The Deciders

Created Sunday 23 October 2022

Aka The League

— Those I write about do not all live at the same time. Space is vast and battles are long. (Widely spaced in a battle terrain that can essentially time travel back in information.) I am trying to write about the greatest---or at lesat, most consequential---Deciders. Fei and Grey Wolf seem to be the first. She near the beginning of the crescendo. Him as it's all falling apart.

Surprised this doesn't have a page yet. (And it well may in here somewhere)

Humanity has already adapted pretty well to the Anthropocen^[Which will exist wtih or without us now. Humans (I mean here in 2023) have already irreverisbly altered the earth's planet-wide ecosystem enough that there will be a measurable change in things---weird things---across all strata laid down by this moment in earth's history.]. So, at least they do have a stable world to fall back on. Even if, um, they were getting a little low on resources to maintain their current lifestyle. That "reduced-resource version of the current lifestyle" is humans no longer able to exist on a consumer-based economy. There was pre-Industiral; those who study this moment call it the post-Capitalist Age.

Capitalism, I very recently learned, is based on excess production. Feudalism is not; feudalism was build on an economic platform that did not grow. The production of one revenue sycle (some sort of harvest, mostly likely) was equal to that cycle's consumption. That's why the idea of charging interest is odious: Because it's not that things will get better in the future. It's that you're damned lucky they just didn't get worse. And that had been that way---that aspect of human evoluation/culture had never changed, had not or somehow existed in a niche where it didn't need to adapt. But after agriculture out-performed hunter-gatherers; industrialist out-performed famers; muskets out-performed spears (and it wasn't until WWI that many generals around the world perferred the bayonette charge to any other mode of attack.) This is the era that comes after Humans have had to learn to deal with the scarcities that come with eh Anthropecene: finding those resources that humans aren't good at getting, being done by humans. LIke fertilization and pest control. There comes a point when our own fertility goes down because of this. And so we fight this by n selecting. Humans become more prolofic, flooding the "market" with lots of humans---no less potential, but fewer initial resources to eveer achieve it. This, of course adds more variability to our genetic base. And yes, darned near all of them are bad ideas (most of evoluction is a lot of bad ideas), but succeed on the rest of it: the results of the good ideas. Again, this makes for a complete meriticracy (nope, never did have any idea how to spell that) were there are many humans competing for a few slots at top. Few in n selection become adults of their species.

The Deciders are those who achieve it. The post-Anthropocene is a complete meriticracy. You rise or fall based on your demonstrated worth: how much good stuff you can produce. And the merit of that production has to be measured somehow. And it's not like the earth cares which way we decide, but the earth already has ways that will decide our fate if we're stupid enough let them. And there is then naturally self-selecting a group of humans who try to decide our path before the earth out-adapts us and reduces humans to a lineage no longer that the forefront of deciding how the Age of the world evolves.
By Edict, a Decider must have a close association with a major AI. And their inclusion into the Region of Safety must have been made by a super majority and is for life. And they are to be granted three things:

Access to their chosen AI at all times
Free passage
A ship of their naming

And yeah, some over-use their access to some of those resources a little too, and some don't provide enough to others. But those are the Deciders.

It's hard not putting the Grey Wolf as the one whose path into there is chronicled (by the poor fool who tries to actually write a real sotry from this tangle) in this. Its so cliche. And just shows how bad a writer I am. Dang it. Mais, oui, c'est la vie, mais autant avoir une vie....

Anyway, those are the Deciders. The ones in charge. A largely self-important group of really capable people who are also all kinda jerks without realizing it.
The only ones with their own ships. By that I mean that no one else can prevent them from making a ship of their chosing. Sure, they need the resources to pay for it and its upkeeo (everything is harder in space; building and maintaining a ship like that is all done in space). But if they want to have a ship that at least has an external hub that looks like a Tin Tin rocket (with a few probes retrothusters sticking out through open holes), then no one else can stop them.

