Most worlds progress in about the same way. Sure, there are plenty of
notable differences, but they generally have a lot of things in common, and
there are some things that just won’t happen, because they do not support
that species’ survival, whether speaking evolutionarily, or socially. A
species that can’t, or won’t, protect itself, won’t last very long, because
nobody else is going to do it for them...most of the time. Guardian races do
exist, and I’ll get to one or two of those in the future. The universe I’m
talking about today didn’t have guardians, but the humans of one planet
still managed to remain quite peaceful throughout their pre-singularity
struggling period. That’s probably not what you would notice if you
went there during that time, though. You would probably first realize that
the people of Whrweh never had any standard form of currency. They
maintained a barter economy until they no longer needed to exchange goods
and services with each other, when automation took over. They managed this
by sticking to isolated pockets of civilization. They lived underground, and
figured out how to build tallish structures pretty early on, which allowed
them to remain confined in a smaller area, and leave more space between each
region. They didn’t need to spread out too much, and they didn’t want to.
They had recycling, and minimalistic principles, and they did not like
waste. Surprisingly, this form of isolationism never led to war. In fact,
though they did experience some violence, it was nowhere near what most
civilizations had. They had no use for it, because everyone always had their
own resources, and left others alone. Each pocket was pretty
self-sufficient, and with little occasion to reach out to other pockets for
help, there was also less of a chance of encountering conflict.
One thing they did to keep the peace was to have a sort of unwritten policy of
sharing knowledge with each other. When a pocket made a breakthrough in
science or technology, they wouldn’t be obligated to actually give the
results to other pockets, but they would give them the tools they needed to
develop it on their own. When someone invented the plow, they told everyone
else about it, and pretty soon, everyone had a plow. Then, when someone else
realized they could hook a plow up to a work animal, they told everyone
about that too, and now they all had better plows, including the person who
invented the first version. This had the added benefit of lessening their
negative impact on their environment. By giving all new information to
everyone, they were assured that someone would quickly discover downsides,
and deeper solutions. They skipped right over using fossil fuels to power
their vehicles, and other machines, because they soon learned that
electricity was cleaner, and more efficient. This all just kept going until
the whole planet was so advanced, there was no longer any need to stay
separate. Technically, they were living in independent regions, but they
were already one peoples, so coming together officially was a no-brainer.
Once robots and artificial intelligence were created, everything fell into
place. They shed their surface and underground dwellings, and flew off into
the sky, to live in something called an orbital ring. It’s exactly what it
sounds like, a giant ring that goes all around their planet, like you might
find around Saturn or Neptune. Except this is artificial, solid and
continuous, and capable of housing their entire population many times over.
They did away with the bartering system for the most part, though elements
of it are still there. You are allowed to have anything you want, as long as
you contribute in your own way. Your peers are responsible for determining
whether you contribute enough to be worthy of any given amenity, and for the
most part, this works out with no terrible disputes. A second type of
bartering was created in order to handle external interactions. Some humans
left their home world, and went off to live elsewhere. Humanoid aliens also
developed on their own worlds, and formed their own systems of government.
When dealing with these people, the Whrwehs always ask for a favor, in
exchange for whatever it is they’re asking for. This favor is never
something they actually need, but they believe it’s only fair that the other
side make some kind of effort, or even a sacrifice, in order to receive
something in return. This was all great, and it protected them from Ochivari
invasion, but it would not last. While time travel was not possible within
the bounds of this universe, that rule does not extend to external forces,
and one little mission changed everything about everything.
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