20 KiB
[BST][META][HSF/HF][MK] Anyone up for a little story prompt game?
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Author: u/Nighzmarquls *
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/3lht7h/bstmetahsfhfmk_anyone_up_for_a_little_story/
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Score: 9
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Created: 2015-09-18T23:18:16
Post:
So here are the rules of my proposed game:
Posts in immediate response to this one should be a low resource situation/challenge that is not instantly dangerous but may be long term perilous if you like (starvation or several days of breathable air is what I'm imagining).
Posts in response to those should be people's level one personality (or yourself if you don't have a level one personality thought up and ready) response to that low resource situation.
After that discussion is open, this is mostly an attempt to get some creative/unanticipated combinations rolling.
Comments:
u/andor3333 [+8] (7 hours later)
You are asked to come up with a story prompt which provide an entertaining back and forth between you and other commenters within the limitations of a reddit comments section. What do you do?
My level one personality: When in doubt about the solution, take everything to the meta level and escape while they are distracted by your shiny infinite loop!
But enough about me, what would YOU do in this original situation?
u/Nighzmarquls [+3] (8 hours later)
Perform a shotgun approach of several different kinds of creative interaction prompts across multiple reddits in order to spread out the anticipation of updates on any given one. Also fill some of the time with creating Monsters/curses/ghosts for a side project.
u/andor3333 [+5] (16 hours later)
But wait, a problem has appeared! A commenter in one of your threads has taken the prompt to the meta-level, meaning that in order to fully participate in the challenge you must summarize what you are doing all over again in the comments. Of course if you do participate the inevitable result is to be trapped forever in an infinite loop of summarization and counter-summarization.
My level one personality's response: Embrace the loop! See how far you can take this before someone gives up or goes insane.
But enough about me, what would YOU do in this original situation?
u/Sailor_Vulcan [+2] Champion of Justice and Reason (2 days later)
I just lost the game.
u/notmy2ndopinion [+3] Concent of Saunt Edhar (13 hours later)
You are a refugee fleeing a war-torn country. You fled on foot from your home with whatever you could carry, but in the process of being transported/exploited by human traffickers, you have been stripped of all valuables (electronic devices, cash, jewelry, and other small high-quality items.) You are with your immediate family, along with a small set of rations from your home and whatever items you could conceal from the transporters during their demands of payment (a wristwatch, compass, lighter, pocketknife... and an old flip phone with ~$20 on it that you scrounged together.)
You are penniless and fleeing across the countryside on foot in a foreign land. You have some familiarity with the local language through T.V., but by no means are you fluent. Oh, and the countryside has unexploded land mines and ordinance.
u/FuguofAnotherWorld [+3] Roll the Dice on Fate (2 days later)
Stick to beaten paths and other tracks to avoid mines. If the country has a good system for asylum seekers, seek asylum. If not, call sympathetic people if you know them, have them give you directions to the nearest town, hitchhike. Attempt to find short term work so that you can move on to the next country.
u/DataPacRat [+3] Amateur Immortalist (18 hours later)
Let's tweak the standard Survivorman routine...
You have all the resources in your home, including the building; which you discover yourself alone in, in the middle of a forest at noon.
There's an odd arch from horizon to horizon, and the sun remains in place, occasionally eclipsed; all the signs of being aboard a ringworld or Orbital.
It's plausible that you're the only sapient being on the continent. You likely have something less than a century to make contact with some form of civilization before you die of old age.
u/Transfuturist [+2] Carthago delenda est. (23 hours later)
all the signs of being aboard a ringworld or Orbital.
Direct all efforts to escape the simulation or narrative you've found yourself trapped in.
u/DataPacRat [+2] Amateur Immortalist (a day later)
That's an interesting thing to try to do. How would you go about it?
u/Transfuturist [+3] Carthago delenda est. (a day later)
I would obviously need to direct my immediate efforts to ensuring my survival through sustainable means; sources of nutrients and calories.
Source of water. Find a river. If the house isn't near a river everything will be ten times harder. I would be forced to dig a canal and dam the river to redirect it to the house.
