Not a single species under Tohaa's care has ever complained. And, unlike the EI, the Tohaa doesn't need to employ brute intimidatory tactics like sending Morat Diplomats and threaten with extinction.
Because they're lobotomized! An honest and straightforward approach is better than insidiousness and falsehood
If you rever to the whole sentence, you apparently missed a sentence which I was responding to (as directly "improving working conditions" has nothing to do with man-made famine, breaking the resistance against compulsory collectivism has though).
Do you understand, when you call it "man-made famine" (quote from english wiki i guess), you take only one interpretation, which, moreover, exposes some nations guilty for direct genocide? So, keeping friendly communication between players from different countries, would it not be superfluous to choose words and judgments in analogies?
The Triumvirate are enemies of the Sphere and probably a lot of the Tohaa, and the Tohaa themselves used to be pretty nasty. But they probably haven't genocided billions like the EI has. And they are also fighting the EI alongside the Sphere so they're cool.
The EI can instantly take over the mind of any of its underlings via their Cube. I mean, the Human Sphere and Tohaa have their flaws, but they've not yet reached the ability to instantly and immediately brainwash dissenters.
Wasn't there fluff that said the EI is largely unconcerned with how its subjects behave and/or govern themselves once assimilated? That seems to me much better than "Hey, we're totally not gene-splicing/lobotomizing all your people, we are your friends!"
Yeah but you can't not assimilate They say "we're going to run your society now and if you say no we'll exterminate you"
If the EI thinks a civilisation has the potential to Ascend it will watch it like a Guinea Pig in a lab, taking notes and hoping it can follow along, all the members of that society will be implanted with cubes giving a real time two way connection to the EI. If there isn't the potential to Ascend then a civilisation needs to prove itself to be useful (see Morats, Shasvaasti, Nexus, etc). Otherwise the civilisation will be broken down for parts.
Meanwhile, in the aftermath of this thread: How's that work? I'm assuming direct control? From what we've seen, well, I'm not sure. Maybe it's a benign dictatorship as long as you're making the fighting or the computing of how to ascend (or possibly supplying the other two), the EI is cool with you. Maybe it's a Brave New World level dystopia of segregated society on drugs, maybe it's 1984 of the proles and party, maybe it's a Lotus Eater Machine, or maybe the EI is actually a super-confused dishwasher.
Game wise it's already present in the tabletop, a G: Mnemonica trooper can take over any cube bearing trooper when it's current host goes Unconscious. Then there's Sepsitor to think about. We know from the background that the EI is essentially a distributed peer-to-peer network running on the cubes of its subjects as well as dedicated platforms like the EI constructs. If you're a subject then the EI knows your thoughts, your cube is part of it. Replacing your consciousness with its own would be trivial.
What do you mean by "lobotomized"? Quite the opposite! The Tohaa take under their care young species that haven't evolved enought and help them reach their potential and get their place among the stars. Just ask any Chaksa out there, they'll explain you how happy they are now that they are an intelligent species and an useful part of the pacifist Tohaa civilization.
The EI is upfront about what it wants. Not quite. The EI says, "I am now your computer network, here are enough comlogs for every sentient being. Carry on doing what you were doing before we met." At least if it thinks you have the potential to Ascend. One of the markers for that is creating Artificial Intelligence(s). Which is why the EI is interested in Humanity. That is the downside. The damn artichokes, however, manipulate and deliberately misinform other races they contact, throwing them into the fight against the EI to save Tohaa lives at the expense of entire species. If there's not a sentient species on a planet already, the Tohaa will create one, but it will be a slave race incapable of revolting, incapable of even forming the thoughts about rebelling. That's slavery of the worst kind. The EI has had rebellions among the population before. They're usually put down hard, but thinking about rebelling against the EI or betraying the EI's desires is possible. So unless you have been sepsitorized, you still have free will under the EI.
Are Yu Jing even communist? I mean, they are an empire, with Emperor and all. "Communist Empire" sounds kinda weird to me...