And if they want it to be so well armed armored to win in any fight, well, they can. But moving a Decider from system to system is very costly. Both to send away and to receive.

And so Deciders must prove their worth wherevery they are. And sometimes they fail to. And some seem to do that more than others. And there are those strategists who work to move those worse Deciders into more dangerous roles. The Deciers vote by majority on which direction to take and their positions is going there. And there are some Deciders who tend to get voted into the more dangerous positions. Kinda Deciders keep trying to push each other towards the danger---to to pull in a steady stream of new Deciders (there is a fixed number of them, but they try to cycle through a fixed percent of them---that is decided like the Fed's index fund---to constantly bring in fresh blood. But, since the tenure is for life, they have to think who should be killed off first if the fighting gets rough. If, for example, a Decider has to hold a system. By itself. It and its fleet to be self-sustaining so that they could dominate a system indefintiely.

Interstellar war is simply absurd to think of as anything but the long game. Pretend all you want that we (or idiots like Musk) will eventually be whizzing through the cosmos in a ship with some clever cultural reference strapped to the front. That is the absolute best that's likely to happen. The only even remotely plausible way for use to become interstellar with our brains and the reach of our technology is through using an insane amount of precious resources. LIke small planets turned completely---with 100% efficiency---into energy.
INterstellar war is done in as few steps as you can take, and being able to make sure that each step doesn't slip. Every battle is a major battle. And usually atually fought with very few ships. Not much excess to throw around in most systems. There aren't a heck of a lot of Forrest Planets of Endor out there. (Although that was both a brilliant idea and a typically Lucas-stuipid idea. He was great at one evil Jungian archetype, but really kinda sucked at most other ideas. Star Wars was cool in one way. It was just than made marketable by everyone else.

So, Deciders are the ones who run Human citadels (Which are usually built around a Ferris). Systems that are not only self-sustaining, but contrigute something back into the Netowrk of Systems. So, Deciders can move through sytems at will, but their movement is highly criticized by the Informers. And, yeah, even if they weren't criticized, they wouldn't move around that much. They do often co-share systems, but it's kinda weird if they co-share that long. All of the System must be accessible to the Deciders, and they must travel---and defend---it all.

And even though Hagge-drivers also control a good bit of their system (a good thing to think about when trying to control a planet because, um, you're kinda surrounded), they are not Deciders. None are. They must be Informers, but that position cannot ascend into a Decider. A hagge-driver must sit. Their one job is to live there forever. They are more than welcome to make themselves a cushy bit of bedding if they can, but where they're usually sent, there won't be many options for that. It takes a lot of quick & constant repairs to stay alive on a Venusian planetl not much left over to play with. Not until you first build from scratch (on a Venusian planet) power sources, refineries, factories, and maybe splurge on a loom and weaver to make clothes.

Synchronicity, man. This is what I watched next: https://play.hbomax.com/player/urn:hbo:episode:GXpSqAA8VFR-auwEAAAdV?exitPageUrn=/page/urn:hbo:series:GXrMEtQ8sromBSgEAAAK1

Man, I have to direct that to better things than this. This is a waste of synchronicity.

And, yeah, that---if anything---is my "religion": The suspicision there might be something to synchronicity.

I really am surprised that I don't think I've ever written this down yet.

And at the expense of me doing it for real in my day life.

Yeah, I am surprised I havne't written this stuff down already. It's so central: It's always there.
The best weapon humans can form. They who decide where to hit with what they've got. Weapons pool, give me what you got (and make it easy to teach me quick to use well what you got), and the Deciders will decide how to use it in battle.

