I've would have liked to see another answer to Fermi paradox. Civilizations being reaped once they reach a certain point of technological development is the plot of Mass Effect 3, that's predictable.
The idea of uncontacted aliens somehow speaking a language that we can understand perfectly is too much for my suspension of disbelief, even though it's fairly common in this type of story. The exploration of alien ruins also feels under-exploited.
There's one slight change that I really want because I'm a nitpicker and it's my field of study:
Any forms of machine learning systems, artificial intelligence, or otherwise autonomous information compiler are to be destroyed.
If the goal of the Foundation is to bring back humanity to a pre-1980 level of technology, there's no need to get rid of machine learning. It's more about statistics and data analysis than any form of 'learning': there is no form of actual intelligence involved, only mathematics. And it's way older than what you might expect (the most recent method I was taught last semester was invented in 1967). Rather than banning all forms machine learning and models, you should only maintain the first AI winter. Anyway, modern approaches (especially neural networks) would be impossible to create in practice with pre-1980 hardware.
(account deleted) 14 Jan 2020 20:37
WinterShadow, who helped me through a lot of this piece. Bless him.
Henzoid,
Almarduk, and
Brewsterion 1017, who provided a lot of early stage critique and help with sorting out what idea I wanted to pursue.
JakdragonX,
SoullessSingularity,
Westrin, Laneous does not match any existing user name,
MalyceGraves, and loads of other people, definitely. I just can't remember them all.
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