The End, and After

[Mr. President]

Is it just my imagination, or is the ending for when someone else Transcends much better than the one for when you Transcend? I mean, you get to go home to Earth. What more could you want? Diplomatic Victory is good, too; the gigantic spaceship, the former hated enemies kissing your boots, probably Clintonesque parties too (although I'm sure they couldn't put those in the game).

I just don't like Transcendence. The idea of merging all of humanity with some planetary consciousness (in a very hokey way, too) just never appealed to me. Even the alien Transcendence ending is almost better. It just doesn't sit with my gut feelings as to how humans would react to Planetmind. I certainly would never trust it. Any opinions?

[RobN]

Surely some factions would be dead against Transcendence. I see the Spartans as rugged individualists. I don`t think they would relish any kind of collectivization.

[Cybergod]

I may sound daft by saying this but...

I believe that trascending and joining everyone living into one is the ultimate good for all humanity.

::tune for "We Come One" by Faithless should come in here ::

I am more of a spiritualistic than material peson so this will most definetly bias my post.

Anyway, why not? This means that all the hatred all the emotional and mental suffering will be ultimately eliminated because of the psychic mutual understanding. This does not mean however that everyone loses their individuality. That would be horrible . It means that humans everywhere will live together merged in one massive telepathic link and would share it with Planet itself. This also means no more disturbing mindworm attacks and sheer harmony. Also, for all of you materialists ( ), who knows what kinds of pleasures, knowledge and strange psychic powers you might get access to.

RobN, if you read the second interlude that happens when you transcend, you do actually choose another entity of yourself and travel to Earth (I think) where a nano-tech civilisation is thriving.



Sorry to bore anyone with my Mother Teresa talk, but there you go - my though for the thread!

[Dictatress]

Personally, I'm against Transcendence. The whole idea of merging your people's minds is a horrible communist nightmare to me. Perfect harmony seems like a nightmare also. In perfect harmony, achievements would seem relatively easy. And if an achievement overcame no obstacles, it appears worthless. Loss of conflict and hardships could easily mean loss of purpose.

Ok, perhaps I don't understand Transcendence. But still, anything that would destroy the current social structure of my faction appears repulsive.

[Avenoct]

While I like the idea of Transcendence in terms of science fiction, imagining it as a real possibility is nightmarish. The ego's essential aloneness in the universe is pretty hard to consider giving up. Heck, the whole attraction of Smac is that there are many individual units, factions, approaches. Even a discussion such as this couldn't happen in a collective mind. Personally, Transcendence would have to be foisted on me or come about slowly by Planetmind's dreams slowly inculcating me with a bridge across the river 'Schizophrenia'.

-Smack

[Vytae]

I would nver go for Transcendance,id fight untill the worms burst into my skull. Im far to much a individualist. If we were all the same thing,we wouldnt be ourselves,wed be a bunch of ants on two legs.

[Drago Sinio]

As the Zen Monk said to the hot dog vendor, make me one with everything.

[Mr. President]

I guess it's not just me after all.

[Bob Morane]

Well, i didn't liked Transcedence too, and always prefered another way of victory. However, i think i'm getting used to it, as it no longer gives me the creep when i think of it. However, i still usually prefer the other victories, and keep transcendance for when i cannot win another way (or i'm tired of hunting down those late ennemy bases).
But, you could easily change the interludes texts, in order for transcandence to better fit your personal ideas.

[Cybergod]

Oh well, it seems that I am the only new age loony here . Suit yourselves you ruthless Yangs! COntiue worshipping the atom until your day comes and there will be nothing more left of you than a wiff of ash in the wind...


Buahahaha!!!

[Fitz]

You're not the only one.

I think the problem is that you all see transcendance as a merging of the many into one being. But that doesn't have to be the way it works (and the Transcendance blurb implies it isn't). The overmind is constructed of the individuals. It doesn't work like the cells of your body, which have no independant existance.

Think of it like being able to access the web mentally. Most of the time, you exist as you. But when the need comes, you can communicate with others and/or track down info someone else has at the speed of thought. You could even divide your mind into the public access areas and the private areas, which could only be accessed with your permission or by transferring info from the private to the public.

Of course, having access to such knowledge, and being able to communicate with others and know the public portions of their personality/being easily and quickly would certainly change you. I know I wouldn't be quite the same person, but then again, any experience changes you somewhat.

[Cybergod]

*sigh of relief for not being alone *

Think of Transcendence like this:

Planet = The internet
You and every other individual = Independent servers or websites (?)




You think = "Huh?"

[Avenoct]

I do like the way you put it Fitz. Maybe it's the strangeness of not having a body. Did you ever see the movie The Abyss? I think that's the one...I get the two deep sea, hollywood, sci-fi ones mixed up. Anyways, at one point the main character has to plunge 2 miles into the sea in just a special wet suit. In order for his breathing to be ok, they use a liquid breathing system, filling his head gear with an oxygen rich liquid. Then he plummets 2 miles down......where he meets an alien race.

This is similar to trancendence in 3 ways:

Return to the womb (breathing a liquid): I think transcendence is something we all fundamentally understand in a (abusing the word yet again) spiritual sense. To be 'One with God'. In a way, our separateness is an illusion that we are habituated to, not required to follow. Standard religion stuff. But the thing is, the ultimate giving up, the journey to the abyss and certain death (of the ego), is unpleasant at best.

The alien race: This is God in the above example. And, in a way, it's God in Smac.

It's fantasy, in the cultural mind, but reality in the spiritual mind.

Ok, getting too deep here.

-Smack