I have a fair amount of food in the cabinets and fridge. I don't know enough to say whether planting any of the fruits or canned goods is advisable, though I would definitely try. I would also be trying to figure out how animal traps work, possibly actively hunting, and foraging for vegetation that doesn't kill me. I would attempt to make a farm, though at the scale of the individual it might be more appropriate to call it a garden. Taking cues from The Martian, I believe I would be cutting up and planting all of the potatoes.
There's a car in the garage, we have a multimeter, an old generator if it's still around, the alternator in the car... I'm not sure what I would be doing with electricity, but possibly an experiment to see if computer electronics worked in a location with different physics, as indicated by the existence of a ringworld. Starting the car would also be a sufficient experiment, given the radio's electronics.
Determining the mechanical impossibility of the setting is not guaranteed. I don't believe we have classical physics textbooks. However, the nature of the scenario is still unbelievable enough to consider it most probably as part of a narrative or simulation.
The car is unsustainable for energy or transport, obviously. It has at most a full tank, but it's always worn down to near-empty before we fill it, so there is very little to depend on there.
I suspect I would be forced to reinvent toolmaking, or I would have to make do without a lot of tools at all. This would be difficult, considering I have no idea how to find or collect ore, no way to cut down trees save a hand saw and a powered... hedge trimmer? Nothing industrial. Depends on the width of the trees. We have weights, though I don't know what they're made of, and I don't want to be melting lead any sooner than I have to. I'm not sure how to get a fire hot enough to melt metals in the first place, even lead.
Let's see... cloth. Going naked is not quite viable. I want to protect the majority of my skin from bugs, wounds from accidents and prey (and predators), whatever dangerous light that sun is giving off, and the weather. I definitely do not want to die from "exposure to the elements," as that is, as I've heard, the most common cause of death in the wilderness, though I'm not sure how it's defined. I would regret not having a lot of tools, books, and other resources that are useless in non-wilderness, non-societal situations. I don't know how to make cloth, and it's probably too time-consuming anyway. Assuming I could catch any animals, I would be saving their skins, and trying to figure out how to tan leather and make clothes that way. Ropes are very doubtful without a lot of clever thinking.
We have a gun, but I'm untrained. I'd have to figure out how much ammunition I could spare for getting myself accustomed with it.
We have quite a lot of paper, and I'd be keeping a lot of notes to organize all of these concerns without a computer.
That's for day-to-day survival. I have no idea how I would be able to approach breaching reality. My first attempts would be attempting to contact whatever audience I may have, as well as brainstorming any other likely explanations. Your stated goal, finding civilization within a hundred years, is about as likely, practically speaking. You're on a fucking ringworld, you have an astronomically lower chance of finding civilization as on an arbitrary planet. I will admit that it depends on the exact population of the ring, but the most you can assume is one society. Going to the substrate of reality is no less insane, considering you have a hundred years (more like forty, as I'm twenty and lifespans are not one hundred years naturally) of at most animal-driven transportation over no roads.
u/Nepene [+2] (a day later)
Immediately, I need food, water and such.
I do the normal slow touch food taste etc etc thing to find foods in my environment that I can consume. I gather some earth and lay some seeds from my bug out backpack, along with setting up my water collector. I seek a clearing or make one for use of my solar panels to charge my electronic devices. I use my axe and shovel to set up basic traps in front of my doors and windows so entry isn't easy for invaders and prepare a basic flamethrower device with a candle and a hairspray can and some flammable oil to throw at intruders. I set up my fire extinguisher within easy reach too.
Once all that's done, I do an inventory of my house for food and how long parts will last. I have some emergency rations and some perishable food.
I use my battery powered hand crank radio to see if there's any radio transmissions nearby.
