Inter-team agent friction

[warellis]

Infinity is an organization composed not only of Homeliners, but also of agents recruited from various worldlines.

Worldlines with their own histories, technologies, societies, and so on.

For worldlines where history is similar to ours, like any high-inertia ones, I imagine it's easier to get new agents from them to interact smoothly. Social mores, society, and generally technology are probably close enough that it is familiar.

But, for those who are from more divergent worldlines, how much do you think unfamiliarity with the general technology and society(ies) of Homeline may sometimes hamper inter-agent teamwork?

Heck, societies in the same worldline can have vastly different views and social mores, let alone foreign ones from entirely different histories.

For example, characters from Cyrano, Azoth-7, & Merlin-1, would all be used to divergent, paranormal tech, but their social mores, societies, ideas on technology, and possibly general outlooks would all be quite different.

So this got me wondering how confusing, and plain strange, might some characters regard each other in thought, and outlooks due to entirely different histories.

Has anyone here ever explored that?

[Tinman]

Originally Posted by warellis

Infinity is an organization composed not only of Homeliners, but also of agents recruited from various worldlines.

Worldlines with their own histories, technologies, societies, and so on.

For worldlines where history is similar to ours, like any high-inertia ones, I imagine it's easier to get new agents from them to interact smoothly. Social mores, society, and generally technology are probably close enough that it is familiar.

But, for those who are from more divergent worldlines, how much do you think unfamiliarity with the general technology and society(ies) of Homeline may sometimes hamper inter-agent teamwork?

Heck, societies in the same worldline can have vastly different views and social mores, let alone foreign ones from entirely different histories.

For example, characters from Cyrano, Azoth-7, & Merlin-1, would all be used to divergent, paranormal tech, but their social mores, societies, ideas on technology, and possibly general outlooks would all be quite different.
So this got me wondering how confusing, and plain strange, might some characters regard each other in thought, and outlooks due to entirely different histories.

Has anyone here ever explored that?

Sure, but there must be some basic training & cultural training to join infinity.
Also, if infinity's culture & outlook are so repugnant/alien to the character why would they want to join Infinity?

[warellis]

I just honestly wonder how much little differences in viewpoints, technology assumptions, & societal mindsets and assumptions, may cause some slight frictions or strangeness between missions.

I mean, to use an example, a person from a TL(5+3) worldline and one from a TL8 worldline may find each others' technology weird or may have incorrect ideas on what is and isn't possible with the other's tech.

And then there's possible societal differences.

I just find the idea interesting. To see different cultures in a team having to work together. Exploring relationships and all that.

Team members from various worldlines and societies, due to their differences, not getting caught in that mental trap where everyone on a team just thinks the same way and fall into the same assumptions.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by warellis

I mean, to use an example, a person from a TL(5+3) worldline and one from a TL8 worldline may find each others' technology weird or may have incorrect ideas on what is and isn't possible with the other's tech.

GM: OK, as you're looking up where the bad guy's ritual's going to be, three cultists burst into the net cafe!
TL 5+3 Guy: I know what to do! We'll shoot the computers and escape under a cloud of steam!
TL 8 Guy: I told you these run on electricity, not steam!
TL 5+3 Guy: Oh yeah? What else would that Steam program do?

[Willy]

Hell here in the EU we have trouble getting teams working together is they come from several nations. It´s shocking how easily simple gestures lead to misunderstandings. Even if ALL do their best to ignore it, you have frictions. At least in the beginning, once people get familiar to each other, this vanishes, but every new guy, can open the box of pandora again. All have different cultural traditions, and values, or ways to handle things. Having a standard language and the same TL helps a lot but doesn´t reduce this it completely.

A example may be a simple hand gesture which says in one part of europe come here and in another go away, this small difference kills now and than at the greece / turkish border people, who are mistaken for spys.

In a Infinite world setting Dai for example would have to learn the language, learn reading, to use computers, cars and so on, all while honing his skills as a trouble shooter. This would take years not month until such a team would be ready. It has a reason why spec ops and other jobs where you have to rely on your comrades are trained as a team from early on, often with retraining the whole bunch if a member drops out or is otherwise unavailable for further tasks.

By the way for refugees from far awy and less developped places, getting familiar with the modern world here in europe can take years. They can butcher a goat, plant a garden, know how to cook on a open fire, but neither can read or drive or use a car and so on. Just learning the language to a useful level can take half a year at least, if they are educated in small classes, give their best, are bright, have a good teacher and so on, a lot of ifs, if you ask me. A very rude politican once said integrating a civillian refugee into a modern western society costs around 200K euros and takes years. The people work earlier of course and want to be there, but still even after years there are misunderstandings, which can lead to severe problems.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Willy

By the way for refugees from far away and less developed places, getting familiar with the modern world here in Europe can take years.

The main value of refugees or immigrants from Low Tech or less developed areas comes from their ability as semi-skilled or unskilled labor, particularly as member of trades which don't change much at higher TL (e.g., entertainers, religious leaders, childcare, agricultural workers, artisanal food prep.). They act as "force expanders" to allow better educated natives to perform higher-skilled jobs. For example, an immigrant nanny can provide childcare allowing a parent with an advanced degree to work full-time, or an immigrant nurse's assistant might allow an elderly or ill "knowledge worker" to remain productive rather than retiring.

The "potential value" of young low TL immigrants comes from their ability to bear/sire/ raise children who can be trained to be full members of their adopted society.

There are also "soft" benefits from a robust immigrant community, like improved cultural access to access to unusual languages & skills.

Initially, however, the hassles associated with bringing a TL5- person up to TL8-9 TL & teaching them the relevant Cultural Familiarities & Languages (at Accented/Native) level, limit their ability to fully contribute to a high-tech society.

It is relevant that the lower TL GURPS iconic characters of Dia Blackthorn, Dr. William Headley, Iotha, & Xing La not only have superior attributes & extremely useful TL-independent powers, but also special Infinity Patrol training which allows them to nominally function in TL8+ society.

They represent elite members of their society, rescued by Infinity Patrol & specially selected for relevant "subject matter expertise." Your average Yrth peasant or Lenin-2 factory worker would have a much harder time adapting to Homeline culture & would bring far fewer "value-added" skills to offset the time & trouble of training them.