I've never heard about Glitterworld before RW, and as you can imagine google search doesn't help very much, so I assume it's not widely used reference I don't know about. It's mentioned several times in lore and appears to be common term for civilizations with advanced technology, but nobody in game actually says what is it.
(http://www.quickmeme.com/img/22/221f53ddeb8084c01d4d50c966df793d30b8392c68b7cb0a5ec50a635e01cff2.jpg)
example of glitterworld advanced technology :
(http://www.lawlz.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/break-in-case-of-fabulous-glitter-glass-lawlz-funny.jpg)
From what I understand Glitterworld is basically an entire planet of basically Hollywood. A Planet Hollywood if you will. Think Hunger Games. Basically its a real Cyberpunk scenario with this very very wealthy upper class of people who all have not a square inch of un-cosmetically enhanced body, all the TV stars and Politicians and Generals. They all live on the topmost or surface level on the planet. Then beneath them is dozens and dozens of sub level which house billions of people in incredible poverty. These lower class are horribly treated, but they dream of joining the elite through any means.
I like to think of it like firefly, where the central alliance planets are the glitterworlds.
And a mix of warhammer 40k where you have hive worlds, where the entire planet is just a city of multiple layers (hence give)
Rimworld is exactly that, a planet on the rim of colonised space, undesirable due to location, environment or pirates/raiders making it too much bother.
Quote from: LittleMikey on December 13, 2014, 04:42:42 AM
From what I understand Glitterworld is basically an entire planet of basically Hollywood. A Planet Hollywood if you will. Think Hunger Games. Basically its a real Cyberpunk scenario with this very very wealthy upper class of people who all have not a square inch of un-cosmetically enhanced body, all the TV stars and Politicians and Generals. They all live on the topmost or surface level on the planet. Then beneath them is dozens and dozens of sub level which house billions of people in incredible poverty. These lower class are horribly treated, but they dream of joining the elite through any means.
And don't forget that Glittertech is the best Tech (freely) avaible, there MAY be some artifacts that are even more high-tech but in general glitter-tech is the highest
The RimWorld Fiction Primer (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pIZyKif0bFbBWten4drrm7kfSSfvBoJPgG9-ywfN8j8/pub) says the following about glitterworlds:
Very advanced and peaceful cultures. The peak of recognizable human society in terms of health, art, technology, and human rights.
I think LittleMikey's description fits more to the urbworlds or something in between of them:
Super-high density planets dominated by cities. Their population growth outstripped their sociotechnological development, so they tend to be overcrowded, polluted, violent places.
It's called glitter cause everything in there is amazing
it's like canada but in the future
Quote from: Dr. Z on December 13, 2014, 06:53:06 AM
The RimWorld Fiction Primer (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pIZyKif0bFbBWten4drrm7kfSSfvBoJPgG9-ywfN8j8/pub) says the following about glitterworlds:
Very advanced and peaceful cultures. The peak of recognizable human society in terms of health, art, technology, and human rights. ]
Who wrote this? Is it fanfiction or official lore?
Quote from: H_D on December 13, 2014, 07:08:11 AM
Quote from: Dr. Z on December 13, 2014, 06:53:06 AM
The RimWorld Fiction Primer (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pIZyKif0bFbBWten4drrm7kfSSfvBoJPgG9-ywfN8j8/pub) says the following about glitterworlds:
Very advanced and peaceful cultures. The peak of recognizable human society in terms of health, art, technology, and human rights. ]
Who wrote this? Is it fanfiction or official lore?
Ty wrote it
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=4346.msg42650#msg42650
It's wrote by the developer, so it's official lore.
The term is taken from Alastair Reynolds, a science fiction writer.
For the next few centuries, the so-called Belle Epoque, humanity enjoyed a period of relative peace and prosperity, with several planets being colonised. The most successful planet of all was Yellowstone, a planet orbiting the star Epsilon Eridani, site of the Glitter Band and Chasm City. Technologies developed included the Conjoiner Drive, a gift from the Conjoiners (who resumed contact with humanity at an unknown time), advanced nanotechnology, and numerous other devices. With the exception of an attempted takeover on Yellowstone, no major incidents affected humanity during this time.
