History Quotes / SidMeiersAlphaCentauri

-->-- '''Saint Augustine''', ''Literature/{{Confessions}}'' (Accompanies discovery of the "Cyberethics" tech)

-->-- '''[[ParanoiaFuel Project PYRRHO, Specimen 46, Vat 7.]]''' Activity recorded M.Y. 2302.22467. (TERMINATION OF SPECIMEN ADVISED) (Accompanies first construction of the Bioenhancement Center base facility)

->''I loved my chosen. How then to face the day when she left me? [[CloningBlues So I took from her body a single cell]], [[ReplacementGoldfish perhaps to love her again.]]''

-->-- Academician Prokhor Zakharov''', ''"For I Have Tasted the Fruit"'' (from ''GURPS Alpha Centauri'' supplement)

->''As the writhing, teeming mass of mindworms swarmed over the outer perimeter, we saw the defenders recoil in horror. "Stay calm! Use your flame guns!" shouted the commander, but to no avail. It is well known that the Mind Worm Boil uses [[MindRape psychic terror]] to paralyze its prey, and then carefully [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong implants ravenous larvae]] into the brains of its still-conscious victims. Even with the best weapons, only [[NervesOfSteel the most disciplined troops]] can resist this horrific attack.''

->''Beware, you who seek first and final principles, [[ScienceIsBad for you are trampling the garden of an]] [[JerkassGods angry God,]] [[ScienceIsBad and He awaits you just beyond the last theorem]].''

->''You ivory tower intellectuals must not lose touch with the world of industrial growth and hard currency. It is all very well and good to pursue these high-minded scientific theories, but [[RealityEnsues research grants are expensive]]. You must justify your existence by providing not only knowledge but [[PotentialApplications concrete and profitable applications]] as well.''

!University of Planet

!Lord's Believers

!Spartan Federation

-->--'''Spartan Battle Manual''' (Accompanies first construction of the Command Center base facility, and is the "welcome to the game" faction quote)

-->--'''Spartan Battle Manual''' (Accompanies completion of the Secret Project "The Command Nexus")

-->--'''Spartan Battle Manual''' (Accompanies completion of the Secret Project "The Neural Amplifier")

-->--'''Spartan Battle Manual''' (Accompanies discovery of the "Doctrine: Air Power" tech)

!Peacekeeping Forces

!Human Hive

!Morgan Industries

!Gaia's Stepdaughters

-->--'''Lady Deirdre Skye''', ''"Conversations With Planet"'', Epilogue (Accompanies completion of the Secret Project "[[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Ascent to Transcendance]]", which ends the game)

!The Cybernetic Consciousness

-> ''And here we tinker with metal, to try to give it [[MechanicalLifeforms a kind of life]], and suffer those who would scoff at our efforts. But who's to say that, if intelligence had evolved in some other form in past millennia, the ancestors of these beings would not now scoff at the idea of intelligence residing within meat?''

!Nautilus Pirates

!The Free Drones

-->'''"Jim Jones", Traditional''' (Faction "welcome to the game" quote)

!The Data Angels

!The Cult of Planet

!Manifold Caretakers

!Manifold Usurpers

!Other

--> '''Captain John Garland''', initial address to the ''Unity'' crew, 2058 (from ''GURPS Alpha Centauri'' supplement)

-->[[GuiltBasedGaming The computer, when you try to quit]]

->''The first living thing to go through the device was a small white rat. I still have him, in fact. As you can see, the damage was not so great as they say.''

->''We are no longer particularly in the business of writing software to perform specific tasks. We now teach the software how to learn, and in the primary bonding process it molds itself around the task to be performed. The feedback loop never really ends, so [[AIIsACrapshoot a tenth year polysentience can be a priceless jewel or a psychotic wreck]], but it is the primary bonding process--the childhood, if you will--that has the most far-reaching repercussions.''

