 |
|
 ysabetwordsmith | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This poem came out of the January 8, 2012 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from technoshaman and Dreamwidth user Chordatesrock. It has been sponsored by technoshaman. This poem belongs to the new series An Army of One and comes after "A Solitary Secession." The Velveteen Gloves
It was Weavercreep and Operetta
who invented the velveteen gloves.
Weavercreep had come from the Orion side
and was a brilliant programmer
who liked to spend weeks locked his lab,
creating programs and hacking open code. The problem was that after a code push,
he liked to come out and submerge himself
in a giant cuddlepile or be mummified in tape
or do something else interactive for while --
and it wasn't always possible to meet up
with the military running patrols. Weavercreep had a girlfriend
whose handle was Operetta,
originally from the Carinan side.
Her specialty was hardware, not software;
she designed whole new interfaces for military use. With the military out of the loop
as far as support and marketing were concerned,
she turned her attention elsewhere.
The two of them got together
and complained about the ways in which
the Lacuna made life difficult. Weavercreep sketched out a design
for a tactile interface, and Operetta
made the first pair of velveteen gloves
from polycarbon nanofiber.
It was soft and fuzzy and wonderful,
and once you logged in,
you could transmit physical sensations
over the ciphernet. It was not, quite,
as good as being there face-to-face,
but it came very close indeed
and it made the Lacuna
a lot less lonely for people
who liked solitude only some of the time. The military implications were fascinating.
The Carinan army used the same nanofiber
in their uniforms -- not intended
for the same kind of interface, of course,
so the reception was rather staticky --
but oh my, how they jumped and squealed
when someone grabbed them. It was a wonderful distraction.
One boarding party
who managed to breach a station
actually ran home crying
from the hundred ghostly hands
that pressed against them to drive them away. The trade potential proved compelling
as determined shoppers from both arms of the galaxy
flooded the black market with demands
for velveteen gloves. Operetta held out because
the things took a long time to make
and she wanted to reserve them for those
who really needed a pair. Finally the promised price rose so high
that she gave in, and shipped off the package,
and presented Weavercreep
with a potted tomato plant. "They were called love apples once,"
she said to his toes,
because she rarely made eye contact. "I love them," Weavercreep said,
and Operetta understood
that he really meant
I love you,
even though he wasn't
the sort of person to say that aloud. Tags: cyberfunded creativity, fishbowl, poem, poetry, reading, science fiction, writing
Current Mood:  busy
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
>>This series is turning very sweet, and I love the creativity everyone is displaying so far. (Lord of Pr0n is disturbingly plausible.)<<
Yay! That's good to hear.
>> I wonder who's providing the supplies; are they black market? If so, are the secessionists at a disadvantage because of their style of interaction? Or are supplies provided by sympathizers? <<
Immediately after the secession, they rely on stocked supplies; and they have a fair amount of those, because it's routine to keep stealth bases well stocked. They turn to the black market to get things they don't have, such as the means to grow food; and for things they run out of. The sympathizers come in later, because they don't move as fast as the black market. They're likely to become more important over time.
Yes, the interaction style can be a disadvantage if the secessionists have to deal with outsiders directly. However, black marketeers are practical folk and they will trade with anyone who's buying or selling. The sympathizers are willing to grant people extra leeway, or are on the same wavelength. Plus, facetime isn't the only trading option, and probably not even the dominant one. Filling out an order form or sending a message are things that many autistic people can do just fine. So the effects are erratic.
>>Additionally, I wonder about the civilians with autism spectrum disorders. Will they, somehow, make their way to the space stations? <<
I think some will, although it will take time for the word to get out and for people to figure out how to connect.
>> Will the people on the stations help them? Presumably, that would bring in a wider variety of skill sets. <<
Yes and yes. It won't always go smoothly, but the secessionists will figure out fast that they have a serious shortage of skill diversity. So they'll realize that they need more and different people. The key will be finding compatible ones. They've made a crucial step in community formation, though: setting a common vision. You could do worse than setting tolerance and privacy as cornerstones.
