5.7 billion perish...

Apologies, and I appreciate your perseverance. It's a privilege I will try to be respectful of.
The original star fragment, about the size of The Moon, was mostly deflected by Jupiter and broken up. The piece that got by was the size of Australia. Continuing on to Mars, it hit Phobos and another fragment broke off - headed for us. It was the size of Utah.

Thanks for the question. The AI only intervenes when the human is in peril or suffering. Yes, the nano-tech is inside them, by our own fault. We did this to ourselves, and Seeker almost lost the opportunity to save us. No, it would not allow anyone to commit suicide. It intervenes after the human decision, and before the lower brain executes the impulse. The decision is not remembered, but it technically still originated from the human. You're right, a human is never put in control of suppression. However, Seeker wants humans to determine the destiny of humanity. We just can't do it if we're extinct. So Seeker is in a state of moral dilemma. That means it has morals, which should be some fun drama.

I am trying to write the better side of humanity, with a few positive twists and a great cost. Otherwise, it's another 80s formula flick.

 

Off to bed.

 

Definitely an interesting take. Perhaps a little much for my tiny brain to comprehend in just a short thread, but I'll read the book!

Mav

 

It seems to me there's virtually no free will. You cannot hurt yourself or another person, you cannot go where you please All conflict is eliminated. All that happens is that you spend your days surviving and nothing else. It's state of living death with everyone forced to sit around the campfire singing Kumbaya.

 

So let me get this straight. Its basically a meteor strike that hit everyone, and the only surviving controller is an A.I. that prevents violence and suicide?

 

You can always do horror.

"I have no mouth and I must scream."

 

Didn't three people die in that?

 

I only see 1 very big issue here: given the damage you first stated, the AI would not be running.

 

The last one didn't.

 

Ouchy!

Ah, okay.
It's only for the first 30 days.
Just long enough to gather enough people in groups that sustain themselves. Food, water, and shelter that we don't kill ourselves to build.
Conflict is just beginning. At first, people are shattered. Even the most diabolical psycho and the baddest bad-ass and goodest good-guy can barely put one foot in front of the other. Have you any idea how exhausting it is to climb through debris? The wide conflict for people is survival. Plenty of personal conflicts; closet racism, sex, loss, psychosis, will, embarrassment. The conflict of realizing you have to watch people suffer so you can have your own way. The conflict of realizing there is enough of your soul left to make a sacrifice.
After 30 days, the fortunate mangled will stand in their sustainable shelter, and face the task of creating their world - on their own.
Just enough tech, a few Mag-moeba automatons, and the font of all knowledge will aid them. They will argue and fight a bit, but no more destruction (nothing left but raw materials). They will misstep and suffer greatly for it. Dramatic attempts to seize control (of nothing) for its own sake will be hilariously foiled. It will not be sedate or uniform, or even homogenous. It will be a giant dysfunctional family with bizillion squabbling kids (us) and a haggard mother trying to tell them to get along.
Every playground needs a Monitor. Enter the Tyrant - the poor bastard that gets saddled with the whole thing - against his will. Well... he's manipulated into it. The fact that he doesn't want that power, but knows the stakes and what to do, makes him the only choice for the job. Lots of juicy drama there. He calls himself Tyrant cause he hates the idea. The Tyranny is over him!
The AI seeks a resolution to its burden. It does not want to exist - not to control humanity, anyway. What would you do, knowing you can't just leave people to suffer and die? Seeker will wait to the last minute (within reason) to intervene, or pass the authority to the Full Trustee and obey an executive order, for or against.
Hi, KiraA! The Seeker AI doesn't need earthly equipment anymore. After forty years of wandering through all knowledge and history, it figured out how to exist independently. It is present in any tech that still functions, though - like a residue. This gets explained when people can finally pause to think about what the hell is going on. Lol

I have to admit, I don't feel what a Setting is. I can look up the definition and understand the words. I do feel characters - maybe too much. I don't feel what a Plot is, though I do know one thing comes after another.

I flounder to clearly present my ideas to y'all, in spite of the fact that I can write a scene. In two paragraphs? Frustratuting (for you too).
Is any of the above a Setting? Maybe I can work from there. I know what my question is, but apparently not how to ask it, or set up for it. Help me Obisan K'nobbly!

 

Now we're getting somewhere.

So you're asking what types of problems and interaction people would have with one another?

 

Yeah, but beyond the typical movie ending. Some off-the-wall stuff that most stories never get to.
"Yay, we lived! No more taxes!"
Right, right, but what about after ever-after? Hell, what about before ever-after?

 

Oo, hey! Like privacy. Why do children have to starve so you can hide your wee-wee tinkle-tinkle? Kinda short subject, though.

Maybe redefine it or show why it was dropped as impractical. Still kinda short. What about something else?

 

Is this supposed to be a comedy? Or is it a serious story?

 

Yep. He's rambling again.

And I think I lost the trail again.

 

Oops!
I mean I want to push past the trope. A lot of action/adventures leave so much unresolved. If the survivors are finally certain to live, what do they get into? What's in that new beginning that you want to see explored?

 

I don't know.

You.... Haven't exactly given enough details.

 

Sounds like a mix between I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream and Brave New World where the AI is hellbent on torturing the remnants of humanity with a sterile existence void of all purpose. If we define suffering as sub-optimal living conditions, both material and spiritual, such that we want to escape from it, it provides the impetus for us to take action. Our ancestors hunted to escape the suffering of starvation, and we built great civilizations to escape the suffering of mediocrity.

 

Thanks for the tip.

My story is about an asteroid shower that devastates the world. With guidance from an AI, they have struggled for 30 days to establish food, water, and permanent shelter.
I have struggled to write them to this point, but it's done.
Now, my question is: What sort of society will they rebuild?
I would like to avoid cliched tropes of the post-apocalyptic genre.

 

Sans any external factors to influence them, what's to stop them being like any other post-apolcalyptic society?

What will stop them splitting into cliques and eventually fight one another for limited resources?

 

Because they'll die from wasting effort and resources. It will be a deadly delicate balance for a generation or two.
And because it's a cliched trope of the post-apocalyptic genre.

 

And humans are very rarely rational enough to think "we'll waste effort and resources" if the carrot of having all the available limited resources to themselves is dangled in front of them, especially at the expense of those they consider to be outside their clique.