But the tech in the story massively favors the defense, to the point that a defender who is already prepared to fracture his starline network if attacked is almost impossible to conquer (you’d need to advance faster than the defender can send warnings of your attack while maintaining perfect control over every system you’ve captured). So an armed society would have a good chance of being able to cut itself off from even massively superior aliens, while pacifists are vulnerable to surprise attacks from even fairly inferior ones.
I agree, and that’s why in my ending humans conquer the Babyeaters only after we develop a defense against the supernova weapon. The fact that the humans can see the defensive potential of this weapon, but the Babyeaters and the Superhappies can’t, is a big flaw in the story. The humans sacrificed billions in order to allow the Superhappies to conquer the Babyeaters, but that makes sense only if the Babyeaters can’t figure out the same defense that the humans used. Why not?
Also, the Superhappies’ approach to negotiation made no game theoretic sense. What they did was, offer a deal to the other side. If they don’t accept, impose the deal on them anyway by force. If they do accept, trust that they will carry out the deal without try to cheat. Given these incentives, why would anyone facing a Superhappy in negotiation not accept and then cheat? I don’t see any plausible way in which this morality/negotiation strategy could have become a common one in Superhappy society.
Lastly, I note that the Epilogue of the original ending could be named Atonement as well. After being modified by the Superhappies (like how the Confessor was “rescued”?), the humans would now be atoning for having forced their children suffer pain. What does this symmetry tell us, if anything?
why would anyone facing a Superhappy in negotiation not accept and then cheat?
The SH cannot lie. So they also cannot claim to follow through on a contract while plotting to cheat instead.
They may have developed their negotiation habits only facing honest, trustworthy members of their own kind. (For all we know, this was the first Alien encounter the SH faced.)
But the tech in the story massively favors the defense, to the point that a defender who is already prepared to fracture his starline network if attacked is almost impossible to conquer (you’d need to advance faster than the defender can send warnings of your attack while maintaining perfect control over every system you’ve captured). So an armed society would have a good chance of being able to cut itself off from even massively superior aliens, while pacifists are vulnerable to surprise attacks from even fairly inferior ones.
I agree, and that’s why in my ending humans conquer the Babyeaters only after we develop a defense against the supernova weapon. The fact that the humans can see the defensive potential of this weapon, but the Babyeaters and the Superhappies can’t, is a big flaw in the story. The humans sacrificed billions in order to allow the Superhappies to conquer the Babyeaters, but that makes sense only if the Babyeaters can’t figure out the same defense that the humans used. Why not?
Also, the Superhappies’ approach to negotiation made no game theoretic sense. What they did was, offer a deal to the other side. If they don’t accept, impose the deal on them anyway by force. If they do accept, trust that they will carry out the deal without try to cheat. Given these incentives, why would anyone facing a Superhappy in negotiation not accept and then cheat? I don’t see any plausible way in which this morality/negotiation strategy could have become a common one in Superhappy society.
Lastly, I note that the Epilogue of the original ending could be named Atonement as well. After being modified by the Superhappies (like how the Confessor was “rescued”?), the humans would now be atoning for having forced their children suffer pain. What does this symmetry tell us, if anything?
The SH cannot lie. So they also cannot claim to follow through on a contract while plotting to cheat instead.
They may have developed their negotiation habits only facing honest, trustworthy members of their own kind. (For all we know, this was the first Alien encounter the SH faced.)