What is "The Great Mistake"?

[salocin097]

No, the ideology is just the root of the Great Mistake. But its arguable that a change of ideology would prevent that Mistake. But this ideology seems to be part of human nature

 

[3of5]

No, the ideology is just the root of the Great Mistake. But its arguable that a change of ideology would prevent that Mistake. But this ideology seems to be part of human nature

Oh then i agree wholeheartedly agree. Its that aristotelian drama structure so perpetuated by Hollywood. Near failure -> epiphany -> rescue/success against impossible odds -> happy end. We actually even tend to apply that to personal situations, but often the rescue does not happen though.
But Civ:BE falls into the same trap with its "optimistic outlook", so i doubt they would criticize it in the same game they fall again prey to it.

 

[salocin097]

Well originally I was being original. But then I realized you were right that humans would never recognize an ideology as the Great Mistake. They'd call it the Red Scare or something

 

[3of5]

Well originally I was being original. But then I realized you were right that humans would never recognize an ideology as the Great Mistake. They'd call it the Red Scare or something

those silly humans... when will they learn?

 

[salocin097]

But Civ:BE falls into the same trap with its "optimistic outlook", so i doubt they would criticize it in the same game they fall again prey to it.

Purity Victory definitely fits that.
Harmony, yeah.
Supremacy. Well the people who left are happy. (The Victory is going back and recolonizing right-or rather killing everyone and then recolonizing?)

 

[roidesfoux]

The Great Mistake was that in the early 21st century, the entire world rushed to be the first to send a starship to Alpha Centauri.

Building the ships required intense industrialization. This depleted non-renewable resources and caused massive environmental damage. What's more, the spaceship factories were of little use for other purposes.

So much of the global economy was devoted to the projects that after they were completed, the sudden drop in demand caused an economic downward spiral. It didn't help that many of our best minds departed on the ships.

There were several wars declared to stop rivals from completing their starships. The physical damage from those wars wasn't as great as it could have been, even with limited nuclear exchanges. The real harm was done to international relations, as the bitterness generated by this aggression lingered for generations.

And in the end, all of the ships failed before reaching Alpha Centauri because our technology just wasn't good enough.

Disillusioned, the world turned away from science in general and space in particular, progress slowing to a crawl. Too late, we realized our civilization couldn't sustain itself for much longer. There was no time to build up a self-sustaining presence elsewhere in our solar system. Only colonies on life-bearing worlds would be able to survive on their own. Ironically, the one thing that could save us from the harm we did ourselves by reaching for the stars was trying again.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

The Great Mistake was that in the early 21st century, the entire world rushed to be the first to send a starship to Alpha Centauri.

Building the ships required intense industrialization. This depleted non-renewable resources and caused massive environmental damage. What's more, the spaceship factories were of little use for other purposes.

So much of the global economy was devoted to the projects that after they were completed, the sudden drop in demand caused an economic downward spiral. It didn't help that many of our best minds departed on the ships.

There were several wars declared to stop rivals from completing their starships. The physical damage from those wars wasn't as great as it could have been, even with limited nuclear exchanges. The real harm was done to international relations, as the bitterness generated by this aggression lingered for generations.

And in the end, all of the ships failed before reaching Alpha Centauri because our technology just wasn't good enough.

Disillusioned, the world turned away from science in general and space in particular, progress slowing to a crawl. Too late, we realized our civilization couldn't sustain itself for much longer. There was no time to build up a self-sustaining presence elsewhere in our solar system. Only colonies on life-bearing worlds would be able to survive on their own. Ironically, the one thing that could save us from the harm we did ourselves by reaching for the stars was trying again.

I like this interpretation

 

[BrazilianSpacer]

I would say The Great Mistake was a little bit of everything - runaway global warming (hence the flooded Pyramids), overcrowding of cities (look at New York in the trailer), pollution (Rio and Paris), and almost just a general decline.

This resumes the Great Mistake perfectly. I would also add a limited nuclear exchange in the Middle East and perhaps some severe economic crisis/collapse.

 

[cpm4001]

This resumes the Great Mistake perfectly. I would also add a limited nuclear exchange in the Middle East and perhaps some severe economic crisis/collapse.

I believe Firaxis's interpretation is that the nuclear exchange happened in Asia (so, read: between India and China/Indian- and Chinese- substitute nations), but yeah, a small nuclear war would cause a lot of migration away from the affected areas, which would not only contribute to overcrowding but also put a strain on economies (potentially leading to a collapse, as you said.)

