Mohale, The Association of Scholars, Council Member
3.3.104

*Sigh*

I've made some calculations. If I had spent the time I've spent responding to these accusations over and over again doing actual research, we'd be building new Seed ships by now...

The decicion of the Ringleader Meeting was to grant us the administration rights to the science stations. As you know, in exchange our ringmembers can't become administrations elsewhere, allowing us to focus on our primary duty: science. An integral part of administration rights has always been the ability to make calls on what will be done with the equipment. There's nothing more to it, plain and simple.

Compared to many other rings, our procedures for choosing the supported projects are transparent and fair, no matter what some denigrators may say. The documents on our council meetings is freely available as well as the reasonings to the choices. Our criteria has always been the advancement of science, instead of some obscure personal goals.

The membership of our ring is simply a formal way to denote that one has proven their ability and willingness to follow safe and efficient procedures in their research. Those who rather join other rings, can still prove this as they apply for their projects. This is what you refer to as "ridiculous applications". Let me assure you that these "ridiculous applications" are indeed necessary to minimize the risk for incidents. The claim that we routineously turn down the research of others is simply not true and I don't understand how anyone can come to such a conclusion: you only need to look at our project history (readily available for everyone) to realize that.

You must be referring to the donations we've received, or perhaps our consultation service. Yes, we do receive contributions from people who wish to support research but are not scientifically inclined themselves. We also offer consultation services to those who wish to do research but aren't certain how to do it safely and effectively. We do ask a fair compensation for that. You may use "haggling" or other dirty words for it if you like.

I understand why this thread has been created, Tianyi, but I fear it'll only encourage these accusations. Personally, I hope it'll become a very short thread, but I don't see that as a possible future.

Alsadair, Bio Security Squad
7.3.104

If I may intervene in this discussion, I'd like to give my humble opinion:

It's my experience that scientific studies in the Tower have benefitted since the Scholars began in this duty. Before that, when the scientific stations were under vote like factories, you could never know who you'd be dealing with next year. One year you might be given a go on your project, only to be cancelled by an unfortunate voting result. Next year you might get it running again, only to discover half of your experiments have become outdated. Or worse:

One year, I was studying mycotoxicology in one of the labs administered by our ring. I had a very delicate micro-ecosystem with a culture of various fungi, some of which had DNA of Da Vincian origin. My goal was to research how the different branches of DNA would interact in a controlled environment. I was just about to analyze my first results when the year came to an end..

The Umbra had decided they needed labs for their pharmaceutical research, and since our ring had expended most of our votes on some critical factory lines, we were an easy target. They outvoted us on the last minute, and refused to hear my pleas. They turned my micro-ecosystem into a cooking tank for some of their new medicine tests and recycled my fungus!

The Association of Scholars may have acted questionably in the past but it's easily outweighted by the stability they've brought to the scientific community. I'm working on several research projects at the moment, all of which span several years, and can be reasonably confident that they won't be haphazardly killed. Of course, the Scholars have cancelled projects before, but not without good reason, and certainly not because of a lost vote!

Homeros, The Stargazers
8.3.104

I tried that some time ago. It turned out... something like this.

Isabel, The Horizon, Senior Member
10.3.104

We all know what your "personal opinion" is, Hansila. You just want us all to run amok without direction, "releasing our potential" without any direction at all, in one big mess.

People like you are the reason why Sebastian has to keep quiet about what exactly the plan is. You'd take every opportunity to mess up those plans just because you think he's a "dictator". It's liberty-freaks like you who are going to mess it all up if anyone.

Mei, Firefighter
14.3.104

Something that's been bugging me more and more is the way The Horizon recruits new members. The Dawn Parties especially. They show fancy pictures of a world that doesn't exist, accompanied by epic music that means nothing. Then they say it's their future on those walls, a future they're going to build, as if nobody else ever even thought about terraforming. Not very fair, I say.

Zesiro, The Association of Scholars
15.3.104

Only if you consider short-term gain and mass production. The future is in science, and despite claiming to be the ring that's all about the future, The Horizon doesn't have that many scientific breakthroughs under their belt.

Zesiro, The Association of Scholars
15.3.104

Nonsense. Our rules are the same for everyone. It's not our fault if you fail to produce propositions that can be taken half-seriously.