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T H E C O N V E R S I O N B U R E A U :
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Brand New Universe
By Chatoyance
Where Do We Go From Here?
On the point of re-inventing the Conversion Bureau
A single story can change the world, certainly it can spawn an entire genre, and it can absolutely create a universe that other writers can expand upon, extend, and flesh out. This is precisely what happened with Blaze's original 'The Conversion Bureau', and even though it was an unfinished, and not particularly good story, it was a powerful seed from which the most wondrous and exotic fruit has grown.
Following that lead, in each of my seven reimaginings of the the Conversion Bureau central concept, I have endeavored to create universes with boundless potentials, should other writers wish to pursue them. This was the challenge - could I create Brand New Universes with all the potential of Blaze's original effort.
The possibilities are endless. Here is what could be done with each of the seven universes - here is their potential, outlined.
New Universe One: The Pony Singularity
Here we have a universe where the computer/machine Singularity is in full swing, with machines burrowing underground forming networks and staying ahead of the humans that might seek to destroy them. It is a world where free artificial intelligence is illegal, and where hackers secretly assist artificial intelligence to be free.
To achieve equality or, if necessary, dominance, the machine people will need to win over the humans and to do that what could work better than to play upon the most basic biological urge, the desire to protect and nurture the cute, the innocent, the infant-like. Thus machine recreations of My Little Pony become the propaganda, and the model of how to exist, for the machine civilization.
Writing Hooks:
► Can the machine people win? What is the cost of their victory? Can the coexist, or must they dominate?
► Will humans accept the promise of machine immortality in exchange for being rendered harmless ponies?
► Machines can live anywhere. Is the answer offworld? How will Man react to being left behind while ponies take to the stars?
► What struggles and conflicts will come of all of this? What tools and technologies? Is there a rival Nightmare Moon machine group? What about human-run draconic or griffon machine systems?
► What would the PER and the HLF be like in a machine Singularity situation?
I think this universe holds endless promise. If it had been written first, imagine what the Conversion Bureau genre would look like now!
New Universe Two: The Most Decadent Thing
In a post-human super-science future spanning the galaxies, the one thing that is still a thrill turns out to be innocence and biological existence.
Writing Hooks:
► How far would the fashion of descending into organic life go? Would it mean the end of galactic civilization, or is it just one more thrill?
► Is this 'organic' existence truly organic? If pocket universes can be made, can they have alien physics? Magic?
► Is this how 'real' Equestria got it's start? What if the galactic civilization turned out to be a simulation of yet another realm? What if it all was the creation of Nightmare Moon, who won against Celestia to rule the stars?
► What is more important - godlike power in the galaxy, or tender moments with friends in the microcosm, and why?
I am the first to admit the number of stories this universe could produce would be limited. That said, it is an interesting scenario to contemplate - decadence replaced by sincerity mimics the very subtext of the brony movement itself.
New Universe Three: The Friendship Virus
A homebrew genetic alteration virus transforms humanity into something kinder by changing the expression of genes in both women and men - but men show the change physically more, and this transforms culture, especially expressions of masculinity, currently the dominant paradigm.
Writing Hooks:
► How would human civilization change in response to such a new definition of sex and gender roles?
► What kind of backlash would there be against the change? If a cure was later found, would it actually be desired anymore? What if it wasn't?
► In a world of tender and gentle humans, what of the inevitable few that would be immune? Do they rule, or do they become monsters? How does this new world respond to the immune? How do the immune see themselves?
► What other genetic changes might be cooking in backyard labs? Could they induce more radical physical alterations, like coats of hair or fur, vestigial wings or other useless but curious changes in morphology?
► Who were the original creators of the virus, and what motivated them? What made them go that far.
It should be noted that this is based on fact: there actually are backyard gene hackers right now, in the real world, playing with creating custom organisms. This is happening in schools and colleges too, but I think it far more interesting that it is happening in garages. This is real stuff. It actually could happen. That makes this universe perhaps the most truly science fictional of all the seven universes.
New Universe Four: Phoenix In Hooves
The gray-goo scenario of nanotechnology is played out with a MLP:FIM coat of paint on it. Two giant supercomputer intelligences play the roles of the goddesses Celestia and Luna. A scientific basis for the magical realm of Equestria done as a post-apocalyptic paradise.
► Someday, this place will literally be Equestria.
► What would happen if a pony, or ponies found out, or already knew the truth of where they came from? That their princesses were machines, and that they themselves were constructs?
► What if a pony found out what the creators -humans- really looked like? Would anypony care? What would happen if Celestia was told? Should she be told? Would it mean the end of paradise?
► What if some of the stone ponies in the Garden were ponies that had found out, but had been stopped not by Celestia, but by unicorns who wanted to preserve the Equestrian Paradise?
► What if humans returned from the stars to find their homeworld thus? What would they do? Would some convert?
New Universe Five: Curtains Of Light
There is no apocalypse - Equestria is simply offered through doorways that hang in the sky. To enter one is to turn pony, forever, and there is no return to Earth. The governments of the world try to seal off the doorways, to prevent the loss of the working classes that serve them. Paradise is denied for reasons of power and profit. A revolution is brewing.
Writing Hooks:
► How does this scenario illuminate real world struggles for freedom and a better life?
► How far would the world's governmental elite go to prevent the loss of the working poor?
► Are the doorways really only one-way? What if ponies found a way to return?
► Could a movement to open the way to Equestria translate to a movement to revolutionize the world itself, succeeding where ordinary political revolutions failed? If so, or not, why and how?
► Imagine both the PER and HLF in this scenario.
► What is the meaning of the doorways, the curtains of light? Is there a higher meaning? Is is metaphysical, or the result of some experiment gone wrong?
► How would the world change when the working poor begin to vanish, and there is no more slave labor for corporations to use? Who would make the Ipads and Nike sneakers then? Who would fight the warlord's wars?
I think this universe holds a lot of promise for the politically inclined writer. This is revolution couched as escape to fairyland. This scenario could be used to describe what revolution is, how the world works, and how governments respond to changes in the status quo.
New Universe Six: The Deserving Ones
An enchanted cottage holds the literal Stairway To Heaven - the original Elysian Fields, only paradise is for ponies alone. These cottages, of which there may be thousands, are run by recruited humans that must find deserving individuals to offer salvation to. There are strict conditions and time limits, and the offer of heaven is often difficult to guarantee. But it is a way out for a species damned to punishment within the hell universe of Earth.
Writing Hooks:
► What kind of incredible adventures could happen as the agents of the Bureaus struggle to get the deserving to their eternal reward?
► What if the needed 'object' was lost, or could not be identified? What if it were lost, and time was running out?
► What if a deserving soul refused to leave without the person they loved? How would this be dealt with? How would Celestia be contacted? Could she?
► What if a Bureau Agent got curious or impatient and decided to drink the drops they had at the moment? Would they become half-pony? Anthopomorphic? Would they just end up deformed? Would they be punished?
► What happens if the fifteen minute limit is exceeded? Is their a way to make things right? What if it involved the Agent giving up their philtre, their own immortality, to save the client? Would this be rewarded, or would it be a tragedy?
► What would happen if two Bureaus both got the same client by mistake?
► What makes a human 'deserving'? Who or what is the 'Judge'? Why does Celestia even care?
