Projekt312: Regarding the technological bootcamp, what are the things which we are so accustomed to which we will not be able to enjoy anymore? I would guess we won’t be allowed to be as promiscuous as we are, what else?

RD/Glycon: The Assembly are an odd bunch…

They don’t like smog, for example.

Things which produce it are heavily discouraged or regulated to the point of extinction.

That’s not to say that you would have to go back to the horse and buggy, but you would no longer have access to the types of automobiles which you’ve grown so accustomed to.

Such vehicles and power generating facilities releasing pollutants into the air would either be phased out completely, or subjected to the requirement of costly conversion equipment prior to releasing such compounds into the atmosphere at all.

This adversely affects market share in petroleum products considerably until new plastic products which use bacteria as scrubbing tools and imbue clothing with its own power supplies are brought to market.

Many distrusting and short-sighted people by then will have divested themselves of their shares and wish that they’d have held on to them through the initial refitting and reorganization of the transportation and power structure.

You’ll hear a lot of complaints and angry demands from investors used to making profits in ways that have become unpopular and even illegal because they were harmful not only to those concerned with the long term investment, but to the development of the species as a whole.

The Assembly are also not that keen on pesticide use, but favor methods of insect control you might at first find somewhat ‘disturbing,’ as such techniques lead to the development of far more intelligent, predatory insects.

The insect ‘brain’ at this stage of its development on your world is open to modification and can adapt to electronic determinatives.

Hornets for example, can be compelled en masse to attack not only those insects which devour certain foodstuffs, but also to keep away larger pests which soil and devour fruits and vegetables.

To encourage and sustain the domestication of insects and elimination of many destructive pesticides would allow the setting aside of portions of land which would not be harvested, so that local wildlife could also benefit and ‘evolve’ from the labors of mankind.

This of course, cuts into the bottom line, and is a way of doing things which you’re not accustomed to.

Insects rapidly reproduce and to see their intelligence increase over time while other insect species are eliminated entirely would be extremely disconcerting to some people who stupidly place a value on all life since they lack the decisiveness to determine whether it is simply parasitical in nature, or the courage and the fortitude to make the decision to eliminate it from the circle of life entirely.

Beetles pushing balls of manure along the ground might be quite comical, but flies that dispose of waste and no longer bite or sting and millions of bats taking to the air to feed upon mosquitoes genetically mutated to reproduce using proteins now forming in sea water will raise eyebrows and cause questions, especially among those Luddites claiming that the so-called ‘natural order’ of things is being tampered with and the cynical who would rather just see these pests eliminated altogether.

You just can’t make some people happy, no matter what course you may take.

Nevertheless, there is a harmony hidden in life that is conspicuously out of place when the strings of that instrument are played haphazardly.

The Assembly seeks to discover and to utilize that harmony in a more constructive form of evolution which humanity would play a greater, more ‘authoritative’ role in.

That is the ‘gift’ which they bring to developing species.

In time though, successive generations forget their past and eventually come to reject that gift when it becomes common place.

There is always the voice of the ambitious who care nothing but for their own claims to power, posterity be damned.

We shall see what happens to this world and how long that alliance will stand.

That is, if it is even established at all.

Projekt312: Thank you for this, Glycon. Anything else you may want to add?

RD/Glycon: The Assembly utilizes mosquitoes ( and creatures like them ) as humble inoculators to repair the ravages and damage caused by groups such as the Consortium. The saliva of such creatures can be used for good when harmonized.

Projekt312: I hope hover cars or something like that can replace the cars we use now, that would be cool. Of course as long as they don’t pollute, that is. Thank you Glycon.

RD/Glycon: I didn’t say “no pollution.” Its more like manageable pollution without leaving the problems to the next generation to deal with.