12 KiB
The Things that Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away
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Author: u/psychothumbs *
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Score: 57
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Created: 2018-07-12T17:34:11
Post:
Comments:
u/Sparkwitch [+18] (3 hours later)
I have a bunch of fragments of a Worm elsewhere fanfiction I nibble at from time to time that centers around a bunch of dialogues on the nature of justice and law enforcement, because one of the things that drove me nuts about Worm is the way it side-stepped that conversation by raising the [Godzilla Threshold] (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GodzillaThreshold).
This story scratches that itch (a gesture both soothing and irritating) and makes me want to write more.
u/nerdguy1138 [+23] GNU Terry Pratchett (12 hours later)
Because that's the only even semi-realistic way you get a crapsack world of heroes and villians, is if they are tolerated to fight a bigger threat. Otherwise they'd just be shot.
u/Kilbourne [+10] (a day later)
McCrae did a great job with that, imo.
u/RynnisOne [+6] (a day later)
Sure, except that over half of the 'parahumans' wouldn't really fear a guy with a gun.
When there is such a scattering of superpowers across a wide spectrum of both power and utility, the whole concept of law and order breaks down simply because the institutions that enforce them are unable to compete with those they are enforcing them ON.
Oh, sure, you COULD give Superman a parking ticket, or try to charge him with assault if he backhands someone through a wall without reasonable provocation, but trying to enforce in a practical way is much harder. Even if you find someone with a power that lets them do the job, you then have to wonder what keeps them from using it on you or becoming a tyrant.
u/alexanderwales [+9] Time flies like an arrow (a day later)
Over half seems high. If you look at the cape population of Brockton Bay, most of them have relatively little (if any) protection against bullets. The answers that are usually given for the lack of guns in the setting:
u/CouteauBleu [+5] We are the Empire. (2 days later)
(most of these still don't explain why most capes don't walk around with rubber bullet guns or tasers)
u/TheIronMiner [+1] (4 days later)
Some do
u/RynnisOne [+5] (2 days later)
I never claimed IMMUNITY TO BULLETS. That's you. I said that over half would NOT fear a gun wielder.
I dunno, let's do a test.
UndersidersGrue: Darkness ability makes gun inefective. Disables shooter easily.
Bitch: Giant dog provides both mobility and cover. Disables or kills shooter easily.
Tattletale: No defense against gun itself. However, gun wielder has already been paid off not to attack her, or she simply tells him to go ahead and do it if he never wants to see his family again, as she already has a plan in motion to keep herself safe. I'll let you have this point, though.
Imp: Shooter is unaware of Imp's existence until he is disabled or dead.
Regent: Takes temporary control of shooter to cause him to miss or drop gun. Disables with taser. I could do spoilers, but you know he could do a LOT worse if he wanted.
Skitter: Is aware of shooters location at all times if within 3-4 city blocks. Has 'grown' spidersilk armor, but even without it, could simply disable or slay shooter while remaining out of line of sight.
Test Results: 5/6 not worried about guns, 4/6 if I'm feeling generous (Grue).
u/jiffyjuff [+3] (4 days later)
In the short term, yes, they may be able to survive a gunfight. In the long term, they are going to get shot if they regularly go up against squads of gunmen. A giant dog can only provide so much cover. Grue is vulnerable to stray bullets and ambushes. Regent has limited capacity to deflect aim; five armed people could probably take him with laughable ease if they're careful. Tattletale is powerful, but she can't cover every angle. She can't have every single law enforcement officer under her influence, she can't be simultaneously keeping track of every single patrol, plan and attack strategy of the multitude of heroic and lawful organizations in the city, and even if she does, all it takes is one angry carrying citizen to kill her.
Skitter and Imp I'll give you. But the rest wouldn't survive a year in action in a gun-heavy climate.
u/RynnisOne [+2] (6 days later)
In the long term, as well. See, your example is interesting, because you move from gunman or two to entire SQUADS of them. You assume, quite mistakenly, that one side will adapt its tactics while the other will not. If some group is using squads of gunmen, then the parahumans will naturally begin to team up to take such things under consideration as well, and they have MUCH more effective force multipliers than the gunmen.
The giant dog provides plenty of cover to take down one or two guys. In addition, she often has a pack of them handy. If anything, she's got it just as good against gunmen solo, simply because she can always train more dogs. And if she's solo, she can use as many as she likes... but in this case, she's free to team up. How good are guns in total darkness while you are being hunted by car-size dogs that can find you just as easily by scent? How do you arrange ambushes against someone who can detect a flea or louse on your body, as well as those as your teammates, while there's also a guy who can make you shoot yourself?
As for Tattletale, she kind of DID do exactly that. The problem with a 'corrupt' organization is that you only need a very small minority of people within it in key places for it to do shady things. Knowing those people and getting them what they want kind of is her power.