 

[KrikkitTwo]

I believe Firaxis's interpretation is that the nuclear exchange happened in Asia (so, read: between India and China/Indian- and Chinese- substitute nations), but yeah, a small nuclear war would cause a lot of migration away from the affected areas, which would not only contribute to overcrowding but also put a strain on economies (potentially leading to a collapse, as you said.)

Well the Middle East is in Asia as well, the only hint was the sub continent (so India v. either Middle East, Pakistan and/or China)

 

[RD-BH]

Clearly "The Great Mistake" was not maintaining intellectual property rights to SMAC/X.

 

[bhavv]

Human stupidity.

 

[Jimjemael]

To be honest nothing major enough to earn the title "The Great Mistake" would ever be caused by one factor but the name implies a single dangerous event.

As has been said it's very likely that Firaxis left it's specifics in the dark to feed the fiction and give themselves some breathing space to be creative but I'm still hoping that the in-game narrative will give us some more explicit clues as to what might have occured.

 

[RD-BH]

Then I propose the following:
... 1) depleted resources
... 2) limited war over resources
... 3) increased dependence on nuclear power
... 4a) experiment to create new power source (black hole reference)
... 4b) -or- attempt at time travel
... 5) unexpected sub-particle resonance inside heavy atoms
... 6) massive explosions of nuclear reactors around the globe, devastating earthquakes from underground explosions of subterranean heavy elements, etc
... 7) destruction of population centers, arable land, increased global warming
... 8) collapse of civilization

-or-
... 1) U.S. attempts to bring asteroid into NEO for study
... 2) rocket malfunction sends it racing toward Earth endangering population and/or seas
... 3) Russia's quick response to intercept with nuclear weapons goes awry striking another Sovereign Nation
... 4) That Sovereign Nation retaliates; meanwhile planet struck by asteroid impact devastates large section of planet's arable land
... 5) Between nuclear fallout, disaster, global warming, and food shortages civilization collapses.

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

Genetically modified corn that releases a poison gas that turns the atmosphere toxic to any plants without the Monsanto gene cross breeds with all the wild and cultivated corn, destroying all food on the planet.

 

[Tempestangel]

I think the "Great Mistake" was an incident involving nuclear weaponry, and the destruction of a vast majority of the planet's resources. I think of the situation in "Endwar" where the Russian Federation launches a nuclear weapon on the Arab Emirates, which lights up the oil fields in a blaze of glory...

Another idea is that it could have been a form of global union gone wrong, resulting in the states of the world becoming more secluded than before.

 

[AlpsStranger]

There were too many intact major cities and landmarks in the cinematic for it to have been a nuclear war. Besides tossing nukes around isn't a "mistake", it's a clusterf*ck, you don't mess with understatement in that situation.

The flooded pyramids and ridiculously foggy Rio say to me that climate is messed up big time, but I don't think that our inability to stop the current climate trend would be a "big mistake", the term seems to indicate a singular action or event, rather than a trend that's been ongoing for over a century (maybe two by that time).

This.

I think they tried to fix global warming with a direct solution ( something I wouldn't be opposed to in real life, despite the obvious risks ) and it just went really, really wrong. Possibly it made the climate even worse?

 

[gunnergoz]

I suspect the great mistake will prove to be ignoring the effects of global warming but I am intrigued by the possibilities behind selection "To be determined in game by player choices?" If it could be pulled off, it would be an outstanding way to summarize a player's mistakes which lead to another human failure to thrive, but this time on the new planet.

 

[CaterpillarKing]

Another idea is that it could have been a form of global union gone wrong, resulting in the states of the world becoming more secluded than before.

Like "Next War" from Civilization 4? That would be awesome.

I suspect the great mistake will prove to be ignoring the effects of global warming but I am intrigued by the possibilities behind selection "To be determined in game by player choices?" If it could be pulled off, it would be an outstanding way to summarize a player's mistakes which lead to another human failure to thrive, but this time on the new planet.

It might a sort of thing where the end result calculates what the mistake was. If the end of BE has the world depleted again or so then maybe the narrator (I'm interested at who will provide the voices) will say"humans, they never learn", implying we depleted and overpopulated the Earth.

 

[gyrobot]

Another problem the Great Mistake was the reclamation efforts. While corporations like the ARC did a spot on job fixing up the mess caused by environmental disasters. You also got your tried and true profiteers appointed by nepotism who lived in fine estates in several regional powers on the budget that was supposed to help rebuild certain areas.