Cliodynamics and the Imperial Visions

Cliodynamics and the Imperial Visions

By The Margrave Princely Count Sardar Kumar Sri Rai Sahib Khanzadeh

The Trantorian Concordat Imperium, the Sephirotic Empire of a Billion Worlds is wisely ruled by the all-wise Sovereign and guided by His visions, according to the precepts of The Cliodynamics Foundation.

The Cliodynamics Foundation, formulators of predictive "history theory", is the basis of the Imperium’s social engineering. The Social Engineering Codex, or just The Codex, created by The Cliodynamics Foundation, is more often known as "The Forms".

"The Forms must be obeyed."

Cliodynamics Foundation Tenure Adolphe Quetelet developed "social physics", the statistical laws underlying the behaviour of populations.

Cliodynamics Foundation Fellows Stuart Kauffman and Ilya Prigogine use complexity theory, an offshoot of chaos mathematical theory, to apply the concepts of statistical modeling to sociological evolution.

Foundation Trustee John J. Xenakis proposed Generational Dynamics as a historical methodology to analyze historical events through the flow of generations, and use the analysis to forecast future events by comparing today's generational attitudes to those of the past.

Cliodynamics Foundation Professor Peter Turchin headed a special taskforce within The Cliodynamics Foundation based on his manifesto: "War and Peace and War: The Life Cycles of Imperial Nations."

Local autonomy and fiefdoms are granted based on the conclusions reached by The Cliodynamics Foundation and confirmed by the prescient visions of the Sovereign.

It is possibly the largest visible effect of their work, or at least the most visible aspect that people might notice.

Imperial Observers such as myself and Imperial Inquisitors (my former duty) collect information and data from the provinces and disseminate information to the provinces as per the will of the Sovereign.

The Cliodynamics Foundations processes all of that information into digestible form for the Sovereign, who in turn creates the visions.

Imperial Observers and Imperial Inquisitors are both guided by the prescient visions of the Sovereign.

It is the responsibility of Imperial servants to know, understand and embrace the meaning of these visions, trusting in the prescience of the visions and carrying out the conclusions as dictated by The Forms.

The Geminga Sphere, also known as the Solomani Rim is the local bubble of space where the interstellar dust was mostly cleared by the Geminga Supernova Event 300,000 years ago.

This volume of space, approximately 300 light-years in diameter, contains over 1000 stellar (20 light-year diameter) sectors, is less than one half percent of Imperial Sector 2814, one of 3600 such administrative divisions in Mutter’s Spiral.

The Concordat Imperium Wormhole Nexus is a web of communications gauge and traversable gauge wormholes constructed, maintained and operated by the trans-sapient navigators of the Spatium Tempus Navigatum Corpus.

Although other forms of interstellar transit exist, this is the fastest and most efficient method.

The Spatium Tempus Navigatum Corpus ensures the rapid deployment of Concordat Imperium Janisarries in the event of insurrection or the collapse of local control of the system.

It also ensures the safe transit of Imperium Servants such as Imperial Observers and Imperial Inquisitors.

As the wormhole nexus does not actually pass thru the local space, it is immune to any attacks between systems.

Imperium Servants who do not employ the nexus are to safeguard their travel plans carefully and to arrange for proper escort. Justification must be made in accordance with The Forms for not using the safe passage provided by the Pax Concordat.

The wormhole nexus links us together. In its way, we are all extensions of the same organism, not just the same organization or just share the same galaxy of stars.

Certain systems identified by The Cliodynamics Foundation and confirmed by the vision of the Sovereign are designated as "Bifurcation Points", which are prediction and prescient blindspots.

These systems are afforded special attention and handling, sometimes of the good kind. Special emissaries are dispatched directly by the Concordat Imperium Court to see to the implementation of certain Imperial Decrees to said "Bifurcation Points".

Everyone thinks they’re a "Bifurcation Points", don’t be so sure. You are of course all unique, just like everyone else. The absurdity of existence is that from the inside, we all feel we are the locus of significance, but externally we are all quite inconsequential.

