthes – that the author is wrong. Empathy is not an adversarial unlocking of secrets; it is about placing things in such an explanatory context that the whole notion of secrets becomes orthogonal to the equation. The implications of just what Centauri Empathy entails are not drawn far enough, leaving us with a non-specialist application of a specialist competence. Which, to be fair, is what science fiction is all about (for everyone who is not literally Asimov).

There is a slightly different possible reading of this, and that is that what is connoted is not semiotics, but discourse analysis. Which, for all intents and purposes, is a slightly more evolved supercharged 20th century media studies scholar running roughshod over the unwitting minds of 23th century colonists. This image, too, is also too good to pass up.

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Biology lab

Although Planet’s native life is based, like Earth’s, on right-handed DNA, and codes for all the same amino acids, the inevitable chemical and structural differences from a billion years of evolution in an alien environment render the native plant life highly poisonous to humans. Juicy, ripe grenade fruits may look appealing, but a mouthful of organonitrates will certainly change your mind in a hurry.

— Lady Deirdre Skye, “A Comparative Biology of Planet”

This quote raises and answers questions in equal measure. By revealing that life on Earth and Chiron are based on the same overall organizing principle, in the form of DNA, it answers the question of how the native flora and fauna can be analyzed and understood by the colonists. Reading a book becomes easier if you already know the alphabet, as it were. This revelation raises the question of why this shared organizing principle can be found on two different planets that – as far as we know – have never had any contact with each other. Convergent evolution – the independent development of similar features in species that are not related to each other – is a known phenomenon on Earth. Here, it mostly comes down to both species being under similar evolutionary pressure. The same pressure can not be said to exist on an interplanetary basis. Either some higher order organizing principle is at work, which affects a great number of planets, or there were some undocumented contact in the ancestral past. In either case, questions and eyebrows alike are raised.

For the colonists, having just begun to come to terms with the whole Centaury empathy way of thinking, these questions necessitate the construction of specialized research facilities designed to figure these things out, as scientifically as possible. Being able to read the DNA of the locals gives a way to understand how and why they do what they do, and paves the way (with Genetic splicing) for future advances to come. It also – for gameplay purposes – allows for the construction of stronger mind worms, and the rapid healing of already existing ones.

Being able to domesticate and breed mind worms is, to those not yet attuned to the ways of Planet, a terrifying prospect. In gameplay terms, it allows the Gaians to win a conquest victory at blazing speeds, by feat of mind worm alone. In slightly more speculative terms, we can imagine someone attacking a Gaian base with conventional weapons, thinking themselves to be making victorious inroads, only to find themselves suddenly and inexplicably flanked by mind worms. Imagine the surprise at discovering that not only are there psionically shrieking aliens at play, but also that they seem to be allied to the enemy somehow. The first time is bound to be a slaughter; the promise of a second time a deterrence.

This raises the question of just who the people who work in these biology labs are. How do you train to become a mind worm breeder? What equipment is used to facilitate the biological research taking place? How long can a person commune with the worms before becoming detached from baseline human sensitivities? How does it feel to unleash them in battle?

The biology lab asks and answers a great many questions. Some of them more comfortably science and/or fiction than others.

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Centuari empathy

Observe the Razorbeak as it tends so carefully to the fungal blooms; just the right bit from the yellow, then a swatch from the pink. Follow the Glow Mites as they gather and organize the fallen spores. What higher order guides their work? Mark my words: someone or something is managing the ecology of this planet.

— Lady Deirdre Skye, “Planet Dreams”

Living on a planet that is verging on becoming conscious is, in a word, weird. Not only do you have to contend with everything that goes with being on a brand new planet that works in mysterious ways – these very same ways are bound to become even more mysterious as the sentience of Planet grows. Ecological systems are complex even at the simplest of times, and adding will and intent to the mix does nothing to reduce said complexity. Indeed, the increased complexity is more than likely a manifestation of the increased sentience, the figurative and/or literal neural pathways growing into shape. In short, it is time to let go of the ecological intuitions of Earth.

Humans, being both emotional and pattern seeking animals, tend to imbue inanimate objects with feelings and sentiments. This is due to our highly developed sense of empathy and social sensitivity – millions of years of social interaction have honed these senses into finely tuned tools. When confronting a new object, our first instinct is to seek out its emotional implications. Both to understand the reaction in ourselves, and the reaction in our peers; the latter arguably more important to our everyday dealings than the former.

