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Old 04-27-2012, 11:00 PM   #1
Sindri
 
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Default Religious Prohibitions Leading to Safe-tech

I'd like to construct a society which is safe/retro-tech using a method similar to Dune's religious prohibition of certain technologies. In this case bio-tech, advanced computers (past, say, vacuum tubes), and cybernetics. However if possibly I'd like this to evolve or be interpreted out of preexisting commandments rather than being a reaction afterwards as the Butlerian Jihad was. However I'm not sure how to phrase the commandments and what theological bases they should come from.
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Old 04-27-2012, 11:14 PM   #2
Nemi3e
 
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Default Re: Religious Prohibitions Leading to Safe-tech

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Originally Posted by Sindri View Post
I'd like to construct a society which is safe/retro-tech using a method similar to Dune's religious prohibition of certain technologies. In this case bio-tech, advanced computers (past, say, vacuum tubes), and cybernetics. However if possibly I'd like this to evolve or be interpreted out of preexisting commandments rather than being a reaction afterwards as the Butlerian Jihad was. However I'm not sure how to phrase the commandments and what theological bases they should come from.
I once read a book with this concept. It was after the fall of a galactic civilization. Something out there was killing everyone essentially, I think it was a plague? And they didn't know how it was being spread, so they set their planetary defenses to shoot down refugees if they tried to come. Destroyed their own ability to get into space, and made a religion to make sure they'd never get back and bring down death onto themselves.

Such a thing could be why such theological concerns exist, or general luddites? I don't know. As to how to phrase it?

*thinks*

"The realms invisible are the realms of God, and man should not trespass on His Workings."
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Old 04-27-2012, 11:38 PM   #3
Diomedes
 
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Default Re: Religious Prohibitions Leading to Safe-tech

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Originally Posted by Nemi3e View Post
I once read a book with this concept. It was after the fall of a galactic civilization. Something out there was killing everyone essentially, I think it was a plague? And they didn't know how it was being spread, so they set their planetary defenses to shoot down refugees if they tried to come. Destroyed their own ability to get into space, and made a religion to make sure they'd never get back and bring down death onto themselves.
I remember that book. "Heirs of Empire", by David Weber. As I recall, the resulting church's doctrine on technology was fairly complex, allowing things like a trans-continental semaphore network.
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Old 04-27-2012, 11:46 PM   #4
Sindri
 
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Default Re: Religious Prohibitions Leading to Safe-tech

I'll have to check that out. Still it sounds like it was a doctrine developed after such technology was developed. Also spam reported.
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Old 04-28-2012, 12:07 AM   #5
David Johnston2
 
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Default Re: Religious Prohibitions Leading to Safe-tech

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Originally Posted by Sindri View Post
I'd like to construct a society which is safe/retro-tech using a method similar to Dune's religious prohibition of certain technologies. In this case bio-tech, advanced computers (past, say, vacuum tubes), and cybernetics. However if possibly I'd like this to evolve or be interpreted out of preexisting commandments rather than being a reaction afterwards as the Butlerian Jihad was. However I'm not sure how to phrase the commandments and what theological bases they should come from.

I
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nstruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation.

The first part of that document addressed questions related to the moral status of the human embryo. It reasserted the Church’s fundamental conviction that human life begins with the fertilization of the egg by the sperm. From that point forward the embryo should be respected as a person. Accordingly, not only are interventions that result in the destruction of human embryos morally inappropriate, but so too are experiments that impose "grave and disproportionate risks upon embryos obtained in vitro" (in a "test tube").

Concerning cloning itself, the Vatican Instruction is clear in its assessment: "Also, attempts or hypotheses for obtaining a human being without any connection with sexuality through ‘twin fission,’ cloning or parthenogenesis are to be considered contrary to the moral law, since they are in opposition to the dignity both of human procreation and of the conjugal union."
No artificial intelligence, no uplifted animals, no genetic engineering of humans beyond limited therapeutic applications, no attempts to improve on the "image of God" by cyborg enhancements, nothing that qualifies as making people or transcending humanity's physical and mental limitations.
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Old 04-28-2012, 12:20 AM   #6
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Default Re: Religious Prohibitions Leading to Safe-tech

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Originally Posted by David Johnston2 View Post
No artificial intelligence, no uplifted animals, no genetic engineering of humans beyond limited therapeutic applications, no attempts to improve on the "image of God" by cyborg enhancements, nothing that qualifies as making people or transcending humanity's physical and mental limitations.
That actually fits nicely. Without safetech assumptions, AI and cybernetics typically lead to a transhumanist or posthumanist society. The prohibitions against "playing God" ensure that future humans will be basically indistinguishable from modern humans, which is a common conceit of Space Opera.
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Old 04-28-2012, 12:26 AM   #7
Sindri
 
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Default Re: Religious Prohibitions Leading to Safe-tech

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Originally Posted by David Johnston2 View Post
I

No artificial intelligence, no uplifted animals, no genetic engineering of humans beyond limited therapeutic applications, no attempts to improve on the "image of God" by cyborg enhancements, nothing that qualifies as making people or transcending humanity's physical and mental limitations.
Link for any who might be interested in perusing more. http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/co...n-life_en.html

There have been debates on ensoulment for a long time however much of the current beliefs while they have an earlier basis are a response to scientific development. I'm thinking of a much more strongly worded basis developed before anyone knew such things were possible. It also offers nothing to restrict computers without AI. I don't consider modern religious beliefs to be necessarily unsuited for inspiration in this regard but they do need modification, if for no other reason then that the society in question is not Catholics in Spaaaaaaace!

Last edited by Sindri; 04-28-2012 at 01:15 AM.
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Old 04-28-2012, 12:33 AM   #8
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Default Re: Religious Prohibitions Leading to Safe-tech

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I'll have to check that out. Still it sounds like it was a doctrine developed after such technology was developed. Also spam reported.
It can be found for free in legal electronic format here if you're interested.
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Old 04-28-2012, 03:21 AM   #9
BrockNicholson
 
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Default Re: Religious Prohibitions Leading to Safe-tech

You could start with the Islamic and Judaic prohibitions against "graven images" and expand that even further. Have the prohibition cover any sort of mimicry of human or animal forms, and extend it to their mental functions as well. If humans and animals cannot be depicted in any way this effectively makes biotech impossible, and even biology as you cannot record animals to study them and any observations must die with the observer. Limiting the mimicry of the mind stifles computer power to basic data storage and calculation, or completely stymies it if you so desire. Cybernetics wouldn't work without a functional knowledge of biology, and even so, cybernetic limbs are a mimic of existing limbs and are thus anathema.
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Old 04-28-2012, 06:02 AM   #10
vicky_molokh
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Default Re: Religious Prohibitions Leading to Safe-tech

Prohibition against use of symbols by non-humans. A computer uses bits as symbols, so they're out.

A another's soul is a mystery; it is a grave sin to attempt unravelling it. Thus, study and/or practice of Psychology, Brainwashing, Propaganda, Anthropology, Detect Lies, Sociology and Body Language, as well as admitting to rely on Empathy or Intuition to understand others, is persecuted by the Inquisition.
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