GURPS: Transhuman Space

[matt_arnold]

I loaned rikhei some of my GURPS: Transhuman Space roleplaying sourcebooks at ConFusion. Instead of hijacking her LJ comment to talk at length about this, I'll make a new post here. David Pulver's GURPS: Transhuman Space series is one of my favorite works of science fiction ever, despite not being a novel. It's almost a compendium of a certain radial

Comments

[matt_arnold]

"Qua" means "by the standard of" or "for the sake of." For instance, "a better game qua game" means "better as a gameplay experience per se, without non-game considerations like better writing, better art, better scientific accuracy, better this-or-that." What a non-gamer might want is too often applied as a standard to games, when one could argue games are an end in themselves for their own sake.

The reason I avoid the word "qua" is the philosopher Ayn Rand and her movement, Objectivism. I like a lot of what she said, which is why I'm libertarian, but she was obnoxious and started a cult of personality. Many of her followers used to parrot her phrases like "A is A" and incessant use of the word "qua" (man qua man) to sound philosophical.

[matt_arnold]

I'm glad.
I'm also curious as to which expectations I have defied.

[matt_arnold]

Brendan, I am reminded of the last of the New Humane Rights.
You have the right not to have the spread in your volition optimized away by an external decision process acting on unshared moral premises.
You have the right to a system of moral dynamics complicated enough that you can only work it out by discussing it with other people who share most of it.
You have the right to be created by a creator acting under what that creator regards as a high purpose.
You have the right to exist predominantly in regions where you are having fun.
You have the right to be noticeably unique within a local world.
You have the right to an angel. If you do not know how to build an angel, one will be appointed for you.
You have the right to exist within a linearly unfolding time in which your subjective future coincides with your decision-theoretical future.
Most importantly in this context, you have the right to remain cryptic.