The Belle Epoque was terminated by the advent of the Melding Plague in 2510, a nanotechnological virus that destroyed all other nanotechnology it came into contact with. Only the Conjoiners were unaffected by this disaster, which devastated the civilisation around Yellowstone. War between the Demarchists and Conjoiners erupted as a result of the plague.
Glitter Band / Rust Belt, a conglomeration of 10,000 exquisitely unique orbital habitats around Yellowstone. One of the most famous locations in human history, it was the home to billions of people from across the galaxy. It was also a place of cultural, philosophical and physical diversity and a central hub of business and trade in human space. In regards to its socio-political organization and importance in the fields mentioned previously, the Glitter Band strongly resembles Classical Greece.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Revelation_Space_locations#Glitter_Band
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revelation_Space_universe
Essentially it means a culture with nanotech. In Rimworld, it's used to represent spacers.
If you've read any of A. Reynold's work, you'll also know that hostile AI wiping everything sentient out is a common theme of his.
Be careful to not mix up fictions, if I understand this correctly, "Glitter Band" is the name of a conglomeration of cities/plantes/systems? This is a completly different universe than RimWorld takes place in.
Yes, a Glitterworld is any world in the universe that has in a way reached the peak of human technological evolution. If our game had better technology, you could make your Colony a glitterworld in itself.
Quote from: Shinzy on December 13, 2014, 07:06:16 AM
It's called glitter cause everything in there is amazing
it's like canada but in the future
This made me lol!
And yeah, in Al Reynolds' books, the Glitter Band is a specific set of orbiting habitats around Epsilon Eridani. In RimWorld, a glitterworld is one of many planets which, at various times, have reached peak non-transcendent levels of sociotechnological advancement.
Quote from: Tynan on December 13, 2014, 01:58:04 PM
This made me lol!
And yeah, in Al Reynolds' books, the Glitter Band is a specific set of orbiting habitats around Epsilon Eridani. In RimWorld, a glitterworld is one of many planets which, at various times, have reached peak non-transcendent levels of sociotechnological advancement.
Thank Glitter (but not Gary). I had anxiety that I'd just pulled a "easy" comment and crapped all over Rimworld's lore.
p.s.
Very happy that Rimworld's creator is an actual science fiction fan. Geekgasm.
Quote from: Tynan on December 13, 2014, 01:58:04 PM
This made me lol!
And yeah, in Al Reynolds' books, the Glitter Band is a specific set of orbiting habitats around Epsilon Eridani. In RimWorld, a glitterworld is one of many planets which, at various times, have reached peak non-transcendent levels of sociotechnological advancement.
You might have seen that there's a lot of people making glitterworld mods out there. A couple of them are focused surrounding things like glitterworld weaponry or glitterworld armor, etc.
But if Glitterworlds have "reached peak non-transcendent levels of sociotechnological advancement", doesn't that mean that wars and crime is pretty much nonexistent? The way Glitterworld pawns are described nearly all of them seem to live in societies where there's no such thing as missing wants. If you have a degree of socialist worldview, that would pretty much mean that all reasons to commit crime or wage wars are solved, hence no real industry can be created in tools or equipment to hurt others, right?
If that's the case, it would also mean that Glitterworlds are vulnerable to even technologically inferior bandits.
Quote from: Kent Lang on March 21, 2020, 01:58:16 PM...If you have a degree of socialist worldview, that would pretty much mean that all reasons to commit crime or wage wars are solved, hence no real industry can be created in tools or equipment to hurt others, right?..
Such a naive and idealistic view. It's human nature to make others suffer. It's easy to restrain it when you have goals to achieve. But once you have everything there is a risk to break down in the other way, hence the need to suppress or use this.
Well, there might be some cardinal solutions to this and other social problems like that Tipharean citizens imployed. But that would be transcendent level IMHO.
Quote from: Kent Lang on March 21, 2020, 01:58:16 PM
Quote from: Tynan on December 13, 2014, 01:58:04 PM
This made me lol!