I personally think this universe just presents an endless opportunity for stories. Throw in the HLF and PER as 'watchers' or secret agencies and the stories only increase. I pictured this as a television series from the moment I began writing it. Every episode a new client. Every episode a new adventure. Some simple, some adventurous, some tragic. There would be as many types of stories as their are individual human experiences. Each client would have their own story to tell, their own burdens to let go of. And always the mystery of what is really up those stairs.
New Universe Seven: Mankind Triumphant!
By grinding up the statue of Discord, the human governments manage to create a substance that can penetrate the Equestrian Barrier. Celestia's head - the head of a god - ends up in a sealed box, Equestria itself is destroyed utterly and forever, and the world is damaged for decades. But in the end, Mankind triumphs and restores the planet, aided by a new workforce, the newfoals, earthponies, who can be manufactured using the last source of magic in the cosmos - the blood that leaks eternally from Celestia's screaming head.
Story Hooks:
► The ponies are the new slaves. They seem to be evolving, developing the ability to resist. What if they do?
► What would it be like to be accused of a petty crime and end up as a pony against your will? How would a person come to terms with that?
► How would the new feudalism of the world play out? What social changes would occur in a new world ordered by the Old Elite?
► Celestia is a goddess. She is pure magic. What if the ponies rebelled and opened her box? What if she could be restored?
► If Celestia was restored, what would she do? Would she still be kind and merciful, or would her experience have made of her a mad god? Would she seek to remake the earth into another Equestria? Would she seen revenge, or change?
► If Celestia could not be restored, what would be the right thing to do with her? If the right thing were to put her out of her misery, it would also mean the final loss of magic forever. What if this was too high a price to pay?
► What groups would arise in such a world? What if the descendant of an Elite felt guilt and shame and decided to use his fortune to 'make things right'?
► What would the PER and the HLF look like in such a world? What would their goals be?
► What if Luna somehow survived the vaporization of Equestria, and managed to begin to expand it again? Who would be her allies and who would oppose her? What would she do when she discovered the fate of her sister?
► What would it be like to be a true, second-class slave species, knowing that you once had been human?
► How would the ponies be integrated into the lives of humans in this world? As pets? Companions? Lovers? Servants?
► What if humans themselves decided to rebel and save Celestia and free her from the box?
► Could Celestia ever forgive if she won? And if she could, why? How?
► Would constant association with the pony subclass eventually lead to the humans regretting what they had done?
► What if there were nations where the ponies were considered equals and given rights? Underground railroad? How could this be used as a metaphor for the European enslavement of Africans?
► If Celestia was freed from the box, could their be a resolution where humans and Equestrians end up sharing the world as equals? Who would enforce this? How could it happen?
► What if another alien universe arose and the only solution was for the humans to restore Celestia - knowing that her wrath could be extreme? How would that play out?
► What if Luna hadn't been in Equestria at the time the missiles hit? What if she was in hiding, trying to find an answer to a species that had a defense against magic?
► What if Discord began to subtly exert influence, what then? What if he began to arise from the particles in Substance D?
► What would be the story of a pony as they slowly lose the last traces of their humanity at age 100? What rituals would arise around this? How would the ponies of Earth deal with this and relate to it?
► Can the ponies reproduce on the new Earth? If not, how do they form families under human domination, where the only new blood is newly created newfoals? If they can reproduce, what happens when they outnumber the humans? Are they culled? Or do they win?
I think the final story is the most powerful and has the most story possibilities of all the seven. I could write multiple novels based just on Mankind Truimphant! If I wanted to, and had the energy. Who would have imagined that destroying Equestria utterly would provide such a motherload of story possibilities? I have been so concerned with how wonderful getting ponified would be that the dark alternative - the loss of Equestria entirely - sailed past me for the longest time.
There is just no end to the dramatic possibilities of the final universe, Mankind Triumphant! Any kind of story could be set here - pathos, triumph in the face of oppression, heroic battle and the suffering of the defeated. Human corporate stories, stories of how society adapts.... just endless possibilities!
CONCLUSIONS
The Conversion Bureau was begun from a single good idea. That idea is so powerful that it has spawned, and continues to spawn, countless stories. There is no end to what could be done with the central conceit, and this is what I wanted to prove, by example, with these seven universes.
And these are just seven alternate universes of the Conversion Bureau. I am sure that other writers could come up with dozens more to top mine. There is no shortage of anything in all of this - like magic itself, The Conversion Bureau concept is limitless and extropic - there is always more.
I would encourage other writers to consider the possibilities. Yes, humans turning into something else is wonderful and thrilling, but there is so much to be done with this basic concept. And the ever-enchanting ponies of MLP:FIM offer a delicious lure to draw humans to that change. But this conceit can be couched in endless ways, and those ways each present incredible opportunities.
The universes above, like all of my pony work, is free and open for any writer to expand upon. I only want to see the Conversion Bureau genre grow and flourish, so that there are more and more great stories for me to read. Use these ideas, if you like. Make them your own, if you wish.
Get ponified, Get writing, and make ze magiks!
- Chatoyance, 2012
The Lost In The Herd Series:
One: The Big Respawn,
Two: Euphrosyne Unchained,
Three: Letters From Home,
Four: Teacup, Down On The Farm
The Conversion Bureau Novels:
27 Ounces: A story of eight and one half ponies
The Taste Of Grass
The Conversion Bureau: Code Majeste
The Conversion Bureau: The 800 Year Promise
The Conversion Bureau: Going Pony
The Reasonably Adamant Down With Celestia Newfoal Society!
Recombinant 63: A Conversion Bureau Story
HUMAN in Equestria: A Conversion Bureau Story
The PER: Michelson and Morely
Little Blue Cat
Cross The Amazon
Adrift Off Fiddler's Green: The Final Conversion Bureau Story
The Short Stories:
Her Last Possession
The Conversion Bureau: PER Equitum
The Conversion Bureau: Brand New Universe
Tales Of Los Pegasus
The Poly Little Pony
The very first and original
Conversion Bureau Group
archives only the best Three Rules Compatible stories!
Optimalverse Works:
Friendship Is Optimal: Caelum Est Conterrens
Leftovers: A Friendship Is Optimal Story
IMPLACABLE
My Life In Fimbria
Injectorverse Works:
I.D. - That Indestructible Something
The More Conventional Fanfics:
The Ice Cream Pony Summer
Around The Bend
PRIDE related works:
Transspecieality
My FREE music streaming service!
Rare, personally chosen anime, SF and fantasy television, movies, and comedy music. A truly unusual collection to listen to, featuring Spot Announcer Dr. Sandi!
i.imgur.com/rBpYa.jpg
Too bad I'm not a writer myselfI tip my hat off to you dear wonderful creator.
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I have to say Chat. You created some might fine universes for people to create a story with. The only one that I did not like was #7, but that's more due to personal problems rather than issues with the world story itself. (Celestia's head eternally screaming... That is one that's going to give me nightmares.)
