Polysentience and Traffic Accidents

Reading through the Freespacer articles, two things come to my attention: the ubiquity of Polysentience and the nomadic lifestyle of Freespacers. As such, it would probably not be rare for Freespacers to take it for granted, firing off traffic signalling and other such things mentally, safe in the knowledge that everyone can understand them.

But what happens to Freespacers in trading starports or foreign cities? Not only are they inclined by habit to coordinate solely via Polysentience due to its ease, the constant chatter on it would be akin to talking on the phone while driving, as they only have so much attention to spare on an individual basis. How many accidents were directly preceded by a panicking Freespacer screaming over Polysentience for a hapless pedestrian to dodge, a warning never heard by the victim?

It makes for a grim mood when you take this situation and expand it to aircraft and starship scales.

As a whole Freespacers tend to have greater than human capacity to coordinate, given that they are almost all mated to computer systems as a human is mated to their own brain. Since communication is so prevalent in their society it is likely to be more akin to breathing than texting or talking while driving is in comparison to a human.

In my opinion it is sort of selling the Freespacers as a culture short of their potential to say that their intimate relationship with the Polysentience as a facet of their lives has any sort of crippling negative impact on their ability to function. After all this is a culture that has had many generations not just using communications networks but rather having adapted to communicating almost constantly, as opposed to humans which have only been using wireless communication for a few decades. (Which results in accidents due to split focus.)

Also given their near constant interaction with the Polysentience it is unlikely that a Freespacer would not know that the other races do not in fact have the ability to communicate as they do and for them it would be trivial to adapt their behaviour to avoid causing unnecessary damage or injury since it is unlikely that they would be ignorant of such information.

Put simply a Freespacer is probably less likely to panic an hit a pedestrian than any other race, especially if both were to be communicating at the same time.

Ah, right. I forgot to account for outright evolution, having underestimated just how long Freespacers have existed like this. Many thanks for the information.

Is it safe to assume that Freespacers have mental capacities almost on par with organic computers?

On average it would be safe to assume that the average Freespacer outclasses an equivalent computer of similar volume. This is a race that has heavily refined computer science both in terms of software and hardware. A casual user by Freespacer terms would equal or exceed an average professional for another race in terms of information technology.

It is what their race is centred around, as such it would be expected that their capabilities in such an arena would be above and beyond what would normally be expected of another race with few exceptions such as PANTHEON which is in some ways equivalent to the Polysentience though they are very different creatures.

Ah. So they are an organic version of the Geth, but each runtime possessing of intelligence exceeding that of humans.

That is a terrifying prospect.

Keep in mind that as a race they are fun loving, kind, and selfless.

Freespacers are space hippies. Love not war man.

Hippie Skynet radioactive cyborg shamans. Perhaps their mentality is the only thing stopping them from overrunning the sector with reincarnating robot armies.

That and being significantly weaker in terms of military capability relative to the local factions.

Freespacers are mostly harmless.

True, but only because they lack the industrial capacity of a proper planet.

Speaking of which, have Freespacers ever entertained the notion of Swarm-Type Dyson Spheres? Solar panels and collectors could collect energy and regulated solar radiation to occupants, providing them with the closest form of "homeworld" conditions as possible.

Some one should mention this to #lamb

It is not only because they lack industrial capacity. To be perfectly honest the real reason is that as a society the Freespacers have no desire to be a powerhouse in the political or military spheres. They don't particularly care for conquest, territory, or similar things that would drive an expansionist agenda. They simply want to live life to its fullest.

As for Dyson Spheres the Freespacers to my knowledge don't have the physical resources to construct such a thing as that would take several planets worth of mass...

Also yes @Lamb should have this brought to their attention as they are the present Faction Manager for the Freespacers... I wasn't anticipating this subject going on for so long.

Very well, this indeed has gone off for long enough. Let us end on this note, shall we? Thank you very much for the information.

Why does this disscution need to end? Great way to brain storm cram fot the faction.

"Stargazer Lazybeam Six-six, why did you smash into that privateer's freighter with our ship?"

"Because Stargazer Grindcase Rebecca Seven-six was posting another one of those faces on Polysentience, and I just couldn't help but start laughing and pressing buttons wildly because you know those faces, don't you?"

"Oh, yes, yes I do! They are very humorous, Stargazer! Which one was it!?"

"It was the 'laughing abwherans' one, except this time it was made to look like they were all looking at Gearhead Spannermonger's tiniest wrench."

"Oh, oh, as if it were his genitals!"

"Yes! Hilarious, right? I was thoroughly pleased by it. I must have laughed for twelve straight seconds before I simply had to stop looking at it. Anyway, the privateer is dead."