March 7
I woke up in the morning still on top of my bed and feeling like I'd been put in a barrel and rolled down a hill.
I dragged my tail out of bed and went to the bathroom and thought about whether or not a trot around the neighborhood would benefit me any, or if I would be better off just taking a long hot shower to loosen up my muscles.
Exercise won out, but I cut my routine really short, not even leaving the main part of campus. I didn't think I could manage anything more than that. And then I did take a long, hot shower, which almost relaxed me enough to fall asleep in there.
I probably should have arranged a time this morning to meet up with Gates, but I hadn't, and besides most of our stuff was still in the trunk of Cobalt. I guessed Peggy felt about the same as I did, so I wasn't going to wake her up for that. Gates could wait.
Of course, I wound up running into him on my way to breakfast. So then I had to apologize for leaving the gear where I couldn't get at it, but he said that was okay, and he asked how the helmet had worked. I bowed my head and showed him that there weren't any cuts on my ear this time.
I told him that I'd used up five batteries and memory cards. Since we weren't sure how long the camera would run, we'd changed them at mealtimes. And I told him about the video Peggy had taken with her telephone. I said I'd get it to him tomorrow morning for sure.
Everyone at breakfast wanted to know how my weekend had gone, so I told them all about it, and I thought that I ought to make sure to let the makers know how well the magnet bindings had worked: we hadn't had to try and switch to the other ones, and once I'd learned to fly over the grates that were there for people to scrape their boots off on, I hadn't had any trouble with them.
When I got to climate science class, it turned out that everyone had decided that they wanted to work on my project, and the professor cancelled his normal lesson to let me help instruct.
I guess I hadn't been as clear in my computer letter as I ought to have been. At first I thought people were just dumb when it came to stuff like this, but everyone had problems with the same things.
So I spent the class explaining weather targets and water budget and how teams were set up, and how to make calculations from there. It was actually a learning experience for me, too, since as far as I knew, nopony had ever had to set up a system from scratch like that. When a new area is settled, a couple of weather teams are assigned, and then they build from that—but it wasn't something that had been done in my lifetime. I only had the vaguest idea of how it worked, because there was a weather book at our station that gave the history of all the weather teams who had served in our zone and I read through it when I was off-duty.
A couple of towns I knew right away what they'd need (weather-wise, they'd been pretty similar to some towns in our district), and so all of us together worked out what kind of teams would need to put the weather in place.
One thing I hadn't thought to mention was the supporting pegasuses. Not everypony is in the sky; the weather factory needs to be staffed, and there's a lot of hoofwork into getting the supplies where they're needed. While it wasn't really something to consider for the assignment, I summarized how the cloudmaking and delivery process worked.
I was able to compare it a little bit with the snow machines that they had at the ski resort, which actually helped out. I'm glad I got a chance to see how one worked, even if they hadn't let me fly in the snow it was spitting out.
I also learned that it isn't as easy to write on a markerboard as I thought it would be. Teachers must practice that.
About half the students stayed after class, because they wanted clarifications. I think everybody would have if they hadn't had to go to other classes. It made me feel important—even the professor was taking notes as I answered questions.
When I finally had to go to get to philosophy, I was thinking that maybe I could set aside an afternoon to go more in-depth about how the Equestrian weather system worked. I certainly would have been able to do more calculations if I’d had my weather wheel in class, and I thought that maybe they'd be interested in how that worked, too.
We started on our final philosopher, who was named Karl Marx and who had a beard much like Walt Whitman's. I had been prepared to be disappointed in what he thought, so I was pleasantly surprised when it sounded like he actually had some really good ideas.
He started off by saying how man (and ponies!) are better than animals, because we produce beyond what we need for our immediate survival. That was unarguably true. And then he said that what also set us apart was that we imagined things beforehand, and then made it happen.
I couldn't argue with that: as recently as climate class, I'd been doing just that, imagining weather for a continent that the professor had made up. None of it was any more real than a printed map and figures on the markerboard, but it already sort of existed in my imagination. And if it had been real, the calculations I'd made would have been a good starting point for its weather.
He also had something in common with Sartre; he said that man shapes the world and the world shapes man, but he took it a step farther and said that as the world changes, man changes as well, constantly growing and changing to suit the changing world.
I hadn't really thought of it, but while we had a lot of traditions and did a lot of things the same way we always had, there was new stuff, too. When my granddam was a foal, there were no steam locomotives, so nopony knew how to drive them or build them or fix them when they broke. Now there were ponies who did.