>>If they start doing so, though, will they be stigmatized even more in Orion and Carinan? Will everyone who seems a little autistic be regarded with the utmost suspicion? That would make me very sad.<<
That's a likely outcome. It simply plays on human nature, the kind of mistakes that people consistently make throughout history: those who are discernibly different tend to get ostracized, which leads to coping mechanisms that can offend the mainstream, which can make the oppression even worse. It would take a significant amount of time to kick in, though. We know that this is "a group of autistic people in a war of secession" but the other characters haven't really figured that out. Even the armies probably don't think of it that. It's just "that bunch of damn dissidents in the crack" to them. They can tell people have some common traits, and if they looked at the records they might realize the prevalence of autistic spectrum presentation there -- but they haven't. What will get out is a general observation of what the people are like and how they run their space. The real info will be harder to get than the propaganda ("Bad deserters! BAD! BAD!!111!) will. Gradually, though, interested parties in the arms will discover the truth and venture forth to make contact. The realization that it's an autistic nation will also come slowly. Once that happens, people in the arms will probably shun and/or oppress those who are left. (I foresee a possible gushing of talent into the Lacuna. If they're not careful, that can do serious damage; in my main science fiction setting the Conservancy bled talent so badly that it took them centuries to recover.) That would get worse over time, pressuring more autistics to emigrate.
However, crowdfunding is inherently collaborative. If you find the idea of increased oppression upsetting, try thinking of alternatives. You'd need to come up with a compelling argument why humans wouldn't do the stupid thing they usually do in such circumstances, but it's possible. Maybe somebody will give them a quarter to go put in the Clue Machine.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I wonder whether isolated autistic hacker teenagers swept up in the romance of a nation of people like them will just run away alone or whether they'll help bring others. Maybe both.
(I'm imagining a sort of "rescue run" on a stolen shuttle, where the hacker stops by to help a non-self-supporting autistic person escape xyr parents, and brings xem along to the Lacuna.)
What about autistic people who love their neurotypical friends and relatives, who have a niche (albeit an odd one carved out by pain and toil), who love their home and their own routine and don't want to abandon it? They're going to have the hardest, most miserable time of all. Hard, miserable times are wonderful fodder for stories.
Whom does the new society in the Lacuna oppress? Probably not autistic people. Are NTs oppressed? I doubt that; they know what it feels like and would never do that. Additionally, the circumstances of their nation's founding probably mean racism isn't going to be big. However, they do all come from the military; there may be strong undercurrents of ableism against people with physical disabilities. I find this so unbelievably sad, that a disabled separatist group would oppress PWDs. I, for instance, would not be able to go there. (People with chronic illnesses will have to bring their own pills. Many people have not only autism but other conditions, like epilepsy. This could be very relevant.) Can we have a huge influx of people disabled by their autism or by other conditions who are also strong proponents of disability rights and defeat the budding ableism in the culture, slowly and by showing their worth, as well as by explaining things about the social model and making use of everyone? I just don't like that I've played any part in creating a society with prejudice, even though it's realistic. :( (This is not to say that I don't find this story beautiful so far.)
I can't find a way out of people in the arms oppressing autistic people. All I can think of is even worse (mis-blaming it on mental illnesses or concluding that aliens made them do it), but there should be some other story about a literal Clue Machine that literally takes quarters.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
>>I wonder whether isolated autistic hacker teenagers swept up in the romance of a nation of people like them will just run away alone or whether they'll help bring others. Maybe both.<<
I'd expect both. And then my brain went straight to the Children's Crusade and extrapolated an alarmingly high casualty rate because space will kill you if it can, and inexperienced young people make mistakes. Ouch. I think tech-passionate refugees would have better chances, but not all of them will have those skills, and indeed it's other skills the Lacuna is calling for. Huh, I should look up some boat people articles as a reference for hazardous passage.
>> (I'm imagining a sort of "rescue run" on a stolen shuttle, where the hacker stops by to help a non-self-supporting autistic person escape xyr parents, and brings xem along to the Lacuna.) <<
That's likely.
>>What about autistic people who love their neurotypical friends and relatives, who have a niche (albeit an odd one carved out by pain and toil), who love their home and their own routine and don't want to abandon it? They're going to have the hardest, most miserable time of all. Hard, miserable times are wonderful fodder for stories.<<
Some would stay, some would go alone, some would convince family to come along. Individual variations. I will bet on some neurotypical people moving to the Lacuna. No society is perfectly homogenous. In my main SF setting, Picture This! was settled about 75% by creative people and 25% by agents, gallery owners, publishers, random family members, etc. Of all my colonies, that one came the closest to failing without going out. I love 'em to pieces but they're a little bit batshit.
>>Whom does the new society in the Lacuna oppress?<<
Well, what do autistic people hate the most? Some are very territorial and hate people messing with their stuff. Some hate being interrupted once they're hyperfocused on a project. Some hate being pestered for attention, social interaction, touching, etc. Pranks are not funny at all if you're body-sensitive and have a hard time parsing some types of humor. So one possibility is that extroverts would be unpopular there, the way autistics are unpopular for being out of tune with social expectations in neurotypical culture. Not so much oppressed as nobody's first pick for friends and often getting scolding for doing things which are natural to them but annoying to the majority nearby.
