boo on that bullshit.
G5 and the Death of Knowledge
by: SigmaSilver7After watching the new movie, many have remarked that the changes in Equestria have hit the unicorns the hardest. Izzy tells the group that unicorns are very superstitious, to the point where if someone says a “bad” word, they will immediately drop what they are doing and perform an elaborate ritual to ward off bad luck. In Twilight’s time, magic had been studied to the point of becoming a science. One can only imagine that if Twilight saw a bunch of unicorns believing in “jinxes” and honking to avoid bad luck, she would flip her lid! She would teleport the lot of them to a lecture hall, strap them to their seats, and refuse to release them until they could identify the 7 Cardinal Sigils AND recite Starswirl’s Eightfold Principle from memory AND explain its importance to maintaining the integrity of thaumic fields.This reminded me, oddly enough, of the universe of Warhammer 40K. That universe had an interstellar technology-driven society as seen in so many sci-fi properties.. until it all came crashing down due to a combination of an AI rebellion and losing the means of faster-than-light travel. Suddenly, it was a mad scramble for survival which caused much knowledge to be lost as humanity descended into a new age of barbarism. The world of Mars managed to hold on to more technical information than most. In the modern galaxy of the 41st millenium, most of humanity’s technology is manufactured and maintained by the Tech Priests of Mars.Yes.. “priests.” I also said technical “information” rather than “knowledge”.To illustrate what I mean, let’s suppose a tech priest wants to perform maintenance on an Imperial Guard APC. The priest would tighten the bolts, drain the engine oil which had become heavy with the driver’s impure thoughts, pour in fresh blessed oil, all the while burning incense and praying to the APC’s machine spirit. Some aspects of this ritual have actual mechanical value, such as tightening bolts and changing the oil. The rest of the ritual.. less so. The thing is, the tech priest doesn’t actually know what he’s doing! All he knows is that if he performs this ritual regularly, the vehicle keeps running. He doesn’t know WHY it works. He doesn’t realize that the need to change the oil has nothing to do with sinfulness. He just knows that when he does the ritual, the machine works like it should.The unicorns of G5 are in a similar spot. Comprehension has been replaced with ritual. Knowledge has withered into mere information. Who knows what roadblocks superstition will put up that will prevent the recovery of the knowledge that existed in Twilight’s time because this is “forbidden” and that is “unlucky”? They have a vague memory that incantations and following certain formulas can invoke preternatural forces but the WHY and HOW has been lost, so they fill in the holes with superstition. Of all the pony races, the unicorns have the longest road to recovery.
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