Soban
Convention Veteran
This question was posted on discord but I thought it might be good here and I have a follow up question
Rizzo —
@Wes it’s clearly apparent how capable Yamatai is of committing unspeakable acts of privacy invasion on its citizens and guests. Intelligence agencies would do anything to have this kind of power.
That being said, power, like that is not uncommon in SARP. My question is, how much of that power does Yamatai regularly exercise?
Wes —
In the RP it's been shown that, for example, when you join the Star Army, they basically use mind-backup technology to replay your life and an AI goes through it and makes notes. If you're not trustworthy, or lied about stuff on your application, or are some sort of nut, you don't score well and the Star Army doesn't hire you.
But imagine it's basically seeing the world from your brain's perspective, which is as personal as it gets.
Yamatai also physically tracks its entire population and what they're doing because it's paranoid about the Mishhuvurthyar trying to swap people out for fake people.
This is used in the Star Army for security clearance purposes.
My question is twofold as of writing this post. First, I want to clarify that I'm correct that AI in this context is a person in the government. As raz put it, "Neko are technically AIs". So when you join the Star Army, someone goes through your entire brain and makes notes. Which is probably the biggest invasion of privacy possible.
@Wes second, it seems to me that your reply implies that Yamatai regularly exercise all of the acts of privacy invasion and there is no expectation of privacy anywhere in Yamatai including in your own mind.
The entire exchange with some context and interesting reading is included in the quote below.
Rizzo —
@Wes it’s clearly apparent how capable Yamatai is of committing unspeakable acts of privacy invasion on its citizens and guests. Intelligence agencies would do anything to have this kind of power.
That being said, power, like that is not uncommon in SARP. My question is, how much of that power does Yamatai regularly exercise?
Wes —
In the RP it's been shown that, for example, when you join the Star Army, they basically use mind-backup technology to replay your life and an AI goes through it and makes notes. If you're not trustworthy, or lied about stuff on your application, or are some sort of nut, you don't score well and the Star Army doesn't hire you.
But imagine it's basically seeing the world from your brain's perspective, which is as personal as it gets.
Yamatai also physically tracks its entire population and what they're doing because it's paranoid about the Mishhuvurthyar trying to swap people out for fake people.
This is used in the Star Army for security clearance purposes.
My question is twofold as of writing this post. First, I want to clarify that I'm correct that AI in this context is a person in the government. As raz put it, "Neko are technically AIs". So when you join the Star Army, someone goes through your entire brain and makes notes. Which is probably the biggest invasion of privacy possible.
@Wes second, it seems to me that your reply implies that Yamatai regularly exercise all of the acts of privacy invasion and there is no expectation of privacy anywhere in Yamatai including in your own mind.
The entire exchange with some context and interesting reading is included in the quote below.
Rizzo —
@Wes it’s clearly apparent how capable Yamatai is of committing unspeakable acts of privacy invasion on its citizens and guests. Intelligence agencies would do anything to have this kind of power.
That being said, power, like that is not uncommon in SARP. My question is, how much of that power does Yamatai regularly exercise?
Soban —
The ruling philosophy of Yamatai to me basically seem to be "Have ultimate power, but only exercise it when it's really necessary."
Rizzo —
It’s pretty good philosophy to have. Avoid pissing off your populace, while being able to drop the hammer of God on enemies
Soban —
It's a good philosophy you have until a very bad day happens and someone like Irim gets that unchecked power.
It assumes that the people in charge are good or at least neutral. Which looking at human history might actually be true occasionally, but definitely not most of the time.
Imagine handing Mao, Stalin, or even that one Karen in your HOA that sort of power.
Power attracts those who want to use it to their selfish benefit to the detriment of others. Because of this, all too often that is the sort of person who gets it.
What makes this worse is that everyone has the capability to be selfish. The line between good and evil runs not between people but through the heart.
raz —
I think because most citizens are networked to communications systems, and that a lot of technology is as well, that Yamatai has nearly on-demand information internally. It’s not necessarily an invasion of privacy, and is reactive gathering based on triggered alerts managed by AIs rather than active watching everyone pee.
But for example if you’re from a corrupt clan of traitors and make a call to your admiral cousin asking for information on active operations and the latter indulges the thought, that conversation immediately gets flagged and listened in on by SAINT, who forwards it to Yui.
Sosina —
"remember it's not an invasion of privacy if we aren't technically looking at it and only looking at what a AI we programmed to look at this info shows us right?" ~ some Yamataian higher up more than likely
raz —
An invasion of privacy is listening in on someone’s home. If you say something that can be heard by the public, or say it via publicly owned communications utilities/protocols, that’s not really an invasion of privacy.
Sosina —
Fictional Governments, making plausible excuses since it's inception! XD
Wes —
In the RP it's been shown that, for example, when you join the Star Army, they basically use mind-backup technology to replay your life and an AI goes through it and makes notes. If you're not trustworthy, or lied about stuff on your application, or are some sort of nut, you don't score well and the Star Army doesn't hire you.
But imagine it's basically seeing the world from your brain's perspective, which is as personal as it gets.
Yamatai also physically tracks its entire population and what they're doing because it's paranoid about the Mishhuvurthyar trying to swap people out for fake people.
This is used in the Star Army for security clearance purposes.
Yuuki —
Recruiting AI:
This Takeda Sayako is sufficiently statistically unlikely to self destruct and cause mass casualties before providing enough service to Yamatai of a value that outweighs the balance of it.
raz —
What your average Neko or military Minkan thinks of as private is probably wildly different than what a modern American thinks of as private, too. They're mass produced to work for the government. So probably few think "omg don't tread on me my privacy rights!"