The 200 or so Great Houses of Mutter’s Spiral control 3600 Imperium Sectors, which are approximately 1500 light-years in diameter

These Great Houses are made up of about 660 thousand Duchies and about 4.2 million Marches of various sizes.

The Concordat Imperium is concordance between these 200 Great Houses, 660 thousand Duchies, and 4.2 million Marches, linking and entangling together the fates of over 100 quadrillion sentient beings. Quadrillion being a million billion.

Mutter’s Spiral is broken down into nearly 2 billion stellar sectors, roughly 20 light-years on a side each.

The Mutter’s Spiral Galaxy is thus so overflowing that entire populations can be treated collectively as interchangeable units.

You can still consider yourself an individual if you like, individual just like everyone else.

The psychohistory branch of statistical mathematics is used to predict the future evolution of society in the galaxy, in much the same way that the mathematics of thermodynamics can be used to predict the behavior of an ideal gas.

The laws of thermodynamics could not be worked out until a great deal of experience had been accumulated with steam engines and carefully designed experiments had produced sufficient useful data.

It was only when a given set of prior conditions could be shown to consistently produce the same result at a later time that equations could be found that expressed this relationship, and made it possible to predict a future result from a prior set of conditions.

What we have in abundance is history. Imperium records go back 657,000 years The Concordat Dynasty, since nearly 50,000 years ago, has been extremely diligent record keepers.

Implicit is the concept that sentient behavior and societies must in some way be cyclical. If progress was always evolving and never repeating, the mathematics of psychohistory couldnt be developed.

This idea that history may be cyclical is an old one, and periodically falls into disfavour among younger cultures which have absorbed a linear idea of nearly continuous evolutionary “progress” from the past into the future. This too ebbs, flows and wanes.

So called cultural evolution is in actuality rather robust cultural cycling through a near century long repetition of remarkably similar eras.

The length of the cycle is mostly dependent on the age of the population under study, there are variances.

A book has been published that could arguably be called the first book on psychohistory. That book is The Fourth Turning: An Prophecy by William Strauss and Neil Howe.

The use of the word “prophecy” should not be confused with the sort of prophecy one thinks of in connection with religious prognosticators. A more apt description is that it is a variant of the “if this goes on” story. It is “if this goes on,” but with corners, or as the Strause and Howe calls them, Turnings.

Societies are expect to change over time, fads are expected to come and go. We simplistically think of this in terms of a pendulum swing, which works fine with the width of ties or the length of skirts. But societies are more complex than that. Strauss and Howe see cycling through four similar turnings, or eras, again and again.

At the core of modern history lies this remarkable pattern.

For instance, over the past five centuries or so, most societies has entered a new era—a new turning—every two decades or so. At the start of each turning, people change how they feel about themselves, their culture, their nation and their future.

Turnings come in cycles of four. Each cycle spans the length of a long life, roughly one hundred years to two hundred years depending on the culture, a unit of time called the Saeculum.

Together, the four turnings of the Saeculum comprise history’s seasonal rhythm of growth, maturation, entropy, and destruction.

The First Turning is a High, an upbeat era of strengthening institutions and weakening individualism, when a new civic order implants and the old values regime decays.

The Second Turning is an Awakening, a passionate era of spiritual upheaval, when the civic order comes under attack from a new values regime.

The Third Turning is an Unraveling, a downcast era of strengthening individualism and weakening institutions, when the old civic order decays and the new values regime implants.

The Fourth Turning is a Crisis, a decisive era of secular upheaval, when the values regime propels the replacement of the old civic order with the new one.

Each turning comes with its own identifiable mood. Always, these mood shifts catch people by surprise.

Linear extrapolations from the recent past into even the near-term future can be far off the mark.

It isn’t simply a matter of failing to predict specific events, like the market collapses or university campus riots.

As Strauss and Howe put it, “It’s not just that the experts missed the particular events that lay just ahead. It’s that they missed the entire mood of the coming era.”

Expert predictions were wrong for this reason: "When the forecasters assumed the future would extrapolate the recent past, they expected that the next set of people in each phase of life would behave just like the current occupants."