I think you managed to reach the goal that you had set in trying to make several compelling concepts. All we need now is a 'Pride' and 'Midnight's Tail' to seal the deal.
i would love to expand on story six (assuming that i would be aloud to expand on it), but i am severely behind on my fic. all brilliant thank you for writing
Woooooo! Bravo
Have to say, I'm personaly quite tempted by a few of those consepts, specificaly the machine singularity. The last one has a lot of potential too, but like any 'apocoliptic' setting there's no way I should ever write for it, because all I'd want to do if fix things, which never provides a good story
Anywho, THANKYOU CHATTY! A wonderful colection shorts, each a window into a whole other parralel univerce, like a hall way of paintings depicting the same scene in difrent seasons. I only hope you enjoyed writing these as much as I've enjoyed reading them!
Ummm, I just want to note that the amount of hormones to make a man grow boobs would render them infertile, effectively killing the human race.
341149
Sterility isn't guaranteed; it's only a risk. (A high risk, but not 100%.) Besides, this is genetic engineering (and science fiction) -- the creator of the virus could have accounted for that and engineered the male gonads to be able to operate on other hormones besides the staple androgens.
I do observe that Mankind Triumphant can't be EXACTLY the same universe as The 800 Year Promise or 27 Ounces. That's not a problem, of course, since this was already stated to be a set of alternate universes. It can't be the same as 27 Ounces because if Celestia's blood is the primordial ponification serum, it should have been red like the female-only potion. And it can't be the same as The 800 Year Promise because Celestia's magic maintains its potency when there's no connection to Equestria.
317207
That really hits the nail on the head there. You said it better than I could have (or did).
341131
Only if your computer is a featureless black non-reflective rectangular solid with dimensions in the precise ratio of 1:4:9. Keep in mind those ratios don't stop at three dimensions.
Humanity wins has stabbed me deeper then cupcakes and rainbow factory.
It created a headcanon of Celestia, screaming, in a chest. Forever and ever and ever ever and ever and ever and ever and ;_; ever and ...
Someone write a sequel, where we let her out or something
341149
Not even close. Gynocomastia is a surprisingly common problem for men, and the primary cause is hormone imbalance. Fertility might be lowered, sex drive might be lowered, but it also might not. Sterility is not guaranteed.
Yes, it is possible to chemically castrate a male with estrogen. However the dose needed for this is well above what is needed to grow breasts. The changes described in the story would not eliminate the human species. They would, however, very likely help reduce the population -over time- to a reasonable level where a Malthusian nightmare was not likely. Another benefit.
Even if all males became infertile, though, it has been demonstrated that it is a surprisingly simple matter to convert skin or fat cells into viable sperm. Already animals with a female father have been born using this technique and I think I recall it being used for a lesbian couple. We have the technology, right now, to assure that even an all-female version of humanity could survive and thrive. Another technique permits even three or four individuals to share their genes and be co-fathers and co-mothers to a single child.
Thanks to technology, males are effectively superfluous right now. The human species would absolutely survive, even if every last male vanished tomorrow.
It would simply be an all-female humanity that used technology to manufacture viable sperm from collected cells. Reproduction would be divorced from sex, and become a conscious choice rather than an accident in every case. The only children born would be wanted children, deliberately chosen and available only to those that could afford to pay the cost of conception, and by extension, to provide for them.
Jesus fuck. That would be so much better. No unwanted, starving children, ever, anymore. Holy shit.
Wow. Good thing that will never happen, huh?
so much win
I have the beginnings of an idea for Mankind Triumphant!. Basically, an alien race (another universe or solar system) comes to see if Earth is ready to join them. Earth is deemed unworthy because of the destruction of Equestria. And that's all I have for now, but it will have cities being completely destroyed and humans turning Celestia's blood into a weapon. No clue where it will go though.
Aah, (I refrain from reading the final afterword/note -thingy before I write this) I sure didn't waste my time reading this, time well spent, but instead of bluntly telling what I think about these universes I'll describe in short what kind of a short film I'd make out of each short story.
1# The one with the twist. Excellent movie material! Ambient atmosphere, a bizarre mystery, a nice dia-/monologue, and flashbacks as well. Perfect! The very end might be a bit hard to straight up transfer to film, so I might have to take some liberties...
2# Just the setting of this one can't satisfy for too long, and a lot of the story is concepts the characters are thinking about. Envisioning something like this is always hard, which is the beaty of it. In the end, I might succeed, I think the feelings can be put to film.
3# Nobody would give me any budget to film this one. If we'd keep it a secret, the hormone thing... until the end, or maybe the middle... It could be done, but... All in all, not a very cinematic tale.
4# Well, this one has a simple plot. With dramatic visuals it could become a powerful piece. No need for narration, let the visual flashbacks speak for themselves. Most would still lose it at some point or another, but what the heck... This one needs good music.
5# This one's more of a shocking experience than a drama. I doubt people would enjoy a faithful adaptation, I mean, there probably a lot of screaming. A challenge nonetheless, the backstory would have to be carefully explored somewhere amidst Andres' efforts -- or I could just leave it out. But who watches short films anyway? Scream away!
6# Dialogue always makes a story more appealing. "The Mysterious Shop" plot does give an entire setting already, so filming this one would be a delight! The plot "twist" at the end is kind of ridiculous, though, for a movie.
7# Ponies killing ponies... And big explosions? YEAH! This one is the least standalone story, so liberties would have to be taken, I don't want to get sued, y'know. Bidding Michael Bay to produce (side note: dark? It's not dark, it's Humanity Triumphant! Go us! Make things explooooode!).
Now after reading the final notes I'd have to say that 7# would be the most interesting to write about (however, I'd shorten the time frames. A pony living for over 150 years? That's just too much...). Possibly 6# and 5# as well, but they lack human-pony interaction by default (not necessarily, of course, if one is willing to take things further).
I will say this Chat
You've given me so many devilish ideas for the Action arc of my fic, because I am just that politically-inclined writer.
Also in regards to Story 7: Let's just say Vindel Mauser would be so very proud of this batch of humanity, who knows how many war mecha he could sell (his theme from Super Robot Taisen Original Generations 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdfcFuiiv2s&feature=related )
342830
So you're basically saying that overpopulation is solely the fault of all men and that a society composed only of women would solve all such problems? As opposed to overpopulation being a problem brought on by a lack of education about contraception and cultural attitudes about reproduction with the blame equally distributed between men and women. Don't get me wrong, you're a GREAT writer. Your CB stories are some of the best sci-fi I've read in a while. It's just that blaming men for the world's problems is rather offensive to me, oddly enough. Not many things DO offend me like that. Then again, I could just be seeing an implication where one was never intended.
Articulating myself at a quarter to one in the morning is hard...
I do wish I had the skill and time to write, I can think of a bunch of awesome alternate universes.
368330
No. I am saying nothing of the sort. Not even vaguely.
I am saying that Thomas Malthus was absolutely right, and that only a planned society, run intelligently can prevent overpopulation, and that a species that breeds without limit or let is inevitably doomed.
I am saying that the patriarchal attitude that women are property and not people, that they are rightfully to be used for making babies alone, and at best tolerated as individuals contributes to the problem of overpopulation in an incredibly vast way.
I am staying that this is why the third world, filled with that same patriarchal ideal, with religions to back it up, is hopelessly damned to a Malthusian nightmare... excuse me, is currently experiencing a Malthusian nightmare... and that there is no cure for this, because they simply do not want to hear their beliefs are destroying them any more that men in the first world want to hear that women only make 60% of what males make for the same jobs, everywhere, in virtually every first world nation.
