Loren Pechtel wrote:ThinksMarkedly wrote:
I guess your parentheses are the whole crux of the problem: identifying. Lucius hid his true self very well, probably with help from his family. All of his escapades during the ART operations were unknown to the public at large. Raibert revealed them during the Alexandria Exhibit, but that still failed to bring him down. He was probably not much more a degenerate than others: remember, with virtual reality readily accessible, one can probably experience anything one wishes. So experiencing in the past versus a virtual reality as distinction without a difference.
But I guess there are limits. People who like to experience inflicting pain or murdering others probably raise red flags. So Lucius should have been flagged... but wasn't. My guess is SysGov is big on rehabilitating people.
After the ART went down, he seemed to reinvent himself for the better. Remember he helped almost all of the researchers who wanted out of ART to find jobs elsewhere. And he was dedicating to the Mercury Historical Preservation Society. In either case, we don't know why he did it or what ulterior motives he had, if any.
So when did he decide on his plan?
My guess is that it wasn't until very late, until he had the means. That would be when the equations showed that he could create the hyperforge that he had the means to destroy universes while escaping from one. Until then, he was probably just your regular psycho.
Did you notice how the Dynasty didn't have a lot of ACs? Teodorà says it was because Belisarius and Justinian and their wives decided not abstract and that may be partly true. My guess is that Lucius was also behind it, subtly manipulating messaging and public opinion all along, to limit anyone who could compete with him.
I'm not saying they should have detected his evil plans--of course they can't. What I'm saying is they should have detected that he was a sociopath and not allowed him anywhere near dangerous tech. He never should have been in ART in the first place!
Consider all the checks we have for dealing with nuclear weapons. I would expect at least that level of checks around tech that makes nukes look like a firecracker.
That's the checks we have. Other places differ. Once upon a time, I had direct contact with the Soviet regulation on this issue, namely an MRBM launch officer at that time in the United States. On one hand, for the three dozen warheads he would have been able to launch, he could rattle off which Chinese cities
he would be privileged to destroy. On the other hand, it was known to Soviet authorities that he was seriously not right in the head, and they viewed this as a positive feature. At the time, I brought this to the attention of appropriate people in our military. Now sure what they actually did about it.
