Text 15930, 68 rader
Skriven 2007-07-12 08:45:57 av Kurt Ullman (2403.babylon5)
     Kommentar till en text av rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Ärende: Re: obsolete thousand year-old shadow ships?
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In article <v_mdnXV9iOUfGgjbnZ2dnUVZ_ragnZ2d@comcast.com>,
 "Don Strong" <desiredfx@comcast.net> wrote:

> "Kurt Ullman" <kurtullman@yahoo.com> wrote in message 
>
news:kurtullman-D0BB67.21301811072007@customer-201-125-217-207.uninet.net.mx..
> .
> >     Why? Entropy always kicks in eventually. That is why the Romans
> > aren't quite as formidable as they once were. Same with the British.
> > Same with the US eventually.
> 
> Yes, but you're talking about human societies, not whole races. When the 
> Romans dropped, there was someone to pick up the torch. Creativity has been 
> alive and well since the dawn of time, even if it gets stultified on 
> occasion by oppressive human regimes.

      But, at least to my understanding there is essentially only one 
society, at least at the top.  If there is only one society for the race 
itself, then why shouldn't that occur? Especially when you have a 
society that has evolved into one with a singular purpose.  When all you 
have is a hammer, everything to begins to look like a nail can also be a 
societal affliction.
     BTW: I thought that most of B5's focus was on the fact that it is 
now the time for the younger race to "pick up the torch". 


> The human race as a whole continues to grow in its creativity, and when the 
> US falls, or regenerates into something more mature and less oppressive than 
> it has become, there will be humans to carry things forward.

  Of course the Sahdows are not human (another point B5). 

> 
> > You reach your limit... or you start wondering if the sky really
> > is the limit.
> 
> Exactly.
> 
> But what happens when you run out of skies above the sky?
> 
> That's what the First Ones are to me: those who have broken through all the 
> limits until there are none left, no new sky in the galaxy.

      For them you are right. Which is why they have to find their next 
sky "beyond the rim". But humans (and Narn, and Centauri, etc) still 
have places to go, things to do and people to see. They have not yet 
broken the limits, or maybe will find some new ones. Precisely because 
they haven't been around and in charge for eons. 

> 
> What blows my mind is the concept of creativity, for all its vitality, being 
> unable to breach the next barrier, to find the next sky.

   I think that is one of the points. That creativity can also burn out 
after a while. Then that muscle begins to atrophy after you don't use 
it. There will always come a time when a race has just accomplished as 
much as they can.  Then it may be time to move lock, stock, and barrel 
to the next universe, galaxy or whatever lies beyond the rim. 


> 
> What happens when no matter what creativity you muster, unbreachable 
> barriers are all that remain, in every direction? What happens when there's 
> nothing--absolutely nothing--truly different you can do? 

     You go to the rim and start over again.
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