I am saying that since education is impossible - they won't listen, or consider it 'cultural genocide', that force is impossible - no nation or group of nations is going to conquer and re-educate the entirety of the third world, they can't, and since the driving force for the whole matter is a heady mixture of hormones, sex, power, and testosterone-fueled patriarchy mixed with religious fervor, that the only possible hope to avoid a massive collapse is...
... some kind of drastic and total social change, likely involving the alteration of humanity itself. Why? Because humankind is manifestly unequipped for a technocratic civilization. Humans are hunter-gatherers who still behave as they did 25,000 years ago. Humanity is a baby with a gun.
I am not saying that 'men are bad'. I am saying that humanity was evolved for a lifestyle that does not involve agriculture and high technology, and we need to change dramatically if we want to live on. Only evolution is too slow to save us, so... either we change our biology, or we will die, en masse, and have to start over again. Like we have many times before. For the same reasons.
I do, however, ask the reader to consider how much better the world would be if the ideal of nurturance, rather than territoriality was dominant in the world. The difference is mother versus warrior. If our species was more the former, I honestly believe we would not be staring at the largest extinction of life in the history of the planet, nor the most critical survival-versus-annhilation age in the history of our species.
368747
Well, when you put it that way...
I can agree with you on almost all of that. I just think education is possible, it would just be difficult to pull off and take a long time, possibly too long if we keep doing what we're collectively doing. This, unfortunately, would make it a moot point anyways... Either way, we'd better get off of dead center since marshmallow ponies from beyond the veil aren't going to rise out of the ocean to save us from ourselves.
Re-reading your comment, I can see where I misinterpreted what you were saying.
By the way, what was your reasoning behind the condition of the world in your stories? I can guess at how you might have extrapolated based on current trends, but I'd rather hear your actual reasoning process behind it.
369618
My dystopian future simply takes the current day and magnifies and extrapolates it further. Genetically modified crops are increasingly being shown to be dangerous to animal life, worse, they seem to be losing their own ability to reproduce; terminator seeds have already ravaged the third world, causing the greatest mass suicides of farmers in history - they find out that they cannot grow the seeds they save and must enter debt slavery to Monsanto, debt slavery that carries over to the next generations. True corporate slavery. Recently, and experiment nearly released a bacterium into the wild that would have rendered all plant life on earth extinct (a universal symbiont that normally supports the roots of plants was engineered to produce alcohol, which ultimately kills the roots of all plants) only by the narrowest of margins was the death of the earth avoided. This is the basis of my Ecosaster and The Last Harvest.
The greatest mass extinction in the history of the planet is currently in full swing, the primary reason is the loss of natural land for the benefit of humans who first harvest all biomass on the land, and then cover it in buildings. Within ten years, the Amazon will almost certainly be a desert, much of it is a desert now. The oceans are being literally strip-mined by fishing vessels using drag-nets to scrape the bottom, this leaves vast zones of dead seabed that cannot recover any more than the Amazonian desert. This also contributes to my Ecosaster.
The plume of deadly radioactivity from Fukushima dwarfs not merely Chernobyl, but every other nuclear disaster before it; the crisis is so absolute that there is a ban in effect preventing reporting of it. That said, it is possible to find that the entire US and Canada has been exposed to horrific levels of cesium and plutonium, and that already mass deaths of newborns are the result; the effects are permanent and will never go away for the next 30,000 to 500,000 years. Japan is becoming increasingly uninhabitable; their response is to burn radioactive garbage on in every region so that no one area can be considered more radioactive than any other. Already, people are beginning to flee Tokyo, and there are in place plans for the total evacuation of the nation. This is the basis for the Japan Fatality Zone, and the dead oceans of my future.
But the real basis for the dead oceans and biosphere are the hundreds and hundreds of other, aging reactors around the world, just like the ones in Fukushima that went China Syndrome (they are still doing it, by the way, as they will effectively forever) and the vast amounts of stockpiled radioactive waste stored at each of these locations, because there is simply no place to put it. This is the most deadly waste imaginable, literally death in a container, there is thousands of tons of it, it leaks, and it will remain the most poisonous substance ever created (not to mention radioactive, too!) for what amounts to forever. For longer than Man has existed already. For likely longer than Man can hope to avoid extinction. It is inevitable that it will escape into the environment: it already is. There is no solution, no fix. It is happening. It cannot be stopped.
The Collapse is already happening; large nations such as the United States are multiple times past bankruptcy, and there is literally no mathematical means to ever repay the debt. This is entirely due to theft at the highest levels - and it is the same mechanism that destroyed the Roman civilization among others; greedy bankers shaving the coins, in effect. If this becomes widely known, the entire economic structure of the earth will collapse, and the result will be a worldwide Greece, with people starving on the streets, homeless, and no infrastructure anymore. A Global Third World. The only alternative to the total collapse of civilization as we know it is either forgiving all debts (the wealthy would never allow it, and it would bring its own disasters), or a global restructuring of how wealth is owned and used, which amounts to a fascistic world government of the sort that nightmares are made. This will happen eventually, Greece is just the first domino, the rest of Europe must inevitably follow, and America is, at last count, four times past doomsday, economically.
Favelas already span the globe, you just don't hear about them unless you bother to learn. I bothered. All they are is people trying to build their own cities out of the debris of a destroyed civilization, the garbage of the rich, and they are the future because they are the present. Favelas are dangerous places and in some there are paid bounties on orphans, because the children steal food. There is no law there.
I could also go into the long term effects of outsourcing, the hell regions of China where the air is literally deadly thanks to unrestrained corporate greed, the poisonous air of Mexico City, the deadly sinkholes due to the loss of watertables that must lead to more war over dwindling water reserves, the permanent enslavement of entire families in the Middle East, the increasing number of completely drug-resistant deadly diseases, and of course the constant proliferation of nuclear power and weapons despite the disasters already mentioned, and, well... much, much more.
This is all real, and it is now, and there are no solutions for any of it. Oh - one more thing: the population of mankind is growing still at an exponential rate, mostly in the third world, and that is where the most ignorant, dangerous, violent, and sectarian peoples live, people driven by 14th century mentalities, combined with new, nuclear weaponry.
We live in a shed stuffed with explosives, and ever person in the shed has a flamethrower, and all of them are asking for a light.
I take all of that and simply dare to imagine what it will be like in twenty to fifty years from now. That is the world of my stories.
However, I introduce a HUGE fantasy! I suggest that the rich and powerful suddenly have a magical change of heart and decide to try to help people out of the goodness of their hearts for no reason, and that is the basis of my basic ration given to all humans to keep them alive. I also fantasize that my global elite would bother to save not only themselves but all of humanity with the Bureaus, again due to some mysterious, magical change of heart. I also conjure the fantasy that humanity survives at all, and is not nearly wiped out by a vast plague, as has been the historical precedent. In my future, this implies that the worldgovernment took steps to prevent such plagues, rather than encouraging them as a means of population control and the preservation of resources for themselves.
Those fantasy element, irrational and unreasonable, help to soften and make kinder my vision of the future. I do not think any bit of them are possible; for the past 10,000 years no elite has ever chosen to just 'give' it back to the poor. Maybe Jesus came back or something. I know it is a stupid concept, but I had to do SOMETHING to make humanity less cruel and stupid than it really is for the sake of my stories.
