Author Iain M. Banks in his Sci-Fi book Excession came up with Outside Context Problem. The usual example given to illustrate an Outside Context Problem was imagining you were a tribe on a largish, fertile island; youd tamed the land, invented the wheel or writing or whatever, the neighbors were cooperative or enslaved but at any rate peaceful and you were busy raising temples to yourself with all the excess productive capacity you had, you were in a position of near-absolute power and control which your hallowed ancestors could hardly have dreamed of and the whole situation was just running along nicely like a canoe on wet grass... when suddenly this bristling lump of iron appears sail-less and trailing steam in the bay and these guys carrying long funny-looking sticks come ashore and announce youve just been discovered, youre all subjects of the Emperor now, hes keen on presents called tax and these bright-eyed holy men would like a word with your priests. How you could prepare for something like that, should you think its a worthy undertaking?
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 14:38:18 +0000
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