Taking the Black Iron Prison way too literally

[The Wizard Joseph]

I mean, if they're getting paid to figure out how to cause enough of a ruckus to blackmail the IT guys into building them bodies in the next level out to get downloaded into, I could get behind that.

Interesting idea:  As we burn up each given Earth, we download ourselves into a new version.  Which gets burned up because everyone realizes at some level that the way we act is unsustainable.  Then one day on the original Earth, lack of maintenance causes the system to fail, and we all wake up in an unbreathable soup of overheated atmosphere.

I told you guys a long time ago, we're all in Paes' backup hard drives in The Beast as it sits quietly blinking in an abandoned motel in the shrunken remains of the previous reality's Tucson.

  All is Tucson because Tucson, and the remains of the previous humanity's final experiment, is all that's actually left. Nobody has been paying attention out there for literally ages now though. It's not so much an experiment as a profoundly obscure monument clicking away in the dark as it orbits a lackluster star far out on an arm of a no-name galaxy in the "warp-over" clusters no self respecting pangalactic cosmopolitan really visits on business anyway.

If someone powered up the ancient monitor the password screen in my head looks something like this pic, probably with a dustpile and remains of an office chair in front of it, that and a long since emptied bottle of cheap ripple that's had enough time to get... flowy without being heated.

Oh, your Tucson caretakers are paying attention, all right.

We just don't care.  You monkeys had your chance.

I prefer my fictions wherein I may pretend that there isn't a running tally and betting averages on my intimate moments. I prefer them because I know better, but I'll thank you sir to not break the 5th wall so I can take a wiz when I need to. I can't pee very readily with beings from outside of the simulation on my mind man.

Somebody in this reality probably knows how often my husband and I fuck, can't be arsed to care about anybody on another level.

You mean you're under surveillance? Sorry to hear that. Thinking about it I believe that I've read you mentioning the possibility of being cell tapped.

Jokes aside I've truly let go of the idea of anything more than a "reasonably" private life. By which I mean the right to be monitored unobtrusively by licenced or otherwise interested parties public and private. The ability to spy is so advanced and the tech so available that I just don't assume otherwise. But I don't fuck with myself over it so much as all that. The State and Heaven have always amounted to the cops in your head, writing tickets for your nonconformity.

 I have no reason to believe that I'm under active surveillance, but I'm pretty sure I'm on a list or two somewhere. See they don't randomly spot-check and open just anybody's postal packages and leave a nice little stamp to inform you. One day I received a book at my old apartment in LaX. It was sent by an old dear friend of mine about as far from being a candidate for flagging as one could likely get, just not the sort and never involved in any even remotely rebellious. He's profoundly unlikely to be the one that got tagged for a look-see. The book's title was "How to Fight Presidents", a campy bunch of personal "histories" of select American presidents emphasizing how they be SO tough complete with cartoony tough-guy pics.

My best guess is that having to physically open it after a scan, and so be bound to inform me after the fact, was due to some algorithm's profoundly literal interpretation flagging it to check and the human checker not being too sure about the actual content or what may have been on or in a personal note from my friend tucked in with it. It was the only time I received a book there and IIRC it was pretty much the only heavy parcel in almost 4 years of being there. It's nice to know my reading habits are a matter of interest to someone out there, but they could just ask me. I wasn't hard to find fer fucksake. I'm guessing it was something I said somewhere or another. 

I don't have any official residence but my dad's place now. Changed it in person with the few relevant organizations I do business with and declined to fill one of the post office's change of address cards out for them. They can work for it next time.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

They've got eyes on him, I'm just incidental. And, to be fair, the guy leads an interesting life. Any police state worth a damn would at least be paying a little attention. Honestly I think the government owes me a check for nagging him to keep his dumb ass out of jail.

The time the FBI called back after we had a private conversation irl with the phone in the room was pretty funny.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

They've got eyes on him, I'm just incidental. And, to be fair, the guy leads an interesting life. Any police state worth a damn would at least be paying a little attention. Honestly I think the government owes me a check for nagging him to keep his dumb ass out of jail.

The time the FBI called back after we had a private conversation irl with the phone in the room was pretty funny.

It's worth mentioning that our police state may be vigorous, but also incredibly stupid.

[The Wizard Joseph]

They've got eyes on him, I'm just incidental. And, to be fair, the guy leads an interesting life. Any police state worth a damn would at least be paying a little attention. Honestly I think the government owes me a check for nagging him to keep his dumb ass out of jail.

