scrape_r_rational/data/cache2/3kb87f.md

## [Weekly Challenge] Defied Prophecy

* Author: u/alexanderwales  *Time flies like an arrow**
* URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/3kb87f/weekly_challenge_defied_prophecy/
* Score: 18

* Created: 2015-09-09T22:50:58

### Post:

## Last Week

[Last time,](https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/3jf4jw/weekly_challenge_dinosaurs/?sort=confidence) the prompt was "Dinosaurs!". /u/AgentOfDimir is the winner with their story ["Calvin was right about everything"](https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/3jf4jw/weekly_challenge_dinosaurs/cuqenbu), and will receive a month of reddit gold along with super special winner flair. Congratulations /u/AgentOfDimir!

##### This Week

This week's challenge is "Defied Prophecy". You know what? [Screw destiny!](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ScrewDestiny) There's no fate but what we make and if prophecy says that something is impossible, we'll just have to go [beyond the impossible](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BeyondTheImpossible). Remember, prompts are to inspire, not to limit.

The winner will be decided **Wednesday, September 16th.** You have until then to post your reply and start accumulating upvotes. It is strongly suggested that you get your entry in as quickly as possible once this thread goes up; this is part of the reason that prompts are given a week in advance. Like reading? It's suggested that you come back to the thread after a few days have passed to see what's popped up. The reddit "save" button is handy for this.

##### Rules

* 300 word minimum, no maximum. Post as a link to Google Docs, pastebin, Dropbox, etc. **This is mandatory.**

* No plagiarism, but you're welcome to recycle and revamp your own ideas you've used in the past.

* Think before you downvote.

* Winner will be determined by "best" sorting.

* Winner gets reddit gold, special winner flair, and bragging rights.

* All top-level replies to this thread should be submissions. Non-submissions (including questions, comments, etc.) belong in [the meta thread](http://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/39dxi3), and will be aggressively removed from here.

* Top-level replies must be a link to Google Docs, a PDF, your personal website, etc. It is suggested that you include a word count and a title when you're linking to somewhere else.

* In the interest of keeping the playing field level, please refrain from cross-posting to other places until after the winner has been decided.

* No idea what rational fiction is? [Read the wiki!](http://www.reddit.com/r/rational/wiki/index)

##### Meta

If you think you have a good prompt for a challenge, [add it to the list](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1B6HaZc8FYkr6l6Q4cwBc9_-Yq1g0f_HmdHK5L1tbEbA/edit?usp=sharing) (remember that [a good prompt is not a recipe](http://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/prompts?src=RECIPE)). If you think that you have a good modification to the rules, let me know in a comment [in the meta thread](http://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/39dxi3). Also, if you want a quick index of past challenges, I've [posted them on the wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/wiki/weeklychallenge).

##### Next Week

Next week we'll be dipping back into the TVTropes pool with "[Orange and Blue Morality](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlueAndOrangeMorality)". It's not good and evil, it's not law and chaos, it's some third axis that (tends to) lie perpendicular to normal human political axes. Cthulhoid monsters, paperclipping AI, benthic creatures, fey nobles, and starfish aliens are all a good starting point, though don't be afraid to use simple humans with their own strange ways of thinking.

**Next week's thread will go up on 9/16.** Please confine any questions or comments to [the meta thread](http://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/39dxi3). If you want to discuss the week's theme, feel free to [make a post about it](https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/submit?selftext=true).

### Comments:

> **u/Sparkwitch** [+12]  (20 hours later)
> 
> [The Prophecist](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vdS-7ib7XbBiEtCYyMFIJjStp7ehThQL8kNLF_wIOlA/edit?usp=sharing)
> 
> 2530 words

>> **u/traverseda** [+2]  *With dread but cautious optimism* (6 days later)
>> 
>> Always a fan of witchy dealing and well done magics.
>> 
>> Combined with [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/3a7ypf/weekly_challenge_portal_fantasy/csa4fus?context=3) one, I need to read some longer form fiction from you.

>> **u/Zephyr1011** [+1]  *Potentially Unfriendly Aspiring Divinity* (a day later)
>> 
>> So, if I've understood what happened correctly, [](#s "her family did some wrong 6 generations ago and were cursed so no one within the woods could pay attention to her family?")

>>> **u/Sparkwitch** [+7]  (a day later)
>>> 
>>> I always feel like I'm in such a rush writing these that I end up underplaying my plot:
>>> [My Plot](#s "They can pay attention, but they can't care. Only the boo-witch ignores them entirely. It's implied, for example, that the Warrows can still trade and manage sexual relationships. Also the Prophecist doesn't think they ever committed a serious wrong: “If I were a boo-witch – let’s say three-and-a-half hells of one – respected and admired elder to all Eleven Bridges, I might prefer to silence my critics and opponents and steal their power without over-damaging their industry.” That said, she's only giving the in-universe equivalent of legal advice. No reason to assume she's 100% right.")

> **u/Coadie** [+24]  (4 days later)
> 
> [The eye of prophecy](http://pastebin.com/JG4vCSBx)
> 
> *2,080 words*

>> **u/NotTheDarkLord** [+7]  (6 days later)
>> 
>> Wow. That was great! The character, the ending, the world you managed to build in such a short few words, I loved it!

>>> **u/Coadie** [+3]  (6 days later)
>>> 
>>> Thank you for the kind words!

