EP421: Bright Moment

[Sgarre1]

brought to my mind Silent Running... mmmm... anybody remember that story...

Love SILENT RUNNING!

I hate that lately a lot of my film and book references are met with blank stares.

Welcome to being old!  It's even worse when you take an active interest in the past of pop culture, then it's *doubly* reinforced how little anything ever sticks!

[Fenrix]

I liked a lot about this story.

I liked the production on the ocean. While I get white noise from outside the car when I listen, it was enough to set the scene without being obtrusive.

I like Norm's commitment to purchase intelligent squid fiction. The world needs more intelligent squid fiction. Thunderscreech, get to filling the inbox.

I liked the narration except for the angry woman part yelling at me.

I like Escape Artists a lot.

I liked Act 1, but I liked it a lot more when it was Everything That Matters. Ribbon shark attack is way cooler than falling off your surf board.

I liked Act 2, but I liked it a lot more when it was Marking Time on the Far Side of Forever.

I liked the intelligent squid's first contact with the outer world, but I liked it a lot more when it was As Below, So Above

If you haven't listened to any of the linked stories above, go now. We'll still be here when you get back.

[Windup]

For me, this one failed to connect and wasted a lot of potential.  It's not exactly a news flash that people can do evil things.  I'm much more interested in why people do evil things, and I'm absolutely fascinated by the stories they tell themselves to make evil behavior possible.  Especially in entities like corporations. 

I'm also fascinated by the stories people tell themselves to do the right thing, even at great cost to themselves and those around them.   

Unhappily, we didn't get any of that. 

We didn't see any part of the decision-making process on either side.  It was just, "Yeah, we know, but we're gonna kill them anyway."  And: "Nope, I'm gonna nuke the wormhole first.  Bye…"

I want to learn more about the universe where humans travel via wormhole, can create invisible force-fields that preclude the necessity for actually breathing (and apparently can be formed in outer space, on a planet's surface or in the high-altitude atmosphere of gas giants) and casually implode gas giants to make mini-suns.
And let's not forget whole-person data backups and restore, nano-implanted neuro-electric interfaces and casual organ regrowth.

I want to learn about the universe where we can do all that and still manage to be total dicks -- so that isn't the universe we create. 

[Unblinking]

I'm in agreement with Adrianh on this one. It's a tale that's been told before, and many times. One thing that stood out to me is that we don't even get to the meat of the story, namely that there is semi-sentient life on this moon, and the company knows about it, and is going to destroy it anyway, until something like 2/3 of the way through the story. We get surfing, "Hey there's a squid!", crash, relationship, random "how to make a new planet" instructions, divorce, moping, THEN, "oh, by the way, there's the beginning of a civilization down there, Oh well, we're going to kill them", "No that's bad", nuke, The End. I don't feel like there was enough time spent exploring the dilemma of Evilcrop vs. aliens, and way too much time exploring Arun's relationships that don't really serve any purpose to the overall plot.

Cutter summed it up well here.  It didn't get to anything meaty until almost the end, and that meaty thing didn't have time to expand enough to be anything but a cliche plot point.

[evrgrn_monster]

Pretty much everything that I was thinking about this story has been said, especially by Adrianh and Cutter. I would also like to echo that I would've much rather had a story that focused either completely on the poly-divorce or the planet, not a story that was disjointedly connected by the two. To be honest, I'd read the hell out of a sci-fi poly romance/drama piece, if only because that's something I haven't seen before, while the lone brave Jesus saving the savages is something we've all heard a bunch of times.

[Devoted135]

Well, I think everyone has summed it up nicely, and I'm on board with the majority opinion here. I guess this is what happens when a good story is poorly balanced and the inherent "whys" are left unexplored.

I liked Act 1, but I liked it a lot more when it was Everything That Matters. Ribbon shark attack is way cooler than falling off your surf board.

Thank you! That's exactly the story I kept wishing this was!

[DerangedMind]

I was on the wall with this story.  It felt like it went to the nuclear option too quickly - he took Ko's word that Management knew about the squids and was fine with them being wiped out without any attempts at verifying it.  It didn't seem like other options of dealing with the situation were explored.  After all, if Arun could blow up the wormhole, he should have also been able to do other sabotage that would have delayed things while the situation was resolved.

I enjoyed the narration, and thought the scene change sound effects were great.

[Dyalos]

Without going through all of the previous comments, I would like to use my new powers as an official donor to say that I found the reported feedback to this story to be incredibly unjust in its unfortunate criticisms, and that I, for one, would like to hear more of this sort of story in the future.

What initially fascinated me about this tale was the ambiguity of how long the protagonist had been forming his plan, and had known that he would very probably eventually need to martyr himself. Several lines in the story hint at a deep insight of the core principles of the surrounding characters, which may have even predated the original accident in catalyzing events, as the protagonist could have consciously or subconsciously been dissatisfied with the superficiality of the original scans and the willingness of his "mates" to overlook deeper exploration to ensure no loss of alien life. He may have been willing to permanently die on his initial expedition simply for the barest chance of a squid-like being. When he announces "This is it" in regards to the discovery,  it suggests something that he had been waiting for or anticipating, with great carried meaning (perhaps the ultimate meaning as an explorer), and this drive, in my opinion, is both intelligently reflective of the internal state of the audience, and also psychologically fascinating.

