A Second Wing Commander Movie?
- Thread starter WildWeasel
- Start date
Johann Cooper
Spaceman
Maybe they were just geared for war from since they were born, just like robotech
Quarto
Unknown Enemy
Maturing quickly would be a wonderful trait for a hostile environment, LOAF, but unfortunately it would also make any development of a civilisation an outright impossibility. The kids would consume so much (growing adolescents eat quite a bit... imagine how much someone growing at a rate some ten-twenty times faster would consume) that the entire clan would spend most of the day hunting and gathering just to keep the useless little brats alive. Thus, in order to have enough time for other things (weapon making, and other vital skills without which civilisation doesn't develop), they would limit the number of kids to a bare minimum. Ergo, the population wouldn't grow - and without population growth, there's no possibility of civilisational development, because there's nobody who could spend the whole day sitting on his ass thinking of what to do with his stone tools, those seeds and that empty plot of land. This in turn means that food production doesn't suddenly increase in leaps and bounds, and therefore the population can't grow. It's a nasty little closed circle.
A similar closed circle has occured on our planet, in Australia. The Australian Aborigines have absolutely astounding arts and rituals, but they have no technology beyond boomerangs and spear throwers. The terrain they live in (well, most of them, since of course Australia is a vastly varied environment) is rather harsh, and they can't afford to have more children - so the population doesn't grow, and... well, I'm starting to repeat myself, but you get the drift. It's no coincidence that the densest populations in Australia were in places (the Murray River and Western Victoria) where the environment was... lenient... enough for them to be able to get food surpluses and spend the rest of the day thinking up better ways to get more food surpluses.
On Kilrah, of course, it wouldn't matter how lenient the environment was. Even if they lived in Paradise, these 'accelerated growth cubs' would consume about as much as ten, maybe fifteen adults. So, you'd need ten to fifteen adults working at twice their usual pace just to keep one cub alive. Who's gonna bother?
Wow... would you look at that. I really need to cut down on how much I write
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A similar closed circle has occured on our planet, in Australia. The Australian Aborigines have absolutely astounding arts and rituals, but they have no technology beyond boomerangs and spear throwers. The terrain they live in (well, most of them, since of course Australia is a vastly varied environment) is rather harsh, and they can't afford to have more children - so the population doesn't grow, and... well, I'm starting to repeat myself, but you get the drift. It's no coincidence that the densest populations in Australia were in places (the Murray River and Western Victoria) where the environment was... lenient... enough for them to be able to get food surpluses and spend the rest of the day thinking up better ways to get more food surpluses.
On Kilrah, of course, it wouldn't matter how lenient the environment was. Even if they lived in Paradise, these 'accelerated growth cubs' would consume about as much as ten, maybe fifteen adults. So, you'd need ten to fifteen adults working at twice their usual pace just to keep one cub alive. Who's gonna bother?
Wow... would you look at that. I really need to cut down on how much I write
.You don't need to be mature to be smart, or just really good at a specific skill. Kids learn really fast, and they've got good imaginations. It's just that most kids don't do that kind of stuff because their parents do everything for them and there's no need.
Like those two twelve year olds in Burma that like run a guerilla team. Not the same as being an admiral but I'm sure you could teach a thirteen year old to do stuff like that.
Like those two twelve year olds in Burma that like run a guerilla team. Not the same as being an admiral but I'm sure you could teach a thirteen year old to do stuff like that.
Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
But you're *describing* the Kilrathi, Quarto!
The Kilrathi are nowhere near as capable of developing technology as we are -- they had six million more years of evolution than we did, and they still didn't even manage atomic weapons. Everything from that point on was given to them by (and later taken from) other advanced civilizations.
Further, doesn't Hobbes' quote that he was taught to use his claws before he could even speak or walk lend credence to this?
The Kilrathi are nowhere near as capable of developing technology as we are -- they had six million more years of evolution than we did, and they still didn't even manage atomic weapons. Everything from that point on was given to them by (and later taken from) other advanced civilizations.
Further, doesn't Hobbes' quote that he was taught to use his claws before he could even speak or walk lend credence to this?
Cricket: From what I know those twins that lead that Burmese splinter group aren't the leaders because of their talents. They're seen as spiritual icons - sort of like the Pope. Good for inspiration and not much else in other words.
Quarto: Just how much do we know about the Kilrathi? If their habitat was so hostile & their nutritional needs so exhaustive then obviously young Kilrathi must've matured rapidly to the point that they could look after themselves. Many species on Earth don't even need their parents beyond procreation & birth (turtles for example) so why not the Kilrathi? As for their nutritional needs - well this is a bit complex. Maybe there are vast herds of bison type creatures for the Kilrathi to feast on. Or maybe the Kilrathi body, comparatively speaking, requires less nutrients then we do, meaning they wouldn't need to consume as much as you're implying. Alternatively maybe their traditional diets are more healthy than ours are leading to less consumption.
Quarto: Just how much do we know about the Kilrathi? If their habitat was so hostile & their nutritional needs so exhaustive then obviously young Kilrathi must've matured rapidly to the point that they could look after themselves. Many species on Earth don't even need their parents beyond procreation & birth (turtles for example) so why not the Kilrathi? As for their nutritional needs - well this is a bit complex. Maybe there are vast herds of bison type creatures for the Kilrathi to feast on. Or maybe the Kilrathi body, comparatively speaking, requires less nutrients then we do, meaning they wouldn't need to consume as much as you're implying. Alternatively maybe their traditional diets are more healthy than ours are leading to less consumption.
The reason humans are so much more mentally developed is because they are helpless and the neural pathways are not fully formed until they are almost 8-10 years old. Animals that don't need parents cannot adapt easily since their neural pathways are already fully formed. Mental Development in human beings is almost totally dependant on the childs first ten years. That is why children found in the wild can never really be rejoined into human culture. Their pathways are already formed (or hardwired) by then and they cannot easily change. It really is true that it is harder to teach an old dog new tricks. The faster the development, the lower the overall mental capacity. This is true for every high level intelligence animal (including humans which are the slowest to develop). The Kilrathi are apparently DNA based (if they had any radically diff genetic makeup they would virtually certainly not look the way they do) and so should follow those rules. They might develop physically fast, but their mental development should be fairly slow. It's just one of nature's tradeoffs. Lots of instinct and not needing any guidance from birth means low intelligence. Almost without instinct and very slow mental development gives high intelligence in the end. But while we have good info on the physcial development of young kilrathi, there is no real info on their mental development. If there is, I'd like to know what it is.