From: Rick Jones <albert@CRICK.SSCTR.BCM.TMC.EDU>
Subject: Re: MY VIEW: Cyberpapacy
X-Gated-By: The Black Marble Wombat@morticia.cnns.unt.edu
X-Gated-From: torg mailing list
Organization: University of North Texas
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Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 02:30:03 GMT

>   And so why, in this case, do most people do with 12th c. technology?
> Apparently only a small fraction of the populous has access to high
> technology?

	Like someone else said, only the transfomed areas of France got
the full effect of the tech surge.  The cosm of Magna Veritas got it's 
tech axiom bumped to 26, but nothing physical changed.  In France, people
grew cyberware, and gained intuitive knowledge of technology.


>   Still, I think I can see where this is going.  Did the production
> facilities already present in Cyberpapacy get transformed into existence
> when the cosm leapfrogged to hi-tech?  Mideval illuminators transformed
> into data entry personnel!  The village blacksmith stops making horseshoes
> and starts repairing automobiles!

	Well, a lot of the tech facilities out there were sacked and 
destroyed in the first three months of the invasion, when the priests
of Magna Veritas still thought that tech was evil.  However, the Tech Surge
fixed all that and changed stuff into Silicon Valley's big brother.
Now, some of Malreaux's people rebelled against him when he became the
Cyberpope and started using the technology he once said was daemonic.
So, schisms are starting to form back in Magna Veritas, among the members
of the church who've seen servants of Malraux using tech.

>   While a 12th century priest accustomed to miraculous religious relics
> would learn the proper rituals concerning the canonically authorized
> use of these relics.  [ First one sings a laudatory.  Then one attaches
> the holy cyberdeck into the wall outlet.  This followed by a service of
> confession, which is completed by pressing the button in front ... ]

	The guy back in Magna Veritas would think of it that way, until
he was educated (if ever) in how tech works.  Those who were in France 
at the time know that tech works, and how (at least as much as the 
average guy knows how Core Earth tech works).

> >	Yeah, but the church has this nasty tendency to put faith chips,
> >homers, and cortex bombs in with the cyberlimbs and datajacks....
>   Now, does the church do this to everybody?  And if so, why does anyone
> bother with official technology, especially as there are alternatives?

	I think faith chips and homers are almost SOP in the Cyberpapacy.
Cortex bombs are just a favorite of mine ;-).  Most folks don't get 
that much chrome.  Getting cyberware is supposed to be a religious
experience, but most still cannot afford much cyberware (it's 
rather like indulgences, the rich can afford them, the poor just have
to burn forever, I guess).  Although, the church probably gives discounts
and such to the exceptionally pious.  The black market is there, but
it's not as safe (in terms of quality, and the tendency for chop docs 
to be less then exacting), and the average person would be as likely
to buy black market cyberware as to buy illegal weapons in our society.


>   Not necessarily.  A lot of religious functions ask of their believers
> more than what the believers actually deliver.  The cyberpapacy asks
> you to sign your soul away, but it's only a piece of paper so long as
> they don't find out and you don't believe.

	But, they can check.  The hospital may have a cyberpriest
who will try to bless the faithful.  If the person doesn't have 
faith, the priest will sense that he did not provide faith, and 
may have an "indoctriation session" to make sure that the 'faithful'
appreciate what has been given to them.

>   This I can believe.  The question is whether the church will be able
> to draw upon their spiritual resources, now that they've embraced
> technologic spirituality?  It still seems to me that the church has
> turned its back on the spiritual side of life in order to embrace the
> techophilic.

	The miracles are still there.  Just ask my party, after the 
cyberpriests miracled them really badly (Unbeliever's Doom, Mage Net
and Rood Awakening don't have anything to do with Cyber, and still hurt).

-- 
Rick Jones				Systems Support Center
albert@bcm.tmc.edu			Baylor College of Medicine
Voice: 713-798-7352			standard disclaimers apply
All syllogisms have three parts, therefore this is not a syllogism.