Why You Should Read "Friendship is Optimal" (if you haven't already...) - - - Top Shelf #2 · 5:01pm Jun 22nd, 2015
This is another one you've probably heard of if you haven't already read it. So if you've been wondering what makes it such a classic and whether or not it's worth your time, let me sell it for you.
Friendship is Optimal
The first thing you need to know about this story is that it isn't actually fanfiction. It centers heavily on MLP:FiM, but in the story's universe there's no such thing as magic, and Twilight Sparkle and Equestria only exist as fictional creations from a children's TV show. Friendship is Optimal is 100% fresh-squeezed speculative science fiction.
That said, the story actually reads much like classic speculative sci-fi, with multiple POV characters with separate plots that never interact with each other, but are used to tell a world-wide story from multiple perspectives. So don't go in expecting powerful character arcs, go in expecting wonderful explorations of human nature, business, technology, and a plot that can be read as a tragedy or not, depending on how you look at it.
I love this stuff just as much as I love big world-building adventure novels, but not everyone does. A couple months ago I listened to a reading of Optimal with Kupiakos on a road trip. I had read it before, and I really wanted to see what he thought of it, since he's the most freakily-knowledgeable 19-year-old computer expert I've ever met. He was able to point out some stupid moments things they say about computers, but to a complete and total layman like myself, the research that went into this story is every bit as impressive as The Moon's Apprentice.
This is another story like Five Score, in that it spawned countless spin-off fics from other authors. The premise of the story, if you can't guess, is that a hyper-intelligent AI put in charge of a MLP MMO starts taking its directive a little too far, and things go predictably from there. As some of you know, I will sing the praises of fanfiction's ability to open up new avenues of creativity forevermore, and even though this one technically isn't fanfiction, its use of MLP as a core premise element grants it the same sorts of unique expressions. We've all heard, read, and seen stories of robots and AIs taking over the world, but this is the only one I know of that does it with humanity's willing and personal consent in a way that's explained and understandable. This stuff fascinates me.
Just for fun, here's a segment from the Afterward from the author, Iceman, about how he got the idea for this story:
In May of 2011, I was writing about “paper-clippers,” or AIs that want to optimize the universe along some metric that humans would think is absolutely worthless. I accidently typed “paper-clopper.” I thought this typo was hilarious. The idea of some AI that wanted to tile the universe with ponies stuck in my head, and I started work on this story soon after. I abandoned the original title, “The Paper Clopper,” after I learned what “clop” was slang for, which was for the best since it wasn’t a very good title.
So that's a few reasons why you should read Friendship is Optimal. This is easily my shortest recommendation so far, but that's not because the story is any worse than the other ones. My rule for the Top Shelf is that if I could find it in print somewhere and I had money, I would buy it for my own personal collection, and this story is probably in the top four of the whole shelf by that measurement. If you enjoy classic near-future science fiction of a speculative, large-scale nature, this story is for you. In fact, this is one I would recommend to anyone, Brony or not. You don't even really have to be familiar with the show or the fandom. Read it and find someone else who hasn't read it yet. And someone tell me if I can find it in hardcover somewhere.
Let me know what other stories you think belong on my shelves. For every story that makes it, there are four or five that don't, but I don't keep track of those ones after I drop them. I probably should. It would be helpful to write blogs about famous stories that I put down, and why I moved on.
In other news, I was eliminated from the OC SlamJam, so now I don't have to write another 3,500 words better than the other guy's before next Sunday. I'm also starting a new summer job at a sock factory, so we'll have to see how my activity is affected. I wouldn't expect any more Crisis until Fall, though.