Remember that most of the heroes and villains held back from doing really crazy things to keep up the 'game', but if you have squads of gunmen coming after you, the gloves come off. As for a random citizen, most of the stories in Worm take place in big cities that are not exactly on the 'freedom' side of the right to bear arms.The only thing a year of gun-heavy climate will get you is some dead parahumans for the first week or two, followed by a LOT of dead gun dudes--as well as civilians--because it means the parahumans you are hunting no longer have any inclination to 'play nice' and will happily team up to break those organizations that try to hunt them.
u/CoronaPollentia [+7] (a day later)
You should read Ward, then - its central themes focus on rehabilitation and redemption, including through the justice system.
u/Sparkwitch [+2] (a day later)
Indeed. I also enjoyed Wildbow's PRT Quest, back in the day.
u/AurelianoTampa [+13] (18 hours later)
Even before reading the link, I'm just going to mention that the title of this is from Jonathan Coulton and his song "Future Soon." Not sure if this sub allows YouTube links, but if it does, you can listen to it here. JoCo (as he's called by fans) holds a special place in my heart for his hilarious and nerdy songs. He also has a cruise annually which is amazing (2019 is already sold out, but it includes They Might Be Giants, the McElroy family (of The Adventure Zone fame) and Paul & Storm).
... ok, fanboying moment over, time to read!
u/Gurkenglas [+10] (a day later)
The ending should have been clearer.
u/psychothumbs [+5] (a day later)
Yeah that's definitely my critique as well. Had to read over the last few paragraphs a couple times and am still not positive what happened.
u/redrach [+6] (a day later)
Same here. I get that he decided not to be the Securitat's mole on the Campus, but what was with the van rushing towards the Campus walls?
u/psychothumbs [+3] (a day later)
Yeah my first thought was that it was about to blow the campus walls and open the place up to the world, but it could also just be coming to arrest him.
u/RynnisOne [+3] (a day later)
This, so much.
I get that the author is trying to go for some ambiguous ending where you fill in the blank yourself, but if you're going to do that, don't do it by using terrible grammar to confuse the reader.
As it was written years ago, it doesn't really matter, but you think the writer would have tweaked that by now.
u/MultipartiteMind [+8] (17 hours later)
(Very 1984.)
u/aeschenkarnos [+3] (17 hours later)
Also kinda Brave New World. Perhaps it's intentionally a synthesis?
u/MultipartiteMind [+3] (3 days later)
My main takeaways from Brave New World were hypnotism and the prioritisation of bliss-happiness over all else of value; Atlas Shrugged came to mind, though, in which a bureaucrat explains to Rearden (thinking that he will cooperate once convinced of futility) that the legal system has been deliberately fashioned so that everyone is guilty of some criminal violation (so that they can arrest anyone anytime).
u/kaukamieli [+5] (4 hours later)
JoCo <3
u/want_to_want [+6] (a day later)
Is there a word for science fiction that tries to play out a hypothetical scenario, but that scenario has already played out in real life and proves the fiction dead wrong? Because this is an example of such fiction. Someone should tell Cory about the word "sharashka" and what actually happens when a police state requires nerd labor. If you think they will let nerds have their happy monastery, boy you're in for a surprise.
u/psychothumbs [+6] (a day later)
Idk, the Silicion Valley nerd laborers being used to support our current police state seem comfortable enough. "The campus" is pretty blatantly the Googleplex.
u/want_to_want [+2] (a day later)
US police doesn't "disappear" people though. An actual police state would look like this.
u/derefr [+7] (2 days later)
They disappear people, just not US citizens.
As a potential tourist from a country that’s not part of the Five Eyes, the US is a pretty terrifying entity, with places like Guantanamo Bay ready to swallow me up basically silently with any investigation on the part of my home country being basically stonewalled at every level.
u/psychothumbs [+3] (2 days later)
It's a spectrum of course. But I don't really see much of a contradiction between continuing our movement in the direction of being a police and Google employees continuing to have a pretty cushy existence.
u/zdk [+3] (10 minutes later)
Doctorow also has a podcast of him reading this story
http://media.us.macmillan.com/video/olmk/tor.com/CoryDoctorow/Weak%20and%20Strange_full_48kbps.mp3http://www.archive.org/download/WithALittleHelpMp3s/02-The_Things_That_Make_Me_Weak_and_Strange_Get_Engineered_Away_-Cory_Doctorow-_With_a_Little_Help.mp3
u/DropZeHamma [+2] (19 minutes later)
Link doesn't work for me
u/zdk [+6] (2 hours later)
Try: http://www.archive.org/download/WithALittleHelpMp3s/02-The_Things_That_Make_Me_Weak_and_Strange_Get_Engineered_Away_-Cory_Doctorow-_With_a_Little_Help.mp3
u/DropZeHamma [+2] (3 hours later)
Thanks!
u/FormerlySarsaparilla [+3] (23 hours later)
Haunting, somewhat too plausible for comfort. Thank you for posting it.