This is a temporary area until I get the forums back up.
Donations go toward bills, gas, groceries and supplies - in that order. Right now, I'm on bills. :D Fortunately I draw on typing paper now and I have PLENTY of that, but I am going to save for a 12" cintiq so I can retire my tablet to more mundane/less harmful to it use. (I do owe several wallpapers, which is why I'm not posting any incentives at the moment. I want to finish those first.)
I do also have a Wishlist.
If you enjoy today's update, VOTE!
I do also have a Wishlist.
If you enjoy today's update, VOTE!
On the topic of dice intelligence… Several of the characters, particularly Lexx and Riley, have said that dice are not truly sentient. That’s pretty telling, from members of a society that incorporates dozens if not hundreds of alien races. Such a community could be expected to have a definition of “sentient” and “intelligence” that is much less fuzzy than our own current understanding of those terms.
Having said that… I think that definition is still one of convenience. There are laws in this interstellar society that prohibit the exploitation of sentients. Even organizations as powerful as the ADC are careful not to be seen violating them for fear of reprisal. At least a few of Lexx’s dice would probably be seen as “intelligent” by human standards.
Just as dolphins (and other cetaceans), gorillas and African gray parrots have blurred the line between animal and human intelligence in our world, I think dice blur the line in Lexx’s society. In creating and popularizing this game for their own benefit, the ADC has (as I think some of them have realized) also laid the foundation of their own destruction. The “non-sentient” dice may have begun as animals, but as they level up in the game, they don’t stay that way. Some of them are now sentient as interstellar society apparently defines it; it’s just convenient to ignore this gray area.
But the game is popular that selective blindness is getting difficult. Especially with cases of exploitation like Lexx’s, and relatively powerful people like Riley getting involved. But the exploitation of sentients is just the beginning; when the fact of sentient dice being CREATED and exploited gets out, the roof will blow sky-high!
I suspect that at least the head of the ADC and a few others realize this. It would make sense in their position to try and prevent this outcome by changing the existing law. The ADC has already had some success with this; to them it would just seem a logical extension to consolidate their position. If they succeed, they’ll essentially be the biggest slaver organization in interstellar society, all quite legal and above board. Cases like Lexx’s will become routine, the abuse of non-sentient and created sentient dice will go unchecked… and the future of worlds like Earth will become increasingly precarious.