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Sunday, June 14, 2015 - 23:36 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

Low Blowed

The lack of updates on Mr. Robo had me increasingly concerned, when a weary-looking Mr. Ham entered.

Me: So? How is he?

Mr. Ham: *lights up a cigar* About that, Conrad caught up just as he was... servicing his first client.

Me: Ah, that's not that bad.

Mr. Ham: Who was Ms. Robo.

Me: ...

Mr. Ham: Good news is, the hambulance arrived in time. They've managed to reattach his balls, and with any luck, he'll be about and bouncing in a week or so. Don't worry, human, Mr. Robo's a tough cookie, what with he's been through. Temporary detachment's hardly the worst of it.

Me: That's an end to this... slightly sordid saga, then.


Devolution Of States

After the annual episode of the local non-traditional gender roles community holding their rally, triggering the usual Abrahamic suspects to turn honorary incumbents for the day (extending to a plea for rain), I could not help but wonder if such issues might one day be resolved in the most direct of ways - to paraphrase a Demon-cratic Singapore classic: You love it, you do it, he hates it, he doesn't do it. Everybody goes and lives their lives, win-win!

The problem in many societies, is that these things turn into a fight over public space - when one group advances their cause to be recognized as acceptable, another group may well feel threatened by the possibility of a change to the status quo. Indeed, our ultimate authority has for now deemed that the wider community remains conservative (i.e. has calculated that throwing support the other way would lose the incumbent party more votes than it would gain)... but the Pink Dot participants may take heart about their future prospects, if sartorial hints are anything to go by.

Of course, like-minded individuals do tend to congregate naturally - a gender-alternative person might reasonably be expected to do better lifestyle-wise in, say, Seattle or San Francisco, than in most small Southern towns. The debate over rights remains contentious, definitely, but there's at least space - which is increasingly at a premium here.

The recent enclave exchange deal between India and Bangladesh reminded me of the science fiction treatment of microstates, generally occuring in a post-scarcity world - once all lower-level needs are definitively guaranteed, where then the need to restrict non-destructive behaviour? Actually, the base concept has long been practised - many nations are in fact a collection of individual states, possibly with yet smaller political subdivisions, each with certain variation in legislation - so this is just taking an existing idea further.

Under this ideal, then, individuals would be free to move to a jurisdiction that matches their own preferences the most closely, or set up their own. Dislike fat people? Sure, there's a place for that. Big is beautiful? Right there you go, son. A country where everyone has to worship you? Nothing stopping ya... but good luck getting people to fill it up.

[N.B. On SF, I would be greatly indebted to anyone whom might point me to a novel, which detailed the stages of humanity progressing towards another dimension of consciousness (which is not that rare a premise), one of which involved a sort of microstate as described (it has been some years since I shifted mostly to non-fiction). Other than that, all I can vaguely recall is that some genetically-engineered kids were the protagonists, and there might have been a subplot involving a search hinging on single strands of hair in a sewer (yeah, very advanced technology)

And while we're on this, I might as well introduce the wonder that is the Suggsverse. What do you get when you have a fanfic writer, whose first (and at times it seems, only) priority is to ensure that his characters will never, never, ever lose in conflict against any (and yes, I do mean any) character, from any other universe? That's what. "Supremely almighty and invincible, beyond causality, logic and reason, and can achieve absolutely anything without any limit or condition?" Congratulations, that's a level one underling.]

If that ever comes to pass, it would be very interesting to watch how interpersonal relations develop, given the incredible pressure to conform within social structures. Seen this way, it is easy to forgive - or understand somewhat, at a minimum - many behaviours. For example, some might be aghast at practices they consider blatant cheating, but if the offenders came from a system where everybody was doing it, if only to serve as mutual insurance on each other, how can they realistically be faulted?

This reasoning is very extensible - imagine a society ruled by a king, who claims divine right bequeathed by a patron deity (which so happens to be the basis of most actual monarchies), whom, it goes without saying, is the only true deity.

A rational subject might infer that this is unlikely to be correct, since there obviously exist many other nations, officially under the aegis of many different deities, some of which in fact are doing better than his own. Even if he subscribes to the notion that they will in turn be defeated for God, king and country, a pinch of historical knowledge might inform him that the current dynasty had deposed the previous one not two generations before, and that dynasty likewise claimed the perpetual blessing of the heavens. What to make of this?

Following this line of thought, our hypothetical rational subject might come to the uncomfortable and quite heretical conclusion that rulers are actually mostly using religion to bolster their own legitimacy - because then if you rebel, you're not only up against a man, you're also spitting in the face of The Big Guy Up There. But, being a rational person, the subject would also know better than to say too much. The main problem about thinking through things, is that one's understanding might actually turn out to be accurate.

But well, if humans can't quite escape my-skyfather-can-beat-up-your-skyfather contests just yet, I suppose the next best thing would be to have a lot of them. Competition rules! Not that any number of gods will allow us to finally get the football gold in the SEA Games, the way things are going...



And then you have the 6000-year old option,
which will all go up in smoke once a red cow is birthed
[Lyrics]



It's That Time Again





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