Intelligent Beavers and their Fun
Jan. 15th, 2003 05:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldFun discussion on the Futurists list at yahoogroups.com. Rick Robinson wrote, in reply to the relative ease that organized herbivore species could develop civilizations if they become intelligent, about a species of his own imagination:
"They could be described loosely as intelligent beavers. The species evolves in river-floodplain environments, on a planet with lots of them. Hydraulic management of these environments is what pushes them across the line to sentience - in effect they are born civilized, at a more or less Sumerian level. Written record-keeping would be to them what language is to us, "instinctive."
I could imagine the race developing as, so to speak, excellent natural bureaucrats - perhaps without our flashes of personal brilliance, but with a gift for intelligent organization.
Going into space might take a bit longer at first - no [Tsiolkovskis], Goddards, or Oberths - but once they decided on it they would put Apollo to shame. No gimmicks, no one-giant-leap-for-beaverkind; just systematic, well-thought-out development of shuttles, orbital stations, etc.
And, if they wanted one, a well-thought-out galactic empire. :)"
And the inimitable Ben Levy responded:
When they develop Role Playing Games, the "Players' Handbook" will list one hundred and twenty eight skills related to various facets of engineering and construction, and roughly 1/2 the book will be taken up with descriptions of the various tasks. Combat of all sorts will be summed up on one page, and very abstracted. A typical Character sheet will look like this:
Plumbing 4
Carpentry 4 (5 with softwoods)
Excavation 3
Masonry 2
Stucco 2 (+1 Trowel finish Bonus)
Tile laying 1
Combat 1
This is just too good.
"They could be described loosely as intelligent beavers. The species evolves in river-floodplain environments, on a planet with lots of them. Hydraulic management of these environments is what pushes them across the line to sentience - in effect they are born civilized, at a more or less Sumerian level. Written record-keeping would be to them what language is to us, "instinctive."
I could imagine the race developing as, so to speak, excellent natural bureaucrats - perhaps without our flashes of personal brilliance, but with a gift for intelligent organization.
Going into space might take a bit longer at first - no [Tsiolkovskis], Goddards, or Oberths - but once they decided on it they would put Apollo to shame. No gimmicks, no one-giant-leap-for-beaverkind; just systematic, well-thought-out development of shuttles, orbital stations, etc.
And, if they wanted one, a well-thought-out galactic empire. :)"
And the inimitable Ben Levy responded:
When they develop Role Playing Games, the "Players' Handbook" will list one hundred and twenty eight skills related to various facets of engineering and construction, and roughly 1/2 the book will be taken up with descriptions of the various tasks. Combat of all sorts will be summed up on one page, and very abstracted. A typical Character sheet will look like this:
Plumbing 4
Carpentry 4 (5 with softwoods)
Excavation 3
Masonry 2
Stucco 2 (+1 Trowel finish Bonus)
Tile laying 1
Combat 1
This is just too good.