->''Objects once measured in meters have become so small that they cannot be seen by the naked eye, with revolutionary applications across the board. Gentlemen, forget what [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar your courtesans]] have told you: size does matter!''

->''Man's unfailing capacity to believe what he prefers to be true rather than what the evidence shows to be likely and possible [[OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions has always astounded me.]] We long for a caring Universe which will save us from our childish mistakes, and in the face of mountains of evidence to the contrary we will pin all our hopes on the slimmest of doubts. God has not been proven not to exist, therefore he must exist.''

->''The Academician’s private residences shall remain off-limits to the Genetic Inspectors. We possess no retroviral capability, we are not researching retroviral engineering, and we shall not allow this Council to violate faction privileges in the name of this ridiculous witch hunt!''

->''The Academician's private residences shall remain off-limits to the Genetic Inspectors. We possess no retroviral capability, we are not researching engineering, and we shall not allow this Council to violate faction privileges in the name of this ridiculous witch hunt!''

->''The first living thing to go through the device was a small white rat. I still have him, in fact. As you can see, [[{{Telefrag}} the damage]] [[NightmareFuel was not so great as they say]].''
-->-- '''Academician Prokhor Zakharov''', ''"See How They Run"'' (Accompanies discovery of the "[[TeleportersAndTransporters Matter Transmission]]" tech)

->''[[MeasuringTheMarigolds The popular stereotype of the researcher is that of a skeptic and a pessimist.]] Nothing could be further from the truth! Scientists must be optimists at heart, in order to block out the incessant chorus of those who say "It cannot be done."''

->''The Academician's private residences shall remain off-limits to the Genetic Inspectors. We possess no retroviral capability, we are not researching [[ViralTransformation retroviral engineering]], and we shall not allow this Council to violate faction privileges in the name of this ridiculous witch hunt!''

->''[[LivingForeverIsAwesome I plan to live forever, of course]], but barring that I'd settle for a couple thousand years. Even [[LampshadeHanging five hundred]] would be pretty nice.''

->''Sly farms are fantastically beautiful, with their kilometer long networks of glass framed in grids of metal, and the sunlight shining through jungles of vegetation inside. When one of them catches the light, you can see the refracted beauty for miles; they are life-giving stars on a desolate planet...gardens on the wing.''

[[ExoticEquipment His special]] [[PainfulRhyme enhancement]],\\

-->-- '''Lady Deirdre Skye''', '''Planet Dreams''' , (Accompanies the first construction of the Tree Farm base facility, and is the "welcome to the game" faction quote)

->''Having now established a secure perimeter, we've made ourselves relatively safe from enemy incursions. But against the seemingly random attacks by Planet's native life, only our array of warning sensors can help us, for the mind worms infiltrate through every crevice and chew through anything softer than plasma-steel.''
-->-- '''Lady Deirdre Skye''', ''"The Early Years"'' (Accompanies first construction of the Perimeter Defense base facility)

->''Once a man has changed the relationship between himself and his environment, he cannot return to the blissful ignorance he left. Motion, of necessity, involves a change in perspective.''
-->-- '''Comissioner Pravin Lal''', ''"A Social History of Planet"'' (Accompanies discovery of the "Doctrine: Mobility" tech)

->''Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded.''
-->-- '''Chairman Sheng-ji Yang''', ''"Looking God In The Eye"'' (Accompanies discovery of the "[[WindsOfDestinyChange Probability Mechanics]]" tech

->''We hold life to be sacred, but we also know the foundation of life consists in a stream of codes not so different from the successive frames of a watchvid. Why then cannot we cut one code short here, and start another there? [[CreatingLifeIsAwesome Is life so fragile that it can withstand no tampering? Does the sacred brook no improvement?]]''
-->-- '''Chairman Sheng-ji Yang''', ''"Dynamics of Mind"'' (Accompanies discovery of the "Biogenetics" tech)

