Songs of the Saiiban- A Poetic AAR

[HistoryDude]

Not all failures are the fault of leaders
Subordinates can fail too
In the end, we are all flawed beings
Regardless of species
Such is the fruit of Eden's demise

(What's Saiiban religion like, by the way?)

 

[Chilango2]

To Discover, To Dream

To Boldly Go,
Explore new worlds
To accept the flow of the
Unknown, Unknowable
To accept

A division of science
Knowing that the division of science
Is to divide by zero, the infinite
an impossibility
a science division
With infinite remainders
Which must be taught

In an Education Polytechnic
Making out of many one,
And out of one, many,
Splitting and combining knowledge
In infinite varieties
Having to trust
That the seemingly random
Will resolve in time into
Quantifiable realities
So you can then put

Faith in Science
Oxymoron and tautology in one
To know that our senses and instruments
Tell us what is really there
But also what we wish to perceive
To know that these limits in us,
Our tools
Are the start of wisdom, not the end
Connecting what we observe and
measure into our

Databanks Uplink
That tree and nest and egg in one
Where knowledge is placed and born and goes to die
Sloshing around like so much
Ooze, promising life
Breaking through from mere chemicals
To nucleotide sequences a

Technological Ascendency
From matter to life
Self replicating, evolving, changing
Flying into winds
Unknown.

 

[Chilango2]

The wise bird will plant trees
with a mind to nests they will never see built.
They should not despair, then,
at having no songs sung of them in times to come.
For one day each young breath will sing in celebration
that, once, they lived at all.

We like to think so
our traditions encourage this
but doubt lingers still
time is infinite

Songs live longer than Empires,
And Empires live longer than men.
Many remain to keep the flame of the dead...

May many then sing
the song of our people
is that an echo?

The shipwreck is a stern portent
and harbours many a morbid event
(We pray the Saiiban never see
such terrible calamity)

Yet for all we know
some poor lost flock yet now sings
on some doomed dead rock

Not all failures are the fault of leaders
Subordinates can fail too
In the end, we are all flawed beings
Regardless of species
Such is the fruit of Eden's demise

We know of the song of Eden's fruit
But believe that to know is no doom
as such we find its lesson moot
And grab what we can by the plume

(What's Saiiban religion like, by the way?)

It's an interesting question. Mechanically, they are fanatic materialists, so some might be tempted to say "None", but I don't necessarily hold to that view.
I mean, it's likely that Saiiban culture has an unusually high number of atheists compared to say, humans, but religion is as much a social structure as a system of belief, and its interwoven with culture. As such, I believe that there are active and meaningful religious traditions within the Saiiban culture.

I tend to imagine that the average Saiiban is ambivalent about the idea of an afterlife, but strongly believes, similar to Jewish traditions, that what matters is their actions and deeds in the life they have. There is also an emphasis on communalism in the Saiiban culture that tends to emphasize the rights of the group as a whole rather than the rights of the individual: i.e a belief in the overall good of the flock vs the good of any one specific bird. Although, like any group of individual sapients, I imagine you'll find infinite varieties of personalities and attitudes.

In the poem you replied to, I was described an imagined religious/cultural tradition where a dead Saiiban was buried along with a seed for a planted tree. I do imagine Saiiban evolved in medium to heavy woods, and so its a sort of nod back to their roots as a people. Likewise, when a Saiiban dies I imagined their feathers are removed and then burned, so that they may fly into the sky one last time, forever.

 

[DensleyBlair]

A commitment to science is a noble thing,
But do not neglect the power it brings!

 

[HistoryDude]

Science is not bad
But it cannot explain everything
No matter how sad
That idea makes you

(Nice! So the Saiiban don't much care about the afterlife...)

 

[Chilango2]

Songs of the Precursors II: A Near Distance

A whisper blows in space
Like waking from a dream
It’s possibilities full
Of half remembered nightmares

Echoes of the past
sound like distant clangor
Sounding into the future
Into a present so still.

A distant crime of war
So far gone into history
That the nearness of this place of peace
Strikes us with awe.

So far! So near!
To go into a half remembered past
Now here in the future!

So near! So far!
To investigate out in the distant stars
And be brought by the winding echoes
Back here home

The silent song is not done
Let us listen, sing, and continue.

 

[Chilango2]

A commitment to science is a noble thing,
But do not neglect the power it brings!

Often the job of a science director
is to remind scientists that science
is, among other things, our protector.

Science is not bad
But it cannot explain everything
No matter how sad
That idea makes you

(Nice! So the Saiiban don't much care about the afterlife...)

To practice science
is to understand that to
know more means to know less

---
I've never had a precursor colony event create a archeology dig in my home system, much less the moon orbiting my homeworld. I didn't even know such a thing was possible.
Not complaining since it created a nice wrinkle in our tale.

This is my gentle reminder that the Q3 ACA's are currently ongoing, and that you should head there and vote.

 

[HistoryDude]

Ruins remain
Even within our home system
It seems that we were not first
So why should we be last?

 

[DensleyBlair]

For a bird who’s flown so far and wide,
one truth should still be known:
Many unknown wonders, too, reside
much closer to our home.