I browse my downloaded copy of wikipedia to see if there's any useful nature survival tips.
u/notmy2ndopinion [+2] Concent of Saunt Edhar (a day later)
For some reason, this reminds me of "A Dark Room."
u/FuguofAnotherWorld [+2] Roll the Dice on Fate (2 days later)
I loudly and obviously start doing everything necessary to commit suicide, complete with note. Stop before pulling the metaphorical trigger. Having confirmed that if I am being watched it is by an uncaring being, I start seeing about survival. The water storage unit in the attic should be good for a few hundred litres until I can find fresh water. The fridge has potatoes, plums, onions, squash, courgette, avocado, mustard seed, chillies, garlic, apples, oranges, banana, bell peppers, tomatoes and carrots. If I can't grow something out of all of that then I am a failure at farming. A shame I could not bring the back garden: it had plum and goosberry bushes, tomatoes and courgette as well as good fertiliser and gardening tools. Plus my sun chair, that thing is fantastic. I eat as much of the perishables as I can force myself to consume in the time they have before going off: better to be fat on my belly than rotten and useless.
If all else fails I have my bow, though I am not as good a shot as I once was and the poundage will limit me to small game until I can fashion a better one. I understand the theory, but have never made a bow personally so I expect some failures. If I am lucky the animals will be unused to man and the hunting will be easy. After say 2 years the plum trees will be well situated and I will hopefully have gotten good at shooting things again, so I will go a wandering in search of life signs.
I could... probably make an electricity generating water wheel and get the freezer working again if there is a stream nearby. All it is is wires and magnets. I believe hard drives have one and there is no shortage of wiring in my house. The largest problem would be making it generate current at the right frequency.
u/Nighzmarquls [+2] (14 minutes later)
To get this started here's one from me:
You possess a single stainless steel chefs knife with a blade as long as your forearm. That is all.
You are in the middle of the amazon rain forest (the more inaccessible parts of brazil) just three months prior to the heavy raining season when all the flooding happens.
What do you do?
u/blazinghand [+3] Chaos Undivided (26 minutes later)
> Take Knife
u/blazinghand [+2] Chaos Undivided (31 minutes later)
The professional chef's knife is heavy in your hands you admire the long steel blade and the polished wooden grip. You think about the hundreds of hours spent using and sharpening this in your former life as a line cook. It was hot and tough work in that kitchen, but it doesn't compare to how tough this will be. Your blade is all you have in the world know, the only thing to keep you alive this deep in the rainforest, far from civilization, far from safety.
It's going to be a hard trek.
>
u/Nighzmarquls [+1] (an hour later)
For somewhere called the rain forest water is surprisingly hard to find. Well water that is safe to drink, there is lots of stagnant water full of things with teeth and fish and things with teeth eating fish.
But mostly it's hot, intensely muggy, difficult to tell direction, full of insects that want to bite you, enormous amounts of noise and very few actually visible animals.
u/Transfuturist [+3] Carthago delenda est. (23 hours later)
With no other supplies and no real knowledge of survival period, and before I inevitably get infected and diseased: Attempt to slash my femural arteries. Attempt to slash my carotid arteries.
What I'd actually do would be about ten times more pathetic. I'd actually try to survive, God help me.
u/SvalbardCaretaker [+2] Mouse Army (8 hours later)
Given this tale of an unprepared person droppen into the rainforest, chances are grim
During the trip, Koepcke could not sleep at night due to insect bites, which became infected. ... which succeeded in removing thirty-five maggots from one arm
u/notmy2ndopinion [+2] Concent of Saunt Edhar (14 hours later)
I feel like this is close enough to the standard survival scenario on reality-TV that I'd follow the basic algorithm from Man vs Wild or Survivorman.
I'd scout a safe location for a camp, use my knife to build a temporary shelter and a fire, and then set up traps for small game using branches and heavy rocks or nooses and flimsy trees. A bow would be useful for firestarting assuming there's no supply of flint for my steel. I would avoid eating anything brightly colored -- if I'm desperate I'd probably just eat worms to start for protein, since I know they are safe. (Right? Shrug) Water is an easily resource to gather in a rainforest just by tipping leaves. Bugbites would be a big problem so I'd try to stay smoky and rub exposed parts of my body with aromatic oils stripped from plants.
Flooding would happen close to river basins, so if I have a good sense of when they'd start, I'd either head for higher ground and watch for a change in the underbrush so I'd know where the typical flood lines are, or if high ground doesn't seem to exist/I keep hitting rivers as I explore, I'd build a raft from deadwood and vines.
Re: tool making, I'd use my knife to make sharp implements out of wood for daily use and find a rock for keeping the knife sharp. I could probably make a crude adze (sp?) for chopping wood. The fire would help in drying out vines and leathers for material creation.
I have some other ideas about scouting and contacting local tribes, but the idea that I could even survive to make a raft or tan leather hides... It is ambitious, hard work! I'm more likely to focus on basic survival for quite a while that I wouldn't be able to accomplish any higher longer-term goals for a long time like months to years out.
u/TBestIG [+2] Every second of quibbling is another dead baby (2 days later)
Notice lack of clothes. Cry. Get eaten by mosquitoes. Die.
u/nicholaslaux [+2] (6 hours later)
You are exploring a remote woodland and have encountered an abandoned cellar. In the process of looking through it, you manage to accidentally set off a spring-loaded dart trap which hits you in your upper non dominant arm.
You think it could have contained a poison or venom of some sort due to the dart tip containing a syringe. The nearest modern medical care is over a week away on foot, or at least 3 days away on bike or horse, the only forms of transportation available to you. You have a common field first aid kit and a number of other assorted items that you were able to carry in your backpack.
u/notmy2ndopinion [+2] Concent of Saunt Edhar (14 hours later)
I would get a ball or wad up some clothes and tuck it under my armpit. Then, I would get my belt and use it like a tourniquet and extract the dart. If I don't have a belt, I would get a rope or long piece of fabric, tie it into a loop, insert a stick and spin it until there is an adequate tightness that I start to feel numbness.
Cutting off the blood supply quickly should buy my some time for examination, wound cleaning, and extraction of the poison.
First, I smell the dart. Are there hints of almond? I would think about cyanide. Does it smell sour, like vinegar? I would suspect an acid. Then, I'd examine the wound site. Am I bleeding excessively despite the tourniquet? Is there blistering, redness, swelling or necrosis? Is there a spreading area of numbness? Is it exquisitely tender to palpation?
Next, I'd clean the wound -- the solution to pollution is dilution (preferably with normal saline as an isotonic solution.) A liter of clean water mixed with two table spoons of salt should be adequate. I'd put this mixture into a compressible water bottle and get a sharp needle and puncture the bottle so I have a small hole. With a strong constant pressure on the bottle, I'd empty out an entire liter of the saline solution into the region of the dart entry point.
This is the point where my arm should be cleaned and bandaged. If there is local necrolysis, I'd wash it out again and suspect some spider venom, acid, or chemical. (Fingers crossed that it's not reactive with water!!) If not, I'd worry about a cardio toxin like a beta blocker or digitalis (think Bond in Casino Royale), a neuro paralytic like curare or botulinum, or a neurospasmodic like tetanospasmin. In all of these cases, we're screwed without an AED, IV fluids and an antidote.
If it's a hallucinogenic, we're in the clear.
I'll have a little more time to identify the poison by monitoring my vital signs over the next hour. At that point, I'd take off the tourniquet to restore blood supply and hope I don't die.
I would be able to identify a cholinergic/anticholinergic toxidrome by the "SLUDGE" mnemonic, which I characterize as "fluids coming out of everywhere from all orifices," or the opposing symptom which is goes by the nursery rhyme "hot as a hare, mad as a hatter, dry as a bone and the heart beats alone"
The key will be to stay well hydrated and treat symptoms if they arise. Fevers and infection will be the biggies (I'm SOL with cardiac and respiratory arrest, so I just hope it won't happen.) We should have some combination of Benadryl, aspirin, ibuprofen, iodine, and antiseptic on hand from our medikit to be used as needed.
(If MacGyver did this, I totally want to watch the episode! I'm sure I missed a few things, but that's what I could think of off-hand without a survival book, more extensive gear, or the Internet handy.)
u/Sailor_Vulcan [+2] Champion of Justice and Reason (2 days later)
You do a research study to find out which topics derail forum conversations the fastest. (Perhaps the example described by Godwin's law is just a corner case?)