->''[[TechnologyLevels Technological advance is an inherently iterative process.]] One does not simply take sand from the beach and produce a Dataprobe. [[RefiningResources We use crude tools to fashion better tools, and then our better tools to fashion more precise tools, and so on.]] Each minor refinement is a step in the process, and all of the steps must be taken.''
-->-- '''Chairman Sheng-ji Yang''', ''"Looking God in the Eye"'' (Accompanies discovery of the "Polymorphic Software" tech)

->''Why do you insist that the human genetic code is "sacred" or "taboo"? It is a chemical process and nothing more. For that matter -we- are chemical processes and nothing more. If you deny yourself a useful tool simply because it reminds you uncomfortably of your mortality, you have uselessly and pointlessly crippled yourself.''
-->-- '''Chairman Sheng-ji Yang''','' "Looking God in the Eye"'' (Accompanies discovery of the "Bio-Engineering" tech)

->''If our society seems more nihilistic than that of previous eras, perhaps this is simply a sign of our maturity as a sentient species. As our collective consciousness expands beyond a crucial point, we are at last ready to accept life's fundamental truth: that [[TheAntiNihilist life's only purpose is life itself.]]''
-->-- '''Chairman Sheng-ji Yang''', ''"Looking God in the Eye"'' (Accompanies discover of the "Planetary Networks" tech)

->''It is every citizen's final duty to go into the tanks, [[ImAHumanitarian and become one with all the people]].''
-->-- '''Chairman Sheng-ji Yang''', ''"Ethics for Tomorrow"'' (Accompanies first construction of the Recycling Tanks base facility)

->''It will happen, and it will happen in our lifetimes. Fusion Power isn't just the future. Fusion Power is now.''
-->-- '''T. M. Morgan-Reilly''', Morgan Metagenics (Accompanies first construction of the Fusion Lab base facility)

->''And when at last it is time for the transition from [[{{MegaCorp}} megacorporation]] to [[OneNationUnderCopyright planetary government]], from entrepreneur to emperor, it is then that the true genius of our strategy shall become apparent, for energy is the lifeblood of this society and when the chips are down he who controls the energy supply controls Planet. In former times the energy monopoly was called "The Power Company"; we intend to give this name an entirely new meaning.''
-->-- '''CEO Nwabudike Morgan''', ''"The Centauri Monopoly"'' (Accompanies first construction of the Quantum Converter base facility)

-->-- '''CEO Nwabudike Morgan''' (Accompanies completion of the Secret Project "The Network Backbone")

->''[[LivingForeverIsAwesome I plan to live forever, of course]], but barring that I'd settle for a couple thousand years. Even [[LampshadeHanging five hundred]] would be pretty nice.''
-->-- '''CEO Nwabudike Morgan''', ''[=MorganLink=] 3D-Vision Interview'' (Accompies completion of the Secret Project "The Longevity Vaccine")

->''We are no longer particularly in the business of writing software to perform specific tasks. We now teach the software how to learn, and in the primary bonding process it molds itself around the task to be performed. The feedback loop never really ends, so [[AIIsACrapshoot a tenth year polysentience can be a priceless jewel or a psychotic wreck]], but it is the primary bonding process--the childhood, if you will--that has the most far-reaching repercussions.''
-->-- '''Bad'l Ron, Wakener''', Morgan Polysoft (Accompanies discovery of the "Digital Sentience" tech)

->''Life is merely an orderly decay of energy states, and survival requires the continual discovery of new energy to pump into the system. He who controls the sources of energy controls the means of survival.''
-->-- '''CEO Nwabudike Morgan''', "The Centauri Monopoly" (Accompanies first construction of the Energy Bank base facility)

->''Look at any photograph or work of art. If you could duplicate exactly the first tiny dot of color, and then the next and the next, you would end with a perfect copy of the whole, indistinguishable from the original in every way, including the so-called "moral value" of the art itself. Nothing can transcend its smallest elements.''
-->-- '''CEO Nwabudike Morgan''', ''"The Ethics of Greed"'' (Accompanies first construction of the Nanoreplicator base facility)