And the human world must have been changing like that, too. Sean knew how to fix computers, and Aric knew how to fix Winston, but there must have been a time on Earth when there weren't computers or trucks, and then nobody would have been able to work with them.
I was glad that we were ending with a philosopher who was smart. Although I was a bit skittish after the others, and I wondered if maybe Marx would wind up saying dumb things too.
By the time Equestrian class came around, I was ready for a nap and not at my best. Luckily, it didn't take all that much effort on my part to fall back into speaking Equestrian. Meghan was curious how my weekend had gone, and so were Becky and Lisa, so I told them about it, too. Then they told me that tomorrow was Michigan's primary, and after they explained it to me, I said that I wanted to go.
Meghan reminded me that I couldn't vote (Becky couldn't either, because she didn't live in Michigan, and I guessed that Peggy probably couldn't either), but that was okay; I thought it would be interesting to see.
Meghan still didn't want to use an Uber-car, but the college was making vans available to get to the voting places, and we decided to meet up and go in one of them.
Even though I was pretty tired, I went to Durak and had a lot of fun. I didn't lose any times, and after it was over, Aric and I went to his house.
I was really tired, and it turned out he was too—he said that he'd spent the weekend helping David move a radio console from Kalamazoo to Paducah, and the weather had been really bad part of the way back, so we wound up just snuggling for a little while and then we both fell asleep.
it's happening
Very interesting to see the areas where Silver wasn't able to explain weathermaking sufficiently. Between the obscurity of the knowledge and her own assumptions, it makes sense that she couldn't give a complete picture the first time around.
As for Marx... Yeah, I'm not getting into that. You all have fun with it.
Yay!
Two chapters close together!
Best way to wake up!
Ah, so we're talking about Marx, now?
...I'm just gonna carefully edge my way out of the comments section and hope I don't get hit by one of the thrown chairs.
What's the random link to the image of the number 1,000,000 for?
It's good timing for discussing Marx. Yesterday was May Day, or if you prefer, International Victims of Communism Day.
I'll withhold my opinions on Marx until later, as he's being presented as a philosopher here and not an economist or political theorist.
And that's how Ponies Republic of Equestria was born! Or maybe Union of Socialist Pony States? :-)
Yeah, Silver, hold on to that skepticism. There's a reason the guy is disliked by a lot of Americans. Admiral, you've mentioned how she doesn't really get that not all these philosophers are right and aren't expected to be, when will she figure it out?
As a Canadian, I'm going to get popcorn to watch the edgy teenagers fight it out over Marx.
Or edgy college students, in the story. Dohoho.
I should have read Das Kapital, but the damn thing is over 500 pages long and the several I've tried downloading are in German.
Edit: Found all the works of Engles and Marx in English for anyone curious. Enjoy.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/index.htm
7179498 He was a shit economist and political theorist all around. It'd be interesting to see what kind of 'philosopher' he is.
Nine out of eleven comments about the appearance of Marx and one on the chapter's actual content? Seriously guys? It would appear this story needs a trigger warning. Anyway.
It looks a lot easier than it is. Nice detail ;) Using a snow machine as example makes a lot of sense, good thinking SG; now I want a detailed description of the weather factory's workings in your Equestria.
This whole weathermaking class was great! Apart from being an important learning experience for SG, it's also a learning experience for us readers regarding your Equestrian worldbuilding. Very nice. And yes, if your first teaching experience goes well and people pay attention and end up staying to ask questions - that's a great feeling. Happened to me when teaching bachelor students.
FYI, you can't appear in the feature box's update section if you push updates more than once every 24 hours or so.
7179625 Marx is one of the most controversial figure out of many other people in history. Mainly due to how when his political or economic ideas went into practice, or close to it, or were inspired from it, it regularly resulted in many many bad things but some people still think they're workable. So yeah, man the flame throwers and asbestos lined cement walls. This bitch is growing to crash with no survivors.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2015/8/2/949110__safe_derpy+hooves_3d_angry_gmod_computer_yelling_desk_tank+%28vehicle%29_m1+abrams.jpg
Still reading for Silver.
7179489
According to Fimfic's counter, that's the millionth word published.
I wonder if she can write and fly at the same time, if not I guess she can only use the bottom part of the board unless they lower the board.
On a non story point Admirals doing a good job of keeping up with one chapter a day, I wonder how much of a buffer he has given in the past his real life work has fluctuated a bit taking up most of his time.
Teaching the climate class was pretty cool. I can imagine her professor hoping they have a weather-expert pegasus student every year from now on!
Does that mean Silver had a problem with the grates before she learned to fly over them?
I wonder if that's on the video too?
