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52 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
52 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
## Peter Watts's latest short story, Collateral, is about Trolley problems (sorta)
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* Author: u/embrodski *
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* URL: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/collateral/
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* Score: 27
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* Created: 2017-01-02T23:42:07
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### Post:
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[Link to content](http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/collateral/)
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### Comments:
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> **u/embrodski** [+6] (9 minutes later)
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>
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> This one hits themes that we're interested in, and tackles it in a seriously interesting way, but it doesn't feel like "ratfic." I think a ratfic hero would have found a better way to handle the problem.
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>
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> I suspect that if the story had included a few paragraphs calculating probabilities of alternate plans working and their failure modes, and changed nothing else, it would fit the ratfic feel? But that would have dulled the emotional punch at the end. And it would have felt very much like the author making excuses for the protag. Which makes writing ratfic a hell of a quandry. Does anyone else think it would have made the end weaker?
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>> **u/Megika** [+6] (4 hours later)
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>>
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>> It would feel more ratfic, but would totally ruin it. I can't imagine how it could be done well.
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>>
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>> I don't quite understand this story, I think. Becker has a backdoor in her aug which shuts down her consciousness for 20-60 seconds following exposure to the radio signal, right? After which it no longer works, and she gets around that using a system clock change (lol as if). What's the motivation of the person/group who set up her killing the students?
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>>
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>> And I agree, it seems like a weak way to address the problem. By this time mass shootings would have been occurring for a century, her actions wouldn't make a difference. I think. Certainly wouldn't stop China.
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>>> **u/embrodski** [+8] (5 hours later)
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>>>
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>>> Augh, spoiler tags!
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>>>
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>>> [motivation-other] (#s "The motivation of the unknown party is left undiscovered, as far as I can tell.")
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>>> [motivation-protag] (#s "I believe her motivation isn't to stop mass shootings. Like you say, that ship has sailed. I think it is to draw attention to the fact that there is something seriously fucked up with the cyborg program. When she goes on a killing spree it'll put a lot of pressure on the politicians to put serious investigators on the issue, and on her case specifically. They are then likely to find out about the back-door black-out command, esp if she's left hints at her apartment, and hopefully that problem will be resolved and further extra-judicial killings by shadowy puppet-masters will be averted.")
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>>>> **u/callmebrotherg** [+13] *now posting as /u/callmesalticidae* (7 hours later)
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>>>>
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>>>> My understanding was that the first killings were set up in order to establish a precedent: something like this was going to happen sometime, so make it happen now, when you're ready, with the perfect candidate, so that people with sympathize and see things your way, and will therefore be much more likely to continue seeing it your way in future cases because the jury of public opinion has already agreed that these things just happen and they're sad industrial accidents rather than awful war crimes.
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>>>>> **u/Megika** [+6] (12 hours later)
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>>>>>
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>>>>> Yes, I think you're exactly right. Seems obvious once you spell it out, haha.
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>>>>>
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>>>>> Aside: are spoiler tags needed for discussion of linked content? Seems a bit silly.
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> **u/TheAltarSublime** [+3] (20 hours later)
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>
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> I thought everything was always about trolley problems...
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---
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