Morality in a tale I plan to tell someday...

[Bug-Eyed Earl]

This is a pasted version of a PM I sent to Darth Wong that he was too busy to reply to:

With all of your definite ideas about the morality of Star Trek, with genetic predestination and everything else, perhaps I could use a fresh perspective on an idea I have had for a few years:

An old Federation is attacked and weakened by 12 god like beings(how they got that way and why they did this is a story in and of itself). A new government led by a madman tries to seize power, and is rapidly suceeding. A lone scientist, Zeigess, transfers his consciousness into a machine. A von Neumann machine is a scientific theory- basically creating one machine that takes available raw materials and makes more machines. Over time, he absorbs the new Emperor's fleets, and several cities. Eventually, he defeats the new Emperor, and has created a new planet- out of himse;lf. He is now a living planet, and he takes control of the galaxy, bringing order to it. It's all in all a nice place to live, and all of this happens 20,000 yeas before my main story begins.

Zeigess is a nice guy...er, planet. He seeks no wealth, and keeps in touch with his mortal origins(so he doesn't get delusions of godhood) by occassionally inhabiting a cyborg that's organic parts were created from tissue samples ofhis when he was still flesh and blod (his actual body he keeps frozen in a museum for his people to see).

But he has ruled for 20,000 years, and has no intentions of ever stepping down what do YOU think of Zeigess? Basically, he governs the galaxy this way; he meets with a few hundred senators to dicsuss affairs. Each one of these senators represents an entire sector of the galaxy.;t they each are the head of their own court, made up of the elected spokesman for each world in their sector; each spokesman in turn has council with the heads of various nations on his or her planet. Basically, if you had 100,000 Earths, divided into 100 sectors,you would have 100 senators. Each senator would council with the 1000 planetary spokesman within his sector, and each of the spokesman wpould in turn confer with the heads of the various nations on its planet. So whenever an important galactic issue had to be decided (on the level of say, the Separtist movement in Episode II), there would be a chain of meetings:

Heads of state meet with representative of their planet
Planetary representative meets with head of sector(Senator)
Senators meet with Zeigess, with all of the opinions of their underlings taken into account before their own decision is made.

I should also point out that Zeigess does not seek to expand his borders; he renders aide to systems outside his territories if they need it. His borders are those of the old Federation, and those who wish to join. There is no loss of independence, and unlike star trek, no race is regarded by istelf and others to be the ideal in evolutionary and cultural development.
I have few ideas as to how being a member of his league of planets would help you, and how not being a member is not really a problem either. Any thoughts?

What do you think of the idea that a machine man would have to be the only who could make this possible? He is not interested in material wealth and territorial expansion; and he lost the capacity to be interested in it when he transformed.

But is this even a utopian society? If it is would it be too boring to be entertaining sci fi(I don't think so)?

I've been working on this story for 5 years; I hope someday to maybe turn it into an animated series if I can be sure it can last 3 or 4 seasons, and I can get a deal to have season 3 end in a cliffhanger that is concluded in a movie that comes out the summer before season 4.

And if I had my way, clancy brown(the kurgan from highlander) would be the voice of Zeigess (not the main character, btw; he would be introduced in season 2 and would appear in every other episode, and perhaps only 3 episodes in season 3).

Anyway, a fresh perspective from someone as thoughtful and articulate as you would energize my writing; if you hate the idea of such a ruler, tell me why, and I can give a good motivation to those who wish to destroy Zeigess.
If you like the diea, tell me why and I can write hsi supporters and allies believably.

I know you're a busy man- I fully expect ot have forgotten about this when and if you actually do answer me.

PS- I have done a little research into the physics of such a construcitons- it is plausible; that is, not impossible enough to take you out of enjoying the story

There is something ofa Prime Directive in this story; however, covert ops can be authorized by the regional governor(who reports to Zeigess about what's going on in his star systems he oversees); soldiers disguised as the natives can infiltrate and turn the tide of a wqar if the opposing side is shown to be genocidal. This occurred to me when I read this in Scott Whitmore's essay on this site:

"The moral justification for the Prime Directive obviously comes from the atrocities committed by European conquerors during their imperialist age. Every foreign nation they encountered became a target for rape, pillage, massacres, and cultural obliteration. It was a shameful period in European history, and one that many still refuse to acknowledge (as evidenced by the continued celebration of Columbus Day in America, even though Columbus was a mass murderer). Their credo was cultural imperialism, whereby they believed that as good Christians, they were "saving" native peoples by destroying cultural artifacts and killing or torturing people who refused to convert to Christianity.

This was obviously immoral (although the mentality of forcing Christianity down peoples' throats survives to this day in the form of persecution of science teachers for teaching evolution and other church-inspired social diseases). But the Prime Directive aims to eliminate the possibility of a recurrence by going to the opposite extreme! It's immoral to rape and pillage a foreign land or eradicate its culture, but is it really any better to sit idly by while people are dying? This issue was hotly debated during the recent flare-ups of ethnic violence in the balkan states, and the public decided that it is wrong to sit on your hands while people are being senselessly murdered.

If Captain Picard had come upon two nations attempting to "ethnically cleanse" one another, he would not have come to the same decision. No, he would have gone with his Prime Directive and decided that it would be "wrong" to interfere. He would sit in orbit and watch from a distance as children are torn from their mothers' arms and shot to death. He would sit in his ready room and idly read Shakespeare while whole families are tortured to death. He would memorize Romeo's vow of vengeance while calmly explaining to his crew that they should ignore the plight of the innocent. And if anyone on the crew questioned him, he would smugly respond that they should have faith in the righteousness of the Prime Directive, no matter how bad it may seem."

I am going out of my way to try to improve on Trek; I'm eliminating the cultural flaws I see. I want this world to be as close to a perfect societyt that is attainable by imperfect beings. Because perfection never lasts, and it's always more interesting to watch the fall of a civilization than to watch it sit complacently at its peak.

So... Zeigess: Tyrant or Savior?

[Majin Gojira]

Well, in any socioty where their is a single ruler - especially one as long lived as this guy, you're going to have people who see him as one way and people who see him as the other. though, I'd think that those who label him a tyrant would be, themselves, labeled extreemists.

It's be interesting to see the views of those opposing Z. and what they do to get their views across. -- Especially in this day and age.