The Hafnium
Era (era 72) lasted 21,704,833 Uranian days; this amounted to 884
Uranian years,
equivalent to 74,280 Earth
years.
As usual with Uranian history, faced with such a
stupendous span of time we have to accept that our account will be
sketchy and inadequate to a degree that is never necessary for
Terrestrial narrative. So we might as well frame our account
around the cliche, that this era was "the age of the Wise" - and
then quote the well-known cynical comment, "yes, it needed to
be".
During the previous great era, the Thulium, Syoom had
grown dependent on an increased supply of natural resources, obtained
from the Fyayman wilderness. This had provoked retaliation by
Fyayman powers which then threatened Syoom itself. The choice
which Syoom then faced, was: fight or withdraw. By opting for
caution (arguably the wiser decision in view of the results of the first
'dassan call and the first Simulation), Syoom had committed itself to a
huge change of policy and a huge reorganization. The techniques of
Simulation were vital to the success of this undertaking.
At first, the results were indisputably good.
Political and economic strategies, helped as never before by scientific
proof of the consequences that would ensue from choosing various courses
of action, led to a relatively peaceful and prosperous golden age.
Nor did the long peace cause Syoom to forget how to fight, for the
simulators took into account the periodic need for defence agains
occasional waves of attack from Fyaym. And there were always
vrars and outlaws and various other perils to keep
navies and individual wayfarers in the practice of adventure.
However, as the days rolled on in their millions,
Simulation gradually inserted itself into other aspects of life.
Simulators became cheaper and more powerful until many were owned by
well-off individuals. Curiously, from this the sense grew
that there were no irrevocable decisions, that every
option must have been taken and been followed in some probability
dimension; for often people would re-run a simulation shortly
after having retracted a decision based on a previous
one, and would play around endlessly with the changing data.
The "retakes and rewinds of life" became a notorious theme of the
era. More seriously, Simulation became part of the justice system
(there was a formal justice system in this era, one of
the few such periods in Uranian history), with "counterfactuals"
used as evidence during trials. Untimately the system was almost
brought to a standstill as ingenious Simulation showed that, given
the right conditions, just about anyone was a would-be murderer, and
therefore no one had the moral right to condemn anyone else.
Another social phenomenon which probably resulted from
the widespread practice of Simulation was a certain stilted formality, a
stiff reserve unusual by the standards of Ooranye. It has been
plausibly argued that this arose from a need to preserve one's dignity
and autonomy in the face of the humiliating knowledge of the
"probability lines" of one's life - of what one might have been or
done.
What in the end saved Syoom from Simulation was
Simulation itself. The most advanced machine, evolved into a
conscious Ghepion, predicted its own misuse, and advised that mankind
abandon the practice.
Of course nen was not heeded at first; neither did nen
expect to be, except by a few. But the "Age of the Wise" was not
altogether misnamed. Enough followed the truth to co-operate in a
process whereby one by one the Simulators of Syoom were taken over and
shut down. There came a day when this process reached its tipping
point - predicted and expected - and the
resulting eomasp brought the age to a
close.
>> Holding the Line
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