Escape Artists
Escape Pod => Science Fiction Discussion => Topic started by: SonofSpermcube on June 11, 2014, 03:00:32 PM
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Keeping the candles burning, come on people.
What fictional universe would you actually want to live in? I don't mean what would you like to visit, I mean you have to go there and you don't get to leave, you're not a tourist, you're a resident. What's so great about it, in terms of day to day living? I'm hoping for something more than "I want a sparkly vampire and damn everything else!"
What fictional universe seems appealing at first but would really, REALLY suck?
I would want to live in the Star Trek universe, in the federation of course. It is a literal communist utopia, but the best part is, everyone gets what they want (unless what they want is to dominate everyone else whether they want it or not). The libertarians and religious zealots can all fuck off to their own little colony planets where they can ruggedly individualize their way right into the radiant maw of a crystalline entity or whatever, and no one not in Starfleet ever has to see them again. Almost all the shitty work is taken care of by machines, and no one really seems to be doing anything they don't want to do on a regular basis. Sure there's the occasional planet-destroying conflict, but there's the occasional plane crash or sinkhole on earth now and we aren't all flipping out over it. What's not to like?
Firefly seems cool at first. Space cowboys! Yeehaw! Then you realize that cows are nasty and they stink, damn near everyone who isn't rich is sub-Saharan Africa poor, and you've got your choice of living by the gun or under it. If the Firefly 'verse were in Star Trek there'd be Starfleet captains debating over whether the prime directive prohibited them from dismantling the entire society and evacuating everyone.
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Okay, I'll play. :) Just to be controversial, I'll go with the world in Eragon. I think the elves in that world are pretty cool, and the magic system was neat as well. The world is relatively peaceful as long as someone isn't trying to take everything over, and their medicine is quite advanced due to their magical knowledge. Sounds good to me!
Firefly seems cool at first. Space cowboys! Yeehaw! Then you realize that cows are nasty and they stink, damn near everyone who isn't rich is sub-Saharan Africa poor, and you've got your choice of living by the gun or under it. If the Firefly 'verse were in Star Trek there'd be Starfleet captains debating over whether the prime directive prohibited them from dismantling the entire society and evacuating everyone.
You hit the nail on the head.
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I think I might enjoy living in something like the world of Asgard. I really enjoy the Eddas both prose and poetic. I like the adventures and (mis)deeds of Loki and Thor.
As for a world that would be cool at first then suck would be the Lovecraftian Mythos. All the knowledge and the like, The Dreamlands, etc. Then you read something and go mad when you realize that Cthulhu and other Great Old Ones are real etc.
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I felt sorry for Loki when I read the Prose Edda. He was just so desperate to be accepted, he did anything he thought would please the Aesir, and they just kept shitting all over him and everything he did. Who could blame him for lashing out? (The Aesir, that's who, because they are assholes.)
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I'd like to live in one of those worlds where men don't exist. Herland is a little too utopian for me. Y the Last Man is too dystopian. The world of "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?" is a little better, but I'm not sure I'd like to be an Australian clone. So maybe Gethen, the world from The Left Hand of Darkness. It would be cold, and culturally restrictive in other ways, but hey, no more gender bullshit.
Alternatively, Pokemon. Which would either be exactly as cool as you'd first think, or would really suck, if you're one of those people who has to look a gift ponyta in the mouth and say "Wait a minute, how does our society function if all our ten-year-olds become pokemon trainers? Can we really ethically reconcile trapping these magnificent and clearly intelligent creatures in small capsules and making them fight each other?"
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It's a bit weird because of how much they tend to suck for living in, but the Empire of Ferryth from Barbara Hambly's Windrose Chronicles, with the caveat that I'd get to be mageborn, because I empathize with the hopeless need and endless curiosity of the mages there and would dearly love to have lived in the Citadel of Wizards. I get pangs every time I reread "Dog Wizard."
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Easy. The Culture from Iain M. Banks books.
A nice anarcho-socialist post-scarcity society. Biology debugged. Free to go do weird shit outside of the culture if the whim takes you.
What's not to like!
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Jurassic Park, you know, as long as the dinosaurs stay in their cages... ;)
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Jurassic Park, you know, as long as the dinosaurs stay in their cages... ;)
Jurassic Park without the carnivores.
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Star Trek. Just give me enough time to pay for my own holodeck, and I would never be seen again.
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I'd take "The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect" over the holodeck. I'm not sure I'd take it as a whole over Star Trek as a whole, though.
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Star Trek, but I would be unemployed, I don't think they have Parole Agents there.
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As a place to actually live, I think it's hard to beat the Star Trek: Next Generation universe. I'm not sure I'd have the motivation or talent to join Starfleet, but it would be nice to have that option. Having disease and poverty held at bay for all except those who choose to risk them seems like an awfully good deal just now.
Assuming that weren't possible, I'd probably opt for Earthsea, with the proviso that I'd get to be a wizard.
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Except for all those planets constantly coming down with viruses and having wars breaking out...
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Terre D'Ange.
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A universe that adheres to the book, PastWatch (novel by Orson Scott Card). But ditch Mr. Card (he reportedly had some foot-in-mouth comments about same-sex relationships that I cannot abide). I wonder what my European ancestors would have thought seeing an armada of Native American sailors cruise into Estonian ports?
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Harry Potter. It has Polyjuice Potion. For someone like me, that has real possibilities.
OK, so you get the occasional Dark Lord, but who doesn't? At least in The Harry Potter Universe you can kill them really easily with a spell you learned when you were 12. ::)
As for one that only looks cool... Hmmm.... So many to choose from...
I think I'd have to go for The Red Dwarf Universe though. As if it wasn't bad enough being stuck on a ship piloted by a defective AI with the same IQ as 12,000,000 all night car park attendants, the closer you get to home, the shittier the future of Mankind looks. :'(
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Early in the Thomas Covenant series, before the mud doesn't heal anymore... and as long as I have a white gold ring
Star Trek
Harry Potter!
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I guess I be home sort of at Atlas Shrugged Gault's Gulch but so much Science Fiction is anti religion or anti Christian it would be hard for me to chose.
I still think the world of Heinlein Starship troopers interesting; a world ran by perfect military discipline. There is no aristocracy political class, one gets to be a leader rising through the ranks and one can fall due to incompetence
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...dude, you did know that Ayn Rand was a hardcore and vocally scornful atheist, right?