SDN Worlds 4 Commentary Thread II

[Siege]

I'm liking Dr. Susie's Magical Journey of Self-Discovery more and more with each installment .

[Shroom Man 777]

Behold the Map of the Bragulan Star Empire showing its great vastness for all to see and fear! Muhahahahaaaaa!

ALSO, man. Is it just me or is the galaxy just chock full of humans? What the hell, did the UN hire Kaminoans to mass-produce clones while they colonized space? I am sad that there are so few alienoids in the galaxies.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Behold the Map of the Bragulan Star Empire showing its great vastness for all to see and fear! Muhahahahaaaaa!

ALSO, man. Is it just me or is the galaxy just chock full of humans? What the hell, did the UN hire Kaminoans to mass-produce clones while they colonized space? I am sad that there are so few alienoids in the galaxies.

The Galaxy, according to Imperator Byzon, Praise be him

[Shroom Man 777]

The Bragulans will totally tell their people that the humans infested the galaxy by cloning themselves on conveyor belts, and that this makes themselves worse than Karlacks. And, like, even the human homeworld cloned itself.

[Simon_Jester]

Use ROBOT RIVER as the Collector envoy! Or the T-X.

My vote is for the T-X, since I do have some plans...

The Bragulans will totally tell their people that the humans infested the galaxy by cloning themselves on conveyor belts, and that this makes themselves worse than Karlacks. And, like, even the human homeworld cloned itself.

And did it wrong, winding up with a twisted mutant version of the real homeworld!

The only question is... which version is the mutant?

[Shroom Man 777]

The Bragulans will find out. By autopsy.

[Dave]

ALSO, man. Is it just me or is the galaxy just chock full of humans? What the hell, did the UN hire Kaminoans to mass-produce clones while they colonized space? I am sad that there are so few alienoids in the galaxies.

Hey now, mine's predominately Iduran! And remember, the Diaspora in the late 23rd century flung humanity across the cosmos.

Finally, scrolling down the comments page of a politically oriented video storage site, she found something that looked familiar:

“Doesn’t anybody get it? They’re everywhere, running the government, reading our minds! It all has to stop, for the sake of the children!”

But below that was, printed in bright red:

“NOTE: Poster is an adult Type Two citizen.”

Thinking about it, she’d seen that before, over the past few weeks’ browsing of the Umerian national networks. Usually on highly opinionated and fairly incoherent material. It was like the Umerians were making these people wear a sign around their neck saying: “Danger! I am an immature idiot!”

I'd like to know more about how that system works. Are, ah, irrational people required to be registered in the Technocracy?
How are they detected and forced to be registered?
Does that registration force explanatory text to be appended whenever they write something to the datasphere?

[PeZook]

I believe Umerian citizenship works something like "Idiot until proven otherwise", and their intrusive Big Brother network monitoring ensures such nice tags are added everywhere you post

Simon described the various citizenship tiers earlier.

[Dave]

I believe Umerian citizenship works something like "Idiot until proven otherwise", and their intrusive Big Brother network monitoring ensures such nice tags are added everywhere you post

Simon described the various citizenship tiers earlier.

Oh, there it is. I place lower priority on reading the Prologue and History threads, so that post slipped by me.

[Steve]

My new post is also in the Prologue thread, since it's set before 3400. It's setting up one of the little storylines building us up toward the STGOD metaplot.

Did another post. Curiouser and curiouser....

[Steve]

I also confess. I let the demonstration of TK being applied to the landscape be inspired by Earthbending from A:TLA.

[Simon_Jester]

Finally, scrolling down the comments page of a politically oriented video storage site, she found something that looked familiar:
“Doesn’t anybody get it? They’re everywhere, running the government, reading our minds! It all has to stop, for the sake of the children!”
But below that was, printed in bright red:
“NOTE: Poster is an adult Type Two citizen.”

Thinking about it, she’d seen that before, over the past few weeks’ browsing of the Umerian national networks. Usually on highly opinionated and fairly incoherent material. It was like the Umerians were making these people wear a sign around their neck saying: “Danger! I am an immature idiot!”

I'd like to know more about how that system works. Are, ah, irrational people required to be registered in the Technocracy?
How are they detected and forced to be registered?
Does that registration force explanatory text to be appended whenever they write something to the datasphere?

I believe Umerian citizenship works something like "Idiot until proven otherwise", and their intrusive Big Brother network monitoring ensures such nice tags are added everywhere you post

Simon described the various citizenship tiers earlier.

That's essentially accurate, though it's a bit more complicated than that.

Umerian babies are born with Type One citizenship, which gives identification, basic human rights, and so forth. There are also protections specific to Type One citizens, who are by definition incapable of taking care of themselves in any capacity. The only adult Type Ones are people who suffer from some incapacitating mental problem that prevents them from participating in society.

