Terraforming in the OTU

[Malenfant]

Since the Terraforming in the Solar System thread has devolved into arguing about divergence points from the OTU and people there don't seem interested in getting back on topic, I thought it would be nice to start a new thread about terraforming in the OTU for people who did actually want to talk about it.

so... what's your take on terraforming in the OTU?

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by Malenfant

Since the Terraforming in the Solar System thread has devolved into arguing about divergence points from the OTU and people there don't seem interested in getting back on topic, I thought it would be nice to start a new thread about terraforming in the OTU for people who did actually want to talk about it.

so... what's your take on terraforming in the OTU?

I think it's mostly something that the Ancients did.

Sometimes a wealthy and advanced polity might 'tweak' a world just a wee bit. I'm talking about things like cleaning up toxins in the otherwise breathable air, not radical terraforming.

I have some notes on a low tech ice-age Earthlike world, the gov't of which encouraged rampant consumption of the world's plentiful fossil fuels. This is a 'quick and dirty' way of raising the temeprature by inducing global warming.

With cheap, reliable FTL travel and a lot of Erathlike worlds out there, I don't see much incentive for hideously expensive and very long-term terraforming projects. It may happen in some places, but it's going to be rare.

A STL civilization that developed in isolation might make use of terraforming if some collossal disaster crippled the biosphere of the homeworld. They might be terraforming their homeworld, in fact!

[Malenfant]

(reposted from the other thread) Here's an interesting article that may provide food for thought:

http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/print/1645

"The hubris involved in genetic engineering is several orders of magnitude smaller than that involved in terraforming. At least we’re good at the former, as the variety and quality of our foodstuffs and pharmaceuticals attest. Nor would we be condemning entire worlds or species to destruction. Terraforming is a battering ram, genetic engineering is a scalpel. Which one would you prefer for a delicate, complex operation — whether this is repairing a watch, performing a heart bypass or fine-tuning a new world?"

(the quote in bold also showed up at NASA's recent "100 year starship" study).

This also illustrates some more Ancient craziness - they expended a lot of effort in genetically engineering pre-human stock from Earth to various other planets, and yet they also apparently wasted a lot of time terraforming worlds? And also they didn't do much genetic engineering on themselves apparently (not sure if the introduction of "coyns" really counts, since that's a psionic thing).

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Malenfant

(reposted from the other thread) Here's an interesting article that may provide food for thought:

http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/print/1645

"The hubris involved in genetic engineering is several orders of magnitude smaller than that involved in terraforming. At least we’re good at the former, as the variety and quality of our foodstuffs and pharmaceuticals attest. Nor would we be condemning entire worlds or species to destruction. Terraforming is a battering ram, genetic engineering is a scalpel. Which one would you prefer for a delicate, complex operation — whether this is repairing a watch, performing a heart bypass or fine-tuning a new world?"

(the quote in bold also showed up at NASA's recent "100 year starship" study).

This also illustrates some more Ancient craziness - they expended a lot of effort in genetically engineering pre-human stock from Earth to various other planets, and yet they also apparently wasted a lot of time terraforming worlds? And also they didn't do much genetic engineering on themselves apparently (not sure if the introduction of "coyns" really counts, since that's a psionic thing).

They're Sufficiently Advanced Eldritch Abominations. Who knows how they think?

[combatmedic]

Maybe the Ancients simply intended that humanity would inherit the stars. This would explain why they deliberately spread humans to so many worlds, and why they terraformed some of those worlds.
That seems like the most logical conclusion, although it may not ncessarilly be the correct one.

[Malenfant]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

Maybe the Ancients simply intended that humanity would inherit the stars. This would explain why they deliberately spread humans to so many worlds, and why they terraformed some of those worlds.
That seems like the most logical conclusion, although it may not ncessarilly be the correct one.

Well, supposedly they tried using humans as helpers/pets. Though you have cases like Vland, which wasn't particularly conducive to human life at all... so instead of genetically engineering their humans they just kinda left them to their own devices (despite genetically engineering other humans).

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by Malenfant

Well, supposedly they tried using humans as helpers/pets. Though you have cases like Vland, which wasn't particularly conducive to human life at all... so instead of genetically engineering their humans they just kinda left them to their own devices (despite genetically engineering other humans).

This was done to ensure that the Vilani had to struggle a little harder, for their own good.

:0

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

This was done to ensure that the Vilani had to struggle a little harder, for their own good.

:0

The Ancients chose Vland to train the Vilani?

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

The Ancients chose Vland to train the Vilani?

Yes, because they knew that one day the Vilani would invent the most awesome beer ever.

They also left Autobots and Decepticons on Vland, mostly just for the lulz.

[Dammann]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

The Ancients chose Vland to train the Vilani?

One cannot go against the will of the Ancients.