By These Signs You Will Be Measured

Philosophy enjoyed an explosive revival in the late 20th century when Earth was presented with a myriad of new mysteries that science was scrambling to explain. Few doubted the ability of science to contend with these strange new concepts, but some questions, such as mankind's place in this new galactic community begged for more philosophical answers.

The burgeoning understanding of Star Drive technology revealed, at its heart, a basis of simple ratios. The geometry of space-time that would allow traveling to distant stars could be understood in geometric proportions of mass (and negative mass,) distances, and energy. This recalled an earlier, romantic concept known as musica universalis. This philosophy equated the movement of heavenly bodies with music. The movement of stars and planets were harmony for the eyes, while music was harmony for the ears.

A contemporary philosopher, a Rami Nadir, wrote several essays utilizing the renewed interest in musica universalis as analogy for a number of cultural and personal virtues. These essays espoused a deontological philosophy and due to the poetic and hopeful nature of the writings, quickly became entrenched in the star-faring zeitgeist. Astronauts commonly quoted his words and it become trendy to claim a celestial body and its associated Nadirian virtue as a patron.

These writings drew heavily on alchemical allegory and musical theory to describe a worldview focused on the pursuit of mystery and the universal betterment of the galaxy as both a community and as natural environment to be revered. In this way, Nadir's philosophy was rooted in deism and positivism.

In regards to Project Manifest Destiny, the attributes of the player character (those tied with alchemical/cosmological symbols and written about in previous blog entries) are drawn from the metafiction of Rami Nadar's writings. The mechanical aspects of a player character will have a corollary in the fiction of the game world. Improvements to the player character in the form of larger statistics will represent the player approaching that ideal of human positivism described by Nadir in his works.

These works will often focus on the struggle between man and the harsh environment of space in a manner similar to the works of Jack London and his writings of man versus nature and how that struggle strengthens us and similar to the writings on evolution by men such as Herber Spencer and Charles Darwin.