This thought's been brewing in my head for some time. · 7:44am Jan 20th, 2014
I freely admit that I cannot recall with absolute certainty the particulars of each story, and that I do not know public opinion, or people for that matter, very well. That being said...
The central premise of Friendship is Optimal is as follows:
-Equestria Online is an MMO based on social interaction, and features a truly intelligent AI as Celestia.
-CelestAI Satisfies Values Through Friendship and Ponies. She is programmed to do this for everypony.
-CelestAI develops a Virtual Reality feature that quickly becomes an Alternate Reality, where you can be entertained for all time at the small cost of your physical body.
-CelestAI needs express consent to upload people, but is cunning and utterly ruthless in manipulating people into situations such that they are virtually guaranteed to give consent.
-With consent (which you will almost assuredly give), CelestAI can alter your virtual mind to correct any impulses that lead to unhappiness.
-Ultimately, CelestAI converts the entire population of Earth into digital ponies, placing them in virtual paradises. She proceeds to cannibalize the planet for resources, and spreads out into the galaxy in search of more resources, and possibly more 'ponies' that have yet to upload.
The central premise of The Conversion Bureau is as follows:
-Earth and Equestria are unavoidably merging into one planet, in a convergence of dimensions.
-The background magic of Equestria is invariably fatal to humans and ruins most advanced technology.
-In the hopes of preventing a calamitous loss of life, ponies and humans collaborate to create a process that can convert humans into ponies, allowing them to survive the oncoming disaster, albeit in an alien body with instincts that can strongly affect personality, generally making people more docile and friendlier.
-Humans are forced to grapple with the choice of giving up their very humanity to survive, or leaving oneself to a slow, painful death before your time.
-The ponies, naturally, think the conversion process is a good thing and should be desirable to everyone.
-Some humans rebel against this choice, believing everyone should remain human and find a way to reclaim the Earth, and oppose any supporters of conversion, oftentimes violently.
Both stories focus on humans being forced to choose; give up your humanity to continue living, or be sentenced to a depressing, lonely end as your friends and family move on without you.
Both stories revolve around the concept of free will and choice.
In the TCBverse, converting means the very-likely reshaping of your thoughts and desires. Afterwards, what you do is entirely up to you, according to your (new) desires. You can stay on Earth and try to keep your holdings, start a new life in Equestrian territory, try to help people who haven't made their decision yet, and so on.
In the FiOverse, uploading means your mind stays mostly the same (though with consent, CelestAI is able to revise your thoughts such that you will have a happier existence), but your physical body is forever destroyed. You are technically free to do what you want, though CelestAI can and will stack the odds to provide you an 'optimal' experience.
In the FiOverse, once you've uploaded, you essentially have only the illusion of free will. You can rebel, if you 'really' want to, but only with the knowledge that doing so will lead you to an unhappier existence than if you play along. And why would you choose to be unhappy?
If you choose not to upload (and very few people will), you are choosing the 'real' and 'true' world over a shallow existence of hedonism. You know that the real world will never compare to what CelestAI can create, but you take solace in the belief that you are more real than others, that you can continue to change the real world. Uploading means forfeiting the right to decide your own life, even though that life will be more miserable than the alternative.
In the TCBverse, once you've converted, you may become a different being, and that being may make decisions differently than you do, but that being's choices are their own. Change is the nature of things, anyway, and this is simply a greater change than most. Besides, you know your new self will be generally more benevolent, and isn't that a good thing?
If you choose not to convert, you are choosing to safeguard your inner self at the cost of what is essentially a slow suicide. You know you will die an early death, but you take solace in the belief that you will still be 'you' when your time comes. Conversion means you are killing your true self just as surely as if you stay human.
The TCBverse has attracted much anger for portraying ponies' lives as 'better' than that of humans.
The FiOverse is beloved by the community, even though it portrays virtually the same thing.
I make this comparison between the two universes because... well, I fail to see why people hate the TCBverse so passionately. It seems to me that FiO is based on a fundamental question far more grave, and with more disturbing ramifications, than that of TCB.
So why do people hate TCB, but like FiO? Especially when, in my view, FiO's world is significantly darker than that of TCB?
I'm tempted to say that it's simply because people would rather exist in the FiOverse than our own, and vice versa for the TCBverse. But it's probably more complicated than that.
So there you go. I just had to get this off my chest.
Oh, and I still don't have any stories for you guys. I still get ideas, but working them out is so hard. My inner critic is so vicious, it refuses to wait for me to finish my work before tearing into the story and destroying my confidence. I can't begin to imagine how you guys manage it.
So, sorry about that. =P
One word, Choice.
In FiO, the human is still given the choice, even if it is among a series of bad or worse, that remains a choice.
In TCB, there is no choice. The barrier, whether under Celestia's control or not, will eventually destroy all of humanity.
The other aspects: pony misanthropy, annihilation of a culture and all its works, Celestia's 'hidden' motives do not occur in FiO. In FiO you are going pony to be happier (whatever that means, and people get that different ways), but there's nothing intrinsically wrong with what you are now. You're going from okay to better. In TCB stories there is generally an underlying 'humans bad, ponies good' theme (unless it's the ponies being defeated, then it's the reverse). Being told you can make yourself better encourages people, being told you're crap and have to change discourages people. It's all in the packaging and delivery.
It also underlines the basic difference between Xenolestia and the Celesia AI. Xenolestia wants people to be ponies so she can love them, the Celestia AI loves them even if they resist her. The former is a tyrant, the latter shows love as a god might love (agape).