Another source would be groups that have caused difficulties for them. They probably don't like either arm's government. They feel like the military dissed them. So they may be suspicious of outsiders. A lot of autistics have had negative experiences with health care providers, but they have a higher-than-average need for those services. Deserters would be offensive to the military background of the secessionists, and yet, they kind of did the same thing themselves so they could sympathize. Those two groups are likely to generate very mixed feelings. If you want to mix oil and water, you really have to hold down the "frappe" button on the blender to make mayonnaise.
>>Additionally, the circumstances of their nation's founding probably mean racism isn't going to be big.<<
Agreed.
>> However, they do all come from the military; there may be strong undercurrents of ableism against people with physical disabilities. <<
That's plausible.
[To be continued ...]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Okay, the best general guide is Space Travel by Ben Bova with Anthony R. Lewis. If you have a library card you could probably get it on loan. It covers methods achievable with known science and some extrapolation of other possibilities. There's also a sizable section on space habitats, which is useful for this series in general. Based on what I've already written, I can look at the setting and extrapolate backwards to derive certain base premises. They fought a war across long interstellar distances. Therefore they must have a means of crossing those distances much more efficiently than we do. However, it's a highly territorial war, which means they don't have something like a set of jumpgates that instantly transport ships; they are actually crossing the distance. So it's probably going to be something like a warp drive. They probably have different speed modes for different circumstances, and the in-system or planetary drive may be a lower version or a totally different piece of equipment. Given the geopolitics -- two big groups warring across a divide -- it looks a lot like England/France or Europe/Americas. Consider something like the golden age of piracy (~1650s-1730s), the Age of Discovery (1400s-1600s), or the Age of Sail (1500s-1800s). In various ways, those were about travel over long distances at comparatively fast but not instant rates; you could go a long way in a useful manner, but it took a while. They shipped people and goods; they fought wars; and territory mattered a great deal. You probably don't need to worry about that a whole lot. You've got your conflict and tragic conclusion: people die in space while trying to get somewhere. That's easy and there are plenty of established ways to do that which don't require you to specify how the stardrive would have worked. A key question for you: do you want a story about what goes wrong, or how people feel? The former would require more technical detail, although if you're writing about teenagers they might simply see symptoms and not know why. ("I don't know what went wrong! It just started smoking like that!") The latter would require less technical detail. You might simply have people sitting the dark waiting to die and thinking about the situation. [To be continued ...]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
[Continuing ...] Easy, established ways to die in space include: * collision with even a small object. The ship is either holed (see decompression) or smashed altogether. Usually instant. * explosive decompression. An airlock fails, the hull is breached, or something else lets the air out. Can be fast or slow. * life support malfunction. The atmosphere becomes unbreathable; the ship will either freeze or overheat depending on where it is. * other equipment malfunction. The engine fails or explodes, the guidance system jams, shielding does not protect, etc. Can be fast or slow. * supply shortage. Error or accident may cause a vital resource (fuel, oxygen, food, medicine, etc.) to be unusable or absent. Can be fast or slow. * overshoot. There are more people than the equipment can support. Very slow, and there's the 'lifeboat' issue of whether to kill some to save others. Since you're dealing with young refugees, all of those are feasible because they'll be operating outside of ordinary travel parameters. They may stow away, steal or forge tickets, build or retrofit a ship, scavenge supplies, or do other risky and desperate things. Equipment failure is a leading cause of refugee death on the seas, but supply shortages and overshoot also contribute. Those factors all converge to make a fatal result plausible when safety measures would prevent it under more usual circumstances. There is a hideous story, " The Cold Equations,," that is iconic of space-travel-related death due to youthful idiocy. The Sector General series is a brilliant example of plotty SF with a focus on technological and medical mysteries. This is great reading for inspiration on how to smash people up in space, and how to use bits of real science to make the pseudoscience seem plausible. Also White's aliens absolutely are alien and can behave very differently (which makes the similarities charming or funny). Used bookstores often have one or two of these books. Here's a list of actual fatalities from space exploration programs. One excellent writing trick is to take a historic event and transpose it into a futuristic context. Death by asphyxiation happens if the air runs out or is tainted. Death by overheating or freezing happens if the temperature control fails. Starvation results from food shortage, and water shortage is fairly similar but has a much shorter timeframe (a few weeks for starvation, a few days for thirst). Decompression happens if the ship loses air pressure. Here are some articles about "boat people," various groups of desperate refugees who set sail in shabby overcrowded boats with too few supplies. Similar issues may arise with governments in the arms and the Lacuna. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boat_peoplehttp://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/politicians-pride-is-killing-boat-people/story-e6frfifx-1226410126374http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/enough-with-the-politics-too-many-people-have-died/http://archives.dawn.com/archives/2576http://countrystudies.us/haiti/22.htmhttp://www.osi.hu/fmp/html/haitian_full.html[END]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
[Continuing ...]
