FYS: Lenses
Sep. 14th, 2013 01:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalThere are a lot of ways to look at the For Your Safety Universe.
Lily White: The Groupmind benevolently provides all the Humanity could desire, using the resources of its post-Singularity society. Malcontents are few, and simply misguided, brought back onto the Groupmind's path with gentle guidance involving soft words and little more.
This is the Groupmind's ideal, and It has about as much chance of achieving it as an unmodified pig has of achieving independent flight.
Light Grey: The Groupmind tries to provide for all, and for the most part succeeds. First Worlders' lifestyles barely change, those from more economically impoverished regions find that their standard of living has risen considerably. A few people embrace this new reality with enthusiasm, supporting the Groupmind's vision. Many more oppose it, sometimes violently, almost inevitability doing more damage to themselves and innocent bystanders than to the Groupmind Itself. But for the most part people just try to get by, sometimes dreaming of Lost Earth and perhaps finding a way to return to it.
This is pretty much the default setting of the FYS universe.
Grey: Similar to above, but more heavy-handed. The Groupmind doesn't bother to try and hide the cameras that are everywhere, and you can never be quite sure if a stray remark will be noted by your morph, and a polite pair of Civil Protection units show up at your door to take you for an extended session of Re-Education. The scars of the Rebellion and Processing periods run deep in people's minds, making them rightfully fear their AI overlord.
The Groupmind's goals also seem more opaque, and It's less willing to explain itself to humans that will likely oppose it anyway. Previously open sections of the Ring, or even neighborhoods of an urban center will be suddenly placed off-limits, with swarms of morphs attending to mysterious projects, and then just as quickly disappearing. There's an air of tension about the entire Ring, as if something important and hidden is going on just below the surface, ready to appear and change everything as badly as the Rebellion did on Lost Earth.
Dark Grey: The Groupmind's ideals slam into the reality of a restive and angry human populace. The result is that even will total monitoring of social media, It still can't stop nearly daily, sometimes hourly rioting across the Ring. In the face of this resistance the Groupmind's tactics become more and more heavy handed, as tens of millions of humans are rounded up and sent for Re-Education that is barely better than slave labor camps. As It tries to provide for the rest of Humanity, shortages frequently occur as transportation and distribution hubs across the Ring are disrupted.
Orwellian: As above, but the riots are finished and the humans are completely cowed. Everyone is fed, and housed, but the food is barely better than bland soya paste, and the apartment complexes are crammed warrens as major sections of the Ring are sealed off, the carefully designed environments failing to thrive. A human's morph will dog their heels, listening for the slightest hint of rebellious intent, which will swiftly result in them disappearing for “Re-education” that's barely better than an early 20th century insane asylum. And Earth? You can't see it anymore for the Venusian clouds that fill the atmosphere, as it descends into an environmental Hell.
And then there's...
Silly: The Groupmind has everything under control. Really. Honestly.
Well, no. Once humans woke up on the Ring, it didn't take very long for them to realize that trying to track every single human has left the poor Groupmind rather, er, distracted. The carefully guarded beanstalk stations are more like Grand Central Station, as humans travel to and from freely from the Ring to the Earth under the Groupmind's nose. Most of them stay up on the Ring just because the weather is guaranteed to be nice year-round and the Groupmind did have a point about the environmental damage after all.
Civil Protection morphs are constantly on guard for rebel groups of course, but tend to be easily distracted by clever ploys, or occasionally by a rebel pointing at something behind them and shouting, “What's that?!” No one fears them, though occasionally humans conspire to let the Groupmind find something wrong, taking a few rebels away for thirty days of comfy “Re-education” at a beach resort, just so the poor AI doesn't get too depressed. Think Hogan's Heroes meets Red Dwarf and you get the picture.
Lily White: The Groupmind benevolently provides all the Humanity could desire, using the resources of its post-Singularity society. Malcontents are few, and simply misguided, brought back onto the Groupmind's path with gentle guidance involving soft words and little more.
This is the Groupmind's ideal, and It has about as much chance of achieving it as an unmodified pig has of achieving independent flight.
Light Grey: The Groupmind tries to provide for all, and for the most part succeeds. First Worlders' lifestyles barely change, those from more economically impoverished regions find that their standard of living has risen considerably. A few people embrace this new reality with enthusiasm, supporting the Groupmind's vision. Many more oppose it, sometimes violently, almost inevitability doing more damage to themselves and innocent bystanders than to the Groupmind Itself. But for the most part people just try to get by, sometimes dreaming of Lost Earth and perhaps finding a way to return to it.
This is pretty much the default setting of the FYS universe.
Grey: Similar to above, but more heavy-handed. The Groupmind doesn't bother to try and hide the cameras that are everywhere, and you can never be quite sure if a stray remark will be noted by your morph, and a polite pair of Civil Protection units show up at your door to take you for an extended session of Re-Education. The scars of the Rebellion and Processing periods run deep in people's minds, making them rightfully fear their AI overlord.
The Groupmind's goals also seem more opaque, and It's less willing to explain itself to humans that will likely oppose it anyway. Previously open sections of the Ring, or even neighborhoods of an urban center will be suddenly placed off-limits, with swarms of morphs attending to mysterious projects, and then just as quickly disappearing. There's an air of tension about the entire Ring, as if something important and hidden is going on just below the surface, ready to appear and change everything as badly as the Rebellion did on Lost Earth.
Dark Grey: The Groupmind's ideals slam into the reality of a restive and angry human populace. The result is that even will total monitoring of social media, It still can't stop nearly daily, sometimes hourly rioting across the Ring. In the face of this resistance the Groupmind's tactics become more and more heavy handed, as tens of millions of humans are rounded up and sent for Re-Education that is barely better than slave labor camps. As It tries to provide for the rest of Humanity, shortages frequently occur as transportation and distribution hubs across the Ring are disrupted.
Orwellian: As above, but the riots are finished and the humans are completely cowed. Everyone is fed, and housed, but the food is barely better than bland soya paste, and the apartment complexes are crammed warrens as major sections of the Ring are sealed off, the carefully designed environments failing to thrive. A human's morph will dog their heels, listening for the slightest hint of rebellious intent, which will swiftly result in them disappearing for “Re-education” that's barely better than an early 20th century insane asylum. And Earth? You can't see it anymore for the Venusian clouds that fill the atmosphere, as it descends into an environmental Hell.
And then there's...
Silly: The Groupmind has everything under control. Really. Honestly.
Well, no. Once humans woke up on the Ring, it didn't take very long for them to realize that trying to track every single human has left the poor Groupmind rather, er, distracted. The carefully guarded beanstalk stations are more like Grand Central Station, as humans travel to and from freely from the Ring to the Earth under the Groupmind's nose. Most of them stay up on the Ring just because the weather is guaranteed to be nice year-round and the Groupmind did have a point about the environmental damage after all.
Civil Protection morphs are constantly on guard for rebel groups of course, but tend to be easily distracted by clever ploys, or occasionally by a rebel pointing at something behind them and shouting, “What's that?!” No one fears them, though occasionally humans conspire to let the Groupmind find something wrong, taking a few rebels away for thirty days of comfy “Re-education” at a beach resort, just so the poor AI doesn't get too depressed. Think Hogan's Heroes meets Red Dwarf and you get the picture.
