What do you think Humanities Question will be?

[Kizarvexis]

In all seriousness...

Humans are insanely curious.
Maybe the question is "What's out there?" or "What is your secret?"

We do like to gossip and be in the know.

At our best, humans are kind and generous.
Maybe the question is "How can I help?"

Boy are you optimistic. (Says the guy who helps run a food bank for needy families every week. )

Humans are determined and willful. They choose sides, and in this are often divided against themselves.
Maybe the question is "Where do you stand?"

(I happen to like the last one best.)

Actually, that one is very good and very human. I can just see it.

Flunky new race: What is the meaning of life, ancient one?

First-one-ish human: Where do you stand? Starside Steelers or Nebula Seahawks?

Kizarvexis
Who couldn't resist a joke.

PS. Mabye the human question will be 'Knock? Knock?' Or 'How many telepaths does it take to change a light bulb?' Or... (whack) ...ok, I'll stop now.

 

[Shadow Queen]

"Are you looking at your pint?"

"Are you looking at me bird?"

Bird responds : Tweet

And What have you done with your life?

Would you do it all over even just to change one thing?

Are you happy with your body : I can answer that one NO

 

[Hellebore]

Perhaps:

"What have you learned?"

I would infer that were our question to be: "What side are you on?" or "Are you a threat?" we would have destroyed ourselves long ago through these very questions.

So were humanity to attain a level seen in "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars" it would be at a fairly harmonious level.

Thus, assuming humanity had learned its lessons from the vorlons and shadows, we would want to know if the YOUNGER younger races had learned anything.

Hellebore

 

[VampyrKnight]

"What have you learned?"

I would infer that were our question to be: "What side are you on?" or "Are you a threat?" we would have destroyed ourselves long ago through these very questions.

So were humanity to attain a level seen in "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars" it would be at a fairly harmonious level.

Thus, assuming humanity had learned its lessons from the vorlons and shadows, we would want to know if the YOUNGER younger races had learned anything.

Hellebore

That is probably the question humanity would ask when it ascended to that level. Afterall, look at the questions we ask today. When we punish our kids, afterwards we sometimes ask either, "What did you learn from this?" or "Did you learn anything from being punished?" It's the one thing humans seem to always wonder about, if we learned from anything.

Looking on at the way things are going nowadays, if we do manage to evolve to be Vorlons, it'll be because of what we learned. And afterall, in Babylon 5, the younger races do learn of what happened at Coriana VI and they probably learned the lessons of the First Ones. Well, one can only hope (good bet the Drakh haven't, though).

VampyrKnight

 

[Flarn]

nice icon of a cetain Egyptian god there Vampyr ;-)

 

[Greg Smith]

nice icon of a cetain Egyptian god there Vampyr ;-)

You mean Ga-Daffy Duck? Oh, wait - he's Libyan.

 

[migutse]

In all seriousness...

Humans are determined and willful. They choose sides, and in this are often divided against themselves.
Maybe the question is "Where do you stand?"

(I happen to like the last one best.)

I have been around this forum for just a few weeks, so I just run into this thread today when there was a new reply to the thread. There were many good ideas and I had many laughs, but I have to totally agree with this one. The questions the Shadows and Vorlons were asking were ultimately about their races flaws. Shadows were driven by greed and Vorlons wanted to get order into everything even if that meant destroying all the new races. Lorien's question "Why are you here?" can also be seen as a flaw. Because he is the first one, he feels insecure about why he is here in the universe thus the question.

"Where do you stand?" tells a lot about what is our flaw: we want to take clear sides and even fight against each other for things that might in the end be insignificant. This can be seen throughout our history. Just have to look at the recent news and the "Mohammed pictures" incident in Denmark: people want to take sides whether it is freedom of speech or respect of others beliefs. People take either side although almost all believe that you should be able to both have a freedom of speech and respect other peoples beliefs. This fact is also represented well in B5 in the Clark's Government vs. B5 & other rebels conflict. Humanity took sides and fought against each other although people on both sides had good intentions. Others were fighting for loyalty/honour others for freedom/fairness.

 

[VampyrKnight]

nice icon of a cetain Egyptian god there Vampyr ;-)

You mean Ga-Daffy Duck? Oh, wait - he's Libyan.

That's the display picture I got from MSN Messenger and use for almost everything. Big fan of the gods of the WB Cartoon pantheon. :mrgreen:

In all seriousness...