You will live to see much of this future. Remember me as it unfolds. And be careful about eating seafood.
370414
That's pretty much the long and short of it, unfortunately. I'll get back to you once I confirm some things, but regardless, your points still stand.
371352
I make the Earth a little dark and Equestria a little light in order to use the contrast as a 'hell versus heaven' thing. You might have noticed how many 'I died and went to Equestria' stories there are on FimFiction. If you haven't noticed, let me assure you, there are a LOT. It is clear that for many, the Ideal of Equestria is almost religiously powerful. I play with that, because it is... well, powerful.
That said, I don't make Earth entirely crapsack - I have shown the fascist world government as caring enough to feed people, something our world does not do right now. In some ways, my dystopia is actually better, for more human beings, than our world is right now. No human starves in my future earth. Not one. Also, my future earth has almost no war. I find it hilarious that people call me a misanthrope, when my Corporate WorldGov Earth is arguably better to live in, for most humans, than our real life earth is right at this moment.
Then again, perhaps many readers are young and ill-informed. I once believed that our world was better than it actually is. I believed the corporate media, once. It was all I knew at the time.
Throughout all of history, the 'Human Condition' has been described as being one of quiet despair. This is not some modern thing. No generation has lacked for understanding just how horrible our species really is, despite our yearnings to be better, to be noble and good. In a way, that only makes it worse; we collectively aspire for something we have, in 10,000 years, been incapable of.
The Equestria I portray is nothing less than all of our human ideals painted as ponies. The Earth I portray is nothing more than what we are now, concentrated and brought into sharp, clear relief. Well, with a nice WorldGov that feeds people. I had to add that. If I hadn't, if I had shown what I really think this future would be, well... it would seem almost ridiculous. In order to make the future more believable, I had to sweeten it with fantasy.
So, in my stories, Equestria is heaven, Earth is hell, the approaching barrier is mortality, ponification is the human fantasy and dream of some kind of an afterlife, the PER are religious zealots, the HLF are the militant atheists, and the average person is just a poor schmuck caught in the middle of an uncertain world beyond their understanding, just trying to get by in the short, short time they have. And the Bureau? That's just everyday life in the hospice we call Earth.
371866
Okay... I have read your arguement on the human condition, and I think I could point out several counterpoints.
(supression of individuality, poverty, societal gridlock...)
I'm not going to expand on those because they isn't quite the focus I was hoping to point out, and, admittedly I'm "young" and "ill-informed". I don't have any solid life experience and haven't done a great deal of research about realistic possible futures of society.
What troubled me most about your stories wasn't the negativity of human Society, but the hopelessness of the human Spirit. You just said, 'humanity collectively aspires to unattainable ideals.' I freely admit that the world and people in general are usually monstrous. History has had a repeating cycle of war, hate, and suffering. It is entirely possible that humanity and earth are totally screwed.
This is not our only legacy.
Humanity can do incredible things, and not all of those incredible things are wholly evil or self serving in nature.
Humanity has an inherent sense of wonder that allows them to explore the world. They have an incredible Drive (that can turn into religous genocide,) but could ALSO put a man on the Moon. People Like Ghandi or Martin Luther King Jr. DID change a small part of the world for the better without compromising thier ideals.
Things have changed, ever so slowly, for the better. There are still horrible things happening, and there are still many people who do horrible things for horrible reasons.
Okay, to drop the philosophical example, and I'm really sorry I did that...
Is it so terrible and unrealistic, in terms of narrative and other things, to have a story that both acknowledges and portrays the shortcomings of humanity, and at the same time hold that humanity can in fact overcome them? I'm sure such an effort to improve humanity by steadfastly appealing to it's better nature is no less than epic in scope and struggle, (it always has been).
But wouldn't the presence of Ponies and Ponified Humans make it much more possible? To, instead of saving humanity, inspire humanity to take action to save itself? Instead of a 'join the herd and throw your cares away/ kill the evil world conquerers' choice, why isn't there a third option to accept all the problems with humanity and the world, then step up and work toward FIXING it as humans with help from the ponies?
That's what I meant by hopelessness in your stories. Never once has a human in your worlds so far just stopped and said "No, I'm Fixing THIS problem, and I'm going to do it the RIGHT way, not the Easiest way." I haven't read all of your stories, but in the ones i've read, you've applied human determination in the WORST ways, (HLF, PER, people being zealots...). Every human or newfoal I've seen so far is a militant zealot, a traumatized refugee, or broken soul.
In the presence of Ponies, Magic, and everything that comes out of Equestria, I don't think it would be that unrealistic to imagine that the BEST traits of humanity could be exemplified in that time as well. A human that works with the ponies, but doesn't become one, to improve the world the RIGHT way, despite all the difficulties of such a task. Accepting, respecting the burden of humanities flaws and history, and learning from them instead of being crushed by them. Inspiring themselves and others to do the right thing and accept control of thier fate and thier world, rather than abandoning it as wholly wretched and doomed.
Heck, wouldn't the ponies by nature help with that? Try to see that there IS something good somewhere in humanity, and that it shouldn't be wiped away? That it's something worth Struggling to not just preserve, but also help grow?
I hope I'm Making sense in terms of Equestria and Storytelling...
372336
"Humanity has an inherent sense of wonder that allows them to explore the world. They have an incredible Drive (that can turn into religous genocide,) but could ALSO put a man on the Moon. People Like Ghandi or Martin Luther King Jr. DID change a small part of the world for the better without compromising thier ideals."
We went to the moon because the American government needed to top the USSR at brinksmanship; once the Soviets tumbled, so did all manned space flight other than pointless shuttle missions to a pointless space station. Now, only the Russians even transport people there, and that will soon end.
Ghandi, MLK, (insert great person here) - statistically, what are we talking about? My estimate is one in five-hundred million. One in five-hundred million human beings, on average, does something significantly uplifting for some specific group to which they themselves are a part. This is not a ringing endorsement of the species. No human being has ever worked for the betterment of all people, especially those not in any way connected to their own race, creed, color, religion or ethnic or sexual group. No, I do not believe in Fairies, Santa Clause, or Jesus, so don't suggest either of those non-humans or Demi-humans.
Consider something. If humans actually gave up religion, gave up nationalism, gave up sexism, power games, greed and selfishness, then, with just the technology we have, right now, today, we could have moon cities and colonies in space. Earth could be a paradise where every person was fed and sheltered, where no person went without, and where the birth rate was strictly controlled and where there was room for both Man and Nature. We could be living in an Earthly paradise right now.
Why aren't we?
Because we cannot give up our love of religion, gave up nationalism, gave up sexism, power games, greed and selfishness. We've had ten thousand years to get it right. Ten. Thousand. Years. What have we done?
All the bad things you mention. The Dark Ages alone were three hundred missing years that, if they had been used for sensible technological and social advancement, should have made today, in 2012, basically Star Trek. We should be living Star Trek by now. But we aren't.
And we never will. Because the meat is flawed.
People don't do all those bad things, like genocide and conquest and bigotry just because their parents raised them wrong. They do those things because all of them are useful to a hunter-gatherer ape competing for resources out on the veldt. That is what we really are, despite our pretensions. All the evil of this world actually is a survival advantage to a veldt-ape, and it is what made us the apex predator of planet earth.