>> I find this so unbelievably sad, that a disabled separatist group would oppress PWDs. I, for instance, would not be able to go there. (People with chronic illnesses will have to bring their own pills. Many people have not only autism but other conditions, like epilepsy. This could be very relevant.) <<
Excellent catch on pharmaceuticals; that's going to be a big bottleneck once the current stock runs out. So they'll have to deal with that somehow.
On the other hoof, we've got a separatist group with experience being oppressed ... and a high appreciation for logic. That means they're more likely to notice or have pointed out to them that they're discriminating against someone else and it's not okay. Once that happens, I suspect they'd make the call based on practicalities rather than emotion. (A huge factor in human interactions is that many people make decisions based on emotions or faith rather than logic or facts, and people do not get along easily across that gap.) Can this person's disability be accommodated with available supplies? If so, they can come; if not, they can't. There are going to be hard physical limits to what they can accommodate, especially in the beginning. Later on, they may have more flexibility.
>>Can we have a huge influx of people disabled by their autism or by other conditions who are also strong proponents of disability rights and defeat the budding ableism in the culture, slowly and by showing their worth, as well as by explaining things about the social model and making use of everyone?<<
A huge influx is not feasible for hard science reasons as well as plot reasons. It'll be an intermittent trickle. It just looks kind of bigger because the initial population isn't all that big. A key thing to remember is that in space, carrying capacity is finite and fairly inflexible. The stations may have plenty of space where equipment was stashed or whatnot, that could be moved to make bedrooms. But carrying capacity is defined not by bunkspace but by sewage flow, pipe size, life support filter density, heat dispersion fins, etc. It's hard to retrofit anything for a bigger population in space. You can do it, but it's very risky. So they're going to be limited by the original crew size of the bases and ships, trading in new people for the old ones who left, until they can build habitats of their own. That has to be a vital goal for them, after initial survival. They need to find a planetary system or build a big station. But they won't have the resources or personnel for that soon. Catch-22.
Socially, the new people will introduce new bits of culture. Positive change is possible. Most revolutions fail, either outright or because they really do just act like revolving doors. But a few ... have changed the world, have been evolutions instead.
[To be continued ...]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Yeah, the limited space and resources will make it impractical to raise animals for a while. *ponder* But if someone who needed that could *get* the animals and, say, a large ship ... that might work.
I think the rule is going to wind up being that, if you can increase the carrying capacity of the group to cover yourself, you can join; otherwise not. They just don't have much fault tolerance in their resources, and won't for a while.
Another possibility, however, is that one or more bases might have small lab animals such as mice, guinea pigs, rabbits, etc. They do seem to have some kind of medical supply, and if you were going to build a secret lab, the Lacuna would be the place for it. Rabbits are edible and produce excellent fertilizer; they'd be tremendously useful. Have to think about that.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
[Continuing...]
>> I just don't like that I've played any part in creating a society with prejudice, even though it's realistic. :( (This is not to say that I don't find this story beautiful so far.) <<
All societies have prejudices. Some are ugly and overwhelming. Some are minor and obscure. I tend to prefer creating societies with a moderate mix of strengths and weaknesses. I've done a few with a very thematic flavor, and a few pushed strongly toward the positive or negative end. This one is thematic and that will flavor most of its characteristics. I think it's likely to be less oppressive than average precisely because it's a backlash against that. But they're still liable to have something they dislike enough to pick on. My goal is to create something plausible, constructive, illuminating, and entertaining.
Also, projects with unlikable characters have a much lower rate of success. Why would I read a book if I hate everyone in it? Give me somebody I'd like to have a cup of tea with, or chances are, I'm leaving. So I treat my audience the same way and try to introduce them to characters whose company they will enjoy. That means, aside from some villains, one of my leading rules for characters is "Don't be a dick."
>>I can't find a way out of people in the arms oppressing autistic people. All I can think of is even worse (mis-blaming it on mental illnesses or concluding that aliens made them do it),<<
Fair enough.
>> but there should be some other story about a literal Clue Machine that literally takes quarters.<<
I may have mentioned this in poetry before. I did in fact put one in a roleplaying game, although it took soul-coins based on that game's internal mechanics. You put in a bit of mystical energy and got a very good hint. It was awesome. There was a wishing well too.
[END]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Previous