 

[Chilango2]

Expanding like Gas

It is well known that
pressure is inversely
proportional to the volume of a gas
Then how is it possible that our new friends, our continuing experiment,
Have doubled, and expanded such that they seek an entire new gas giant to colonize
Then how is it possible that as they expand new frontiers we do as well as we expand in space
The pressure our own neighbors forcing us, like gas, to find the gaps and expand outwards to fill whatever void remains
How is it possible that that, just like us, they have annoying, petty problems such as a regret at moving to a new home even as
their species expands and grows in a marvelous new frontiers a new possibility expanding outward taking the available space hoping that
our ever growing number people/molecules will have enough space to spread out because if they do not then the pressure will build up and then
explode.

 

[Chilango2]

Ruins remain
Even within our home system
It seems that we were not first
So why should we be last?

Even more to the point
as the universe expands into nothing
will parts rejoin, explode again, and start the cycle anew?

For a bird who’s flown so far and wide,
one truth should still be known:
Many unknown wonders, too, reside
much closer to our home.

Often as we wander
we remember that we also
have not fully explored home.
--

I've mentioned it previously back in August and I hope I don't end up sounding like a broken record on this, but you can continue to expect delayed updates like these for a little while. Teaching in COVID world is... challenging.

In any case, another gentle reminder that the Q3 ACA's are currently ongoing, and that you should head there and vote. Those of you who have already voted for this AAR, I appreciate you.

I wish I could recommend AAR for you to read, but honestly 100% of my forum related energy goes to updating this AAR for now.

 

[DensleyBlair]

These gaseous creatures have turned out quite a drain on your resources.
I wonder will their questioning cease? Will they ever be exhausted?

 

[alynkio]

Entertained so far! Subbed.

 

[slothinator]

When seeking fish within the net
Picture my joy when first I set
My eyes upon a precious pearl
With skill and art to make words twirl
My deepest thanks go to you now
For this new light upon my brow
Despite disease and much that's wrong
I can find hope in Saiiban Song

 

[HistoryDude]

For our friends have needs
And they don't need to be subject to what physics expects
And why should they?
Sentient species shouldn't act as mindless drones...

 

[Chilango2]

Post 35: It's Just a Matter of Time

As we fly through space
the bow bends and time's arrow flies
forward into the unknown
or so you would think is the case
but time after time, time lies.

As we fly into space
our voice, so certain once, now dies,
gravity bends, swallows all into the unknown
and then time's arrow is erased
and shows us its false guise.

How can the future influence the past?
How can the arrow fly before the bow even bends?
How can historyphysicscosmology function
when the rules bend and break or are outright ignored?
How how how ? woh woh woH

As we fly through space
we find two arrows where there was one
and then we fly and then flap our wings
backward into the unknown
let us never forget, sooner or later
time will lie to us
it's just a matter of time.

 

[Chilango2]

These gaseous creatures have turned out quite a drain on your resources.
I wonder will their questioning cease? Will they ever be exhausted?

The main resource they take from us may seem infinite
but we have learned to be more suspicious of time by the minute

Entertained so far! Subbed.

When seeking fish within the net
Picture my joy when first I set
My eyes upon a precious pearl
With skill and art to make words twirl
My deepest thanks go to you now
For this new light upon my brow
Despite disease and much that's wrong
I can find hope in Saiiban Song

New voices join us
our sublime joy is boundless
sing to us your songs?

For our friends have needs
And they don't need to be subject to what physics expects
And why should they?
Sentient species shouldn't act as mindless drones...

We do not wish them to be drones
and believe their growth is to our benefit
but just like them it is our right to moan
when their complaints seem without merit

---
Lovely to have new readers, welcome!

Administrative note, I have loaded the game under the recently released beta patch and let it play in observer mode till 2400 without any seeming ill effects, so when I resume playing the game (which won't be for a bit yet although we're getting vaguely close again) it will be using the beta patch version.

Another gentle reminder that the Q3 ACA's are currently ongoing, and that you should head there and vote.

Also, if like me, you are a citizen of the United States, you may be aware that our presidential election is coming up this coming Tuesday, and its safe to say that it's...mildly important. I have already voted (early voting ftw!) hope you have as well, but if you have not, you should do so.

 

[DensleyBlair]

How thrilling to see
time in its great mystery
bend from one stream to the next in
a manner quite perplexing

Will our visitors heed our cries
of danger looming in the skies
for travellers wishing to evade
the errant blast of a gamma ray

 

[slothinator]

Time and space in a sea of stars
Sister wind and current we find
The first is easy to make ours
While the other is most unkind

Though these explorers may sail blind
They may yet hope to bend time's bars
In hoping that they may break free
Of cruel seas and destiny

 

[Chilango2]

Hi folks! Sorry to break with tradition, but what I need to say requires clarity.

The bad news is I am having some computer issues that will delay the next update a bit more than usual (my CPU fan has stopped working) and my main PC will be unavailable until I can get it fixed.

The good news is that I back things up religiously, so no matter what once this issue is resolved I can use my backups to resume, so the AAR remains safe, just delayed.

Also, I can't thank those of you who voted for this AAR during the ACA's enough. It's really an honor to come in first in the Stellaris category.