Type Two citizenship is routinely handed out to all children as they go through adolescence, with gradually increasing privileges and expanded rights as the citizen passes through the teenage years. Type Twos are capable of functioning in society in limited roles, but are not deemed fit to make all their own decisions without a keeper. The majority of Type Twos are teenagers, and in that case the keeper is their parents or (for wards of the state) the state.

You get Type Three citizenship by passing a battery of psychological tests and educational requirements designed to determine that you are, in fact, capable of functioning in society as a responsible adult, who no longer needs someone peeking over your shoulder to make sure you aren't playing with matches.

If someone passes some arbitrary age (say, twenty) without passing the Type Threes, they are classed as an "adult Type Two." For whatever reason, an adult Type Two is deemed incapable of fending for themselves as a 'real' adult, even to the relatively low standards expected of, say, 22-year-old Type Threes. Either they have some mental health problem that cannot be cracked with medication, or they are chronic failures in the state "social functioning" curriculum, or something along those lines.

Typical problems that can cause an Adult Type Two designation are a lack of social intelligence so profound that it makes it impossible for the subject to get through daily life without a keeper, severe lack of responsibility, severe innumeracy or illiteracy, and so on. Adult Type Twos are legally equivalent to emancipated minors: state employees from MiniWell check in on them on a regular basis, and they need government approval to enter into certain kinds of major contracts and the like.

Only a small minority of the Umerian population are adult Type Twos, and it is an extremely embarrassing status to be in. Adult Type Twos have specially marked ID and, as you've seen, computer log-ins. And political commentary forums in Umeria have a lot of monitoring software (generally more for opinion polling purposes than for oppression; it is very very hard to get arrested for sedition in Umeria). So they come with automatic filters that identify adult Type Twos. As Dr. Susie noted, this is basically equivalent to forcing them to wear a sign around their necks saying "Danger: I am an immature idiot!" whenver speaking about 'grown up' subjects such as domestic policy.

And if this strikes you as humiliating and probably a human rights violation, it is. In my opinion, it's a predictable outcome of the kind of society the Technocracy grew out of: a systematic society-wide effort to "force" certain individuals to grow up by making it publically known that they are officially a village idiot.

Personally, I doubt it works very well.

But basically, you become a Designated Idiot in Umeria by being the equivalent of a high school dropout in a First World country: someone who has failed to meet basic requirements for education and/or psychological soundness that all full adults in the society are expected to meet.

[RogueIce]

“I hate it when these damn xeno bears call us Byzantinians,” muttered Beltayn, Jaunt’s adjutant.

"I hate it when those damn xenophobic human Imperials call us Shinrans," muttered RogueIce, SDNW4 player.



It's just Shinra. That's how it works. Don't bother me with your rules of grammar, because we violate them with impunity! It's a matter of national security, after all.

Also of note, I do have claimed Sephiroth, at least so far as the name is concerned. Just FYI as I sense where your little sideplot is going.

---

~~vanished into the mists of time~~

[KlavoHunter]

Hey Oskuro, get an AIM account, seriously, we'd love to chat!


First Question: Where do little Orkz come from?

[Shroom Man 777]

The Umerians have Type Two Adults who drink while driving punished by sending them to work in the mines!

[Simon_Jester]

Actually, we have Type Two Adults punished by having built-in sobriety testers in their car so they can't take over manual control of a motor vehicle while impaired in any detectable way.

[Darkevilme]

First Question: Where do little Orkz come from?

Seconded. The Hierarchy needs to know if we ever have to worry about Ghazka Son of Ghazka, Ghazka the even badder, any time soon.

[Shroom Man 777]

Man. Sidney Hank, you old dog you! Seducing the T-X!

[KlavoHunter]

First Question: Where do little Orkz come from?

Seconded. The Hierarchy needs to know if we ever have to worry about Ghazka Son of Ghazka, Ghazka the even badder, any time soon.

Well, if they are fungoid in the same manner as 40K, then any infested planet will literally have Orks occasionally wandering out of caves, fashioning a big ol' Choppa and killing something to eat, and then wandering into town, and either using that choppa on someone, or else perhaps trying to sell some meat. Or sell his skill with that Choppa!

[Simon_Jester]

Of course, SDNW4 society might be a bit more sophisticated about eradicating ork infestations, especially in isolated areas. The Umerians have some ideas about that that would have come into play in the post-Jaggan War period, if applicable.

[Shroom Man 777]

Using, ah, rubiconium?

[Darkevilme]

Using, ah, rubiconium?

No you fool, would you unleash the terror of crystal orks upon the galaxy?

[Shroom Man 777]

THE SPACE LESBIANS STRIKE AGAIN!

I'm sorry I couldn't resist.

Poor Druni though. Hey, is Danielle gonna end up meeting with Shayera and resolving her sexual frustrations?

[Steve]

....you just had to pick that one, didn't you?

[Shroom Man 777]

Well, that woman with a whip is probably an Ebon Blade lady about to get her faced punched in by that manly man.