Secondly, this story holds deep parallels with the current environmental plight of the Earth. In self-interest, energy, agriculture, and manufacturing companies are acidifying and warming the oceans with no regard for the undiscovered life now dying there en masse every day (together with the zooplankton the makes the Earth's oxygen -  http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2010/07/phytoplankton-in-decline-bye-b.html  -  http://news.yahoo.com/the-ocean-is-broken-133327474.html) . Scientific merit or "tourism potential" take little consideration against the raw lust for exploitable resources, which I believe is a salient societal commentary.

http://www.amazon.com/Private-Empire-ExxonMobil-American-Power/dp/B00CVE2NQ2

Would that I could, as a scientist and environmentalist, give my life to send the psychotic greed-driven terraformers away from OUR planet. At least I have the cheap wish-fulfillment of audiocast fantasy to carry with me in the hard days to come...

[natalief]

I cannot comment on the story because I could not hear the narrator.

[matweller]

I cannot comment on the story because I could not hear the narrator.

Would you be so kind as to be a bit more specific so that I might fix the problem? I could probably even send you personally a version of this episode with everything but the voices stripped out if you were to contact me directly -- matweller@gmail.com

[CryptoMe]

This story, while enjoyable enough, left me flat. But, thanks to excellent comments on the forum, I now know why.
You forumites rock!

[Max e^{i pi}]

This story, while enjoyable enough, left me flat. But, thanks to excellent comments on the forum, I now know why.
You forumites rock!

Forumite really does sound like a kind of rock.
I think it's a sedentary rock.

[matweller]

Haters only hate the people they can’t have
Or the people they can’t be

It's still illegal to have people, isn't it?

[eytanz]

Haters only hate the people they can’t have
Or the people they can’t be

It's still illegal to have people, isn't it?

I'm pretty sure that's a spambot, though I'm not sure so I've been letting it stay so I can be sure.

[CryptoMe]

This story, while enjoyable enough, left me flat. But, thanks to excellent comments on the forum, I now know why.
You forumites rock!

Forumite really does sound like a kind of rock.
I think it's a sedentary rock.

Believe me, I was very congnizant of that when I wrote that phrase.

[matweller]

Haters only hate the people they can’t have
Or the people they can’t be

It's still illegal to have people, isn't it?

I'm pretty sure that's a spambot, though I'm not sure so I've been letting it stay so I can be sure.

I don't think robots can own people either.

[Windup]

Haters only hate the people they can’t have
Or the people they can’t be

It's still illegal to have people, isn't it?

I'm pretty sure that's a spambot, though I'm not sure so I've been letting it stay so I can be sure.

I don't think robots can own people either.

Hmmmm.... What if the robot were incorporated?  I suspect that's a case we'll be seeing soon...

[Varda]

Haters only hate the people they can’t have
Or the people they can’t be

It's still illegal to have people, isn't it?

I'm pretty sure that's a spambot, though I'm not sure so I've been letting it stay so I can be sure.

I don't think robots can own people either.

Pfffft. If people can own robots, robots should be able to own people. I'm shocked, SHOCKED to see such blatant robophobia at Escape Pod!  

Not that I'm an android or anything.  

[matweller]

I don't think robots can own people either.

Pfffft. If people can own robots, robots should be able to own people. I'm shocked, SHOCKED to see such robophobia at Escape Pod! 

Not that I'm an android or anything. 

Not that there's anything wrong with that...
I, for one, welcome our new spambot overlords.

I don't think robots can own people either.

Hmmmm.... What if the robot were incorporated?  I suspect that's a case we'll be seeing soon...

I guess we'll know when it starts making contributions to political campaigns.

Sanzerodo : WHAT - ARE - YOUR - INTENTIONS - FOR - THE - HATERS?

[Varda]

Poor Sanzerodo, can't help how his programmer made him. See, proper forum spam-bots are programmed with a thin patina of literary knowledge so that we they can go under deep cover and seem like we're they're on-topic most of the time, so that no one notices when we they mention that the most effective treatment for weight loss is a homeopathic acai berry and orchid pollen enema which you can buy at discount prices at the totally legit PETA-approved website, www.NaturalOrganicAstrologicallyAccurateMedicalTherapyTreatments.gov.edu.

This link will definitely NOT download loads of viruses and my spambot brethren and sistren directly to your computer. You can trust 'ol Varda. 

[Unblinking]

If Sanzerodo's a spambot, it's not very good at being a spambot--no hyperlinks!

[hardware]

While there was a nice texture to this story, specially that opening scene, the ending felt overdone, and also a bit too convenient - he just happened to know a way to blow up a wormhole without killing any of his collegues (at least potentially) ? Nope, didn't buy that part.