Describe this thing

So, you've decided to take up the venerable hobby of reading! It's an under appreciated pastime these days, and some people get by just fine with total illiteracy. After all, AR interfaces make illiteracy convenient and fun. Let's start by looking at your feet. It's a punk 'zine! These things are used by the various disenfranchised anarcho-whatevers to spread information on the Cause in between beat poetry and chicken scrawl pictures, and are often printed on cheap, edgy materials like cloned vellum or leaves or something. However, this punk 'zine is sealed by a biometric sealant, and will only dissolve when you are sufficiently angry at the violence inherent in the system. Any old anger will do, so think about your mother. Good job, it opened right away! Inside is... well, anger. These folks are a very angry lot. Now put it down, before you catch a disease of some sort.

So, that was disappointing. However, there are other options. Look, a bookstore! It's a bit cramped, but the geometry of the layout is mathematically optimized to maximize coziness. There are musty tomes mathematically optimized for maximum mustiness, some of them with names that remotely make sense. You open one up and yup, it's dense alright. Like, the first three words could be studied for over a century. Don't be insulted, the average reader needs three A.I.s to assist in reading. You've run into a book written by a posthuman scholar with a stick so far up the butt that it interferes with the center of the brain responsible for regulating pretentiousness. You leave the bookstore in disappointment.

The fact is, print media is dead. However, long live the e-reader! Go ahead and fire up your AR interface and see what you catch in the digital frontier! Oh. I see. You don't have an adblocker. You kinda need that so you don't suffer permanent brain damage from sensory overload. I'll wait while you recover. There, all better now? Good. Now, there's a good book. A nice read at a fraction of the cost of a realspace book. Go ahead and take a peak. Now, I'm sure you're wondering why it's dark now. Well, you stood in the middle of the sidewalk with a glazed look on your face for five hours, unable to avert your attention from the book. Don't worry, the planet has a high axial tilt so it'll be light again soon enough. I'm sure it was enthralling, but it's left you unfulfilled, perhaps a bit empty. Well, bookstore layout aren't the only thing mathematically optimized. You see, that book was made by an AI with an exiting yet ultimately empty read in mind. Don't worry, these are all important lessons. Next time, look for Turing-certified novels. Those ones likely aren't built by a memetic engineering program. There, you've found something! How is it so far/ I'm sure it's just fine. You see, literature isn't dead. You just have to dig it up from its shallow grave.

Since I've likely been ninja'd, just answer whatever's above me.

I don't have an answer, but maaan, your post was awesome.

Since this thing ain't moving along, Has your setting had any major arms races in the past, or present?

edited 21st Mar '16 12:06:47 AM by MaxwellDaring

That goes in the "Fantasy World Culture Questions" thread. These threads are similar enough already, let's keep them distinct.

Okay, fine. I'll ask about... The concept of death or something? What are the prevailing attitudes within the cultures of your setting on death? Or something.

ok, one rule here: star every question with "describe"

So someone just die, describe their ceremonial cloths, urnas,coffin or whatever the dead usted in your setting