Yuuki —
A society of people who communicate primarily direct mind-to-mind aren't going to have the same concepts of privacy and intimacy anyway
Charmaylarg Dufrain —
I look more towards individualistic characteristics.
Im sure we have characters that might hit someone in the mouth for bad mouthing, or even steal some of everyones clothes cause they are a bit quirky of a minor kleptomaniac.
But characters with flaws and personality traits are something that helps defind them and make them interesting. And the excuse of well theres an AI that saw you steal Hei Tachibanas pen and we cant have that is boring imo.
Im not saying make a murderer. But if someone has invasive thoughts you shouldnt recycle them.
Cookie cutter society of catgirls but the sliders only go so far in each dirrection means you need to work that much harder to make your character unique or someone will throw a fit because you are too tall, or she cant even exist in RP because a neko cant be born a bully or a coward or pacifist.
Thats fine with some people. Its worked for like twenty years. But I like having characters with flaws or quirks to make them more grounded and human.
Rizzo —
Well… I wouldn’t go that far.
There are some things on the wiki that I take with a grain of salt, especially older articles. In terms of the NH-33A I know there’s then confusion in the past about it because they don’t have a height range where the standard NH-33 does.
All 33A’s are 5’11”. They are a manufactured item, that’s just how they be. Cookie cutter is all hell physically.
Charmaylarg Dufrain —
There are tail options for Separa and wings for elysians.
Neither of which are cookie cutter species. Meaning they are made to their exact specifications to the individual and not the individual to the armor. Ive seen people with custom Zesu melee weapons and little trinkets.
The idea that the star army cant customize size and proportions when they have sizes ranging from mini neko to massive trolls and SOL is a bit of a stretch by ye-47 because nobody can say that nobodies thought of it until now.
I've literally seen neko foru feet tall with thighs the size of small sedans and they wear a mindy. So its less about it being pheasable in RP and more the usual weird outdate notions of change being bad.
Suzume has canonically worn mindys, tarsas, and daisys. I've said ic that its a bit tight but nobody ever said otherwise that she was as tall as her sister and niece and three other characters in the plot by only 1-2" and wasnt even the tallest. So it clearly has happened and is canon in rp.
Yamatai allows you to customize yourself to your near ideal identity and doesnt discriminate about gender, sexuality, or hardly your race.
But its a clear ooc line drawn that neko have to be small and cute or everything the past 20+ years might have been for nothing people can act like sometimes.
Sosina —
I mean they also ask for uniformity in the races that can be in the army o3o/
for instance my Spider like random alien couldn't join the Star army (still working on her but I showed a pic of her and was told she wouldn't be allowed in due to body shape)
raz —
Good on you for following what the wiki actually says. The way character approvals work now, GMs will often miss key canon details that keep our universe consistent. Best to catch things early so people don't feel bad later when it was their GM that was wrong to approve.
Charmaylarg Dufrain —
Yeah but its one thing to make a sphere with legs.
Its another to say logi says its entirely unpheaseable to make a mindy 2" taller. Btw we can make a starship in 2 days
Sosina —
to be fair she wasn't a sphere with legs o3o/
iaincarter —
Star Army Recruiting on Star Army Space Roleplay
wiki.stararmy.com
iaincarter —
Other species, Anthros, and random aliens may be accepted on a case-by-case basis, with the requirements of:
Humanoid overall body shape and size
Hands capable of proficiently using standard Star Army weapons and equipment
Human-equivalent intelligence or higher
Charmaylarg Dufrain —
Everyone has the right to tell their stories.
iaincarter —
So at least that requirement is right there on the wiki
...
Soban —
This perhaps needs a bit of clarification because AI can be 'people' in SARP.
raz —
Neko are technically AIs. Contextually, I think "AI" is pretty clear in the Star Army context. A computer program created to pursue specific goals in an intelligent manner.
Ametheliana —
Boss
Soban —
Yes, but Boss is far as I can tell a person as it were.
It's a bit like saying "We don't review your brain, we have bob here in accounting do it." That doesn't make any sense.
Ametheliana —
Boss is a MEGAMI and an AI
raz —
Sure it makes sense. MEGAMIs are "people" but they're different people with specific programming and restrictions.
Like Data in Star Trek. He was eventually considered a being with the same protections as natural born sentients. But he was still given specific tasks and specific trust in undertaking certain tasks because of his hardcoded values and abilities.
Rizzo —
That just sounds like slavery
Soban —
There is a difference between not having any privacy even in your own mind and being a slave. It's small, but important.
(Assuming the person who violates your privacy is like a LIbertarian or something)
Rizzo —
Wait a second, I never said I was against it…
In SARP, anyway
raz —
Neko still have privacy in their own minds, though. It's not like MEGAMI is watching you 24/7 and rats on you, it's more that if a character is reported for doing something naughty then the evidence is easily found. Or, as Wes said, a mind scan voluntarily undertaken when you choose to join the Star Army as a condition of employment.
Just imagining some spaz Nep recruit saying "omg my privacy rights are being vioooolated!" when he signed the enlistment contract a week ago.
Soban —
Something to remember here is that military service in Yamatai isn't voluntary for a significant number of it's personnel. Being genetically predisposed to like it isn't the same as it being voluntary.
raz —
But it is voluntary even for created Neko these days. If they have it in their head (unlikely) to not serve after creation I think that's an option.
Last edited:
