The Shen-Vogler Files
PRELIMINARY CLARIFICATIONS
Though there are much more in-depht analyses, the Shen-Vogler Files are considered the standard human encyclopedic taxonomy system when it comes to common divulgation of xenobiological, xenopsychological and xenosociological details of the sophont civilizations, particularly those who engage in starfaring civilization-building. It is so because it allows a bird's eye of the main traits one needs to know to get the general picture of a wide range of relevant xenodata, even in non-upgraded formats and even if it takes a familiarization with the pictographic nomenclature. In addition, these files were created, even admittedly so, with a human perspective and thus a human bias: the cathegories that non-human sophonts might find relevant about other sophont communities might be read in very different terms, and in some cases hard or even nearly impossible to accurately decypher.
INITIATION TO NOMENCLATURE
Green by default indicates traits corresponding to the subject of study, against a background color according to the analyzed traits: red for physiological information, blue for civilizational values with a teal subsection for the specific political system, purple for the astrological details of an inhabited body considered of reference. The file is completed by a basic briefing, a Kardashev measure of civilization power in its most basic sense, and a xenopsychological axis taken from the sophont's position in the Pradesh Scale and the Kuwale-Hopkins scale.
Top left includes an archetypical physiological and cultural model of the species at hand, top right includes a model of the cosmological body of reference with briefing (both models rotating and interactive in most formats), bottom right includes the most recognizable insignia the specific polity/civilization employs.
THE RED SCHEME
On top, the symbols arranged in a circumference signal whether the natural habitat of the species is ground, body of liquid, air, plasma or more than one at once. To its right it branches to the universal biochemical traits found between sophonts in opposing pairs, with the plasma crystal composition set apart: carbon vs silicon based lifeform, water vs ammonia based lifeform, phosphorus vs arsenic biocheminstry.
Below, a triangle indicates how many races, castes and genders the sophonts display in their baseline form, with an number for indication. In this case, we're dealing with a species that displays no castes, no races (the taxonomy deals with race in a rather biological sense, not in a social sense -should Neanderthals be around, Humans would appear as 2 or 2-C on race) and a gender continuum with two prominent cases, marked as two-continuum, 2-C. Below the triangle, there's an indicator of the sophont's symmetry, whether non-existent, bilateral, radial or spherical. Below, in a rhomboidal quasi-hierarchical distribution, the degree of sociality of the species: presocial, parasocial, eusocial or hypersocial, the latter referred to natural hive minds. Finally, the red scheme indicates whether the species follows an r or a K reproduction strategy.
THE BLUE SCHEME
The star pattern indicates the general ethical disposition of that civilization at the time of consulting. This is some times a matter of life and death: there's no scarcity of space and resources in the Milky Way whatsoever to justify the mobilization of energies required for starfare, and yet cultures destroy, capture and even creepily lurk at each other at relative frequence. The reason is never a matter of realpolitik, but how a community places itself on a scale of values.
The vertical scale indicates disposition towards other sophonts: from an attitude of supremacy on top, down to disdain or secretism, down to collaboration coupled to maintenance of their sophont species' chauvinism, down to a degree of xenophilia that ideally cares more about civilization as transmission than in physiological terms.
The horizontal scale measures the distribution of returns in the civilization's ethical code. From strict, often enforced universal returns on the left end, to recognition of universal returns to a degree, to the denial of universal returns, to the explicit rejection of universal returns. Most of our 2020 cultures would be placed second to the right in the Files, and most political experiments in our history, including left-wing ones, would be placed top right.
The northwest to southeast diagonal scale measures the degree of chauvinism about the civilization's own values. From a general state of anomy/epistemological nihilism, to the accepted idea that each sophont has its own adequate set of values, to the idea that there can be compromise with sophont values but there are things that cannot be tolerated, to a full proselytizing attitude towards the civilizational values. A proselytizing attitude coupled with a disposition of sophont supremacy on the vertical scale generally indicates a xenocidal civilization, but a nihilist-supremacist disposition often means just the same.
Finally, the northeast to southwest diagonal scale measure the degree of purity respect to baseline forms. From radical Edenite dispositions that can go genocidal on machines and augmentations, to bioconservative attitudes in which those are tolerated but subject to a lesser status, to a positive attitude to augmentations combined with a care not to lose an "original essence" that might be physical or abstract in nature, to a complete disdain and rejection of baseline forms.