Sister Rose writes the equation f_c(z)=z^2+c in the margin of her notes

One set of parents might have what is called a “Depression Era Mindset” about money. Having spent most of their formative years enduring shortages brought on by an economic depression, followed by sacrifices mandated by the needs of war, they had a deeply ingrained sense of “pay as you go” and don’t over-extend yourself. The following era of easy credit and “no interest for two years” is viewed by them self-evidently irresponsible, bordering on insane.

It’s no great stretch of the imagination to figure out that a generation raised in an age of plenty will differ from one raised in an age of want. What is very interesting is that this process should be cyclical, that after four generations it comes full circle to an age of similar mood and temperament.

Yet that is exactly what Strauss and Howe say happens, as one generation hands off its national role to the next.

This dynamic has recurred throughout history. Roughly every two to four decades, there has arisen a new constellation of generations—a new layering of generational personas up and down the age ladder.

In elderhood, the cautionary individualists of the Lost Generation were replaced by the hubristic Veterans Generation of material affluence, global power, and civic planning.

In midlife, the upbeat Veterans were replaced by the helpmate Silent Generation, who applied their expertise and sensitivity to fine-tune the institutional order while mentoring the passions of youth.

In young adulthood, the conformist Silent were replaced by the narcissistic Boom Generation, who asserted the primacy of self and challenged the alleged moral vacuity of the institutional order.

In childhood, the indulged Boomers were replaced by the neglected Pop Culture Generation, who were left unprotected at a time of cultural convulsion and adult self-discovery.

The authors also name the archetypes born in each era. A Prophet generation is born during a High, Nomad generations are born during Awakenings, Heroes are born during an Unraveling, and Artists during a Crisis.

So an era in which Heroes are running things and Prophets are young adults sowing their wild oats is far different from a period in which the reverse is true.

The coronation of Trantor Imperium Sovereign Djehuti of the Concordat Dynasty, was 49300 years after founding of the Concordat Dynasty.

Prince Djehuti ("He who judges the living and the dead") was not the heir apparent for most of the reign of his father, Trantor Imperium Sovereign Horakhty ("The Horus of the Two Horizons"), from 49111 to 49300.

Prince Djehuti was the younger brother of the heir apparent.

Prince Djehuti, had chosen a life of service, and studied at The Cliodynamics Foundation.

Prince Djehuti’s intention was to be the official liaison between The Cliodynamics Foundation and the Imperium Sovereign.

A serious student and a devout believer, Prince Djehuti learned all that he could, intending that his best contribution to the Imperium would be for him to assist his elder brother to absorb the truth of the Galaxy so as to be able to be the Will of the Imperium and present the visions that rule the Imperial Servants throughout the Galaxy. A noble cause and a high calling in and of itself.

The elder heir apparent had been prepared all of his life to be the Concordat Sovereign of the Sephirotic Empire of a Billion Worlds known as the Trantorian Galactic Imperium.

Protected in every way that a life of power and privilege can provide, the Heir Apparent who would also be known as Horakhty, could not be protected from the rage of his father.

Sovereign Horakhty had been very controlling of every aspect of the life of Horakhty the Heir Apparent of Sovereign Horakhty.

Sovereign Horakhty banished the first wife for concealing the fraud of her sterility and then later came to blows with his son about the behaviour of his second wife. I think it had to do with the dress she was wearing.

The assault resulted in the death of Horakhty the Heir Apparent of Sovereign Horakhty.

Prince Djehuti was a full adept at The Cliodynamics Foundation when he was informed of his elder brother’s untimely death and that he was the new Heir Apparent.

Sovereign Horakhty never fully recovered from the grief and shock of the passing of his eldest son, he passed away three years later in 49300.

Three days later Prince Djehuti was crowned the Concordat Sovereign of the Sephirotic Imperium of a Billion Worlds known as the Trantorian Galactic Imperium.

No Sovereign in the more than 650,000 years of recorded history of the Trantorian Imperium, has ever had such indoctrination into and intimate knowledge of the ways of Cliodynamics.

More so than any period in history, The Imperium is guided by The Codex and the Imperial Visions.

It has been said that the three pillars of the Imperium are Concordance, The Codex and the Imperial Visions.