But all of those genetic evils are disastrous the moment that veldt-ape gets access to technology. Agriculture did not make us better, it made us the death of the planet. Because we just can't help being human. We can't stop raiding the other tribe for their stuff. We can't stop trying to conquer the rest of the veldt. We can't stop being driven to accumulate more, more and more. And we can't stop trying to make our tribal affiliation the dominant one, nor can we stop believing that our tribe is the best tribe no matter what. That's us. That's human.
Only instead of spears, we have nukes. Instead of canoes, we have aircraft carriers. Instead of waterholes, we have cities and nations. Instead of tribes, we have ethnic, religious and political factions. But it is the same game, and the same ape, just dressed in suits instead of skins.
We should be a united world based on reason and science by now. Are we? No? The answer is as obvious as our biology. Individually, we can be amazing, but collectively, we average out to our lowest common denominator. And that happens to be a clever great ape that is perfectly suited to wage tribal warfare over a waterhole, while raping the enemy to unsure the survival of our genes. We're great at that.
it's the Star Trek stuff we're not so good at. And that is all I have ever said.
373179
Right, sorry, it appears I got off topic.
All the above wasn't really meant to start a philospophical debate, but to kinda provide an example of a potential story.
I really can't agree with the whole "Meat is Wrong" thing, buuuuuuut...
more importantly, In terms of character development, I feel that by limiting your exploration of the human thought process that way kinda makes your characters a little less compelling.
I guess I can't really critisize your decisions or motivations as an author, especially because you've already written several epic novels and I haven't.
But the IMPORtant question is, would you dismiss such a story about the aforementioned qualities because it isn't at all interesting/realistic?
I'm just curious why nobody seems to have explored that concept.
I really REALLY do not want to argue ethics or humanity with you. I get the feeling the discussion would turn nasty and I have no desire to spread bad feelings over a disagreement that will have no winner.
373210
"Every human or newfoal I've seen so far is a militant zealot, a traumatized refugee, or broken soul."
Then you have not read my stories at all.
What about the human, Alexi, the backbone of the San Fransisco Conversion Bureau Clinic 042, who is not only creative, inventive, strong, dedicated, loyal and incredibly capable?
What about Caprice, the newfoal who, despite a past as a manipulative elite, becomes a genuine and compassionate individual purely because she wanted to have a better soul?
What about newfoals Petal Confetti and Teacup, who manage, despite their differences, to become friends, and to help each other come to terms with the loss of both Earth, and their humanity, not to mention their own personal problems, by loyally being willing to be there for each other no matter what?
What about the human Dr. Roselyn Pastern, the dedicated physician of the SF Conversion Bureau, who is willing to push herself beyond what is expected of her just to help those that society rejects, because she believes in what is right, and because she is dedicated to being truly compassionate?
What about the ponified HLF agent Ralph Vitoni, who, even though he includes terrible violence as a tool, is, in the end, an honorable and honest soul, simply dedicated to the cause of Humanity no matter what?
What about the Human PER agent Anderson Ruffin, who despite his beliefs, is nevertheless a doting father to both his own son and his adopted daughter, and who is, within what he believes, absolutely honest, honorable, and loyal?
These are only a tiny number of the characters I alone have created, and each and every one of them are essentially good people who have simply taken sides which the reader may, or may not, agree with. If these characters have a broken side, their wounds become healed, and they grow from the experience, or, if they perish, they redeem themselves in some manner.
No. For you to say those words, you have not read my works. You have not met my characters. And, you have not met the characters of my favorite TCB authors, either.
373502
Way to get self-defensive Chatoyance.
To anyone who wants to say anything right now, may I humbly request the opportunity to make this post first? I am going to edit this post to include what is hopefully a coherent comment, but I really don't want anyone to start any more conflict here before I can say some stuff please.
So apparently I'm still slow as hell, which sucks because I've only written a few sentences and I'm still writing. I will get this done 'tonight' for whatever it's worth.
The question Crosshair wants to ask is why there haven't been TCB stories that explore a Humanity that, with the help of Ponies and Ponification, rebuild Earth and society. But, as you have done before Chatoyance, you've derailed into defending yourself.
Characterization is a matter of opinion, not an absolute. "A military zealot, a traumatized refugee, or broken soul." can partially describe many of your characters. "I feel that by limiting your exploration of the human thought process that way kinda makes your characters a little less compelling." is not an accusation of anything, it is legitimate criticism. I, personally, find that sometime your Ponies are not very compelling, especially when they are portrayed as incapable of basic Human flaws. That obviously doesn't always apply, but it does happen sometimes. Ralph Vitoni was, in my opinion, neither honorable nor honest. He was, in my opinion and from the impressions I got as I read the story, entirely motivated by revenge, and used lies very frequently. I did not sympathize with him, and I do not feel that he represented anyone but himself.
I know that there have been many irrational haters in TCB discussions. It is your own decision to to talk with them, but for you to react to Crosshair's legitimate desire for discussion in the same manner that you address the haters doesn't do anything but cause pointless conflict and make you look like an ass. Sorry. Maybe this is not the best time for rational discussion, but please realize that right now there isn't anyone here who wants to cause a fight or hurt you.
I wrote a big thing about my opinion on the subject of Humanity redeeming itself, but I'd rather just have this post be about everything above this sentence. I think I probably will put that other stuff on the Ponychan TCB thread, since it is something I want to maybe talk about a bit, but not right now. Anyways, if my unskillful comments here have offended anyone, then I apologize for stupidity and my lack of ability. Especially since I'm sleepy and that always makes me stupider. Night.
522996
Increasingly, studies with twins have indicated that most personality traits are the result of genes; twins separated at birth end up in later life wearing identical clothing, with identical jobs, astonishingly similar partners, the same tastes, preferences, values, beliefs and personalities - unlike twins raised together, forcing each to differentiate from one another.
Hormones alter gene expression by methylating portions of DNA and RNA so that protein expression is changed, the result alters every aspect of an organism, and has a profound effect on mentation and cognition by affecting the genes expressed in neurons and astrolites.
Endless studies have shown, clearly, that 98%+ of all violent crime is committed by males, the explanation is obvious and documented - testosterone induces territorial behavior combined with dramatically increased aggression. This has evolutionary survival value, so it is entirely understandable.
Reduction of testosterone has likewise been shown to directly reduce aggression and territoriality in humans (as well as all other animals) and is a common tool for managing livestock for just that reason.
These facts are all easily websearched to whatever level of detail you might wish to engage in. They are facts.
Putting all three together creates a natural conclusion that is the basis of my speculative fiction; in short, you are incorrect.
525559 After having taken a closer look at the scientific aspect of the story with some web searches, I have to admit that technically, this wold be possible. While I make it a point to take any study with a grain of salt from my Theory of Knowledge classes, the amount of same results would indicate that it is indeed the case. I still am skeptical about how effective of a solution it would be, but seeing how this is speculative I suppose I shouldn't say that it can't outright work as drastic changes in hormone levels does create drastic changes in the psychological (and physical) aspects in a person.