Below the star-shaped pattern, an indicator of whether the civilization is unitary, federal or confederal in nature. Below it all, additional useful information about the sophont's background: whether they're the culturally dominant species of the civilization, whether they're a "stateless" species that has been fully or formally adopted by another sophont culture as citizens, whether they're under another sophonts' suzerainity, whether they're under other sophonts' direct territorial rule, whether they're been enslaved by other sophonts or created for enslavement (these four cases are marked in the Files by indicating the sophont's insignia above the insigia of the adoptive culture), whether they're "Promethean" or have supplanted the culture that created or enslaved them. Theoretically, many of those details can coexist at the same time.
THE PURPLE SCHEME
The main square displays three columns measuring the habitat's typology: from left to right they respectively refer to availability of liquid bodies, humidity and temperature. The top left indicates a world or artificial construct where bodies of liquid are the main medium and land support, if any, comes in the form of archipielagos. Medium left, a relative equilibrium between liquid and solid bodies: both our Earth and an Earth where the ratio of water and land were reversed would qualify as this. Bottom left, a barren world where permanent large bodies of water are at best scarce.
The top medium column idicates an environmentally arid habitat as predominant, down to an intermediate level of average humidity, down to what would appear as a tropical world to our standards (or a permanent blizzard world, if sufficiently cold). The right column deals with habitats from frozen, to temperate, to torrid for Human standards.
In addition, the top right margin displays, left to right, whether the world can be considered a political and administrative capital of the sophonts to study (it could not be the case if they're a subject people), and whether this is the sophonts' homeworld. Below, left to right, further details for consideration: Whether the habitat is a natural satellite, whether it is tidally locked, whether it is part of a hierarchical system (for example, in the orbit of a star of a binary system), whether it is artificially created, whether it orbits a black hole, and whether it is a plasma habitat.
THE TEAL SCHEME
Listing the forms of government that have been observed within the sophont stellar community into 25 comprehensive cathegories.
Protocolary autocracy is the form of single-individual rule that appeals to lineage or divine will. Most Ancient and Early Modern era monarchies would qualify as protocolary atocracies. The Gulf monarchies, even the consultive system of Oman, are protocolary by default.
Entrepreneurial autocracy is when a single entity who answers for an internal or external market monopolizes political rule over a territory. The Congo Free State and United Fruit Company/Chiquita International can be said to have engaged in entrepreneurial autocracy.
Gladiatoral autocracy, quite uncommon in Human history but not in other sophont histories and civilizations, grants rule to whoever can defeat the current ruler in a deathmatch.
Constituent autocracy is one grounded not in tradition, but in a call to enforcing a general order chanelled through personal will. Most human military and unipersonal right-wing dictatorships, as well as the Napoleonic continental system and the early Roman Empire, would qualify as constituent autocracies, but also many self-declared democratic states of 2020 would be treated by the Files as veiled constituent autocracies.
In an elective autocracy, an electoral body elects a ruler for life. Most historical elective monarchies, and some proposed presidential Republican systems, would qualify as this. Cambodia wouldn't, as the king doesn't hold enough power.
An automated autocracy delegates all decision-making in an AI protocol.
A theocracy is the form of oligarchy where the clergy, in behalf of a higher power, acts as the oligarchic element. In spite of many theocratic elements appearing in many protocolary autocracies, Human history is surprisingly lacking in that regard, the most notorious examples being Tibet and the Holy See (thus not an elective autocracy in the Files' terms).
Suicracy is just how the Files frame the political framework of a pure hive mind.
No self rule needs little explanation.
Manorial oligarchy is the rule of the few based on privileges granted by a network of mutual obligations between social estates. This is also widely known as Feudalism in Human history.
Managerial oligarchy is the rule of a clique whose interests and modus operandi revolve around the administrative tasks. China has been, during several periods of its history which include 2020, a managerial oligarchy, as have been most Marxist-Leninist countries, and as would be pure technocracies if there ever were one.
Entrepreneurial oligarchies work as a board of entities that act for an inner or external market. The old Italian merchant republics, the Hanseatic League, Ancapistan if it ever existed, would be classified by the Files as entrepreneurial oligarchies.