>> **u/RMcD94** [+3]  (7 days later)
>> 
>> The checksum doesn't help. I just get a real prophecy with checksum, then tell everyone a fake middle. The checksum will be true.

>>> **u/NotTheDarkLord** [+5]  (7 days later)
>>> 
>>> I guess it confirms that the person can make a real prophecy, not that the middle bit is actually a prophecy.
>>> 
>>> Also, I imagined for whatever reason that the prophet must be speaking when making the prophecy, so other people would hear the original. That would make the checksum sufficient.

>>>> **u/Coadie** [+2]  (7 days later)
>>>> 
>>>> That's pretty much how I envisaged it.

>>> **u/DCarrier** [+1]  (14 days later)
>>> 
>>> What they should be doing is incorporating a hash. For example, give the temperature and airspeed at the GPS coordinates obtained by geohashing the message.

>> **u/Sophronius** [+4]  *The Need to Become Stronger* (7 days later)
>> 
>> Very good story, I liked it a lot! I saw the trick of the protagonist coming, but it was still neatly resolved. I was expecting an explanation for how the prophets could force the prophesy - something based on acausal reasoning manipulated with precommitments in order to end up with only one possible prophesy - but I guess that would have made the story too long and complicated.

> **u/Kishoto** [+20]  (46 minutes later)
> 
> [The Titanomachy](https://kishoto.wordpress.com/2015/09/09/the-titanomachy-rrational-challenge-defied-prophecy/)
> 
> 3171 words.

>> **u/None** [+3]  (5 hours later)
>> 
>> [deleted]

>>> **u/Kishoto** [+2]  (6 hours later)
>>> 
>>> Yea, I wrote this in a little under two hours. I'm not surprised there were a few typos. I fixed the things you mentioned. Also, I suppose I didn't make it clear, but Zeus is the one who says 
>>> 
>>> > “It has been some time, brother.”
>>> 
>>> right before that line. It's supposed to be ironic, [](#s "as it hasn't been that long since they've seen each other. Poseidon just doesn't remember their earlier meetings.")

> **u/None** [+4]  (a day later)
> 
> [deleted]

>> **u/Kishoto** [+3]  (a day later)
>> 
>> I agree with Zephyr. I liked the writing, but it could have done with more exposition. As it stands, it's fairly unclear what happens, especially as [](#s "stories where the very nature of reality appears to be abstract leads us to try and see everything through a metaphorical lens. As in, it's likely the reader would assume the protagonist isn't talking about a literal magical spell, but instead it may be a metaphor. As it stands, we don't have enough data to come to any conclusion on our own either way.")
>> 
>> But yea, overall, the story would benefit greatly from a little more fleshing out

>>> **u/None** [+1]  (a day later)
>>> 
>>> [deleted]

>>>> **u/None** [+0]  (2 days later)
>>>> 
>>>> That's a great premise, but I wouldn't have guessed that this was happening. I think the fact that that's what she's doing should be hinted at less ambiguously.

>> **u/Zephyr1011** [+1]  *Potentially Unfriendly Aspiring Divinity* (a day later)
>> 
>> Would you mind explaining exactly what happened in the story? I found it quite hard to follow

> **u/garabik** [+3]  (5 days later)
> 
> [I love you forever](http://kassiopeia.juls.savba.sk/~garabik/odds/iloveyou.html)
> 
> I felt compelled to write this after reading electrace's [No more](https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/3kb87f/weekly_challenge_defied_prophecy/cuwgis5); consider this to be a continuation. As such, I'd like  this to be a non competing entry.
> 
> (apologies for the mistakes, English is not my native tongue)

>> **u/None** [+1]  (6 days later)
>> 
>> [deleted]

>>> **u/garabik** [+1]  (13 days later)
>>> 
>>> Well, it has to be finite - there is just a finite (even if enormously big) number of quantum states in your brain, not even speaking about the number of distinguishable neuron states, so the experience has to loop eventually. This does not make it much nicer.

> **u/None** [+7]  (5 hours later)
> 
> [deleted]

>> **u/Kishoto** [+2]  (6 hours later)
>> 
>> Wow. I liked that a lot. I'm sure the trans-humanist feel will be well received by this sub as well. Good story!

>> **u/None** [+2]  (7 days later)
>> 
>> That was incredible, right up until the bit about "creating another universe", which I get the feeling means simulations or some other bit of cowardice.

>>> **u/electrace** [+2]  (7 days later)
>>> 
>>> Yep, that was pretty much what I was trying to imply. I don't see how it's cowardice, though. Care to elaborate?

>>>> **u/None** [+2]  (7 days later)
>>>> 
>>>> It's just sooo... *ducking the issue*.  It amounts to saying people aren't allowed to care about particular objects, which would inevitably, at least to start, be part of the normal, material universe.  It's also shockingly one-way: where are the people *coming back* from the "new universe"?

>>>>> **u/electrace** [+2]  (8 days later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> >It's just sooo... ducking the issue.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Can I ask what you see as "the issue"?
>>>>> 
>>>>> The only one mentioned in the story was the Shadow.

>> **u/Marthinwurer** [+1]  (15 hours later)
>> 
>> If I were you, I'd consider x-posting this to the /r/HFY subreddit. They love stories about humans conquering death.

>>> **u/None** [+1]  (6 days later)
>>> 
>>> THAT'S A SUBREDDIT!? *insta-subscribe*

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