Space combat is like samurai. Those knights so bad ass that they could build deadly steel blades, but only had barely enough iron to do it with (Japan's not an iron-rich country (or so I understand, maybe incorrectly)). So they couldn't splurge much on iron for armor. They found very deadly weapons (their swords and swordstaffs) that could kill in one strike. Because they didn't have enough for two strikes. Sticking around for two strikes takes armor. Three takes more. How long do you want to stick around---especially when you're so far out that we really just barely gave you enough to get back. Do what you're going to do and get the fuck back or plan to sustain yourself there forever (or, well, until you redvelop the ability to re-prodicue Deux drives so you could eventually get back (or, well, O.K., maybe your grandkids)). Interstellar combat, if it ever comes to be, will first and probably forever be that of knowing with pretty darned good coordinates of where you want to fly out to and back (there's a lot of there out there). So the single most important thing about effective interstellar combat is knowing where you're going/hitting/attacking/invading, because if you miss, you're out in the middle of nowhere out there. And you better be damned sure of exactly where if you want to have any hope at all of ever being able to go back ("miss by a little, miss by a lot" kinda applies when you have even dozens of light years to go on a lowly Deus ex drive). And it's not like what you know about what's out there in the last, say, 100k light years---unless you sent out a stationary probe (i.e., in the "sorry, but at least we gave you the instructions and enough to mine to eventually build the equipment to build your own Deus ex drive factory" category) out in that exact direction (closer you hit, the more recent your recon about that area). So, a lot of space exploration, let alone colonization or effective warfare, is knowing where to go. Using the knowledge you got (I think there's a very earhtl-like planet that I don'tthink is inhabited (or hasn't been inhabited for long, say <500 years) by a dangerous alien species.
To put all of that information together and figure out what the heck is going on and how to respond accordingly.

The Grey Wolf is the one who "side-gigs" being a Warrior of a Lost Cause. (There are many, that all evidence says is dead, Humans lost their chance to fix that about the Anthropcene.)

Interstellar battle is intergenerational by default. I defy you to deny it. If for no other reason than it's either that, or you look in straight in the face when you say that you can justify some form of technology always and instantly back and forth regardless of space. Yeah, you really really think Humans can figure out preserving or producing entanglement at such a scale as to have an Interstellar Internet. Well, put it this way, whatever else you do out there, you better figure that one out PDQ, or you've by default got yourself an intergenerational war. And the farther out into your generations a good war strategy and provisions to fight the right fight at the right place, the more liekly you'll out compete any other species that's also trying to expand sucessfully out into what it thinks is good places to be.

These are they who know their causes are dying. Not now, not in their lifetimes, not for another 100 ± 25 years, but die it soon will. And any efforts you put there will also soon after go extinct. You that bad a Decider?
No, but he doesn't want to be the ones who have to watch that part of Humanity die. Even in the face of possible species extinction from what we've brought attention to out there.

Really, think about it. Either the information you have about where you're going and what you're running into out there is either likely (but not always) 100 of millions year old (if you're jumping off into somwhere you've never been) or also a speices now able to link it's moments in time closely together enough that they're moving successfully into that area of space. So, most of interstellar warfare is jumping into somewhere where you know very little about what's been going on there and no one else is there who cares about that either. Or, you jump somewhere where there are those there who know a lot about where they are and you don't. Until you can start sending good SOSs back, you're out there on your own. A lot of fighting in an interstellar war is jumping out into spots where you're flying into what may alrady be a fortress (a Hagge), or you're flying out somewhere where you're going to have to hold out until you can either colonize, move on, or come back. And that's a decision you make before you jump. Even---especially---the Deciders must soon choose which ships can jump and where

(and yeah, the strongest and most critical of Human interstellar communication lines is that between Deciders. Their couriers---the Conveyers and Purveyers---must be the best of pilots. And trhe Deciders must use them strategically.

(Which means couriers damned well always better be carrying a hack of a lot of importand information---measurable at least in Gigs if not in strategic value---and be damed well able to hold on to it until it gets to where it needs to go. Piloting is planning and positioning. The gunners are the ones who do the shooting. And they better not miss.

And most gunners are AIs. That's something that computers will always do better. Ranging and aiming they got down pat, them Silies. Humans still can add a lot to the big picture. There are ways Humans think there that's going to stay bette for a long time.
But still couriers have nice ships. Standardized for planning across combats, but still their skills comes to matter in the planning of which pilot goes where.

