[Surprise! Come now, Walter, did you forget what he looked like that first time the two of you met in the castle? Did you think the ears were some kind of decoration?]
[...actually, that's probably an easy mistake to make, considering his ears ARE, in fact, decorated with some silly alien cover.]
[Fashion.]
I have twice seen a entire civilization bring itself to ruin, due to the gaining of technologies beyond their means. The first instance caused a race known as the Cardianon to evolve much faster than nature had intended. Change that should have occurred over millenia instead happened in a span of only two hundred years. Their home planet could not keep up with the rapid growth and in the end, it was destroyed. They became a vagrant people, living among the stars until eventually they began to lose all sense of themselves. The Cardianon mutated into fearsome, mindless monsters and literally ripped themselves apart, all because of technology beyond their means.
The second instance happened on an alternate version of Earth, many years in the past relative to my own time. The year was 1957. Driven by greed and a lust for power, an ambitious young woman sought to make use of an alien technology years beyond her understanding or control. She destroyed her entire planet. Billions of lives, snuffed out by advanced technology she so unwisely dared to take.
Granted, I have also seen another civilization given hope for a new future in much the same way. Were it not for the aid of my people, it may have been several hundred more years before Earthlings developed warp technology that wold allow them to seek a new home in space. Hundreds of years that they may not have had, given the state of present-day Earth in my world.
[There's a slight pause. YOu can almost hear the slight smile in his voice as he continues.]
There are many factors, you see. The source of the technology, how advanced it is compared to the civilization's native technology, how much is given and for how long...
audio; we're good! i'm about 99% certain it hasn't come up
[...actually, that's probably an easy mistake to make, considering his ears ARE, in fact, decorated with some silly alien cover.]
[Fashion.]
I have twice seen a entire civilization bring itself to ruin, due to the gaining of technologies beyond their means. The first instance caused a race known as the Cardianon to evolve much faster than nature had intended. Change that should have occurred over millenia instead happened in a span of only two hundred years. Their home planet could not keep up with the rapid growth and in the end, it was destroyed. They became a vagrant people, living among the stars until eventually they began to lose all sense of themselves. The Cardianon mutated into fearsome, mindless monsters and literally ripped themselves apart, all because of technology beyond their means.
The second instance happened on an alternate version of Earth, many years in the past relative to my own time. The year was 1957. Driven by greed and a lust for power, an ambitious young woman sought to make use of an alien technology years beyond her understanding or control. She destroyed her entire planet. Billions of lives, snuffed out by advanced technology she so unwisely dared to take.
Granted, I have also seen another civilization given hope for a new future in much the same way. Were it not for the aid of my people, it may have been several hundred more years before Earthlings developed warp technology that wold allow them to seek a new home in space. Hundreds of years that they may not have had, given the state of present-day Earth in my world.
[There's a slight pause. YOu can almost hear the slight smile in his voice as he continues.]
There are many factors, you see. The source of the technology, how advanced it is compared to the civilization's native technology, how much is given and for how long...
[He could go on.]