5.7 billion perish...

Discussion in 'Setting Development' started by Some Guy, Sep 28, 2018.

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  1. Accelerator231

    Accelerator231 Contributor Contributor

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    How does the 'no need to worry for 30 days' thing work? Does the a.i. supply them with infinite food and water during this time? Or are you saying there are enough supplies to last that long.
     
  2. Some Guy

    Some Guy Manguage Langler Supporter Contributor

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    Ah, gotcha.
    Ohhh, right right right!
    There's no carrot and no stick, only naked reality.
    It will be days and days until you crawl over the dead just to meet a living soul - all over the world. In my WIP, I have made it clear that everyone, including Brady (co-MC), is 'walking wounded'. Pretty much immediately, all humans are so exhausted that they can barely put food to mouth and foot to the ground.
    They don't even start with the strength to squabble. Both the people and the resources are so scattered and buried that one would pass out from the effort to dig them out. I do have a side story for that. They still have the trauma-shock ringing in their ears after three weeks, which is around the time the body dies from starvation, so we drop like flies without guidance, fairly quick. 'Guidance' is mostly directing them toward the next drink or bite of food, or away from immediate peril, like pavement or structures. At the numerous and frequent rest breaks, people slump against each other and bond subconsciously. That's the only carrot - each other.
    The extremely tattered remains of the military can barely distribute the meager rations they bring to people they find. But there is enough for the military to find for 30 days.
    The only solution is self-rescue (with 'guidance') to staging and distribution areas. Each sortie leaves less fuel remaining for the next, so we have to move as a group closer to the next drop. This is why everyone is so docile in the first weeks and months. Even the superheroes stagger around for a while. No one has the strength to keep or carry anything. If one hundred people were close enough to get together and dig out 100 meals on their own, 80% would die of exhaustion while digging, and the remaining would die just trying to carry it back. You might feed a couple of others if you make it back, but you lose your energy to move on. Usually, the strongest don't make it back. It's a net loss. Cliques perish from their own Darwinian inertia.
    Things are that desperate.
    Drones are making water drops everywhere, but they can only lift 1Kg and have limited range and charge. Everything left that flies or rolls make drops to collection centers, and tell people where the next one will be - if they don't crash or die themselves.
    The people who follow the instructions from flying drones and occasional automatons survive to the next drop and meet more people. They have a chance to work together to better their odds until they reach 1500 to 5000 survivors and form an organized sustainable community. It's a geometric formula.
    So up to 30 days or so, every soul alive is malleable.
    Seeker will consolidate the power of law under Brady by that time. The unanswered question is can he be convinced to take it. By that time, he is deservedly credited with saving everyone. The people are literally screaming for him to take office. He says no.
    (at first).
    There's barely enough to distribute for 30 days. Seeker and Brady coordinate actions to keep things moving, all at the same time, until lawful communities form. Then people have to decide what's next. After 30 days, you're either in a strong community, or dead.
    Seeker has recorded everything in the world for twenty years. It knows the location and orientation of all the dead. It knows all the food there is and how deep it's buried. It knows the movement of the living and can predict where their next step will be. On and on; pheromone signature, breathing pattern, kinemetrics, tone of voice, DNA, sleep pattern, even favorite food. If you are 20 years old, it recorded your first breath as you were born, and everything you've said and done. A 3D space-time movie and map of existence, down to the grain pattern of every piece of paper. Secrets, plans, wishes, any sound or vibration, energy, or change of state - It will immerse the Full Trustee in a full VR of it, at need or request. It also passes relevant information to drones, devices, automatons, survivors, and rescuers. It's no wonder that it will choose only one Full Trustee.

    To All:
    I'm just waking up to being a proper forum member, but I still have the same flaws. I spoilered some babble and tried to keep on point. Thanks for persevering. :)
     
  3. Naomasa298

    Naomasa298 HP: 10/190 Status: Confused Contributor

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    You're not following.

    After 30 days, your AI has gathered enough survivors and they've regained enough strength. If they're strong enough to worry about law and leaders, they're strong enough to fight. At this point the AI no longer has control.

    You've implied there are multiple communities. In a limited resource scenario, some groups WILL fight one another to control those resources. THAT's the carrot. I'm not talking about something offering them an incentive. I'm talking about the incentive that exists.

    And in a community of 5000, there WILL be internal strife. Some people will resent the main character becoming leader. No community is completely harmonious. Humans are simply wired that way, and they don't act on it because society pressures them not to. In a post-apocalyptic world, there is far less social pressure. There is no way they will be able to build enough society structures within 30 days to prevent that.
     
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  4. Accelerator231

    Accelerator231 Contributor Contributor

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    Hmm... Mass suicides. And mass death. Most definitely. Check 'War against the Chtorr'.

    I judge that people are going to kill themselves. A lot of them. If they don't, then they're just not going to eat until they die.

    And, well.... Seeker is a super A.I.? Then it's going to guide people, step by step, to survive. At least, I would put it like that. if it can record shit like that, it can teach people how to purify water or how to build a shelter.
     
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  5. Some Guy

    Some Guy Manguage Langler Supporter Contributor

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    Pardon the font and colors. I couldn't see what I was typing. :eek:

    With respect:
    I agree with your last in respect to the thirty days, not the chaos part.
    I have given a great deal of thought to the way the status quo comes to be, though I don't have them singing. Not sure about that.
    I accept your worthy challenge! In the story, I will endeavor to clarify how my status quo could come to be in the face of your objections. I have already written much of the rough text to support it. I promise that I have done my homework. I appreciate your passionate level of interest.
    I invite you to collaborate whenever you wish. You can even be my first Beta.
    You are correct, there are no social structures of any kind, anymore.
    According to my vision, human nature is in a pause before a great transition that goes beyond society or survival. This turns us back to my question:

    What new societal structures would you like to see that are not part of a genre trope? I will have them succeed or fail, whatever makes a more intriguing story.
     
  6. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    You're back to being vague and contradictory again ... and frankly from a mod perspective I have had enough

    If you want people's help you need to give them the pertinent facts up front and ask them questions to which you actually want answers... if you instead give them a vague idea then argue with them based on facts that only you were aware of because of your vague outline then that's not fair to the people who give up time trying to help you.

    If you actually just want to show us your wonderful setting, write something and put it in the workshop for critique.

    :closed:
     
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