Talk:6 Billion A.D.

Collective Brainstorm

• Technologic development of the League? They have explored most of the galaxy but have yet to go beyond the rim. They can harvest energy from stars directly but have yet to construct a Dyson sphere, or at least the project has never been undertaken. The technology to destroy a star and create a black hole is there, but is illegal, due to its potential as a weapon. They have just recently begun to harvest dark matter for practical purposes. Much of the technical details can be ignored due to the story being told from the point of view of Rigel, who doesn't really understand what is going on.

• • What if dark matter proves not to exist? Instead, they could harvest something else, like interstellar hydrogen? --Eagle (talk) 06:57, 7 February 2020 (EST)

• • Interstellar hydrogen is a good idea. The League needs to have enough tech to travel around their home galaxy and to be able to barely stop the collapse of the universe if they tried over a long period of time, neither too much nor too little, whatever that tech may be. (NickSchroederPhilosopher)

• • • A variation would be some rare species of hydrogen, e.g. H5, which fuses easily. --Eagle (talk) 12:49, 12 February 2020 (EST)

• Tentative Synopsis, Chapter 2: Rigel, in search of a cure, ventures out of League territory to a far off planet following rumors of an illegal medical procedure.

• Tentative Synopsis, Chapter 3: Rigel finds himself on the planet of the immortals, falling in love, but also needing to leave after a short time.

• Tentative Synopsis, Chapter 4: Desperate in love, Rigel searches for Sophiy, spanning hundreds of years.

• Tentative Synopsis, Chapter 5: Rigel finally finds Sophiy who convinces him to play a pivotal role in the League as a new threat emerges.

• Tentative Synopsis, Chapter 6: War looms as the Order sets out to unleash havoc on the galaxy.

• Tentative Synopsis, Chapter 7: The League fights back, but Rigel's loyalty is tested after Sophiy's death.

• Tentative Synopsis, Chapter 8: In his despair Rigel becomes the tool of the enemy, as the Order pushes the League to the brink.

• Tentative Synopsis, Chapter 9: As the new dark age sets in Rigel wanders the galaxy for 200 years until encountering the mysterious Sentience.

• Tentative Synopsis, Chapter 10: Rigel heads toward the anomaly at the center of the galaxy to set off a chain reaction that could stop the collapse of the universe, for better or worse.

Seems like a solid plot. What is the Order about? I moved this discussion here from the story page. --Eagle (talk) 06:59, 7 February 2020 (EST)

• • I’m thinking the Order is really old, and every once in a while will wreak havoc on the galaxy throwing all the sentient races into a dark age, the last one ending 1,000 years ago. Maybe they use robots to do it, which would explain the galaxy’s antagonism of everything robotic, including Rigel’s nanoprobes. Whether the Order is good or bad, we can figure out as we’re writing it. But there are two philosophical positions at play, Do we want a living, never ending universe (expand and collapse) where sentient life comes and goes every cycle, or Do we want a universe that will eventually die (heat death) but one or more species gets to live an additional trillion years or so? The Order would seem to take the first position, sentient life would seem to take the second. Rigel will have to decide who is right. (NickSchroederPhilosopher)

? Is this the place for questions? If so...

Being set so far in the future, I'm guessing civilization has no connection with our present time and probably does not even remember it?

After so much time passing, what has evolution done to the human form? For now, I'll just write as if humans are basically the same as now - can always change it.

• • I’m thinking Rigel is an alien, and humans are long gone at this point. (NickSchroederPhilosopher)

?I removed human references in chapter 2. Is there any idea yet about Rigel's race, appearance? I can be vague about that for now and add such later on. I assume the League is made up of different races?

• • Rigel’s race and appearance is up to the imagination. Maybe he’s orange with black spots? Yeah the League would be made up of different races. (NickSchroederPhilosopher)

I'll go with a mammal, 2 legs, 2 arms, one head, overall orange (not bright orange), verging into dark orangish brown (not black) in places. For now, Rigel will have hair somewhere, most likely brown. I guess readers can identify more with humanoid characters than with insects, slugs, or floating blobs:)

• • Sounds good to me. (NickSchroederPhilosopher)

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When?

How would you feel about changing the name? This story seems to me set a few decades or centuries or maybe millennia in the future, not billions of years. Also, I doubt that any people six billion years from now will refer to human calendars, years, or days. Maybe a title like "10,000 Years"? --Eagle (talk) 12:53, 12 February 2020 (EST)

• Yeah the name is changeable. But the story needs to take place around the time when this particular universe stops expanding and starts to collapse in on itself, which is probably billions of years from now, but maybe sooner. The actual technological state in the story is probably like 1,000 years ahead of us now, but they are recovering from a dark age 1,000 years before, so in the past they were more advanced. I think most species have come and gone at this point, so there would be no species billions of years ahead of us technologically. Yeah, there’s probably a better term than “years,” because it’s about aliens, not humans. That being said, I chose the name 6 Billion A.D. because it literally takes place 6 Billion years after the death of Christ, and I was playing around with a fringe theory that the Order is made up of left over humans (but of course Earth is long gone at this point). (NickSchroederPhilosopher)

• • That makes more sense than what I thought before. I'd still prefer to see a different title. We can put together titles, then pick one. --Eagle (talk) 10:08, 19 February 2020 (EST)

Immortals

What if we limit the immortality to biological immortality? That is, people can die of accident or illness or other causes, but absent those causes they can reproduce themselves indefinitely. Also, people could have plant-like functions, such as cloning themselves, or having multiple sexes. Maybe Rigel changes sex as part of the switching sides, e.g. becoming hermaphroditic. Also, Rigel may then want to convince his romantic interest to undergo the same procedure, arguing that she is only half a person without having both sexes. --Eagle (talk) 12:58, 12 February 2020 (EST)

• Yeah by immortal I think it would be biologically immortal. Rigel can die, maybe even there is a limit to how long he can live, but he has to live at least a few thousand years to see everything unfold (because the story is through his eyes). There are also a few known immortal people, on the planet in Chapter 3, but it is strictly forbidden for the majority, having to do with avoiding the hubris in the previous age, which led to the dark age. So it’s a social policy, not necessarily a technological limitation. Cloning and genetic engineering would also be forbidden by the same social policy (for the League at least). Yeah there’s no reason Rigel could’ve be a hermaphrodite or gay, or whatever. But there is a love story in place between Rigel and Sophiy which drives the story. Rigel doesn’t want to be a hero, he just wants to impress Sophiy. But the love is unrequited so it’s tragic. Sophiy doesn’t really love Rigel in the same way, so she probably wouldn’t undergo a sex change for him. (NickSchroederPhilosopher)

Chapters

I think that we should give the chapters names instead of numbers, so that it's easier to add to or edit the structure. --Eagle (talk) 12:58, 12 February 2020 (EST)

• Yeah there’s no Chapter names yet, because I don’t know what to call them. I think the only chapter name so far is Chapter 5: Hero of the League. But yeah if you got some ideas for names go for it. (NickSchroederPhilosopher)