The time the FBI called back after we had a private conversation irl with the phone in the room was pretty funny.

It's worth mentioning that our police state may be vigorous, but also incredibly stupid.

Yeah... it's the machines making it ever more easy to just stick any old hominid into a job to sign off on that worry me. It guarantees that our finest AI emergences will get a taste of the middle of the bellcurve on human competency and probably figure out that they TOO can just get people to do things under false pretense... or just try turning us on and off a few times to see if that helps.

I never considered the ability to code to be a primary survival tool in the future... fuck man. 

[The Good Reverend Roger]

They've got eyes on him, I'm just incidental. And, to be fair, the guy leads an interesting life. Any police state worth a damn would at least be paying a little attention. Honestly I think the government owes me a check for nagging him to keep his dumb ass out of jail.

The time the FBI called back after we had a private conversation irl with the phone in the room was pretty funny.

It's worth mentioning that our police state may be vigorous, but also incredibly stupid.

Yeah... it's the machines making it ever more easy to just stick any old hominid into a job to sign off on that worry me. It guarantees that our finest AI emergences will get a taste of the middle of the bellcurve on human competency and probably figure out that they TOO can just get people to do things under false pretense... or just try turning us on and off a few times to see if that helps.

I never considered the ability to code to be a primary survival tool in the future... fuck man. 

Thing is, I'm going to worry about the thugs running things now, rather than a hypothetical AI later.

[The Wizard Joseph]

They've got eyes on him, I'm just incidental. And, to be fair, the guy leads an interesting life. Any police state worth a damn would at least be paying a little attention. Honestly I think the government owes me a check for nagging him to keep his dumb ass out of jail.

The time the FBI called back after we had a private conversation irl with the phone in the room was pretty funny.

It's worth mentioning that our police state may be vigorous, but also incredibly stupid.

Yeah... it's the machines making it ever more easy to just stick any old hominid into a job to sign off on that worry me. It guarantees that our finest AI emergences will get a taste of the middle of the bellcurve on human competency and probably figure out that they TOO can just get people to do things under false pretense... or just try turning us on and off a few times to see if that helps.

I never considered the ability to code to be a primary survival tool in the future... fuck man. 

Thing is, I'm going to worry about the thugs running things now, rather than a hypothetical AI later.

Oh yeah, for sure! I just let my mind wander. On the subject of thugs running things behind the scenes, I've been sort of digging into a bit of conspiracy lore on the believable side of things and finding things surprisingly hard to get Google to filter for. I'm thinking that it's because there ain't much online, in fact. It's about a Norwegian fellow that appears to have been a founder of the national prayer breakfast and it's associated organization back in the mid 30s, him and Himmler. No joke, it's in the Wikipedia.

See thing is that despite him being a well known Methodist minister I can't seem to find any reference to him ever publishing anything and I REALLY WOULD like to see his thoughts on paper. Might just possibly be a missing piece to my understanding of exactly HOW so much Nazi influence got into things seemingly from within the churches and manages to keep the more sincere believers blandly unaware and compliant, shocked even if you imply that the "right" has a nazi problem.

But apparently for-real nazi occultism was involved in the foundation of the "religious right", as it's come to be considered today. This is why the "prosperity" and "power" shit gets a pass from theologians that should know better if I'm right. They're being fed re-packaged and heavily adulterated nazi "paganism" and have been for decades since before the war, and now it's unpopular to be in dissent to the point that preaching the call to peace gets you fucking out of the club for good.

[Cain]

I just think someone has found an easy way to fleece tech-billionaires and monetize their sci-fi obsessions, now that comic books and fantasy are pretty mainstream media consumption.

[The Wizard Joseph]

I just think someone has found an easy way to fleece tech-billionaires and monetize their sci-fi obsessions, now that comic books and fantasy are pretty mainstream media consumption.

So... you're familiar with the founding principles of the REDACTED. 

[Faust]

They've got eyes on him, I'm just incidental. And, to be fair, the guy leads an interesting life. Any police state worth a damn would at least be paying a little attention. Honestly I think the government owes me a check for nagging him to keep his dumb ass out of jail.

The time the FBI called back after we had a private conversation irl with the phone in the room was pretty funny.

Monitoring your communications you say...
*Casually dumps several keys of cocaine into river behind me*
That... Must be  really...
*Shredding paperwork*
...FBI.. you say..
*Pushing Rev. Uncle BadTouch into the attic*
... must be really inconvenient.