Humans are determined and willful. They choose sides, and in this are often divided against themselves.
Maybe the question is "Where do you stand?"

(I happen to like the last one best.)

I have been around this forum for just a few weeks, so I just run into this thread today when there was a new reply to the thread. There were many good ideas and I had many laughs, but I have to totally agree with this one. The questions the Shadows and Vorlons were asking were ultimately about their races flaws. Shadows were driven by greed and Vorlons wanted to get order into everything even if that meant destroying all the new races. Lorien's question "Why are you here?" can also be seen as a flaw. Because he is the first one, he feels insecure about why he is here in the universe thus the question.

"Where do you stand?" tells a lot about what is our flaw: we want to take clear sides and even fight against each other for things that might in the end be insignificant. This can be seen throughout our history. Just have to look at the recent news and the "Mohammed pictures" incident in Denmark: people want to take sides whether it is freedom of speech or respect of others beliefs. People take either side although almost all believe that you should be able to both have a freedom of speech and respect other peoples beliefs. This fact is also represented well in B5 in the Clark's Government vs. B5 & other rebels conflict. Humanity took sides and fought against each other although people on both sides had good intentions. Others were fighting for loyalty/honour others for freedom/fairness.

That's a good point about the questions they asked ultimately being their flaws. Perhaps a better version of that question is, "What do you believe?" You can't stand for either side unless of you believe in that side's beliefs, and then every side has subgroups that believe a slightly different version of it than the other groups. Judeo/Christian/Islamic sects demonstrate this perfectly. Take, for example, Catholicism and the many Protestant sects. Each one has the same general beliefs (Heaven, Jesus Christ the son of God, so forth) but each practices this differently.

Ultimately, humans are by far the most diverse race of all the different races in B5. Take a look at other sci-fi shows, movies, books, what-have-you, and that's the way it is in almost all sci-fi. All factionalized into ever small groups. Either "What do you believe? or "Where do you stand?" highlight this flaw beautifully. But, in a million years, who knows what humanity will be like.

VampyrKnight

 

[migutse]

That's a good point about the questions they asked ultimately being their flaws. Perhaps a better version of that question is, "What do you believe?" You can't stand for either side unless of you believe in that side's beliefs, and then every side has subgroups that believe a slightly different version of it than the other groups. Judeo/Christian/Islamic sects demonstrate this perfectly. Take, for example, Catholicism and the many Protestant sects. Each one has the same general beliefs (Heaven, Jesus Christ the son of God, so forth) but each practices this differently.

"What do you believe?" is also good, but it is a bit too narrow, because it leads you easily to think of religions. We take sides that can lead to conflicts based on many different other than religion things like nations, political views or as strange and pointless as sport teams.

One thing that came to mind from B5, was the saying that "Humans build communities". Can't really remember who said this, was it G'Kar, Londo, Delenn? Combined with "Where do you stand?" this leads to "Who do you stand with?". Im not quite sure which one I prefer yet.

The more I think about it "What do you want?" would also suit humans very well, shame that Shadows already have it.

Ultimately, humans are by far the most diverse race of all the different races in B5. Take a look at other sci-fi shows, movies, books, what-have-you, and that's the way it is in almost all sci-fi. All factionalized into ever small groups. Either "What do you believe? or "Where do you stand?" highlight this flaw beautifully. But, in a million years, who knows what humanity will be like.

I think this has to do with the fact that it is hard for sci-fi writers to create a diverse like humans, that still has some distinctive qualities. Instead they use stereotypes, so that the new races are easier for the humans to understand. If you had a sci-fi serie where members of a certain race would always act differently from show to show, people wouldn't be able to form any clear conception about it other than chaotic. It is easier to have pompous Centauris, fierce Narns, honourable Minbaris and mysterious Vorlons. Only after a long while will you begin to see diversion in the races, like in the case of the Minbari civil war or the development in G'Kar. In my coming B5 campaign I will try to make the races more diverce.

Another thing that sci-fi writers seem to like, is to create strong central governments. All of the races I can think of in B5 have some kind of a central government that has strong jurisdiction on behalf of the whole race. In my opinion it would be more likely that there would be some nations among the different races. This does happen in B5 when Mars becomes independant, but here again you have an independant planet, not independant states/nations inside a planet.

