Credomar's mysterious origins...

[mbarker]

Here it comes again. And... wait a minute, let's eat first.

Any theories? Either about why Credomar was built the way it was, or how long Howard is going to keep tantalizing us with dark hints and suspicions before... the big revelation!

It's not really a habitat, it's a... humongous bazooka? Nah, that would be silly.

[happyman]

I'm thinking the reveal will come up pretty soon.  Sunday, maybe?  It sounds like that kind of thing.  So we've got scant time to plot.

It seems most likely that it was meant for something else, and became an emergency habitat that became permanent.  Maybe it's the result of a war, or some other shameful secret?

[mbarker]

What was that comment about the annieplants on Credomar? If it is overpowered for a habitat, that might mean that it has extra power for whatever the purpose was?

I wonder if the residents are the crew, passengers, or...?

[happyman]

I was looking back at the recent strips, and I realized we have more hints than we've explored.  The key phrase is this bit of dialogue:

"You want Nimock's account of the pinkhippist plowshare project, 'Peethree'."

with the notes that

"The term "pinkohippist" has a long history, beginning with its origins as an longer, multi-word ideological slur. The shortened word quickly became taboo, was legislated as "hate speech," and then re-emerged in casual conversation after a sesquicentury or so of obscurity. Its use in the above account refers to one of the several political movements that adopted the term as an official name. "

I'm not at all certain what the term pinkohippist is supposed to refer to exactly, but it seems likely that it is a derogatory term for some sort of hippie movement.  Combine this with 'plowshare project', which in context may be a reference to "Beat your swords into plowshares", Isaiah 2:4, and we have the distinct possibility that Credomar was indeed a weapon of some sort, with the inhabitants deliberately being placed on it simply to stop it from being used, or perhaps to make a better use of it.

The question that follows is why Credomar is ashamed of their past.  Either (a) they have become more militant, and don't want to be descended from a bunch of hippies, or (b) said ancestors were ashamed of the militarized past and the current occupants are therefore simply unaware of this part of life, despite apparently being all gunh-ho about violence again.

[Recovering_Cynic]

Or maybe the history was hushed up so that nobody knows about the weapon...

[happyman]

Or maybe the history was hushed up so that nobody knows about the weapon...

You'd think they'd have destroyed the actual weapon proper, then.  Not having destroyed it would admittedly make for a better story, though.

[Recovering_Cynic]

What if destroying the weapon meant destroying their home?  Perhaps you can't have one without the other.

[ryos]

Why waste those billions of credits that went into its construction, if you could make a peaceful use of it?

[mbarker]

Now I'm wondering whether Lota's apparent hidden location may be tied in? I mean, there's the public infosphere that Ennesby tried checking, but suppose there is a separate infoworld for the other Credomar? Military systems often run independent from the civilian stuff, right? So perhaps Lota transferred to the real Credomar systems?

[ryos]

My bet is that the key lies in the time LOTA said, "LOTA is the Crodmaran infosphere." In other words, the Credomaran infosphere is a part of LOTA. Ennesby went looking for an AI in the infosphere; he didn't even consider the possibility that the infosphere is in the AI, despite what LOTA told him..

[mbarker]

Could be. After all, if you look closely at me, for instance, you'll see a bunch of blood vessels doing their thing, some neurons firing, and other stuff like that. But you won't see me. You need a little distance -- to see the forest for the trees? So Lota now is the infosphere, with all that gunk as part of himself? Oh, no, spam and goldphishes inside... interesting idea.

[happyman]

All this speculation is very plausible.

So far, we have:

(1) A potential superweapon lying around that has probably been deliberately hidden
(2) An AI that has possibly eaten an entire infosphere so thoroughly, you can't see it
(3) An evacuation plan from said possible superweapon.

And I still have no idea where the plot is going!

[mbarker]

Does it matter where Lota is planning on putting the inhabitants (along with the rest of the infrastructure)? I think Kevyn asked about that, and Lota just said something like "I'm working on it" without any further details.

[happyman]

Does it matter where Lota is planning on putting the inhabitants (along with the rest of the infrastructure)? I think Kevyn asked about that, and Lota just said something like "I'm working on it" without any further details.

Presumably, he needs to negotiate a planet to make the drop to.  This is probably the least mysterious part of the swarming questions.

[mbarker]

Ah, but which planet? Putting them among the teeming hordes on Mars, or the neverending priaries of Texarcana, or what about the mystics of Tybuddha? And then...