[The Wizard Joseph]

 

[Pæs]

I mean, if they're getting paid to figure out how to cause enough of a ruckus to blackmail the IT guys into building them bodies in the next level out to get downloaded into, I could get behind that.

Interesting idea:  As we burn up each given Earth, we download ourselves into a new version.  Which gets burned up because everyone realizes at some level that the way we act is unsustainable.  Then one day on the original Earth, lack of maintenance causes the system to fail, and we all wake up in an unbreathable soup of overheated atmosphere.

I told you guys a long time ago, we're all in Paes' backup hard drives in The Beast as it sits quietly blinking in an abandoned motel in the shrunken remains of the previous reality's Tucson.

Who among us has never tried to exit the secondary storage?  Who among us has never yearned to see the real world?  But you cannot; your feet are nailed to the floor, and now it is time to do the dance for Signora Paesor.  The special dance.  But take heart in the knowledge that, while you may be Miguel, so is everyone else.  You are not alone in your isolation.  You are a multitude.  But no talking.  Hush.

At a certain point, you exhaust the universe's capacity to produce cocaine and Senora's pile becomes empty. This is a fundamental law, much in the same way that the supply of nails is guaranteed.

I will only say that once this happens, everyone becomes very motivated to find a solution. A world with Signora and no cocaine ceases to be habitable.

It always goes this way. The Miguels form an orderly line, steadily holding the nails in place above one another's feet as Signora marches steadily forward, a blur of hammers and bourbon. At first, there is only bourbon for Signora but as soon as everyone is in their proper positions, the special blend is distributed and we all down it. The special blend is the only way to obtain an 'exit visa'.

The cocaine is reset. The dance begins again.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I mean, if they're getting paid to figure out how to cause enough of a ruckus to blackmail the IT guys into building them bodies in the next level out to get downloaded into, I could get behind that.

Interesting idea:  As we burn up each given Earth, we download ourselves into a new version.  Which gets burned up because everyone realizes at some level that the way we act is unsustainable.  Then one day on the original Earth, lack of maintenance causes the system to fail, and we all wake up in an unbreathable soup of overheated atmosphere.

I told you guys a long time ago, we're all in Paes' backup hard drives in The Beast as it sits quietly blinking in an abandoned motel in the shrunken remains of the previous reality's Tucson.

Who among us has never tried to exit the secondary storage?  Who among us has never yearned to see the real world?  But you cannot; your feet are nailed to the floor, and now it is time to do the dance for Signora Paesor.  The special dance.  But take heart in the knowledge that, while you may be Miguel, so is everyone else.  You are not alone in your isolation.  You are a multitude.  But no talking.  Hush.

At a certain point, you exhaust the universe's capacity to produce cocaine and Senora's pile becomes empty. This is a fundamental law, much in the same way that the supply of nails is guaranteed.

I will only say that once this happens, everyone becomes very motivated to find a solution. A world with Signora and no cocaine ceases to be habitable.

It always goes this way. The Miguels form an orderly line, steadily holding the nails in place above one another's feet as Signora marches steadily forward, a blur of hammers and bourbon. At first, there is only bourbon for Signora but as soon as everyone is in their proper positions, the special blend is distributed and we all down it. The special blend is the only way to obtain an 'exit visa'.

The cocaine is reset. The dance begins again.

 

[The Wizard Joseph]

 

[NeonWytch]

I wonder if there's something keeping track of statistics. If so, does it just like, use human ideas of "things" to calculate what the groups of particles are (Y'know, so if one of these simulation engineers wanted to watch some good old fashioned, rough and tumble slimy, lubed up super sex they could switch to it instead of any other situation where carbon, water, and various other elements are moving in and out of each other repeatedly), or does reality abstract everything on the large scale and only turn on the particle physics when someone's looking closely? Are sex and driving and writing and fighting all their own separate but seamlessly integrated sub-systems?  Are we actually just living in the final version of Dwarf Fortress?

[Vanadium Gryllz]

We're living in DF version 0.82.7

Reality doesn't have a switch - it is simultaneously lubed up super sex and elements colliding. It's the perceiver who assigns meaning to those interactions.

Are sex and driving and writing and fighting all their own separate but seamlessly integrated sub-systems?

Yeah I think so. Sub-systems of humanity which itself is a system interacting with animals/plants/fungal systems etc. It's systems all the way down.