New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by PTTG

Here's a summary of survey data. In short, it's not a political binary, but it's not exactly neutral.

I found that quite interesting, and it provides at least some validation of my view that extremists of all sorts function largely on emotion, and not reason. That's what makes them so difficult to deal with.

After all, how does one reason with someone who doesn't value reason? How can one persuade, when the person one wants to persuade values "gut feelings," Instead of facts?

When people operate on emotion, the decisions they make are frequently irrational, and that helps explain the OP's setting. The inhabitants of that world have been utterly terrified, and aren't thinking straight.

[dcarson]

People on both extremes have had science tell them they are wrong on some part of their beliefs. Since then know they are RIGHT science must not be trustworthy.

So the superflus would hit both far wings although it would hit the right more, the number who believe vaccines are dangerous are about the same but the number who believe that parents can decide to not vaccinate even if required is higher. So more survivors on the left but highest among moderates.

[Phantasm]

At the risk of putting the thread back on-topic:

Humanity has spread to the stars, all but forgetting their homeworld, save in long-dead tales. The Diaspora, as it has been called, has resulted in many human offshoots as they adapted to other worlds. In the past, a Galactic Republic existed which evolved into a Galactic Empire, but a disaster in the galactic core, near the supergiant black hole Sagittarius-A*, disrupted the jump gate network that held the Empire together.

It is now several centuries since the disaster, and worlds are finally reconnecting with each other as the jump gate network is finally being remapped.

And in a long-forgotten corner of the galaxy, a planet has been discovered around a growing red giant which shows hints of having been inhabited by humans at one point, but no record of such a planet exists....

[mr beer]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

I found that quite interesting, and it provides at least some validation of my view that extremists of all sorts function largely on emotion, and not reason. That's what makes them so difficult to deal with.

After all, how does one reason with someone who doesn't value reason? How can one persuade, when the person one wants to persuade values "gut feelings," Instead of facts?

Conspiracy theorists tend to perform this horrible kind of pseudo-science, where they start with the premise and then look for 'facts' that support their position.

You can watch it happening in real time every time there is some kind of mass-shooting tragedy. They start with the premise that these events are organised by the government in order to steal their guns. Then they scan all available footage in order to locate 'hired actors', undercover government agents, organised surveillance and any possible inconsistency in 'the official story'.

So for example, if there's an armed sherriff in the crowd, that's a government plant. If pictures of suspects at different times show different clothing, that's a flaw on the part of the conspiracists. If a bereaved parent seems insufficiently tearful at any given moment, it's because they are a paid actor. And so on.

After only a few days, they will have basically finished their fake narrative, complete with reams and reams of pictures, diagrams and references. It's impressive in a deeply sad kind of way.

[AlexanderHowl]

All human decisions are made through emotions though. When humans are incapable of feeling emotions, they are incapable of making decisions because they do not have any attachment to any of the choices (http://bigthink.com/experts-corner/d...ecision-making). The key of logic is to examine the emotional weight that you give each decision and to objectively evaluate whether or not you want that particular emotion associated with that decision. Through self-reflection, you can change your emotional weights and therefore manipulate your own decision making (propaganda and memetic theory just does the same thing for other people).

[David Johnston2]

A transhuman dystopia. 99% of humanity is now unemployable in any legitimate way because robotics are just that good, so they live on a government provided Guaranteed Income that provides them with what would be the necessities of life and a bit more except between the huge numbers of drug addicts preying on them to feed their habits and the straight up mobsters collecting "rent" they live in post-scarcity desperate poverty.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

A transhuman dystopia. 99% of humanity is now unemployable in any legitimate way because robotics are just that good, so they live on a government provided Guaranteed Income that provides them with what would be the necessities of life and a bit more except between the huge numbers of drug addicts preying on them to feed their habits and the straight up mobsters collecting "rent" they live in post-scarcity desperate poverty.

Who's buying the stuff the robots are producing?

You can do an underclass in *relative* poverty in a robot economy, but not a vast majority in *desperate* poverty. And it's not just for the lack of purchasers of the robots production, but also because if the robots aren't producing stuff so cheap a lot of the people can buy more stuff than they could ever make themselves, they aren't cheaper than hiring people to make it and therefore don't make people unemployable.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by malloyd

Who's buying the stuff the robots are producing?

You can do an underclass in *relative* poverty in a robot economy, but not a vast majority in *desperate* poverty. And it's not just for the lack of purchasers of the robots production, but also because if the robots aren't producing stuff so cheap a lot of the people can buy more stuff than they could ever make themselves, they aren't cheaper than hiring people to make it and therefore don't make people unemployable.

A contracting economy doesn't generate new jobs.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

A contracting economy doesn't generate new jobs.

To back up your idea why not rift off The Midas Plague vast real wealth and
psychological poverty. A world of class divisions and petty vicious humiliations. After all it's the petty cruelty that makes this dystopia a rosy apple filled with poisoned worms.

[AlexanderHowl]

A robotic economy only works in a leisure society, and only if the society pays everyone a wage for creative work. Of course, that means that you end up with a lot of trash, but it is better than having everyone revolt and destroy the infrastructure.