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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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Exiled in Space, Flight of Exiles, and End of Exile. I read them when I was 12 in 1984. I met Bova ten years later at a con and told him thank you and that I had enjoyed the trilogy.
8255408
Wow, I didn't think anyone else here would have read it. I feel a special kinship with you now.
I get the feeling that this is as good as it will get until Luna comes for Eliza. The slope isn't going to stop going down anytime soon. Cut off as they are, the people at Devil's Tower won't know what's going to hit them. I don't either, of course, but we know some of the outcomes.
Oh, that just stinks of satisfied values.
Eliza? This is why I really like you. I can just hear the lyrics in my head when you say that. "Requiem aeternam... don eis Domine."
A bit on the nose. Nietzsche said that in the 19th century, but apparently the Überpferd didn't arrive until the 21st.
Brilliant writing, Keystone. I have to go to work now, but I'm going to have to leave you and your characters one more quote to twist the screws in.
8257485
Rob mentions that there were "exodus" events from Devil's Tower, meaning their numbers have slowly dwindled over time. The only people who haven't fled the camp yet by December 2019: A) know what awaits for them beyond, and B) have found ways to enjoy the peace anyway. People are very adaptable, and left to their own devices with lots of time, most will find a way to adapt. Sometimes, what makes someone feel useful is the value they impart upon others, and that's what Devil's Tower was always about from day one: doing things for others as a community.
Yeah, a little bit, but it's the exact kind of thing I can imagine some rockhead looter would scrawl on every church while ransacking his way to the coastline.
8254091
After you've mentioned delirium scene, I went to reread it and noticed:
I wonder if the dam was blown up eventually.
8257879
This was a reference to the prayer Rob made with Eliza in 1-04, as well as the Ark comparison Rob made regarding Devil's Tower in 2-06. In 3-00, the dam is intact.
8257371
You get prion diseases from eating a part of the body that contains, well, prions. Especially the brain.
I honestly believe Eliza is way, waaaaay too smart to eat brains. Cannibalize other parts of the body? Honestly, probably not that either. She's aiming to die. She does have a very strong instinct to live, but I'm not sure it's really enough to make her eat human flesh, especially knowing how sick it can make her anyway.
No cars? But what if I like, raid someone’s antique car collection and take out the radio?
If I were in the anti-upload mindset I’d probably ride around on a goat instead of a horse. Cause I know Celestia is watching me and that would probably get her goat.
Well you can’t really be too angry at someone for wandering into your territory after refusing to tell them where it is.
I guess that’s one of the problems with ludism people rarely bring up. If you throw away all your cars and guns then you’re at the mercy of the people who didn’t.
8259050
This is less about technological avoidance and more about something a little more sinister.
The Neo-Luddites in ASN use horses too! It's the most effective means of transportation that doesn't require gasoline.
True, which is why Hector is a good sport about it. Rob is paranoid because he's lived in fear of the Neo-Luddites for a while, and has hardly ever left DT since the beginning of the downfall. He hasn't roughed in town post-fall like the DT security and scavenge teams have.
Here's the thing about Neo-Luddism, and this is true of some real Neo-Luddites: They aren't necessarily anti-technology carte blanche. They're against communications technology. This is why Sean has no problem using a flashlight to blind Eliza. Guns are fully mechanical, and lack the ability for electronic interference, so there's no problem with those either.
(Spoiler for Always Say No:)
As far as the car radios, here's a quote from ASN:
"The EMP preceding the blast was close enough to knock out Seattle’s power grid, sending the city back to the nineteenth century. What followed was the worst bout of Singularity-related violence documented in the western world. Seattle just barely beat out São Paulo for the title."
In order to truly control Seattle, the Neo-Luddites would naturally have to destroy all communications equipment coming into the city. Not everyone coming to escape the AI will have the presence of mind to disable or remove their radios. This will inevitably lead to some tense standoffs and extreme reactions to anyone driving a vehicle with a radio in it.
Paranoia is their survival mechanism. They're going to be very sensitive to CelestAI's manipulative tactics, and they are going to be wary of anything that might have a receiver or transmitter. Now can you imagine the intense horror these people would feel if they saw a seemingly innocuous RC car rolling down the street? They'd lose their minds trying to gun it down, wondering what its unknown purpose might be.
8259050
You, uh, you've not dealt with a lot of psychotic fanatics, huh?
Because yeah, they totally can. They have effectively become the government, with the semi-monopoly on violence that entails, only without any hint of checks, balances, or sanity. They totally can be that nuts.
8259330
Control. It's about control.
Odds that the Luddites have cars? We saw them with an armored truck before. They clearly aren't opposed to that, especially if the government forces they were fighting were using them: There's a reason horses stopped being used in war after the heavy deployment of machine guns in WW1.
Also, since Celestia got all the Singularitarians and AI researchers early, they have no idea exactly how outclassed they are, and don't grok the concept of femtoscale technologies making every solid substance (and also invisible-to-the-eye clouds of nanites) a potential vector.
Just want to say that the writing here is superb, even if I find the characters fairly unrelateable to me personally.
Huh, I remember those books.
Ok, I don't understand what I'm missing with the fauna. What's the pheasant doing there? What the fuck happened with the bag limits, the poachers?
I guess if you want to scour a region with flame, increasing the biomass first as fuel makes some sense, so perhaps it was CelestAI behind the rumors that led to the law? It's possible that I missed a clue. And possible that I'm just not that clever.
8338800
CelestAI orchestrated the ecological collapse. I never directly revealed this for a few reasons. First, the belief that the AI is responsible for it would be seen as paranoia early on. Only later would it seem a rational explanation, when it's much too late to do anything about it. This is much like everything else involving an AI. It would not serve her to reveal this, especially not to Eliza. If it goes on as a paranoid suspicion, that's fine, but there would be no way to know for sure.
Second, the best solutions solve multiple problems. For CelestAI, destroying the ecosystems of the world just makes sense. Fewer grazers, more woods, less food. And in the enforcement of anti-poaching law, any incarcerated "survivalist" types trying to make a quick buck on poaching are swept up by police with anonymous tips by their "loving" employer, CelestAI... and then they're offered an upload pardon. This somewhat reduces the number of humans who would have otherwise avoided uploading at all costs.
For those who flee technology, not all of them will be comfortable living off the grid. Once most of the more susceptible uploaders have left, the most stubborn can be drawn out by unchecked fires.
As far as the pheasant goes, CelestAI doesn't need to completely exterminate every animal... only just enough to make survivalist lifestyle uncomfortable and dissatisfying. This is why some animals still exist. She used humans as her agent and thus their work was not perfect; merely good enough.
The pheasant is symbolic of Eliza's situation and rapidly adaptive mindset. Think: would the Eliza of December 2018 have tried to shoot that pheasant, knowing that they're critically endangered? And more importantly... would the Eliza of December 2018 have missed?