It occurs to me that I don't actually know that much about Marx, other than "made some communism," and I don't actually know much about Marx's version of communism either. I guess this'll be a journey of discovery for me.
7179662
Congrats on the prolificness.
Marx and the Left Hegelians should be a band. Singles like "I Just Want to Synthesize" "be my antithesis" "all we got to lose is our chains baby"
Weather making! Sounds fun : D I imagine her writing while hover flying. That prof basically got a free look at equestrian society.
And also the return of Aric the semi-boyfriend and card playing.
7179493
It is the ancient festival of Beltaine, you barbarian. Not "May Day."
7179700 Silver's certainly right he was smart. Unfortunately, in my mind he has a pretty classic smart-person problem, where he astutely identified and analyzed a lot of real legit problems, then proceeded to conclude "burn it all down", with the usual poor results. I don't think his system as-written is workable at all, and pretty much all the historical examples diverged significantly and in monstrous ways on top of that, so you have a huge number of horrific things done in his and/or Communism's name.
That said, pretty much everyone who's willing to talk about the problems of industrial capitalism at all uses a lot of his language for it, and a lot of his theoretical framework. His analysis of class and the problems of control of capital were intellectually revolutionary in a way almost no one else in the last few centuries has been. His intellectual influence also almost certainly caused or accelerated the labor movement in general, which adjusted the balance between labor and capital in at least a few ways pretty much everyone thinks are good, like workplace safety standards, overtime laws, child labor laws, etc. And they contributed heavily to the various socialist systems, including democratic socialism which has been strong in Europe for a while. (As always opinions vary on whether it's a good idea, but unlike the despotic communist regimes it's compatible with most liberal democracies, bills of rights, etc).
Basically in my mind he's a great person to study, because he's got some ideas that are genuinely inspired and enlightening, but you have to do a whole lot of intellectual leg work deciding which of them are those, and which of them are an unfortunate (if understandable) reaction to the horrors of the early industrial world he lived in.
End of day snuggling!
Clever class...
How does that one work? There is like a thousand different way of voting things in the states and I have a hard time following sometime.
I was going to leave a simple "Dun! Dun! Dun!"
And then I read the comment section and realized how many people seem to have the same problem as Silver when talking about philosopher; they are lacking the historical and cultural perspective to really understand. Just like the other philospher seen so far, Marx work is comming from a particular context. May it be his philosophy, his proposed economical system (the communism), his proposed political system (the socialism) and his proposed mean of "achieving" these two (Armed revolution followed by a period of "People dictatorship") are all things that are coming down from the world of the industrial revolution he lived in.
Just like any other philosopher, some thing are still sound today, some need adaptation to be applied and other were mistakes.
When I first opened my feed I read the title as "watermaking" and I thought "oh, we're going that way now".
7179786 Beltaine is much worthier of being celebrated.
7179786
They're the same thing though. In Irish, Bealtaine is the month of May, and the festival on May 1st that marks the start of Summer can be either just Bealtaine as well, or Lá Bealtaine... which is May Day.
7179817 Thank you for this excellent summary!
7179862 And you too!
Some sense in the comments. Who knew?
7180008 Well, one of the thing I like the most about this story is all the discussions in the comment section and a ot of it does make sense in my opinion.
And then, we are human, so there are mistakes, emotional response and so on, but for the most part things stayed calm and respectful and I learned a lot of thing on various subject as well as I saw different perspectives on thing. I may disagree sometime (often? ), but I still enjoy discovering these views all the same!
I really hope Starlight Glimmer gets brought up in comparison to Marx, though I admit Silver has probably never heard of her.
7179594 Canadian Population Popcorn Party!
More info about snowmaking at Boyne: http://www.boyne.com/boynemountain/skiing-riding/snowmaking
There's compressed air used on fan-type guns, but it's usually provided by a small onboard compressor rather than hill air. There's also a third type of gun - a lance or stick - that rather than using an electric fan to throw the water and get enough time for it to freeze, just has a few smaller nozzles on a long pole, typically around 30', some of which spray water only and some of which spray compressed air and water.
7180544 Just sometimes?
7180544 DBD are treated differently around here. The second steepest slope in all Ontario was only BD (the location is closed now sadly)
I also found the resort not using snow makers while the slopes were in use odd. It's not dangerous to have the towers running with people on the slopes, the only reason not to in my opinion is because hitting a patch of fresh made snow slows you down.
(These chapters really make me miss my ski racing days.)
A lot of people are all up in arms about Marx, but here are a few things to keep in mind:
1. A lot of his basic ideas about class consciousness and the tyranny of truly unregulated capitalism are easily demonstrable.
