Quote:
Originally Posted by Hans Rancke-Madsen
I agree, up to a point. The ruler of 15 trillion sophonts would naturally get a lot of respect and admiration. (A lot more, indeed, than a Traveller SL of 17, much less a GURPS SL of 8 IMO indicates; IMTU the Emperor is TSL 33/GSL 12). And there'd be a fringe of those 15 trillion sophonts who'd believe him divine. But I don't think such ideas would be supported by the Emperor himself. I just don't see Strephon supporting a Cult of the Emperor, encouraging people to build shrines to him, or being at all pleased with displays of excessive adulation.
OTOH, an ultra-tech society would potentially have the means and resources to educate a lot more people to a level on a par with 20th Century intellectuals a lot more thoroughly than we've achieved in the 20th Century. How much such a society actually did it would, of course, depend on the society. The people on my Capital are far too sophisticated to worship the Emperor.
A lot of them would still KILL for an invitation to one of his parties, naturally.
Hans
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On a par with 20th century perhaps. But they have left the twentieth century far behind.
And yes people on Capital would be far to sophisticated to worship the Emperor and in any case many religions and even many emperors would consider this blasphemous hubris. The point was that I think imagining a large portion of the Imperial population having an outlook more similar to pre-moderns then to ivy-league graduates in the twentieth century is not implausible either. In the eighteenth century by comparison, large portions of the upper classes had an outlook on life that is surprisingly similar to that of urbanized moderns at times; while peasants seem to have a medieval outlook simultaneously.
I certainly don't see Strephon supporting a personal cult as such. I could see it happening. Furthermore there is a lot of space between a Mark Twain-ish cynicism and skepticism, and Emperor worship as such.