Extending this sense of empathy to an ecosystem is not an easy thing to do. As we have seen over the course of this chapter, these research projects do not represent easy accomplishments that happened as side-effects of doing something else. Each and every one of them took conscious efforts to achieve, and so it stands to reason that this project, too, is an important step for the factions to have undertaken during the course of settling in. For the Gaians and the Cultists (and, indeed, the Caretakers), the process is more intuitive than for other factions. For the Morgans, in particular, this whole empathy business is a sideways thing to pursue. However, somehow, at some point, they too managed to get a feel for Planet.

Knowing others to know yourself is a tale as old as time. On Chiron, it is not just a recognition of the inescapable situatedness of human beings in a social context not entirely of their own choosing; it is a recognition that the shape of the future might very well come down to how well humanity comes to grip emotionally with the fact that Planet is alive, feeling, and kicking out mindworms towards those insensitive to these feelings. Centauri empathy is not just a scientific advance in ecological sensitivity; it is a necessary step in humanity growing up.

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The citizen’s defense force

As the writhing, teeming mass of Mind Worms swarmed over the outer perimeter, we saw the defenders recoil in horror. “Stay calm! Use your flame guns!” shouted the commander, but to no avail. It is well known that the Mind Worm Boil uses psychic terror to paralyze its prey, and then carefully implants ravenous larvae in the brains of its still-conscious victims. Even with the best weapons, only the most disciplined troops can resist this horrific attack.

— Lady Deirdre Skye, “Our Secret War”

It is interesting that this wonder requires Intellectual integrity specifically, and not one of the other, more militaristic technologies. It would make sense for it to require, for instance, Doctrine: Loyalty: a population so devoted to the ideological cause that they would join in the base defense at great risk to their own lives. Neural grafting or Advanced military algorithms would also be good candidates – the words “chipping in” would take on a slightly more literal connotation. However, these contrafactuals are not the case, and we are left to face the conundrum of why Intellectual integrity in particular is the required technology.

As we saw in the previous post, the overall aim of said technology was the removal of error and doubt. Not by force, coercion or habit, but by Habermasian reason and the unforced force of the better argument. With a sufficiently stringent application of facts and logic, rallying for the cause of one’s own faction becomes not a duty, obligation or even a paid mercenary gig, but a philosophically borne out necessity. When all is said and done, when all the cards are put on the table, when all facts have been taken into account – it is simply the correct thing to do.

The fact that this is a secret project at all, rather than something every faction gets by default (as implemented in later civ games, such as VI, where every city gets a ranged attack after researching a certain tech) implies that there is something more going on than mere Hegelian patriotism. If the state is the embodiment of the spirit of history, as Hegel put it, then it should apply equally to all factions. The specificity and particularity of universal truth is an unsolved and unsolvable contradiction – if truth is universal, then why am I the only one to see it? Writ large: if truth is universal, then how come other factions arrive at different conclusions?

To be sure, the environmental constraints outline by Deidre in the quote above suggests that anything less than total conviction and dedication to the cause results in instant and painful death at the metaphorical hands of the mind words. Being under attack puts a certain urgency to the question of who is right and who is wrong. In the case of mind worms, the stakes are life and death. In the case of other factions, it becomes slightly murkier. Especially if a creeping doubt seeps in and suggests that the other faction might have been right all along, and that defending against them is – for reasons that can be laid out and scrutinized by the faculties of the mind – objectively wrong. As Sinder Roze implied, you need not destroy your enemy, merely win them over.

The Citizen’s defense force, thus, is less of a military endeavor than a philosophical one. However, on Chiron, these two aspects of the human condition are so intertwined as to be inseparable. Truly, the time of Plato’s guardian class has come.

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Intellectual integrity

Man’s unfailing capacity to believe what he prefers to be true rather than what the evidence shows to be likely and possible has always astounded me. We long for a caring Universe which will save us from our childish mistakes, and in the face of mountains of evidence to the contrary we will pin all our hopes on the slimmest of doubts. God has not been proven not to exist, therefore he must exist.

— Academician Prokhor Zakharov, “For I Have Tasted The Fruit”

When arriving on Chiron, everything that made colonial society go was brought from Earth. This is true in a material sense – all the generators, oxygen plants, tools and other necessities of life were Earth-made – but also in an ideological sense. The first years of habitation consisted of Earthers trying to make their way on an alien world using earthen tools and mindsets. As time went by and the number of Chiron-born began to outpace the rapidly aging ancients, however, this changed by necessity. In a thousand subtle and not so subtle ways, the old modes of thinking began to show their cracks and flaws, all the ways they were meant to explain and justify the order of things on another planet. In short, a time of reckoning was fast approaching.