However: you still didn't answer to the moral aspect of my critique. Again, this sort of undertaking (as the story implies) is nothing short of an violation of people's rights. I still view it highly unethical and in many aspects worrying, since it would change people on a deep fundamental level. If I were to encounter womanly me from this universe, despite having (probably) mostly the same backgrounds, history, upbringing up until the outbreak, our thought processes and mannerisms would be considerably different. It'd be like we never were the same at one point, since you've taken what makes masculine me me, without my consent. Had I agreed to it that would've been an entirely different matter but I didn't, don't, and likely never will.
I realize that this story is meant to be provocative, and it succeeds regardless of the scientific and biological viability (which I still have some doubts over) so all that remains is the moral aspect: is it for a better future for humanity? If it works, indubitably. Is it the right way to achieve that? I have my own reservations and many others would likely have some too. Is it ethically correct? No. Not a chance ma'am.
528065
I do not accept any absolute morality. 'Good' and 'Bad' derive from two sources - one is circuitry for reciprocation, sacrifice, altruism and mutuality hardwired into every social species, ensuring their survival overall at the expense of the individual (a vast evolutionary advantage), and from experience of interaction - one quickly learns that actions have consequences.
All else is the arbitrary codification of humans, devoid of any basis other than individual whim presented as sacred truth. Rationally, it has no more validity than stories of the tooth fairy.
Human history is almost nothing but a litany of dominant groups enforcing their will non-consensually on others, ethics and morals are only invoked to rationalize or justify or condemn such actions, the actions happen regardless. The winners write history because they are the ones that remain. We like to imagine illusions of right and wrong as having substance, but they are fantasies, and in the end, Mankind acts without concern for them in large things - things that shape history and the world.
Ethical isn't even an issue, and it never has been. Are you ready to give up your land, your home, your job, your toys, your everything and walk away, to pay for the injustice done to whatever aboriginal people were conquered that you might live today? No. You are not, and there is no land free from this little issue. You're here, you have your stuff, and well, that happened a long time ago. Too bad, so sad for them. In the end, this is how you live, whatever guilt you may, or may not choose to feel.
If the world was changed, dramatically, in the way I described, after but a handful of generations, it would be the normal world and ours the too bad, so sad past. Good would be that future, and evil would be our past, and that would become truth, and that would become ethical and right and how things had to be.
Just as always. Just as it will always be, as it always has been. This is the true ethos of Man.
So, yes, it IS ethically correct to change humanity against its will into a new form, so long as the effort succeeds, and the result works. It doesn't even have to be better, it just has to be able to continue and function. Those in the future will call it good and name those who made the change Heroes and Founding Fathers and Pioneers and Great Wise Souls. As has always been done.
I think in these terms. I think outside my life, outside my generation. I write not what people here, now would think and believe, but what people then, there would think and believe. I write from their viewpoint and not my own, or yours. Because that is what a writer is supposed to do, if they are good at their craft.
If I write about a world where men have become feminized, then I will write about that age from the viewpoint of that age and not from the view of our time now, or people now, or what is considered right or wrong now. What matters for such a story is what is right and true in that future age, from their viewpoint.
Only by doing that can you meet a truly alien reality that you can not otherwise touch. That is the very point of speculative fiction. I write speculative fiction.
That you are upset, simply means that you are living here and now, and not in that future. It is normal and easy to be offended or upset by the alien, the different, the strange. What is more interesting is to suspend not only your disbelief, but your own ethos, your own worldview, your own right and wrong, just for a moment, and see the new world through the eyes of those that live within it.
If you can do that, if you can be someone you are not, in an age and world that is not your own, then you have truly become an adventurer, an explorer beyond yourself, and in such broadening experience, your mind and soul will grow.
That, more than anything else, is the true point of writing speculative fiction at all. To stretch one's own internal boundaries and become larger for it.
528374 I don't think I was clear enough when I explained why exactly I find this speculative fiction offensive/upsetting. While my previous concerns were true (and still are to a fair degree), I wasn't upset at the alien world you've created. I in fact find the strange fascinating in itself. Setting aside my doubts about the viability of this world, I didn't find the fact that men now grew breasts or were for all intents and purposes feminine disgusting, I was very intrigued by the social and cultural implications that came along with the virus. What I found upsetting about this (besides what I stated already) is the heavy-handed approach.
Of course we adopted the ways of the victorious/conquerors, if they managed to defeat us then there's something about them that made us lesser than they were. Or at least that's what we used to think when that was the case. The US won us the Second World War by bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki, effectively forcing Japan into surrender. Were they celebrated for ending the war? Some did applaud them, but almost everyone else condemned the decision to use nuclear weapons on civilian populations. In the modern age you do not see what our ancestors in ancient, medieval, and industrial times did happening now: what we're all ultimately striving for (though few would openly admit or support) is the equalization of cultures, beliefs and above all, peace. To unify everyone under a single nation or entity. It is a long ways off, so I doubt that I or even any of the current generations shall see in their lifetimes. Yet this is a slow, natural process. The manner you suggest is of an artificial construct. I suppose that I am too biased to take a neutral stand on the issue of artificially enhancing the species or waiting for nature to take its course since I almost always side with the 'pro-evolution' group, so that might just be the pro-natural in me talking.
I am of the opinion that much of the violence in our species was due to resources/materialistic needs that didn't always exist. I do agree that greed does exist, so does corruption and immorality. They seem as if they are running rampant nowadays but that, I think, is because the few who are so are in positions of power, thus undermining many efforts to eradicate or at least reduce these unwanted traits from our populaces. I honestly believe that as a whole the number of immoral, corrupt, greedy, and 'evil' people is growing smaller with the ideals that almost all of the schools in the 1st and 2nd world countries teach. Given enough time they will phase out of the collective characteristics of man.
Perhaps I'm overly optimistic for our future (nearing 20 years of age and all) but don't take that as if I don't know how shit the world can get. Unlike a lot of people on this site, I grew up in an African country recovering from a civil war. I know the suffering mankind can inflict on itself. I have seen the consequences of it with my own eyes. But in spite of the fresh wounds and memories still plaguing the country I've seen growth; I've seen development; I've seen happiness returning; I've seen the poverty gap growing smaller. Forgive me if I'm being unduly optimistic, but I have enough faith in humanity to believe that we will grow out of our violent phase and reach an eventual form of Utopian society. It might not be heaven on Earth, but it will one which will put all of our achievements in our history up till now to shame.
606138
Two years ago, an engineered plant bacterium created by Monsanto was stopped one week from deployment. It was stopped by one woman who stormed into a meeting. The bacterium is used by all land plants to process nutrients, it is universal - the engineered form would have dominated the earth in six weeks.
The bacterium produced alcohol, so that farm root waste could be used for a biofuel. Alcohol kills plant roots.
If it had been released, all life on earth would have died. You would be dead now, along with all land species.
One woman, storming into a meeting.
This is not the only example I could site.
That is how.
611104
"Although, I'll never understand why, given all the time humanity has in these stories, no one ever thinks of a scenario where the humans who don't want to be ponies escape into space"
In my stories I deal with this one several times. The reason humans don't go into space is exactly the same reason that we turned our back on the moon, don't have moon colonies, why we have a half-assed space station and why there are no more (or better) shuttles, only Russian budget rockets right now.
We went to the moon to impress the Russians during the cold war. Once the US had shown it's dick was larger... it gave up. Mission accomplished.
I am not misanthropic. I am simply honest. I write real humanity. Only quite a bit nicer, and better.