There you go. They are the heavy cavalry.)

Even though they must be given "free passage" (no, sorry, not as in beer---although a brewery is one of the industries you'll be producing there anyway), there must always be a few Deciders "at home." But it's quite a shaming to be a homebody for long. Being called a homebody is often a pleasantly-give but incisive insult. But that is the point that must be held above all. You must have there your strongest, or at least have them close enough that they can return home.
The schools that divide the Couriers also have sway in the home-linked vs. far-reaching Deciders. The home-linked are more often Statisticans. And so are the far-reachers---except that they also have a growing number of Oughtas. "The bot's on top with those Oughtas," Statiticians say.

(Hey, I never said I wrote this stuff well0.

There are two "understood" criteria for becoming a Decider. Understood in the sense that they were never laid out or really written about, but assumed in much that was written. the invisible Zeitgeist.

Must having the mental strength, agility, and endurance to hold a position in the Anothropocene. The Defensible Position
The acumen to use it in ways that are among the most beneficial to Humanity (yeah, a criterion they're also in charge of vetting for benefit...)
Can admit it when they are wrong. They must have at least that personal strength.

The Defensible Position

Every Decider has proven themselves to be able to defend themselves. To assert and hold a position. For every Decider there is a "position"---a location, situation, source of knowledge, etc.---at which they cannot be dislodged. They have all shown that with their deeds.
What that is, and the strategy they used to successfully defend it, are part of what makes each who they are and what society is (should be?) within as a constellation of positions---what Humanity becomes when lead by Deciders.

In my pathetic self-fan-fic ("selfanic"?) way, Grey Wolf is an assassin. Never tips his hand, never moves where he knows he'll be seen. And so not who you'd expect that from.
- To speak in my own defense (always a fool's errand): Yes, most of my attacks have been unrestrained. But I really do very rarely strike. Sure, only when I am damed sure I can hit and not get hit, there are rules for fights. And then there are fights. But among those opportunities, only a handful of ones actually done. A lo
Fei Lung, the poor thing. One of those awesomely powerful woman who just burn themselves up. The patron saint of Shielas, Jennas, and Martha Manns.
The Hagge Hammer. Nope never invited into the Decision, and long since learned not to give a fuck if whatever that was meant to mean he had to leave his chosen position. He's sitting there. You go and try to stop him doing that.
The ~~Brethren of the Background Brother Background~~. Those who belong to the scholarly lineage of the fact that you always need at least one other person to be (or not to be) the other person. You can't write without their being an other. The fact of the existence of writing denotes the existence of an other. And yeah, in some form or the other (maybe graven in some cave or layered in geologically-detectable plastic) there will surely be something still written somewhere in the universe. Or we'll've reached that phase in which the stars go out. After which point no sentient, sub-light being could ever even know there had been stars since that information all spread away, the universe growing greater than the speed of light. The Heat Death. The Brethren dies last. Of that much we can all be sure. And that sure doesn't mean they go out in style, but it really won't matter. It literally won't. It defines the point at which it stops mattering. When they die, that means we'll all already be dead.
- So, kinda sucks to be them, you know? I know, don't see them crying much now, but to be sure of the loneliest and probably the shittiest of deaths isn't exactly a pleasant thing to be sure of.
Peter Parker. Maybe it's he who works with Deathclock. Both prescient in their own ways. He who makes good decisions. Of course he is among them, even if they aren't all him.

Why Deciders?

I well may have said this before, but this is also even more likely to be among the thoughts I don't ever write down (and don't those poor mayfly thoughts always outnumber us all?).
But here's my thinking about how to make Deciders a pretty not worse than some future paths we coudl take. Really, would that be among the worse ways to govern humanity? Then why not let it? Seriously.
But still it feels weird (and weird given my life's own evoluation around me) to also be among them. I am where I always wanted to be. I am here. At my position.

So it is up to me to figure out why it is here. I am always advancing my position as I undertand it better. That is my role as a scholar/researcher.