->''Planet's Primary, Alpha Centauri A, blasts unimaginable quantities of energy into space each instant, and virtually every joule of it is wasted entirely. Incomprehensible riches can be ours if we can but stretch our arms wide enough to dip from this eternal river of wealth.''
-->-- '''CEO Nwabudike Morgan''', ''"The Centauri Monopoly"'' (Accompanies first construction of the Nessus Mining Station orbital improvement)

--->-- '''Sister Miriam Godwinson''', ''"We must Dissent"'' (Accompanies completion of the Secret Project "Self-Aware Colony")

->''[[RedAlert The klaxon began to wail]], but [[HopeSpot we felt the reassuring tingle of the Tachyon Field crackling to life around us]], [[SomeKindOfForceField encasing the entire base in its impenetrable glow]].''
-->-- '''Spartan Kel''', ''"[[ForegoneConclusion The Fall of Sparta]]"''

-->-- '''Col. Corazon Santiago''' ''"Planet: A Survivalist's Guide"'' (Accompanies discovery of the "Advanced Military Algorithms" tech)

->''Air power rests at the apex of the first triad of victory, for it combines Mobility, Flexibility, and Initiative.'')
-->-- '''Spartan Battle Manual''' (Accompanies discovery of the "Doctrine: Air Power" tech)

->''At atrociously high energy states, the properties of matter change subtly and [[MagicFromTechnology new miracles become possible]]. The Plasma Accretion process is now dangerous and difficult to control, but its products will soon become commonplace in our society.''
-->-- '''Sister Miriam Godwinson''', ''"The Lord Works"'' (Accompanies discovery of the "High Energy Chemistry" tech)

->''There are two kinds of scientific progress: the methodical experimentation and categorization which gradually extend the boundaries of knowledge, and [[TheSparkOfGenius the revolutionary leap of genius]] which redefines and transcends those boundaries. Acknowledging our debt to the former, we yearn, nonetheless, for the latter.''
-->-- '''Academician Prokhor Zakharov''' (Accompanies discovery of the "Nonlinear Mathematics" tech)

-->-- '''Academician Prokhor Zakharov''' (Accompanies discovery of the "Intellectual Integrity" tech)

->''What actually transpires beneath the veil of an event horizon? [[NothingIsScarier Decent people shouldn't think too much about that]].''
-->-- '''Academician Prokhor Zakharov''', ''"For I Have Tasted The Fruit"'' (Accompanies completion of the Secret Project "The Singularity Inductor")

->''To map the very stuff of life; to look into the genetic mirror and watch a million generations march past. That, friends, is both our curse and our proudest achievement. For it is in reaching to our beginnings that we begin to learn who we truly are.''
-->-- '''Academician Prokhor Zakharov''', ''"Address to the Faculty"'' (Accompanies completion of the Secret Project "The Human Genome Project")

->''We have reached [[TheSingularity an informational threshold]] which can only be crossed by harnessing the speed of light directly. The quickest computations require the fasted possible particles moving along the shortest paths. Since the capability now exists to take our information directly from photons traveling molecular paths, the final act of the information revolution will soon be upon us.''
-->-- '''Academician Prokhor Zakharov''', ''"For I Have Tasted the Fruit"'' (Accompanies discovery of the "Optical Computers" tech)

->''[[OurTimeTravelIsDifferent Time travel in the classic sense]] has no place in rational theory, but temporal distortion does exist on the quantum level, and more importantly it can be controlled.''
-->-- '''Academician Prokhor Zakharov''', ''"For I Have Tasted the Fruit"'' (Accompanies discovery of the "Temporal Mechanics" tech)

-->-- '''Charles Dickens''', ''Bleak House'' (Accompanies first construction of Nessus Mining Station base facility)