Ideas Welcome: Cybertronian Cultural Arts!

[winged_knight]

Soooooo of course this is Wing's fault. We are not shocked are we?

Since this topic is mostly going to be head canon, I thought we could get some idea sharing happening on what Cybertronian cultural arts might include.

There could be a wide range of things and not everything needs to apply universally. Some things could be region specific, limited to certain universes, or just something your character made up. This would explain why different characters may have never heard or seen certain things, allowing us as players to pick and choose. Likely the more popular ideas would be the most widespread arts/activities.

I thought it'd be cool to form a melting pot of ideas that players could then pull from in the game. I would love to see any and all suggestions! Let's Collaborate!

I also welcome any and all notable references to these things in canon so that we can use that as a basis. I'll try and gather them all together.

Cultural arts generally include: song, music, dance, theater, architecture, visual arts and literature, etc.

Comments

[my_own_trope]

Curious, but what about the ability to instantly download languages? Would that have rendered a lot of dialects and languages functionally extinct since it would make sense to sort of gravitate toward a common usage one if everyone can just generally choose which one they want to work with. And over time, you sort of see a language evolution? Especially if you can archive language files.

I mean the languages themselves would probably certainly be preserved in art, and also in any archived format (kind of like google language for expiring threatened languages). And I wonder if the more modern the canons, the less common languages are available, and certainly in TFP verse, with there being so FEW robots left, they're probably down to one functional language.

Not sure if this makes much sense or how coherent this is, but I C/P'd it from something ta 5 Am. I can expand or explain if you need. Or you know. Disregard my comments.

[brokendown]

I used to be on board with the "they can download languages!" thing, especially for human languages, where I thought they can download dictionaries, and then apply not always accurate grammar to that...

But recently, I've come to the conclusion that, in my headcanon at least, they might not be able to do that. After all, what else can they / do they download? Entire skillsets? History archives? Where does it end? MAAATRIIIX. So now, I'm personally edging toward the "they learn skills and languages through trial and error just like both humans and our primitve learning AI programs do." At least for my worldbuilding headcanon. So if a cyb wants to learn another language, just like if they want to learn the history of Polyhex, or how to double-tap on the shooting range, they have to actively learn it.

This doesn't apply to many canons, probably, where they DO have a whole host of JUST DOWNLOAD IT going on, but then for me that raises many, MANY logistical and personality problems. Because if every bot can download anything and instantly know it, it begs the question (oops fallacy) why everyone doesn't just learn everything. Is there a limited aboutn of storage space for this, and that's why the cybs can't learn everything? Does every language, program, skill, and hobby take up a certain amount of storage space in the processor, so that you have to fill out your robot like an rpg character sheet with limited points to spend? And if you download languages and skills, why doesn't everyone speak/act/fight the same? Do the programs mutate over time, or are they adaptive? But if they're adaptive, then they're taking up more memory as time goes on, and it would imply that the initial dataset was deemed incomplete or substandard.

I'm not trying to pick a fight. I'm just bringing up niggling questions here, alas!

Now ask me about the travesty that is cloning in TFP and let me capslock in "that's not physically possible" rage all over the place.

[my_own_trope]

That all makes sense. And the latest issue of MTMTE will deal with Robots and language in the same vein you're talking about, and since I kind of pull from that series for headcanon roots, I can see where you're coming from.

And don't worry about the fight thing. It isn't a fight until the personal attacks come up. LEAVE MY MOTHER OUT OF THIS. etc etc.

AND I'M SORRY I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE SOUND OF MY PLOT CONVENIENCE AND STARSCREAM'S RECHARGING, AUTO-EQUIPPING ARM ROCKETS.

[brokendown]

Vos is my linguistic hero. Uguu.

YOU SEE INFORMATION TAKES UP PHYSICAL SPACE WHEN STORED ON ANY MEDIUM, EVEN JUST PHOTONS, AND THE SPACE NEEDED TO STORE THE INFORMATION FOR A MECH'S MEMORIES WOULD TAKE UP AT LEAST THE SIZE OF A COIN IF YOU WANT TO ASSUME THEY'RE USING QUANTUM STATES TO STORE INFORMATION. LARGER IF WE'RE STILL USING ELECTRON STORAGE. AND YOU CAN'T FIT THAT MUCH INFORMATION IN THE TINY MINUTE AMOUNT IN A DROP OF EBNERGON. YOU JUST CAN'T. AND FOR EVERY DROP OF ENERGON TO WORK, YOU'D NEED TO ASSUME THAT THE INFORMATION IS STORED REDUNDANTLY IN THE ENERGON AND WHY HOW WHY HOW WHY. I AM SAYING THAT BASED ON THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE THAT INFORMATION = STORAGE SPACE, THE CLONING IN TPF IS PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE. It's also stupid.

However, there IS a workaround. If we assume that the energon does not contain the information. Rather, if we assume that the spark of every Cybertronian regularly sends its information and memories for backup in the Allspark during recharge, then the energon is just used as an identifier to pull up the requisite mech's stored data.

[my_own_trope]

But the cloning in TFP is adorable, and that's all that matters. Haha, when Starscream gets a little uncomfortable around his clones I just, I laughed. A lot.

And I'm not sure how this will jive with your headcanon, but regardless if it is physically possible or not, because canon implies that energon stores the information, that's just how I'm going to play it. With all the supplementary TFP canon everywhere I have the luxury of picking and choosing what I want to use, but I do place canon above headcanon (even when it ends up being kind of ridiculous.) So no offense meant if you end up catching some of Starscream's BS technobable and there's nothing in there about Allsparks or backup.

[brokendown]

No offence will ever be taken! Canon trumps headcanon, even when canon is kinda stupid and physically impossible. It won't be the first or last time that happens in TFP, though it's one of the more glaringly egregious instances of "nope that just can't work." But let's face it : energon is magic.