Sorry I haven't been around for a while.

Inspired by the lightning gun dispute in the skeletal structure topic, I wondered what a better form of weaponry for our species might be. I think that as it is, grenades are definitely plausible, but then again, I haven't read everything that we've discussed about our tech level recently, so correct me if I'm wrong. If we're thinking about grenades, we can definitely assume that they'll be propelled and/or adherent. What about floating minefields? Gun platforms by the airdocks? Selectively bred defense plants? Crossbows? Weighted nets?

Why do our critters have to be warlike? What is wrong with them being peaceful?

They must be warlike! They're, as far as I know, in a tribal, semi-nomadic system. Some live on the islands, some fly about as merchants, or perhaps doing others things. Do you think that those that fly about are going to not take advantage of their status? I think that a bandit-tribe situation could arise extremely easily. And will the island people stand for this? Of course not!


.........And that's where Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" came from. Therefore, war *is* going to occur in some form or another, even if it is just the occasional scuffle or skirmish.

I dislike the idea of excessive weponry, I feel that our aliens should be peaceful, and not as inclined to war as we are.

i think respect for life should be so indoctrinated into our culture that warlike options will never be conceived by our creatures, and if they are, the individuals responsible for the thoughts will be shunned as perverted, criminally insane freaks, treated with horror and derision at social gatherings, and parents will warn their kids to stay away from them.

YES! :D I really like that idea!

it would be interesting to roleplay

what about just incapacitating weapons, then. only things that will stun or disable.

i think no weapons execpt for those nessecary to hunt, and those shall never be turned against other sophants

Our *culture* or our *species*? An important distinction.
If it's just our culture, that leaves open the possibility (the probability, perhaps I should say) of other cultures which do not have the same views, and which the members of our culture would occasionally be obliged to defend themselves against, in which situation they have the option of either a) dying, or b) considering their enemies to perverted, insane animals, less than people and thus perfectly OK to attack. Perhaps 'attack' means 'kill', or perhaps they do in fact try to use only incapacitating but non-lethal weapons against those filthy demons that, nevertheless, look the same as them.

Note that the Aztecs preferentially used non-lethal attacks, but that was for an entirely different reason- they wanted live prisoners for human sacrifices at the temples.

If it's the entire species, we'll need some reason why they've all got such an aversion to violence. Such reasons do exist- bonobos, for example, are the only great ape that has never been observed to purposefully harm its own kind- but I'm going to assume that y'all would not be particularly fond of using the bonobos' method of avoiding aggression.

why, what method do the bonobo's use?

To do it justice would require more typing than I'm willing to do right now, so I'll just point you to wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonobo ). It doesn't have all the details, but it get's the idea across.

well, at least they do mitigate conflicts efficiently

huh, well that would be interesting to role play

Yup... I wonder if we can come up with another way...

Perhaps there was a HUGE nasty war in the history of our critters, and the species was nearly whiped out. Everyone has a mutual agreement to never war again because of the fear of a similar event.

Never going to work. Why? Because there will always be fringe elements, people who don't agree with the rest. Even if you do end up with a situation in which so few people were left after this huge nasty war that they could all get together and all agree to never go to war again, after a few generations people will start to forget. Such an event could be a selective pressure against agression, but won't eliminate it completely unless sustained over a long period- which isn't going to happen, since they agreed not to let it.

or we could have a honor bound society, where any disputes would be settled by dueling or some other personal contest, and honor plays such an important role in this society, that if someone tries to gain an unfair advantage over another person in this contest, then that person would be disgraced, and might have to commit Hari-Kari