And yeah, in Al Reynolds' books, the Glitter Band is a specific set of orbiting habitats around Epsilon Eridani. In RimWorld, a glitterworld is one of many planets which, at various times, have reached peak non-transcendent levels of sociotechnological advancement.
You might have seen that there's a lot of people making glitterworld mods out there. A couple of them are focused surrounding things like glitterworld weaponry or glitterworld armor, etc.
But if Glitterworlds have "reached peak non-transcendent levels of sociotechnological advancement", doesn't that mean that wars and crime is pretty much nonexistent? The way Glitterworld pawns are described nearly all of them seem to live in societies where there's no such thing as missing wants. If you have a degree of socialist worldview, that would pretty much mean that all reasons to commit crime or wage wars are solved, hence no real industry can be created in tools or equipment to hurt others, right?
If that's the case, it would also mean that Glitterworlds are vulnerable to even technologically inferior bandits.
While you do have a point, it really makes me wonder because according the fiction primer the mechanoids were first developed by the glitterworlds. Who then later went murder everything. Maybe not everything is sunshine and roses over there in those glitterworlds?
Just because YOUR glitterworld is at peace and utopian, doesn't mean the next one over doesn't need a glitterboot on its glitterneck ^^'. People, in other words, remain "people" in the RW lore.
I have always suspected (in my headcanon) that there are several different varieties of glitterworlds: everything from post-scarcity utopia to post-scarcity police states (thanks Seedship, for those specific terms). I have equated "glitterworld" with the technological marvels and the fantastic appeal such planets have - and the PR they put out of course.
Vinge's a Fire Upon the Deep gives an excellent understanding of several ways a glitterworld can create an AI that is terrifying. Once one starts building things smarter than one's entire society....it's hard to plan where they go anymore.
--LWM
Vinge's universe-building was VERY interesting =). I read that whole (loosely-connected) series.
Quote from: B@R5uk on March 21, 2020, 02:20:48 PM
Quote from: Kent Lang on March 21, 2020, 01:58:16 PM...If you have a degree of socialist worldview, that would pretty much mean that all reasons to commit crime or wage wars are solved, hence no real industry can be created in tools or equipment to hurt others, right?..
Such a naive and idealistic view. It's human nature to make others suffer. It's easy to restrain it when you have goals to achieve. But once you have everything there is a risk to break down in the other way, hence the need to suppress or use this.
Well, there might be some cardinal solutions to this and other social problems like that Tipharean citizens imployed. But that would be transcendent level IMHO.
There is one option that I feel you're overlooking. You're right, humans are violent and tribal and without something to work towards they will find something to fight about. But I believe there is one thing even stronger than that that you would easily find in glitterworlds: Absolute, unadulterated hedonism. When I think glitterworld, I think pleasure planet from 40k. No war, no crime, because there's basicly infinite resources and no laws. Do whatever you want, whenever you want, as depraved as you want. There's not much drive for crime or war when you're up to your eyeballs in every vice you can imagine, and then someone will introduce you to something even more depraved.
Not only this, but if the bulk of your planet is enaged in unchecked hedonism, who's running the planet? A few royal planetary governors and a lot of AIs of varying intelligence.
I think narrow interpretations of "glitterworld" are missing the point. From Tynan's words and my own view of what I've read of the Lore (including colonist backgrounds), "glitterworld" is a VERY broad term. It could be a hedonist utopia run by AIs, a very lively, extremely high-tech, but still recognizably "normal" society (along the lines of a "future Norway", perhaps), or a cyberpunk "paradise"/"hell", with the best and worst imaginable things available at any given time.
I always thought that while the world itself was peaceful, it was part of the same universe as the Rimworlds (duh) and had to be at least a BIT worried about its neighbors.
I mean, you're a starving Urbworld full of the human equivalent of rats who are going to die in a few years from malnutrition or disease anyway, why NOT attack that nearby Glitterworld?
Oh, their massive weapon stores and killer death robots. Right. I'll stay here and eat my shoelaces, thank you very much.