 

[lastbesthope]

One thing that came to mind from B5, was the saying that "Humans build communities". Can't really remember who said this, was it G'Kar, Londo, Delenn?

It was Delenn.

LBH

 

[The Cheat]

I think this has to do with the fact that it is hard for sci-fi writers to create a diverse like humans, that still has some distinctive qualities. Instead they use stereotypes, so that the new races are easier for the humans to understand. If you had a sci-fi serie where members of a certain race would always act differently from show to show, people wouldn't be able to form any clear conception about it other than chaotic. It is easier to have pompous Centauris, fierce Narns, honourable Minbaris and mysterious Vorlons. Only after a long while will you begin to see diversion in the races, like in the case of the Minbari civil war or the development in G'Kar. In my coming B5 campaign I will try to make the races more diverce.

Another thing that sci-fi writers seem to like, is to create strong central governments. All of the races I can think of in B5 have some kind of a central government that has strong jurisdiction on behalf of the whole race. In my opinion it would be more likely that there would be some nations among the different races. This does happen in B5 when Mars becomes independant, but here again you have an independant planet, not independant states/nations inside a planet.

One of the best things about B5 was the fact that its alien cultures were not, in fact, stereotypes, particularly of other Earth Cultures.

Usually, and mostly because of Star Wars, alien races seem to be cookie-cutter caracatures of agendas or styles: Klingon Vikings, Vulcan Logicitians and Ferengi Greedy Capitalists. Its not realistic, it doesn't give them motive and it doesn't create culture.


Contrast this with guys like the Narns. I, quite sincearly, think that they were the greatest original idea creation JMS made for the series. There's something about life in B5 that gives you the feeling "damn, It could really be just like that. And woe upon us all because of it."

 

[migutse]

Are you saying that Centauris aren't spacefaring Romans with Napoleonic costumes and punk-rock hairstyles?

It is true that alien cultures are better in B5 than in many other series, but I still think that they are stereotypical. And this doesn't mean that they always are stereotypes of Earths cultures. Sometimes they create their own racial stereotype in a couple of series, and then the members of the race tend to follow that stereotype. My point was that I would like to have more diversity in the alien cultures.

 

[The Cheat]

I thought a lot about the questions yesterday.

A lot of people forget the inherent nobility of the human spirit. They take a look at consumerism and jingles, and assume that it reflects humanity as a whole, a mindless conglomeration of competing resources.

They forget about love, about family, all the things that tie us together in this world and the next. They forget about honor, and glory, fighting the good fight and standing up for your principles no matter the cost. That some things are right and some things are wrong. So rather than "what do you want" or "where do you stand", I propose this:


"What will you stand for?"

 

[Neo]

"What will you stand for?"

Of all the suggested responses to my initial ponderance I have seen so far I think I like this one the best.

Humanity is essentially lazy..for all our supposed morals and professed well meanings and good intentions by and large we lack on the follow up as far as a majority go.. humanity often has a far higher opinion of what they are capable of than what they actually do.

But that said individually wee are a veritable dichotomy of contrasting motivations, with each of us having different things that inspire us or bring us to despair, fill us with hope, or engender love and/or compassion each of us has something intrinsic to themselves that will make them take a stand...and rarely, just rarely we take a stand for a common cause.

It would be a hope that someday humanity would have evolved to the point where what we take a stand for, what we took a stand for became the motivation for driving us on as a species to become better..better humans.

As such this answer of all I have seen so far I think shows possibility and promise. good suggestion The Cheat.

 

[Traveller-61]

"What will you stand for?"

Of all the suggested responses to my initial ponderance I have seen so far I think I like this one the best.
[edit]
As such this answer of all I have seen so far I think shows possibility and promise. good suggestion The Cheat.

After just reading all 4 pages of this subject (and having nothing better to add myself) I'm with Neo on this, it is a very good question.
If fact it could be the heart for a good B5 campaign - let the players (and their characters) find out what they really will stand for and what they will not.
My compliments to The Cheat!

DW

 

[lastbesthope]

Yup, I think The Cheat has come up with a DGA (Darn Good Answer)

LBH

 

[CudaHP]

Highly evolved, transcendent human being to a younger race member, "Who are you?"

Younger race response "Blah, blah, blah, blah ...........blah, blah, blah, blah!!"

Human query to response from younger "No, really, who the bleep are you and why are you in my Galaxy?" :twisted: :twisted: :mrgreen: