5.8 KiB
[FF][RST] Fling a Light (Worm)
-
Author: u/AugSphere Dark Lord of Corruption*
-
URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/3kdkiu/ffrst_fling_a_light_worm/
-
Score: 15
-
Created: 2015-09-10T09:42:18
Post:
This ongoing fic features an alt-powered Taylor (in a somewhat AU Worm) trying to be a good consequentialist and applying her powers effectively to the betterment of mankind. I'm loving it since it's a rare rationalist fic with a focus on effective altruism. As a plus, Taylor is actually pretty believable as a beginner rationalist. She reads not like a genius munchkin with a doctorate in cognitive science, but as a teenager who decided to get off her ass and apply her comparative advantage to making human lives better efficiently.
EDIT: The author declared that he's going to rewrite this fic. The link goes to the old (now dead) version.
Comments:
u/PL_TOC [+4] (a day later)
I've always wanted to see more Accord in the original. In this fic he seems a lot less easy to offend.
u/AugSphere [+2] Dark Lord of Corruption (a day later)
Agreed.
I've always felt like leveraging superpowers on a massive scale is something interesting to explore and this fic seems to be going in that direction. People with abilities of Coil, Tattletale, Dinah and Accord really should be engaging in world optimisation instead of petty squabbling over a shithole of a city.
u/PL_TOC [+1] (a day later)
Of course everyone who wants to save the world dies because of prevailing interests of the status quo or they are fascists.
The direction seems somewhat unclear at this time. I think she should move toward energy production, as they hinted at.
u/Kishoto [+2] (2 days later)
I think WoG states that the Simurgh plays an active role in ensuring wide spread good isn't employed by people with powers. She's the direct cause of what happened to if I recall correctly.
u/AugSphere [+2] Dark Lord of Corruption (2 days later)
I never could figure out what the end-game was there. Simurgh supposedly has an 'outside-of-time' view, which amounts to an even more overpowered version of path-to-victory. I can't figure out what the heck it was after based on the actions though.
Mostly, I think it was just poorly thought out hand-wave on Wlidbow's part.
u/Kishoto [+3] (2 days later)
It's kinda funny. If we accept the most popular theory, it would suggest that every single action orchestrated by the Simurgh was with the eventual goal of stopping Scion. But by that logic, Wildbow's allowed to have the Simurgh literally do ANYTHING and it can fall under such a powerful ability. It's a fairly decent schrodinger's cat of a handwave.
EDIT: Another way of looking at it is that the entities don't seem like they'd be fans of the world being advanced in good ways, as that would reduce the net conflict generated by parahumans. Significantly so, if things like Accord's plan to fix literally the entire world goes through.
u/AugSphere [+3] Dark Lord of Corruption (2 days later)
That was my reading. I mean, if you take the whole outside-time thing seriously, then Simurgh inevitably achieved her goals in the end. At least we can say that protecting Scion was not one of them.
Using this nigh-omnipotent agent to justify the contrivances of the setting would be ok if one could actually see some kind of overarching goal it pursues in its actions. Otherwise it turns into: 'Why is your universe stuck in this unnatural state? Simurghdidit!' You can't really assign goals to Simurgh even in hindsight because its actions are not consistent. It simply does whatever is required by the plot. Utterly unsatisfying. Combined with the shard mind-control this takes any useful world-shaping agency from the characters in the story. Everyone is limited to choosing ways to beat each other up and that's it.
u/AugSphere [+1] Dark Lord of Corruption (a day later)
Seems like an obvious move to make, yes.
Much interesting stuff in canon was hand-waved away by shard mind control and Simurgh interference. Hopefully this fic will do an adequate job of exploring all that untapped goodness.
u/chaosmosis [+1] and with strange aeons, even death may die (2 days later)
Coil and Accord maybe, but Tt and Dinah are too young.
I wonder why this Taylor isn't making more portals. 20 seems like a small number, thousands would be better. Why not put a portal in every city in the world, with Brockton Bay as central hub? Maybe if she dies the portals go away, and dependency on them could be dangerous?
u/AugSphere [+2] Dark Lord of Corruption (2 days later)
It's never too early to take over the world! Seriously though, specialisation exists for a reason. Suppose several people decide to be efficient by leveraging the synergy of their abilities (like they appear to have done in this fic). Perhaps Dinah is too young for the minutiae of world optimisation to interest her, she could still make a huge contribution by simply giving Coil her phone number and precommiting to answering his questions. She would not even need to actually do anything, since all the questioning would be simulated by Coil's shard. Even without Coil, answering a couple of questions is a no-braner cost/benifit-wise.
Tt could just be hired to help, would not even need much incentive.
As for why Taylor does not put more portals up, I'd guess it's a combination of upkeep bottleneck and her not being altruistic enough to devote her whole life solely to the job.