2. A lot of his other ideas about a classless socialistic utopia are totally laughable.
Like a lot of pioneers, he had some revolutionary ideas that weren't always practical or correct. Sigmund Freud, for instance, was unbelievably influential on the field of psychology, but a lot of the weird-ass ideas he had back then are well known to be off the mark now. Doesn't mean that you should throw the baby out with the bathwater in discredit everything he says. So it goes with Marx.
Ahhh. Karl Marx... I remember him. The supposed 'Father of Communism'. I do so hope you can get her to think about it as well as make do with his favorite thing, violent REVOLUTION!!!!!!
Okay, take a day off work. Take a day from family and friends.
Take a day from everything.
Write a dozen chapters in that day and post them all!
Nah, just messin'.
I really wake up and look forward to this story EVERY SINGLE DAY.
A day missed is a day I have to read other stories.
Just saying, Silver Glow's awesome.
You MONSTER! What is wrong with you?!
7180493 ayy how about we all watch the next chapter burn down the comment section together!
Marx is a fascinating topic of study. I remeber spending two weeks in my political science/history class debating whether or not Marx made the world a better place, with the obvious caveat that the ideas attributed primarily to him would not surface elsewhere in his absence. I think it was a close split, with the slight majority siding with Marx, as being a modern serf sucks ass.
Man, I really love how knowledgable you are on these things she talks about. Sometimes I read stories in which it's obvious the author isn't knowledgable on the subject, for instance I know things about music and I've read stories where it's obvious the author didn't know anything about it and just did a five minute google search. I'm not that good at knowing philosophers and I know nothing about the weather but it's obvious you either took very good time to research this information or you just simply know this info yourself.
7182155
Marx made the mistake of of believing that a centralized authority could transition peacefully to a utopia. Sociopaths who crave power are drawn toward positions of authority and they aren't liable to give it up once they have it.
Wait, classes are almost over?
7179448
7179450
There's a whole gulf of knowledge between humans and ponies. It's sort of like trying to explain the concept of colors to someone who's been blind since birth.
7179479
I don't get that option.
7179498
The thing with all philosophers--and this is only my opinion--is that their ideas, however well-intentioned, won't necessarily actually work when applied to the masses at large, because humans are complex and not always logical. From a purely philosophical point of view, Marx has some really good ideas. Translating that to the basis of government, well. . . .
7179533
i.ytimg.com/vi/3mfKg5vs18A/hqdefault.jpg
7179601
Excellent link; thank you!
7179625
I've tried, both on traditional chalkboards and the newfangled markerboards. It is a different skillset.
Detailed, you're probably not gonna get, but a piece at a time here and there. . . .
She really ought to have her own separate class on it. Cloudmaking 101. One of the great things about teaching is not only do you impart your knowledge on students, but you invariably learn stuff that you don't know.
Silver Glow flying back and forth across the length of the whiteboard, trying to use it, and illustrating concepts with exaggerated hoof motions did as much to keep the class' attention as her material. Movement keeps people alert.
7179630
Being in the feature box every day isn't my primary goal. But yes, I do know that. It also doesn't show up in the 'updates' column if the two updates occur too close together. Not sure what the counter is on that; if it's time-based, or if the story has to go down x number of slots before it can be back up at the top.
Related, I thought I noticed last night that Velvet Touch was in the top update slot in the the feature box, and then later it was in the new stories slot. I could have imagined that, though; I only got a couple of hours sleep last night.
7179643
The biggest problem with philosophy turned government. Some other theories fail in a similar manner: I know there are a few economic theories which sound good on paper but don't actually work. The other big problem is that people don't always act in their best interest. For example, we probably all know that smoking is not good for you (I think there's no debate on the science there) but people do it anyway.
7179680
Yes, she can. Not well--but she can't write on the board well whether or not she's flying.
None! I'm living on the edge, baby!
7179697
It's a mixed blessing, especially since in some ways she knows so much more than him, and in other ways so much less.
Yeah, she got stuck and had to pry herself off. And yes, the GoPro view of that is totally on film. She took Gates' advice and recorded everything.
7179700
Thanks! I haven't decided how I feel about it yet. It's an accomplishment, but is it a worthy accomplishment?
I'll let you know when I hit two million words.
7179705
Once upon a time I was bouncing ideas for a high fantasy story off my dad and came up with the phrase "The semi-immortal wizards." He said there ought to be a band with that name. Related: if you want to read that story, lean on Knighty to open his mirror site to general fiction.
Yup, that's how she did it.
