Rename: Only Electric Sheep Are Cheap

Guys, this isn't "Why English Is A Silly Language 101". ¬_¬

edited 10th Aug '11 9:01:45 AM by Loyal2NES

After a bit of pondering, I think a rename is appropriate... while the work is a seminal work, I think this trope name is a little too convoluted (particularly for the "what does 'only' modify in this phrase?" issue) to work well.

Personally, I'd go with Cheap Computers Overpriced Organics, since that is about as short as you can make it and get across the meaning. I would most definitely avoid Organic Goods Are Luxury Items; that just sounds like complaining about the price of food at Whole Foods or any other "organic" supermarket (while true, that's neither here nor there).

Good point about the misleading sense of "organic", especially in combination with "food".

Unfortunately, this is looking more and more like it's not going to be renamed, but we should at least consider adding a good redirect or two.

Artificial Copies Are Cheaper? Real Ones Are Unaffordable?

Heh, I could go on an entire rant about how I think the word "organic" is horribly misused in modern society, but that's a battle I (and those of a like mind) lost ages ago. What's important now is to remember how people currently use it.

Artificial Copies Are Cheaper fits the best in my mind; should the rename fail (which looks likely), I'm all for adding that as a redirect.

I like Artifial Copies Are Cheaper. Defninitely. Though it's a little broad: even Evangelions could fit there...

Synthetic Is Cheaper is my favourite so far. It gets the point across without being clumsy.

None of the titles suggested so far are as appealing as the current one. At least, I don't think so. So I lean towards keeping it, but I do see the advantage of a title that succinctly describes "Soylent Soy is cheap, real handicraft is valued".

There are some good suggestions here, that certainly clear up the ambiguity in the current name.

Synthetic Is Cheaper especially gets the point across well, unlike the current trope name.

As an aid to choosing names, here is the current trope name in action:

Noun-ness is very important and looking through the wicks is a useful thing to do when trying to think up a good name.

Hmm. Well, how about Cheaper Synthetic Equivalent or something like that?

Does anyone have a suggestion that would highlight the sci-fi aspect?

"Synthetic" is a sci-fi term enough.

"Synthetic" sounds pretty present-day to me. (Not that that's necessarily a problem here.)

edited 12th Aug '11 11:35:49 AM by Xtifr

Cheaper Synthetic Equivalent makes me think of Cheez Whiz. Which is just "processed cheese food" instead of actual cheese.

I wonder if it would make sense to just invent a new "In The Future" title. If you do a search of those words on the wiki, there are quite a few of them, and they share a common "sci-fi assumptions about the future" theme that is very much at play here.

The only problem is that they are all a bit long. Still... Nature Will Be Luxurious In The Future? In The Future Natural Things Will Be Obscenely Expensive? (Yikes. But you get my drift.)

This actually is (like a lot of speculative fiction tropes) just an extrapolation of a very real present-day effect. Synthetics often are cheaper (and Cheez Whiz is an example of that). In other words, I'm not convinced this is purely a speculative fiction trope. (Examples that appear in older SF works may even have become simple facts today.)

"Synthetic Is Cheaper" is good. "Synthetic Will Be Cheaper In The Future" might also work, but is kinda unwieldy.

edited 12th Aug '11 11:59:08 AM by INUH

Well, I think Cheez Whiz might be going a bit far: it's not like real dairy is a precious endangered resource that 99% of the population can only dream of. I think this trope is supposed to be a bit more "extreme" than just "there is processed stuff and natural stuff, and the processed stuff is more affordable."

EDIT: Oh, sorry, misread your post — yes, this is an extrapolation of a current relationship. But I think the trope should ideally be clear about the scarcity of the natural product.

edited 12th Aug '11 12:11:58 PM by Embryon

Nature Is For Rich People?

Natural Is For Rich People.

Actually, Cheez Whiz, for all that it's a crime against the culinary arts (and I can't get enough of it), is actually made out of dairy products. Milk is the first listed ingredient (milk proteins, whey, and whey proteins are all derived from milk and also listed as ingredients). Plus, cheese cultures are used in its making.

In fact, many of the so-called synthetic food products that we deal with today are real food (e.g. Twinkies really are cake, Cheez Whiz is made out of milk), just ones made with cheap industrial methods that don't result in as high of a quality product. So regardless of the name we go with, the fact that these items are made from real food ingredients (milk, oil from various plants, flour) means that there aren't any that would belong in this trope. We may want to call attention to that in the trope description.

Nylon replacing silk may be a more apropos present-day (recent past) example.

Does it really need to be in the future? This seems like a rather basic part of world building to me.

It requires a world where technology and mass production have advanced to the point they can outcompete and even effectively stifle "natural" products, or an environment where those resources are scarce (such as on a spaceship) and the tech-produced stuff is the only reliable source of production. At the minimum, this requires an Industrial Revolution or two, and probably actually needs more.

edited 13th Aug '11 12:02:16 AM by Elle

No, it requires mass production, or at least easy production. I've read a fantasy or two where being able to summon a barely edible mush was a basic spell, and naturally grown food was what the aristocrats ate. Can't name them though.