A darwinistic oligarchy is that which is constituted explictly for a subset of sophonts to prey upon others. The Confederate States of America, Nazi Germany, Apartheid South Africa and Democratic Kampuchea would be listed by the Files as darwinistic oligarchies.
Kritarchy is the rule by the judiciary. Acient Israel, Megacity One, you name it.
Stratocracy is citizenry by military service. Sparta, Starship Troopers, you name it.
A tribal council is a chamber of representatives of kinships, often with a kinship taking the lead, and in the context of the Files, specifically when said representation is charismatic in nature. Old Celtic social systems would count as this.
Demarchy election of rulers by sortition between the general political body. Quite rare in human history, but very present in other sophont civilizations.
Theodemocracy is an elected body that either upholds the principles of a higher power or in intertwined with the political power of the clergy. The Islamic Republic of Iran or the State of Deseret would count as such.
Representative democracy happens when the community delegates decision-making in elected representatives. If you're reading this, there are high chances you're living in one.
Participatory democracy is where the community directly or at least semi-directly involves itself in the political process. The Athenian precedent would count, as would Switzerland, if both very limited in their own ways.
A tribal democracy divides the political body in kinships just as the tribal council category, but the the kinship as a whole is consulted in the process. The Iroquois Confederacy would qualify as this.
A partnership democracy is one in which the political body is divided along material associations of interests -guilds, trade unions, you name it-. Should Council Communism have existed, it would count as a partnership democracy.
Hive democracy is a system which is generally laissez-faire politically speaking but in which, should a project or dilemma of collective importance emerges, parts or the whole of the community temporarily switch to an aggregate hive mind mode to engage in it.
Panarchy is a system in which political organization is voluntary and decentralized. Again, uncommon in Human space and very present in other spaces.
Rogue enterprise is a polity whose role is thriving on the customary limits of at least another polity, such a crime syndicate or a pirate organization would do. It has been stated that distinguishing them from entrepreneurial autocracies is problematic, though rogue enterprises tend to present a greater level of integration and active involvement of all their members.
OTHER INDICATORS
The Kardashev scale measures the energy consumption of a civilization, level I corresponding to all the energy of an Earth-like homeworld, II to all the energy of a Sun-like star, and III to all the energy of our galaxy.
The Kuwale-Hopkins scale vis-a-vis the Pradesh scale is a simple glance at a sophont's basic psychological disposition: though psychological types and axiological trends are generally highly influenced by physiological and environmental background, they're often shaped by a variety of indirect and subtle factors, and this gets better understood through a compared lecture of the chart. Kuwale-Hopkins measures the openness of the space of possibilities (that is, psychological malleability and adaptation), while the Pradesh scale measures the average degree of connection between the self and the sensory imput: a Pradesh level 0 would mean extreme individuation to the point of derealization, while a Pradesh level 10 would mean selflessness to the point of depersonalization. It should be noted that the Pradesh scale does not mean hive minds get 10, for pure hive minds share the psyche of a single individual, who can score any number in the scale according the limits of its xenopsychological disposition.
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Human-based civilizations are amongst the newest of the Young Sophonts group. Throught their history, metarreflection on the Human condition has typically taken two forms: the destructive, unbalanced nature of humanity, worthy of outer punishment, or the ingenuity and adaptability of the Human species, that would make it prevail: it rarely merited reflection that it was the Human sophont community the one making both judgements posing as an outer judge, and how this offered hindsight about human traits, and still both offered a hint of truth, if they don't quite match the view the sophont stellar community often has of the Human sophont community.