He's a friend with benefits.
7179817
Well, that's the real problem with a lot of philosophy. There's the theory, and then the question of whether it's workable in society-at-large. In the case of Marx's theories, the answer seems to be 'probably not.' But--it could have been an idea before its time, as well. Modern society is changing the concept of 'factory' and 'work,' so maybe a hundred years from now we'll all be living in a socialist paradise and laughing at our forefather's poor attempts to make Marx's system work.
Heck, a dozen years ago, I wouldn't have been publishing stories to an international audience on the internet.
I think that's one of the important things in looking at philosophy. It isn't all right, and it isn't all applicable to society, but it puts you in the mindset of how people thought back then, what they thought was important to them, and then you can also ask if you've resolved the problems that they identified. And as you point out, there are ways of applying some of their ideas. The trick is always finding the ones that work and the ones that don't, and I'm not sure that you can without experimentation.
7179855
The best kind!
7179862
In Michigan, you just show up to your polling place and choose either a Democratic or Republican ballot, choose one candidate on that ballot, and that's it.
That's probably the most important takeaway from a philosophy class. The hard part is deciding which is which.
7179906
That chapter comes later.
7180008
By and large, people seem to have respectful, insightful comments, and there isn't a lot of mudslinging and namecalling, even on fairly charged subjects. It's a nice change from my Facebook feed.
7180137
It would depend on how much news travelled around Equestria, I guess, and what the ponies considered newsworthy. This takes place an indeterminate time in the future from the show (long enough for Aquamarine to grow from a BG filly to a college student).
7180598
So would it be possible with a snow lance to turn someone into an abominable snowman? Because if that's true, I know what I'd do if I were given one of those.
7180703
I don't think they use them during the day here, only at night when the slopes are closed. But I don't know that for a fact. I've never actually been to a downhill ski slope. I crashed into more than enough things on cross country skis.
7181378
I think that's a very valid point. And I think Marx is in some way different than many of the other philosophers, in that he proposed a system that could be a system of government, whereas Descartes (for example) didn't have a philosophy which could be translated into a system of government. As such, Marx's philosophy could be tested in a way that Descartes' could not.
7181867
That's why you often get longer chapters on weekends
And why I try to catch up on comments on the weekends.
7181884
In English, as a general rule, words ending in -s are pluralized by adding -es; thus, focus becomes focuses, octopus becomes octopuses, and pegasus becomes pegasuses.
In some cases, where there is a different rule in their native language, you can also pluralize them that way, so focus becomes foci, octopus becomes octopodes, and pegasus becomes . . . well, I don't actually know Greek, so I don't know what the correct English plural of pegasus is.
Anyway, point is that Silver Glow isn't a native English speaker. She's likely to make goose plural by saying 'gooses,' and she makes pegasus plural by saying pegasuses.
7182155
That's the important thing: if nothing else, labor laws at the time were really shitty, and Marx provided some of the impetus to change that.
On a related topic, I often see people arguing about the government sticking its nose into things, forgetting that there's a reason why we have all these alphabet agencies. Did you know in the twenties in the USA it was perfectly legal to market a depilatory cream whose main ingredient was arsenic? There was no requirement that cosmetics actually be safe (and it did remove hair, so you couldn't even argue false advertising). Not long after, the Food and Drug Administration was formed.
7182343
It's kind of a mix. I do a lot of research, have a fair amount of general knowledge, and know when to ask the experts to weigh in.
I've always been an avid reader, have experience in a number of different fields both professionally and as hobbies, and know people who know things.
7182445
I think that's often the problem of drawing a governmental system from a philosophy. The people who want the power often ought not to have it, the people who are the most qualified to lead don't want to, people don't always do things in their best interest, and as a whole people are much more complicated than a philosophical theory. Even Adam and Eve couldn't follow one simple rule.
7182903
Yeah, Kalamazoo College is on a quarter system, where you have ten weeks of class, one week of finals, and then a break.
You know, I'm going to call BS on Silver Glow on this one. She stated that there hadn't been any towns that needed new weather patterns since before she was born. I know this takes place after Twilight becomes an Alicorn, but there's no mention of how long after. And we know that there was one town that was newly formed, Appaloosa. Therefore, she did know of at least one town that needed new weather to ensure its survival.
7211219
Not long after; Silver is old enough to remember the parasprites in Fillydelphia, so she'd definitely remember Twilight's coronation.
Maybe Appaloosa just slipped her mind?
7280201
Appaloosa wasn't well know. Though. Twilight didn't even know about it until Applejack told her and Applejack knew only cause her family went there.