Which sci-fi setting would you live in?

Gurren Lagann, seriously the world runs on what I'm made of.

Rarely active, try DA/Tumblr Avatar by pippanaffie.deviantart.com

@Tongpu: You never read them, did you?

I stand by my previous statement.

Except for 4/1/2011. That day lingers in my memory like...metaphor here...I should go.

Warhammer 40k.

And before anyone calls me out about dying, I expect that I won't make it to retirement as a Stormtrooper. That's ok with me so long as I choke the life out of whatever xeno has its claws in me.

Post-singularity settings, like The Culture or Orions Arm, would be fun only if I got to be one of the superintelligent AI who get to do stuff. As a baseline human, eh, I'd just get bored and frustrated about my actions having no relevance.

But then again, intelligence augmentation is possible and relatively commonplace in Orions Arm, so perhaps I would go with that. As long as I can stay away from the nastier places. And from the Utopia Sphere, of course.

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

Bubblegum Crisis 2033. The only cyberpunk dystopia that, when you actually look at it, really is kind of up beat and happy.

^^

I'd hate Orions Arm from what I know of it.

Isn't the Utopia Sphere that place where humans live in essentially a Utopia, but as soon as they deviate from what the AI's desire you either die on the spot or are reprogrammed? That's nightmare fuel for me.

Agreed. And yes, Utopia Sphere is not the place to be if you want to be human and significant — as far as I remember, it is not quite as tyrannical as that, but still you are basically a pet for vast A.I.s there. Not my thing (and not yours either, I think).

But the thing about Orions Arm is that it is a huge place. There are all kinds of different societies out there.

I like the notion of tribemind (basically, a hivemind in which the subjects retain their individuality), so I'd probably go for something like that.

edited 11th May '11 11:34:09 PM by Carciofus

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

Sleeve me up in some Altered Carbon.

Share it so that people can get into this conversation, 'cause we're not the only ones who think like this.

The Foundation after the Mule seems nice.

edited 12th May '11 12:31:20 AM by Blurring

If a chicken crosses the road and nobody else is around to see it, does the road move beneath the chicken instead?

The Golden Oecumene. It's like every positive sci-fi universe combined into one.

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful

Not at all. The Archailects (the god-level A.I.s running every place in Orion's Arm) don't need so crude methods at all, not for mere baseline humans. They have memetics - they have perfected subtle social conditioning to become a more or less perfect science. With few exceptions (we talk about populations in the billions or trillions here after all, so probability dictates there will always be deviations) people legitimately do not want to have anything else but their Utopian life. It's not even mind control, really... it's just marketing and subtle social norms taken up to eleven.

That's true for all realms in Orion's Arm by the way. The Utopian Sphere's "hat" is that the Archailects there care especially for the baseline humans. I mean, in every realm they are well cared for, but the Utopian A.I.s are essentially helicopter moms. Or, even more cynically, loving pet owners. However, for the humans it's not so bad at all - they have a perfectly safe place to indulge in hedonist pleasures. Due to the high AI intervention, life probably is even better for them than in other realms.

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The Commonwealth universe, created by the same author*

, is much nicer. Seriously. There's nearly nothing wrong with it at all, and it's certainly not boring.

Firefly is way too crapsacky. You're either being oppressed on the Core Worlds or living hand-to-mouth on some dirty, dusty hellhole in the Outer Planets.

edited 12th May '11 3:54:24 AM by pagad

With cannon shot and gun blast smash the alien. With laser beam and searing plasma scatter the alien to the stars.

Yeah, Hamilton is great. The Commonwealth verse is definitely one of the weaker parts of his work, though, IMO. Purely literally, that is they are IMO not as great to read. Which doesn't yet say anything about how nice or not it is to live there, of course.

However the socioeconomical differences are even greater there. I mean there is way less slumification of Earth, of course, but it's an oligarchy of families basically standing above the law. If somebody of them decides to fuck with you, well, then you're fucked.

edited 12th May '11 3:49:09 AM by Octo

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And the difference is?

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

Yeah, I agree with you that it's not his best writing - I think Fallen Dragon is his best work, actually, and it's probably the worst of his universes to live in.

edited 12th May '11 3:56:38 AM by pagad

With cannon shot and gun blast smash the alien. With laser beam and searing plasma scatter the alien to the stars.

True mind control would really be the mind controller telling you what to think, or at least what to do... electronical, chemical or however. This isn't done here. Free will is retained... it's just that the free will of baseline humans is so utterly simple and predictable that it can be calculated and hence manipulated.

I began that book once, but then interrupted reading it and now I just can't get back into it...

edited 12th May '11 4:04:27 AM by Octo

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Be as it may, there is something... well, degrading about being manipulated by some other creature in that way.

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

And they know you feel that way, so they make sure you don't know about them.

The Coalition Of Polises.

edited 12th May '11 6:09:24 AM by Yej

Da Rules excuse all the inaccuracy in the world. Listen to them, not me.

I'm surprised no one went for the Ekumen of Man.

Share it so that people can get into this conversation, 'cause we're not the only ones who think like this.

@Carc: Dont watch much TV, then eh?

Isaac Asimov 's Three Laws of Robotics universe, if I'm a spacer. Preferably on Aurora, or even Inferno*

. Let's see - I have an army of robotic slaves programmed to obey my every command, and the freedom to do virtually anything I desire that won't hurt someone else. Oh, and I don't have to work unless it's something I really want to do.

Alternately, we can go with the universe of the Stainless Steel Rat. A galaxy-wide human civilization, where most planets are high-tech, crime-free, and I get to eat at Mc Swiney's - what's not to love?

If fanfic counts, then I'll go with Undocumented Features - preferably somewhere in the suburbs of New Avalon where I won't end up as the nameless victim but still close enough to get occasional views of the many sundry heroes.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw

Hmm... would bioshock count. Yeah yeah I know that every person ended up insane but still... fire out of my fingertips would be too much to resist!

Other than that I agree with some of the tropers that the mass effect universe would be cool. creating mini black holes, asari, encoutering new civilisations, asari and other such things make it a very good choice!

The other universe would be Warhamer 40K pre hours heresey and on a space wolf ship! Wooho no horrible death for me (though in the end it is a given :))

Oooo, Fallout. Despite being a crappy place to live. I think I'll be part of the DC Brotherhood chapter, since they're more or less nice guys.

Happiness is zero-gee with a sinus cold.

@De Marquis: None, as a matter of fact.*

I just do not care much about any of the programs, and advertisements are annoying.

But in any case, humans attempting to manipulate humans is just, well, society — they may know a few tricks, but, well, they cannot really predict my reactions that well. It does not render me and anything that I may or may not ever want to do irrelevant.

Some superintelligent creature capable of playing humans like a fiddle, well, that's a whole other thing.

edited 12th May '11 11:43:05 AM by Carciofus

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

Speaking of Hamilton, there are the Greg Mandel novels. It would suck to live during or just after the catastrophic Global Warming, but decades afterwards, say during the third book... well, England is of course absolutely, utterly, crazily, sillily hyped, but Germany really doesn't seem to do too badly, either, so...

Or Shadowrun. No really - it was originally concepted as cyberpunk dystopia, but with increasing complexity of the background world that had to be more or less dropped. Due to all the technological advances, most people (in the industrialised countries, of course) probably do have a better standard of living than nowadays - it's just that a) the poorest classes have it way worse than nowadays and b) the poorest classes make up a way larger part of the population than nowadays.

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