Difference between revisions of "Talk:Native Intelligent Life"

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m (Tjoneslo moved page Talk:NIL to Talk:Native intelligent life: Move to full name)
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Revision as of 11:56, 12 January 2018

Notes 2016

Note that NIL can also refer to a Sapient, not just a Sophont.

MWM makes a clear distinction (at least in T5), the difference being that Sophont has a higher threshold.

  • A Sentient (= "Sensing") is a life form that is self aware (e.g. an animal).
  • A Sapient is an intelligent life form.
  • A Sophont is an intelligent life form that has an interstellar presence.

In other words, all Sapients/Sophonts are also Sentient by definition.

  1. But while all Sophonts are also Sapients, not all Sapients are Sophonts.
  2. So a TL0 or TL1 society of NILs on a world would be considered a Sapient species, but not Sophonts.
  3. If that same species eventually developed Jump Drive or a small STL/NAFAL ship polity (or had become members of a starfaring society and had spread out among the stars by that agency), then they would be considered Sophonts.
  4. The term NIL better fits the definition of Sapient.

Hi Wayne, would please write, edit, or otherwise fix the entries to reflect this better understanding?
- Maksim-Smelchak (talk) 20:02, 9 July 2016 (EDT)