Physically speaking, Humans are a chordate, low-dymorphic, bilaterally symmetric and relatively flexible apex predator who actively and passively wiped out all homeworld opposition to their status not long time before their early civilization processes. They belong to that relatively uncommon form or organism in which the inseminated individuals host the gestating offspring completely inside their bodies, producing feeding serum through glands during and after the process. Humans are also a naturally omnivorous predator, though a myriad of dietary, cultural and moral reasons can make a human to reject almost any given source of food, the dietary consumption of other humans being one of the deepest, most ingrained taboos in all Human cultures. Maybe one of the most striking facts about Humans is the fact that, though all baseline healthy humans are expected to develop a full sophont status, their offspring comes upon birth completely dependent for long periods in which they have to go through a long complex acculturation process before they can fully integrate their sophont community. The most apparent and striking trait to most outsiders, though, is their relatively smooth surface that abruptly ends in a concentation of filament-like folicules as one gets closer to their sensory direction centers: common derogatory expressions about humans are almost by default compare them to brush-like tools. Humans live in degrees of communal life, yet often with a distinct separation between communal units, and with specialization of tasks, like most things Human, not being a fixed matter. Their early processes of Neolithic accumulation entrenched several aspects of their tribal impulses into their civilizations, prompting forms of sexual and social hierarchy that only have started to fade in the course of the last few centuries. This has less to do with Human psychology (adaptive but not the most adaptive, individuated and yet fundamentally cooperative, territorial and yet generally uncomfortable with the effects of a territorial mindset and struggle) than with the environmental conditions that prompted this very psychology.
At first glance, Sol-III is a standard intermediate planet, perfectly fit for the convergent model of life in all aspects. A closer investigation will notice the extreme conditions at the ends of the averages, the spectacularly limited ecological niche and the delicate equilibrium that is, at geological scales, interrumpted by ecocidal waves of extinction. Sol-III is, in fact, a quite anomalous planet: in Human terms, a Death World superficially disguised as a Paradise World. There shouldn't be the brutal fight for spoils that goes on there, but there is. There shouldn't be so much default scarcity, but there is. As such, many sophont cultures consider Human psychology, to a degree the Files themselves don't fully capture, truncated. All species Sophonts need to feed, reproduce and develop strategies to defend themselves from natural predators, but what consitutes feeding, a natural predator and a viable survival strategy is a wildly conditional and variable matter. In the Human case, that has meant something uncannily close to Death World competiton dynamics. As a species, they have spent all of their history rationalizing its habitat's nature and their own impulses with one appendage and desperately trying to mend them with another, slowly succeeding at times, causing spasms of untold suffering at others. By the time of access to the sophont stellar community, most of humanity seems to have succeeded, in its own Human, truncated way. The Second Forum, which filled the gaps in the failure of the UN and the transnational organizations under their umbrella, is an feverish mosaic of polities and associations, of faiths and fashions, of controlled biomes and bioluministent new species, of stellar diplomats and refugees, of minds entering machines and machines entering minds, of deafening noises and blinding lights, where deterritorialization runs more rampant than ever. It would be called positively cyberpunkish by an outer observer, but post-cyberpunk is closer to the truth: collective agoras of deliberation down to the semi-automatic workplaces are part of the consensus, and economically speaking it takes the form of a semi-artificially enforced single-currency market economy with massive, polycentric and networked welfare systems delivered by corporate leisure conglomerates. Participation in said conglomerates, digeracy and social clout determine capital and power flow. The philosophical disposition of the Forum is straightforward for Human standards: once equilibrium and survival are granted, anything goes. Tensions between xenophile and xenophobic attutudes -towards sophonts- define political fault lines, in a consensus context of conditional coexistence and asylum, and a moderate Transhumanist approach that pushes towards the limits of what means to be human but still worries about not breaking said limits.
At the time of reporting, the Second Forum comprises the bulk of the Human sophont community and the attitude towards the polities it has interacted with has been best described as an ambivalent process of trade and alliance-building, not exempt of circumstancial and existential enemities. Note the resemblance of the Forum's flag to that of The Gambia as nothing but an anecdotal coincidence some history nerds bring up from time to time.
The Forum Fleets pride themselves in being a defensively armed and networked chamber of spokespeople and nothing else. But in a typically human fashion, the reality has more folds and shadows. The sopont community's more common view is that Humans are fundamentally an insidiously cunning species filled with layers upon layers of ulterior motives, and it's just natural they are like that forged in the deceifully hostile environment of Sol-III. For this reason, Humans are quite valued within the sophont community as diplomats, spies and covert operations agents. The truth is the "chamber of spokespeople" is feared, not without a reason. One does not not forge a stellar civilization and a position of prestige in less than two centuries just taking chances.
Not to tell the Second Forum isn't the only Human stellar civilization out there.
