User blog comment:GrandMethuselah67/Lore Sheet: The Democratic Imperium of Neohumanity/@comment-27030725-20150929203741/@comment-4867780-20150930074026

1) So technology and magic remains relatively distinct fields, with occasional combos for particularly advanced projets, rather than merged into a single system ? It somehow sounds better to me this way, by maintaining a greater relatability from a real-life perspective, which makes it more impressive in comparison. It's just that femtotech has grown so advanced it has become really hard to differenciate it from supernatural phenomena, especially in regard to its extremely polyvalent and large-scale construction and transmutation capabilities.

2) Good point. The D.I.N's progressist ideology seems to permeate their own form of hedonism just like very other aspect of their culture, with intelligence and evolution as their core drive, and happiness as merely a pleasant side-effect. On the other hand, Selforge City is effectively more focused on physical and emotional fulfillment (the heart over the brain), and while culture and technology are omnipresent and extremely developped through endless extraplanar assimilation and hyper-advanced engineering, they are ultimately just a mean to an end, a simple tool in the service of citizens' personal and collective happiness.

From an in-universe perspective, it's probably due in large part to Lawrence's natural abilities, that makes the pursuit of progress unnecessary (omni-adaptive meta-tech) if not plainly irrelevant (omni-scientist / unlimited intellect). So it stands to reason that enjoyment would become an end in itself for them, while Neohumans retain the "knowledge is power" scientific motivation, constantly ushering them to new technological heights illustrated by the D.I.N 's numerous updates.

I must say Neohumans setting off to other worlds to enlighten lesser civilization is a fascinating idea, essentially a real-life version of the Civilization game series, with much more meaning and satisfaction due to their actuality. I don't think citizens would be that thrilled about it, so used they are to their transcendent lifestyle, and foreign civilizations being ultimately doomed to extinction anyway. Lawrence on the other hand may be inclined to change the planes he visit for the better as part of his adventures. It sure must be fun to immersively build your own empire and improve the world from the inside. Yet another game to his eyes admitedly, but at least it would be beneficial to the greater good for once.