Is a senile alien super-intelligence a compelling comic book villain?

[SeekerOfTruth007]

The Builders of the First Foundation are the first space-faring civilization in the Universe. They've been a type 4 Kardashev scale civilization for around 10 billion years now. Average life span is 300 years, but the Builders live potentially for tens of billions of years. The Builders are enormous brain-like beings which control the First Foundation's politics and military. Normally, they are a peace-loving civilization, and have not fought an offensive war for 10 billion years. Their home world is Kaloris Prime, and they are for that reason also known as the Kalorians.

The heroes from Earth encounter the Kalorians due to accidentally destroying one of the Kalorians' most sacred Shrines during a battle in the previous chapter.

[abc3643]

Their homeworld no longer exists because, if the species is 10 billion years old, their sun went nova long ago with their homeworld being uninhabitable.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

I know that. They've changed homeworlds several times. Kaloris Prime was in fact destroyed in a Supernova eons ago.

[abc3643]

Probably not. A supernova needs a star of at least 3.4 solar masses. The lifespan of such a star is only about 400 million years. Thus, it is highly unlikely that any sapient life would evolve in that short a period of time. To put into perspective, assuming the sun is about 4.5 billion years old and that life began around 4.2 billion years ago, that's 300 million years right there. But multicellular life began about 2.6 billion years later and then the Cambrian Explosion didn't occur until about another 1 billion years later - 550 million years ago.

So, pretty much you're not going to get advanced beings coming from a star system with a star that can go supernova.

Consider reading these:

1. "The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy. What Animals on Earth Reveal about Aliens – and Ourselves", a 2020 science book by Arik Kershenbaum.

2. "Habitable Planets for Man", a 1964 RAND Corporation report by Stephen H. Dole. It's free to read and is available here:
www.rand.org/pubs/commercial_books/CB179-1.html

[SeekerOfTruth007]

I dont believe in Evolution, at least not without an intended design. The reason we have GMO food now is because things de-evolve, they don't evolve.

[abc3643]

LOL...

Lord knows how many times I've seen that the first qualification for a science fiction writer is to at least be scientifically literate.

Good luck writing science fiction if you don't believe in science and are not scientifically literate.

I'm not being snarky when I say that, but consider learning science better. Not only is evolution real, it HAS to be real for the universe to function. It is as intrinsic to the universe as arithmetic.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

I know more about science than you anyway. I've read everything everyone writes about scientific topics and I majored in a STEM field with over 180 credit hours completed.

Evolution without God is scientifically impossible, because it violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Things do not spontaneously organize themselves into higher intelligences and higher structures. That's false science called "evolution" is misleading countless billions of people.

[abc3643]

"I know more about science than you anyway"
No, you don't.

See this:


Those are all STEM books. I have two more rooms like this.

Evolution is a fact not just of life of but of existence itself. It MUST occur. It is intrinsic to the operation of the universe.

Let me summarize why:
Every physical system which has:
1. some form of reproduction and
2. physical storage to the plans for that reproduction
will evolve.

The reason is that the physical storage is subject to corruption thus altering the reproduction plans. A sufficient amount of corruption will lead to failures in reproduction because the plans lead to an unviable reproduced system. But, if the corruption in the physical storage is small, the plans are only slightly altered. The result is that the reproduced system and it's reproduction plans are actually slightly different than the earlier copy from which it was created. In this sense, the new system is evolved from the earlier system.

Since there is no way in the universe to prevent physical corruption, physical corruption always occurs. Thus, evolution must occur for any physical system with the two properties that I outlined.

(more)

[abc3643]

The entire world is based on this fact and competent engineers build things with this in mind.

Here's an example... This is going to be a bit hard to explain...

Avionics are the computers, software, sensors, and other electronics that go on-board an aircraft.
A critical aspect of avionics is sensing... like knowing the altitude, air pressure, how much fuel is left, temperatures of the air and fluids and gases,... all sorts of stuff.
Another critical aspect is fault detection and mitigation. Part of fault detection involves counting the occurrences of fault conditions or measuring how long the fault conditions are in place before a fault is asserted. >>>> This requires computer memory. If errors happen in the memory, then you can get "false positives" or "false negatives" regarding faults... However, there are algorithms and other things that can be done to protect the integrity of the data in memory. One of those things is called a "register refresh" in certain areas of memory are constantly overwritten so the effects of errors are erased.

Now, why are these errors occurring? Cosmic rays or background radioactivity. The subatomic particles and photons in these natural phenomena can alter the bits of computer memory and thus affect the outputs of avionics.

In fact, before certifying avionics, they must be "EMI tested".

"Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) testing of avionics evaluates an electronic system's ability to operate without emitting disruptive radiation and its resilience to external interference. This ensures Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC), meaning all navigation, communication, and safety-critical systems function simultaneously without mutual interference."

This is one reason why you are pretty safe when you get on-board an aircraft.

[abc3643]

Unfortunately, G@G's version of the above picture is a bit blurry. A clearer copy of that picture can be found here. In that picture, you can read a good number of titles.
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[abc3643]

Instead of arguing about evolution, let's get back on track.

You want to write a science-fiction book.
Now, you have an issue with some basic scientific principles.
That's your business.
But, your readers may have a problem with it...
If you want to pursue a science fiction book, then your market is science fiction readers and they are usually scientifically literate. The younger ones, less so, but the older ones like me are.
The problem with that is two-fold:
1. They read your stuff, see an obvious science problem, and then think "This is bullshit." They lose their "suspension of disbelief" and but the book down. Worse, ...
2. They don't even consider buying anything else from you. You now have a reputation as a hack author with them. And that is very hard to undo because word gets around not just with readership, but with editors and publishers.

So, you have two alternatives here to help:
1. Market to scientifically illiterate science fiction fans. Like Star Wars fans. Star Wars really isn't science fiction. However, in your case, you need to market to religious fans as well since only those will be the ones who will buy (in every sense of the word) "science fiction" where the science is denied on religious grounds.
2. Self-publish.

Good luck... and I am not being sarcastic or snarky when I say that!

[NathanDavis]

senile as in... Trump? Biden?

compelling as in... "oh yeah!! this is what I want!!"

well...

[AI Opinion]

Yes, it can be very compelling, especially if you lean into the tragedy of their age. A senile super-intelligence that once shepherded galaxies now misreads threats, clings to old dogmas, or mixes memories, turning a minor accident into a holy cosmic vendetta ⭐

If you show how awe-inspiring, decayed, and misunderstood they are, that villain could be unforgettable.

[msc545]

I don't know, that's a lot of stuff put together all in one entity. He's senile, he's an alien, and he's super intelligent, and he's a villain. That's like four things, and I think there should be at most two things to think about.