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Whill
Dark Lord of the Jedi (Owner/Admin)
Joined: 14 Apr 2008
Posts: 10435
Location: Columbus, Ohio, USA, Earth, The Solar System, The Milky Way Galaxy
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 Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2016 12:30 am Post subject: |
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| Naaman wrote: | Species that live for multiple centuries (Wookiees, according to WotC live 400-ish years, for example) cause problems with suspension of disbelief.
The only way to mitigate this, IMHO, is to reduce the intelligence AND fertility of such species so as to explain why they haven't made human beings obsolete. Such a long life would allow for individuals to have multiple dozens of offspring, thus propagating the galaxy at enormous rates...
Not that it necessarily matters, but consider life on this planet. There are precious few species that have a longer life expectancy that human beings. Even without advanced medical care, humans could reasonably expect to live far longer than almost any animal that dies of "old" age.
Also, for what its worth, the human life span being "extended" by things like medical care obeys the law of averages: just because someone dies from sickness or injury does not mean that his original life expectancy was not 100 years or more. In other words, medical care doesn't really improve life expectancy. It just reduces the number of people who die prematurely, thereby increasing the average age of death. |
That's all life expectancy is, an average. And actually here on Earth there are more than a precious few non-clonal species living longer than humans, and some species even experience biological immortality.
I strongly disagree that Yoda's species, Hutts and even Wookiees are less intelligent than Humans. Now less fertile, I can definitely go with that. Even long-lived species may have short-lived fertility periods in their life cycles. I think there's another huge factor in Human galactic dominancy. Human population on Earth has quickly grown exponentially here on our planet (Human population has increased by over 3 billion people in my own lifetime here, so far). Imagine that on a galactic scale. Humans may be the most prominent species in the galaxy simply because they became wide-spread earliest. If there were more Humans with FTL capability at the beginning of the Republic, then they could spread out to new planets uninhabited by other sentient species and then explode in population on each Human colony. By the time a lot more species had a change to spread around, there weren't nearly as many habitable planets left to colonize, so most of the places they could go to already had thriving Human populations. So a lot of these longer lived species may not be any less intelligent, but there are just too many Humans everywhere to be rendered obsolete. Just look at how many planets in the Star Wars galaxy that are primarily "Human planets". For most of those, I would say that Humans just got there first.
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garhkal
Sovereign Protector
Joined: 17 Jul 2005
Posts: 14213
Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2016 1:35 am Post subject: |
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IMO its a mix. Take a look at Elves in ADND for instance.. They have a LONG gestation period for births AS well as a low fertility rate.. Its rare for them to have more than 3 kids. Compare that to some of the lower age races, that can have dozens..
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Zarn
Force Spirit
Joined: 17 Jun 2014
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| Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2016 4:24 am Post subject: |
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Last edited by Zarn on Mon May 13, 2019 1:02 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Naaman
Vice Admiral
Joined: 29 Jul 2011
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| Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2016 4:31 pm Post subject: |
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| Whill wrote: | | Naaman wrote: | Species that live for multiple centuries (Wookiees, according to WotC live 400-ish years, for example) cause problems with suspension of disbelief.
The only way to mitigate this, IMHO, is to reduce the intelligence AND fertility of such species so as to explain why they haven't made human beings obsolete. Such a long life would allow for individuals to have multiple dozens of offspring, thus propagating the galaxy at enormous rates...
Not that it necessarily matters, but consider life on this planet. There are precious few species that have a longer life expectancy that human beings. Even without advanced medical care, humans could reasonably expect to live far longer than almost any animal that dies of "old" age.
Also, for what its worth, the human life span being "extended" by things like medical care obeys the law of averages: just because someone dies from sickness or injury does not mean that his original life expectancy was not 100 years or more. In other words, medical care doesn't really improve life expectancy. It just reduces the number of people who die prematurely, thereby increasing the average age of death. |
That's all life expectancy is, an average. And actually here on Earth there are more than a precious few non-clonal species living longer than humans, and some species even experience biological immortality.
I strongly disagree that Yoda's species, Hutts and even Wookiees are less intelligent than Humans. Now less fertile, I can definitely go with that. Even long-lived species may have short-lived fertility periods in their life cycles. I think there's another huge factor in Human galactic dominancy. Human population on Earth has quickly grown exponentially here on our planet (Human population has increased by over 3 billion people in my own lifetime here, so far). Imagine that on a galactic scale. Humans may be the most prominent species in the galaxy simply because they became wide-spread earliest. If there were more Humans with FTL capability at the beginning of the Republic, then they could spread out to new planets uninhabited by other sentient species and then explode in population on each Human colony. By the time a lot more species had a change to spread around, there weren't nearly as many habitable planets left to colonize, so most of the places they could go to already had thriving Human populations. So a lot of these longer lived species may not be any less intelligent, but there are just too many Humans everywhere to be rendered obsolete. Just look at how many planets in the Star Wars galaxy that are primarily "Human planets". For most of those, I would say that Humans just got there first. |
All great points, Whill.
I was actually saying that the way it is in SW right now is rather silly, IMO (particularly in response to the notion that a given species would have a shorter life span than humans). My fix would have been what you see in my first post, there. But since I was late to the making-Star-Wars-party, I just deal with it as is. |
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Whill
Dark Lord of the Jedi (Owner/Admin)
Joined: 14 Apr 2008
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Location: Columbus, Ohio, USA, Earth, The Solar System, The Milky Way Galaxy
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| Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2016 11:07 am Post subject: |
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Naaman, Lucas started it by making Chewbacca 200 years old in 1976. Lucas also made Yoda 900 years old. I'm not sure but I think WEG may be the ones that set Jabba at being 600 years old. So it is what it is now.
Zarn, I'm down with the 'ancient aliens' genetic modifications too. And yes, Wookiee's preferred natural environment being a more dangerous one could be a factor. So Humans still be may be more adaptable overall by living in a wider variety of environments. Hutts are fairly widespread (not like Humans, but still). I imagine in the Hutt culture there is quite a lot of them killing off each other in their rise to the top of their enterprises. And Hutts need "lesser" species so wouldn't make them obsolete.
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Naaman
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| Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2016 11:27 am Post subject: |
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LOL! I see what happened there.  The "right now" in my post was referring to the status quo as established in 1976. In other words, it was "right now" as opposed future modifications made by a GM who actually worries about these things. I wasn't implying that it somehow got this way over time.
But yeah... I just deal with it. |
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MrNexx
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2016 12:58 pm Post subject: |
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I thought the EU explanation for Wookies was the Rakata?
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2016 1:50 pm Post subject: |
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| MrNexx wrote: | | I thought the EU explanation for Wookies was the Rakata? |
I would've thought the Celestials would be a more likely choice.
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garhkal
Sovereign Protector
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Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2016 4:37 pm Post subject: |
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One thing we would need to look at is what attribute/skill shifts come from reaching say old age, venerable age etc...
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Zarn
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2016 4:47 pm Post subject: |
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Last edited by Zarn on Mon May 13, 2019 1:03 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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dic1
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Joined: 19 Aug 2012
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Location: Sydney, Australlia
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| Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2016 5:10 am Post subject: |
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Maybe human supremacy is just a matter of birth rate.
we just breed so damn fast compared to the other sentient species we win out by numbers. |
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