5.6 KiB
[RT] [DC] What if drone warfare had come first?
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Author: u/aintso *
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Score: 21
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Created: 2014-12-03T00:08:31
Post:
Comments:
u/khafra [+2] (a day later)
See also The Feeling of Power, by Isaac Asimov.
u/autowikibot [+1] (a day later)
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#### The Feeling of Power:
"The Feeling of Power" is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. The story first appeared in the February 1958 issue of [If: Worlds of Science Fiction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_(magazine)), and was reprinted in the 1959 collection Nine Tomorrows, the 1969 retrospective Opus 100, and the 1986 collection Robot Dreams. In the introduction to Robot Visions, Asimov lists this story as one of the notable robot stories.
^Interesting: ^The ^Best ^Science ^Fiction ^of ^Isaac ^Asimov ^| ^Control ^freak ^| ^Robot ^Dreams ^| ^The ^Edge ^of ^Tomorrow ^(1985 ^book)
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u/benthor [+3] Concent of Saunt Edhar (12 hours later)
Fun read, but I perceive a few issues:
- The "alternative history" world-building is a bit heavy handed. Why reminisce about a World War I that didn't happen or even mention Hannibal if he didn't manage to have any historic impact. Just to make a point that it would be an "insult to the memory" of whoever brought about all those decidedly non-pivotal moments in history? I get the point that the author tries to make, but wouldn't it instead make sense for the pro-human-warfare faction (i.e., General Ripper) to argue that soldiers who did valiant deeds could become heros or "stars" and potentially monetize the tales of their heroism? "A billion dollar market..."
- Ripper is too much of a straw man. He violates the rule of rational fiction that your antagonists must make good and internally consistent points. He is too obviously crazy and ridiculous and not even Level 1 Intelligent. And there are some good points to be made for his views that can be refuted on a higher intellectual level. And it's easy to come up with many of those if you just set aside 5 minutes and think it through. If you do think the story requires comic relief, give Ripper a young and politically-incorrect attaché who can interject with some of the more "inappropriate remarks" like "the lower classes could serve as cannon-fodder". And leave it to Ripper to agonize about whether to slap down his subordinate, to concede or to argue the (bad) point.
- You can point out that your "alternative America" is doing better than the real version is without resorting to "We have more tax money than we know what to do with these days anyway."
- Too many people in the room, one of which (Wells) only gets a single line. Hawke and Steele could probably be easily merged into a single person.
TL;DR: IMHO, does not really qualify as Rational Fiction
u/ajuc [+2] (2 days later)
1 - I think the point was - WW1 was still a huge event because in that universe death of 100 people in a war was a big deal. See our universe and 9/11 for examples how small thing can be perceived as a big deal if it's outside expectations, no matter if it's really important.
Mine my problem with such alternate history stories is - given such big change in the past (Cartagina etc) - it's implausible that recognizable USA even exists. Small change 2000 years ago could have made a big difference, such big change would probably make everything different, not just one aspect of the world.
But it's not meant to be realistic, it's just moralitet to show how stupid some of the arguments against drone warfare are. Agreed - it would work better if the anti-drone warfare side wasn't dumb and crazy.
u/holomanga [+3] (2 days later)
What if something I support which is as-yet unpopular came first
A: We should do something that is a greatly undersupported and misrepresented version of what does not occur in this fictional world.
B: That is bad, for obvious reasons, which I shall state. These are some obvious reasons.
A: Here is another flawed criticism of the current fictional status-quo.
B: Again, every point you are making is flawed.
C: The world is truly a better place due to B's ideas.
Fin