Being Gbaba

What if the Gbaba were invaded by another space going race and the other race lost. the Gbaba could have been able to duplicate the technology the other race, but due to no understanding of the theories involved in developing that technology they cannot advance it. It would be the same thing that Langhorn set up on safehold with a stagnant technology.

cralkhi wrote:

gcomeau wrote:And if it was culturally imposed at a later date artificially after they'd reached their current level there's just no way it gets maintained over thousands of years without breaking down since there's constantly going to be at least some drive within the species to think of new things.

Unless they removed innovation and independent thought via genetic engineering...

Yeah... but how do you do that without basically lobotomizing the species?

And if they'd been lobotomized then who was fighting their ships? Pretty much leaves "controlled by rogue AI's or other force" as the only option still no matter how you look at it.

The Terran Federation could have known what they looked like but David Weber didn't think it important to tell us what they looked like.

Aethor wrote:I always wondered, how can you capture six entire star systems and still not know what the enemy looks like?

I do think that for the majority of Gbaba, their thinking has been limited but it is very possible that they have "Controllers" (either AIs or Gbaba) who can "deal with the unexpected".

gcomeau wrote:

Yeah... but how do you do that without basically lobotomizing the species?

And if they'd been lobotomized then who was fighting their ships? Pretty much leaves "controlled by rogue AI's or other force" as the only option still no matter how you look at it.

I'll throw out a theory I don't think I've heard here before. What if the Gbaba are not technically intelligent?

Suppose they are like certain ant colonies which will automatically react to perceived invasions of their territory. It is just a reflexive action. There seems to be a lot of similarity to the Gbaba.

The question of how such a non-intelligent species gained spaceflight is a bit of a problem, of course. Perhaps they are just intelligent enough that they were able to use technology that fell into their hands--perhaps when their planet was colonized by another species (who were then wiped out by the Gbaba reflex action). Or perhaps they were created by another species which is now gone. That makes it somewhat similar to the rogue AI concept.

Another possibility is that currently living Gbaba no longer understand their advanced but automated technology. The tech can repair itself and continue to make stuff to existing designs, but the users are all dumb now.

There could be certain similarities with the Aldenata from John Ringo's books. IIRC, the Posleen apparently were originally servants to the Aldenata and overthrew or exterminated them and gained admin-level access to the tech base but dont really understand it.

SWM wrote:I'll throw out a theory I don't think I've heard here before. What if the Gbaba are not technically intelligent?

Suppose they are like certain ant colonies which will automatically react to perceived invasions of their territory. It is just a reflexive action. There seems to be a lot of similarity to the Gbaba.

The question of how such a non-intelligent species gained spaceflight is a bit of a problem, of course. Perhaps they are just intelligent enough that they were able to use technology that fell into their hands--perhaps when their planet was colonized by another species (who were then wiped out by the Gbaba reflex action). Or perhaps they were created by another species which is now gone. That makes it somewhat similar to the rogue AI concept.

That reminds me - the Bugs of the Starfire universe. Or the mentioned, but unseen Rigellians(?IIRC?).


I think I kinda like the 'created to serve another race' idea.

Kytheros wrote:

SWM wrote:I'll throw out a theory I don't think I've heard here before. What if the Gbaba are not technically intelligent?

Suppose they are like certain ant colonies which will automatically react to perceived invasions of their territory. It is just a reflexive action. There seems to be a lot of similarity to the Gbaba.

The question of how such a non-intelligent species gained spaceflight is a bit of a problem, of course. Perhaps they are just intelligent enough that they were able to use technology that fell into their hands--perhaps when their planet was colonized by another species (who were then wiped out by the Gbaba reflex action). Or perhaps they were created by another species which is now gone. That makes it somewhat similar to the rogue AI concept.

That reminds me - the Bugs of the Starfire universe. Or the mentioned, but unseen Rigellians(?IIRC?).


I think I kinda like the 'created to serve another race' idea.

I was thinking of the Arachnids too.. The Rigellians don't really fit because although by human standards insane, they did communicate prior to launching hostilities. But IIRC, there never was any with the Bugs of any kind except missiles, etc. The Gbaba also refused to communicate, but gave evidence of understanding English by interogating their prisoners which implies some overlap with humanity.

Don

I figure they are just an alternative version of the Krikkit nice universe its got to go philosophy. Although on the face of it, Merlin lacks the outlook of Marvin, and this may lead to a problematic outcome.

McGuiness wrote:Since nobody has included a link to this spoof written by RFC that encompasses many of the theories and books referred to in this thread, here's the link to "How the Safehold Series Won't End" by the Mad Wizard Weber himself: http://www.davidweber.net/essays

Thank you so much for this, I hadn't seen this before, and it cracked me up! What's more, given he is saying it was inspired by Heinlein, and I'm guessing he meant his World as Myth concept. and it would actually have worked if he had wanted to use it, which made it even better for me as an old Heinlein fan.

I really needed that level of laugh tonight, so its timing was even that much better, so thanks again!