Seriously - in my regular Bureau stories, I show a world where Man makes sure everyone on earth has food and water. We could do that right now. Do you think that will ever actually happen, with the human species you know? No. It is a silly fantasy.
If you think that I am misanthropic, then my goddess... I hope you never have to see humankind for what it truly is.
Dear Friends,
I agree with Chatoyance's remark about her Bureau Stories actually representing a less nasty view of humanity than some have implied above. When I first read her TCB stories I was struck by the use of nanotech to solve the world hunger and water problems.
BTW I didn't attribute this to 'generosity' on the part of the wealthy, but rather as the least cost way to avoid outright revolution on the part of the starving masses: nice people can do really nasty things when their children are starving. Don't give them the excuse. In fact give them them food and distractions and they might never bother you. Bread and circuses are a tried and true way to avoid revolution since the time of the Roman Empire's collapse.
But now that I've convinced you I'm a real pessimist I have to take off my hat and dark glasses, rip off the trench coat and reveal the pony inside: I LOVE THIS COMMUNITY!!!!
What a great discussion about the utlimate ability of humanity to overcome it limitations as explored via stories that provide a a wide-angle lens view of the human condition!
If anything hope for us lies in the fact of how well the MLP:FIM universe resonates with a vast and growing segment of humanity. And one could make the case that the fiction created and published here is in fact part of the human collective intelligence exploring and working out possible solutions to get us out of this mess.
Ever since I read my first 'adult' disaster story (Philip Wiley's Triumph) I have felt that much of science fiction is part of this process: it gives us the freedom to truly face our shortcomings, their consequences and to explore alternatives.
Yes, humanity's problems are big, but we have tools the hunter/gatherer on the veldt has never had: a global, real-time connection between all of us humans, and social media to provide platforms for the exchange of ideas. People from all countries are sharing the same memes. We are developing a world culture - no matter what the nationalist types say. Start Trek, MLP:FIM, TCB stories, Chatty and all the people who write here are powerful agents in that process. Brohoof all!
SO LET's KEEP ON ARGUING!
For the sake of all of us.
Dafaddah
Well I got around to reading this primarily because I saw another author's work based upon one of the universes.
You have constructed 6 parallel, alternative concepts to the original 'Conversion Bureau'.
All I can say is:
SO.
MUCH.
WIN!
606993
Debunked
http://michaelsiegel.net/?p=2675
http://www.biotech-info.net/ingham_rebuttal.pdf
658476
Read em both. Sorry, I've checked out the organization that was started as a result of all of that incident. It's legit, and works to prevent this sort of thing from ever happening again. Monsanto does not approve. Those are attack pieces, serving corporate, Monsanto interests. The modern tool is opinion management - something embarrassing? Flood the net with vague disapproval, hit pieces, or direct fictional attacks. Generalized opinion altering 'authority' sources is a modern cottage industry, serving corporations. It's a standard strategy. Not debunked. SPUN. Those are spin jobs.
The event was real, Cracked, for what it was worth, was correct. But reality can be altered with convincing lies.
658506
Elaine Ingham cited non-existent sources to back up her claim. That's kind of a big deal in the scientific community. Oh, contrary to popular neo-Luddite opinion, corporations don't make a dime from causing the mass extinction of all life on earth. And where is your proof these are corporate hit pieces other than they say something you didn't like to hear? You have none because it isn't true. Elaine Ingham and her supporters in the Green Party of New Zealand were forced to make a retraction and apologize to the Royal Commission on Genetic Engineering of New Zealand when confronted with the facts-that the articles they cited did not exist and that her hypothesis was based on a single experiment (results are required to be repeatable to even be considered valid) "where controls were not properly applied" (http://www.fsl.orst.edu/tgerc/iufro2001/eprocd_22.pdf) Also, there are natural strains of Klebsiella planticola that produce alcohol. This stuff already exist in nature.
659406
By stating the irrational notion that ANYONE would believe that corporations make money off of extinctions, you demonstrate the very rhetoric that is common in opinion controlling spin. The methodology is to make a topic so ridiculous that it is finally ignored.
By stating that there are strains of Klebsiella planticola that produce alcohol, you trivialize and deflect the problem - of course there are, that was never in question. Such strains are what can be easily modified - to produce LETHAL levels of alchohol. Not intentionally - at the time, it sounded brilliant - free fuel from nature, hurray! Just crank the existing machine up to eleven! On paper, it does sound great. Extinction was the last thing on anyone's mind - saving the world was the notion. It was incompetence not malice here.
It is trivial to force a person to have to publicly retract their work, to shame them, and to make it look legitimate and real. Don't imagine such things have not happened before, or will not happen again. Bhopal anyone? Of course, that one got out.
Elaine Ingram is an American scientist of soil biology, of course, why not just talk to her? Enough. Don't waste my time with this. You are... so incorrect, that the argument isn't even worth pursuing at this point.
Elaine Ingham is an American soil biology researcher and founder of Soil Foodweb Inc. She is recognised around the world as a leader in soil microbiology and research of the soil food web. She is a key author of the USDA's Soil Biology Primer. In 2011, Ingham was named as The Rodale Institute's chief scientist.
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Ingham obtained her PhD from the Colorado State University in 1981. Ingham’s doctorate is in Microbiology with an emphasis on soil. Elaine was offered a Post-doctoral Fellowship, along with her husband Russ (who also has a doctorate from Colorado State University in Zoology, emphasizing nematology), at the Natural Resource Ecology Lab at Colorado State University. In 1985, Ingham accepted a Research Associate Fellowship at the University of Georgia.
So humans are inherently greedy bastards and will not ever create a fair society. The world is about to collapse in a billion different ways. All of our moral guides and truly good people never really affected everything. The Poor suffer more and more everyday and it constantly becomes more likely we will join them. And we are all just irresponsible apes.
How do you function or have any hope what so ever. I'm only asking cause I would really not like to get so depressed as to blow my brains out.
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I write stories about a fictional better world, and about the humans lucky enough to have a chance to get there. That is how I cope.
I have to say Chatoyance you are a great writer, but you view on humanity is lacking it's people like you who just gave up on humanity as a race will doom us, you see all the bad in us but none of the good, you write about one possible future, sure I can see going the way of the dinosaurs, but we can overcome, we can adapt, and we can change you forgotten this, you have us deadlocked in all our bad, but who knows maybe some great event maybe a glorious revolution that will bring hope or a devastating calamity that will force or hands to change might come but the future is uncertain as an unexplored world.
These stories were great they reminded me of episodes of the Twilight Zone. I think I liked the last one in particlular and gives me an idea for a conversion bureau story of my own. So thanks for the inspiration Chatoyance. This will be the second one that I am currently writing.
Every one of your stories I read, Chatoyance, opens my eyes just a little wider.
Every comment helps me understand the world just a little more.
Alas, perhaps it would have been better if that woman had not stormed in.
Nihilism, that's where it's at.
The only reason not to just commit suicide is that our delightful genetics don't like that.
Prisoners of the very vehicle that created us.
Fun times.
This theme is explored HEAVILY in Stargate SG-1. It'd be quite interesting to see a ponified take on it. But also horribly depressing. I don't know if I could bring myself to read something like that :(
*Reads section for the last universe* Well now I have 4 story ideas that I haven't started writing yet.