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Re: Political Structures in Marathon
Posted By: Tru7hDate: 5/25/02 7:42 p.m.

In Response To: Re: Political Structures in Marathon (Yossarian)

: I don't think you'd be able to find any game text to substantiate this.
: Besides, Durandal is a fully self-aware and rampant construct of
: technology thats centuries ahead of our own (not to mention fictional).
: It's a fact that no one knew Durandal better than Durandal, not even
: Strauss, as Durandal tells us that he hid his rampant growth from him. I
: think from what we've seen from Durandal he can multi-task better than any
: human, including Blake. Okay, I could your point makind sense if Durandal
: was more like HAL9000 or, say, a G3 iMac, but he isn't.

i was always under the impression that Durandal was a personality construct, and thus single minded. Durandal couldent talk to 2 people at the same time since it would mean 2 Durandals and ultimately lead to Schizofrenia (or the properly phrased version of it)

: Former mechanical engineer on Tau Ceti is seems hardly the requirement for a
: "great leader". Further more, a populist, as the text refers to
: Blake, is one who merely stands for democratic principles. So in that
: context, Blake wasn't much a leader at all; if he was truly populist, then
: he would merely be coordinating the popular will of the BoB's.

Durandal, being immensly inteligent, can easily find the best man for the JOB at hand. Somehow Blake was the best leader. Remember Strategy, as oposed to Tactics, has a non-ignorable, inate skill part (you might read Stung-zuu and stuff, but if you dont got it, you dont got it) Dont forget that 1 of the most important of a leaders Skill is getting other people to follow you.

: This doesn't jive with the rest of the story. As quoted before, the BoB's
: were transported to the surface by Durandal, regardless of whether they
: popularly consented or not.

nope. besides you dont give a weapon to somebody that dosent want too, all sorts of absurd and dangerous things happen. At some point ther must be consent (even if its thinly veiled).

: The way I see it, some funky stuff happened on the surface of Lh'owon, the
: mechanical engineer found himself leader (maybe because he was the oldest,
: best shot, higher ranking, who knows?) and basically said "Okay guys,
: let's do what we have to in order to save as many of our butts as possible
: and get the hell back to Earth."

first part; Blake was definately Leader from day 1
second part; no rebutal here, that was most probably Blakes main objective

: As opposed to: Durandal, short on processing power and general ability
: decides to appoint a great leader masquerading as a mechanical engineer

hu?

: to become Brigadier General of his scout ship and lead a brave assault on the
: Pfhor garrisons on Lh'owon.

i never said he lead anything, think of him as a second in command with no ability to give his opinions to the hier ups. Durandal gives him the sour pill, and he makes the best of it

: There's no dispute that he's commanding, I just don't think he was appointed.

he was, and most probably in a very brutal fation.
Durandal: Robert Blake you are now commanding officer of the Bobs! i expect a troop list by 0800 tomorow!!

: You just said it yourself, controlled by a computer.

as a derogative statement, like a racist saying a black guy is commanding him.

: Durandal was the only controlling force on Boomer. Now of course Durandal
: didn't have to worry about the mundane petty orders or tell the BoB's when
: to wipe their own arses, I just don't think he ever consulted any humans
: while en route to Lh'owon. I'm not going to debate the fact that Blake was
: the human leader on the surface, that's established. I'm arguing that while
: on Boomer he probably didn't hold any major command title or make any
: shipboard decisions, except possibly the latrine duty schdule.

he like all the Bobs were in stasis in transit. if he was awake he would of had total control over the infantry, wich in a ship equates too prir said latrine duty, equipment upkeep, eating, sleeping, work scedual (fixing stuff exercising) and uhhh.... uh.... thats about it:) in transit the captain of a vessel (in this case Durandal) has total discretionary control and could Kill you, hang you, trow you over board, rape your sister, scuttle the boat, veer off course, sail to the Maui islands and have a vacation, marry everybody on the ship (wether they want too or not). but if he did any of these without a good reason he would face either Court martial or mutiny or both! Durandal can do whatever he wants (no goverment can court-martial him and a mutiny in space is absurde) but he cant break the laws of physics.

going bact to totalitarian Dictatorship, if you insist on putting a govermental structure on everything, you will quicly notice that we are constantly under a Dictatorship (wich is only as bad as the Dictator) (scool comes to mind)

-Tru7h

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Pre-2004 Posts

Replies:

Political Structures in MarathonREB 5/24/02 6:30 p.m.
     Re: Political Structures in MarathonYossarian 5/24/02 8:00 p.m.
           Re: Political Structures in MarathonREB 5/25/02 4:30 a.m.
                 Re: Political Structures in MarathonYossarian 5/25/02 6:53 a.m.
                       Re: Political Structures in MarathonREB 5/25/02 10:43 p.m.
                             Re: Political Structures in MarathonYossarian 5/25/02 11:17 p.m.
                                   Re: Political Structures in MarathonREB 5/26/02 12:33 a.m.
           Re: Political Structures in MarathonTru7h 5/25/02 6:19 a.m.
                 Re: Political Structures in MarathonYossarian 5/25/02 7:04 a.m.
                       Re: Political Structures in MarathonTru7h 5/25/02 10:24 a.m.
                             Re: Political Structures in MarathonYossarian 5/25/02 11:02 a.m.
                                   Re: Political Structures in MarathonTru7h 5/25/02 12:13 p.m.
                                         Re: Political Structures in MarathonYossarian 5/25/02 2:22 p.m.
                                               Re: Political Structures in MarathonTru7h 5/25/02 7:42 p.m.
                                                     Re: Political Structures in Marathon[Tycho?] 5/25/02 8:26 p.m.
                                                           Re: Political Structures in MarathonTru7h 5/26/02 6:57 a.m.
                                                                 Re: Political Structures in MarathonRincewind MoG 5/26/02 3:48 p.m.
                                                                       Re: Political Structures in MarathonTru7h 5/26/02 8:11 p.m.
                                                     Re: Political Structures in MarathonYossarian 5/25/02 11:12 p.m.
                                                           Re: Political Structures in MarathonTru7h 5/26/02 7:11 a.m.
                                                                 Re: Political Structures in MarathonYossarian 5/26/02 9:14 a.m.
                                                                       Re: Political Structures in MarathonTru7h 5/26/02 8:28 p.m.
                                                                             Re: Political Structures in MarathonYossarian 5/27/02 2:07 a.m.
                                                                                   Re: Political Structures in MarathonTru7h 5/27/02 3:34 p.m.
                                                           Don't forget the doorsmidwinter 5/27/02 11:39 a.m.
                                                                 Re: Don't forget the doorsTru7h 5/27/02 3:35 p.m.
                                                                       Re: Don't forget the doorszudo 5/28/02 3:40 a.m.
                                                                             Re: Don't forget the doorsTru7h 5/28/02 2:15 p.m.



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