## Alicorn | Dose

* Author: u/ulyssessword *
* URL: http://alicorn.elcenia.com/stories/dose.shtml
* Score: 45

* Created: 2018-04-29T06:48:30

### Post:

[Link to content](http://alicorn.elcenia.com/stories/dose.shtml)

### Comments:

> **u/HeckDang** [+17]  (2 hours later)
> 
> Alright, I'm not sure I understood this one as well as I usually understand Alicorn stories. Originally I thought the Orange teardrops were the same as her treats, and they might still yet be. More importantly though, they seem to be her attempt to medicate herself such that she would stay motivated to keep doing her job, in order to keep the Mission secret that (at least some of) their drugs are placebos and also so that she's still in the company whenever anything happens regarding that in the future.  
> 
> That's what I'm assuming, but I do feel as if I may have missed some details. 
> 
> I'm not quite sure why uni programs and jobs have drug prescriptions attached though and for exactly what reason.

>> **u/FeepingCreature** [+21]  *GCV Literally The Entire Culture* (2 hours later)
>> 
>> > I'm not quite sure why uni programs and jobs have drug prescriptions attached though and for exactly what reason. 
>> 
>> To increase attendance, of course!
>> 
>> We usually think of drug dependence as an awkward side effect. I'm pretty sure that in this story, it's the _point_.
>> 
>> Kind of reminds me of Blindsight's Bondfast™ "maternal response stimulants".
>> 
>> Ordinary human problems? There's a drug for that!
>> 
>> Might also be about the perverse incentives of coupling access to healthcare with work with ability to function which depends on healthcare.

>> **u/thebluegecko** [+4]  (10 hours later)
>> 
>> My read was she was afraid that her replacement would tell the media. Perhaps she is afraid of the damage to society? 
>> 
>> " What if the next college dropout they hired to (cyan green green white blue orange) type colors and shapes into spreadsheets ran their mouth off? Told the next not-a-secret-shopper that he was on chipper or bounce or sunshine or winner, got them running away from their dad or their school or their cult and scoring some on the street and noticing?"

>> **u/dalr3th1n** [+3]  (14 hours later)
>> 
>> I'm going to echo your sentiment of not really getting it.

> **u/Gurkenglas** [+8]  (9 hours later)
> 
> I don't get it, why is a person putting random shapes into a spreadsheet better than a random number generator putting random shapes into a spreadsheet?
> 
> How come nobody else found that they don't have withdrawal symptoms and blabbed?

>> **u/alexshatberg** [+4]  *Mouse Army* (2 days later)
>> 
>> > I don't get it, why is a person putting random shapes into a spreadsheet better than a random number generator putting random shapes into a spreadsheet?
>> 
>> That confused the hell out of me, since it's been consistently proven that people are surprisingly bad at simulating random processes. Make a person flip a coin in his head for a million times and the resulting sequence will be nowhere near 50/50.

>>> **u/Prezombie** [+2]  (4 days later)
>>> 
>>> Plus, there's probably been plenty of placebo studies on the effectiveness of different shapes and colors, with some more effective than others. In such a dystopia, this would likely have been even more optimized to account for different demographics and previous prescription histories.

> **u/GaBeRockKing** [+3]  *Horizon Breach: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6785857* (13 minutes later)
> 
> Interesting concept piece.

> **u/FeepingCreature** [+3]  *GCV Literally The Entire Culture* (2 hours later)
> 
> Incredibly creepy.

> **u/xamueljones** [+3]  *My arch-enemy is entropy* (9 hours later)
> 
> How many people here think this is meant to be a story about a plausible dystopian future?

> **u/None** [+2]  (12 hours later)
> 
> [deleted]

>> **u/nerdguy1138** [+2]  *GNU Terry Pratchett* (2 days later)
>> 
>> Ok, seriously, someone spell this out for me. They're addicted to very specific drugs, except the whole thing is a placebo-scam? What's the point then?

>>> **u/None** [+2]  (2 days later)
>>> 
>>> [deleted]

>>>> **u/nerdguy1138** [+3]  *GNU Terry Pratchett* (2 days later)
>>>> 
>>>> But, then she makes an excellent point. Why is she the first to ever figure this out, why hasn't the entire system collapsed?

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