The quest for intellectual integrity is both a philosophical and an ideological endeavor. In philosophical terms, it is an attempt to find a solid and rigorous basis for future modes of thinking, free of implicit biases carried over from the history of past generations. To clear out the abstract intellectual deadwood, as it were. In ideological terms, this seemingly dry and remote pursuit is a confrontation with the very concrete fact that we are not those people any more, and have to come to grips with the reality of the here and now before it comes to grips with us. Those born on Chiron are not bound by Earth traditions by mere force of continuity and habit – these has to be better reasons for holding on to the past than that. The future is now.

In a sense, what this amounts to is a faction-wide attempt to build its own ancient traditions. By necessity, this takes different forms in different factions. The Peacekeepers have to come to terms with the fact that it can not operate as if they were an organization meant to facilitate dialogue between some 200-odd countries on a socially overdetermined planet; in lieu of the old-style UN, something new is required. Likewise, the University has to untangle the Humboldtian ideal from the actually existing institutions carried over from Earth, and their innumerable ties to defunct powers that be. Pointedly, the Believers have to let go of thousands of years of religious turmoil in order to come up with one final, robust true faith. Zakharov’s jab that there ate mountains of evidence to overcome is not merely theological, but encompasses everything worth thinking about. Some ideas will be cast aside during the process of overcoming, but the end result is not nihilism; the end result is a more refined, robust version of the factions as they really are or want to be. The end product of intellectual integrity is, paradoxically, ideological purity.

This is a worrying prospect from the point of view of ecumenical dialogue and the cosmopolitan exchange of ideas. Especially if we take into account that this is a technology that can be fully mastered and implemented in-game. The implication being that this is something that can be done away with once and for all, taken off the agenda and relegated to the past. We fought the past, overcame it and began thinking true and proper thoughts – and have philosophically unassailable reasons for proclaiming it to be so. When all sources of error are removed, only correct thought remains. Which raises an ever relevant question: what does being objectively right mean for those who, eyes open, insist on being wrong?

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Wealth

This is the first societal value available to the player. A societal value, in this context, represents a commitment to put one form of pursuit above all others, and to make everything else a subset of attaining this chosen goal. Wealth, thus, means a society geared towards the increased production of commodities and profitable endeavors at the expense (pun intended) of other possible aims. If we were to reduce it to a slogan, it would unironically be “profits before people”.

As with so many other societal options in this game, the most interesting aspects are revealed when we consider the potential intersections with other choices. Wealth could, for instance, be picked in conjunction with Free market, which gives us the full monty of neoclassical economics (especially if the faction also went with Fundamentalist). It could also, however, be picked in combination with a Planned or Green outlook, which gives us a radically different definition of wealth. The wealthy free marketeer is not the same as the wealthy environmentalist, who both differ from the ever so slightly oxymoronic wealthy communist (or socialist, depending on just how planned we interpret the Planned economy to be).

Common to all combinations is the massive penalty to Morale that follows from favoring material wealth over all other social values. While the material gains are substantial – more energy, more production – there is something narrow-minded about reducing the scope of societal activity to the accumulation of mere things. To be sure, the increased production solves a lot of problems – one of which just might be the immediate challenge of survival – but it is a depressing thought that the entirety of the human enterprise is to be measured in dry, boring, phenomenologically meaningless numbers that only make sense if you accept the premise that these are the only numbers that matter. More is not always more.

Here, we must not make the mistake of thinking that not choosing Wealth actively means pursuing poverty (for factions that are not the Cultists, at least). All civilized societies seek to ensure a decent standard of living for its citizens. The difference lies in whether seeking to maximize said standard is the express focus of the society as a whole, or if it is something to be performed whilst pursuing something else. What Wealth proposes is to make a virtue out of necessity and go all in on making sure that the fundamental economic functions of society operate to their fullest extent, at the expense of other virtues.

In this, the game presents us with a stark choice. Of all the possible values and virtues a society could opt for, the player is given only three options: wealth, power or knowledge. It is an open question whether this is a limitation of the game engine, or if this is a choice that faces all societies, whether they are up to the philosophical challenge of realizing it or not.

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