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I still haven’t found a catchy yet fitting name, so for the time being it’s Anglada.odt. It has turned out to be a sequel to Mars, Ho! and Voyage to Earth, and a prequel to Nobots. Bill Kelly returns, aged 245 Martian time, 61 relativity time. Einstein’s theory is the story’s main theme.
This story has a lot I’ve not used before, like a dystopia. I’ve become really tired of reading future dystopias, it seems that’s the only thing kids can write these days. Probably because we’re sliding headlong into one, thanks to people like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberh, Bezos, the Sacklers, the Waltons, the Cochs, everyone who’s dirty, filthy, stinking rich with vast stock portfolios that include oil stock and bribes to legislators moving their taxes from them to the working class*, and legally stealing their labor.
But there are two “worlds” here, Earth, and the spacers on Mars and in the asteroids. Those living on asteroids are called “asterites,” a word Poul Anderson coined in his Industrial Revolution. The spacers (Asimov coined that one) live well, all what we would call overweight, a boon to someone living on Sylvia or even Mars, because of the low gravity. Work is voluntary, and there’s a mandatory retirement age of sixty.
Earth is my first dystopia, a real hellhole, with hurricanes on land, five mile wide EF-5 tornadoes, and everyone living underground, even the Amish. At the beginning of the story, the Yellowstone supervolcano has exploded, killing millions instantly and billions of war and starvation afterwards. It begins with Earth a dictatorship that resembles both fascism and communism; basically, the whole world is North Korea with weather running everyone underground, and everyone skin and bones, always hungry. You kids like dystopias? There’s a pandemic that kills three quarters of the population... but fortunately, very little concerns Earth. Most of the story is on the trip to Centauri, and the Martian base.
It’s also my first story with a sad part; I hate sad stories. Also the only story with a little kid, an orphan whose Grandpa is headed to Anglada.
Here are some snippets, which may or may not be in the final book. It starts off:
History’s first human venture outside our star’s heliosphere was an utter catastrophe that ended in insanity.
After a few paragraphs, most of Grommler is in it. Everyone thinks the insanity is from the plants on Grommler, but it’s the time stretch.
Almost everyone in the story are elderly, the youngest three on the ship are in their fifties. Explaining why would involve a spoiler. One is fifty five, the youngest (except the psychologists, in their early fifties) The fifty five year old is a musician, there to put on shows for the crew, so the story’s a lot about music, and all that goes with it, like insane copyrights, which have stretched to infinity in the story, everything before the twenty first century public domain, and afterwards perpetual copyrights owned by corporations.
Computers write all books, plays, music... A geologist named Will is an amateur guitarist (there are no more professionals, it’s all computers) who thinks he sucks. Sue is a hydrologist who also plays a mean flute.
He finished the tune. “I told you I sucked,” he said as he put the guitar back on its stand.
Sue was applauding. Bob said “Dude, that’s a much better version than what the computer plays.”
“You’re just being nice.”
Sue said, “No, really, that was good! Bob’s right, it was better than the computer version. The computer version has a lot more notes but no soul at all. You could make money playing that!”
“You think so?” he said.
“No,” Bob interjected. “A two hundred year old Earthian law says that an ancient corporation owns the tune and you have to pay them. There’s no way you could profit. Copyrights have been perpetual for two hundred fifty years now. Let me teach you some of the old, pre-copyright tunes. Here, here’s one called a Bolero...”
It isn’t mentioned by name, but the song Stairway to Heaven is in it, as is...
Three days later, Bob Black sat on the stage in the commons with his guitar, a real antique, a Fender Stratocaster, tuning it with a normal electronic tuner like they’d had almost since the Strat had been invented. The computer generated Muzak that Bob hated played. Bar stools were all occupied and a large fraction of the tables were, as well. Half of the people there had never heard real music, played on a real musical instrument by a real person before.
Bob’s family had been musically inclined for generations. He had been named after another guitar player long ago, his great grandfather Rob Black; both were named “Robert Black” on birth certificates.
Not only had he seemingly inherited his musical talent, which science didn’t say was hereditary, but musicians did, but also books and books of sheet music going back centuries. He’d had them digitized, and the physical books were locked up in a warehouse on Mars.
His guitar tuned up, he started with an ancient tune called “Thirty Days in the Hole” from one of the antique books. He never had found out what “Newcastle Brown” was, a disease, maybe?
Unlike way too much science fiction, mine always actually has real science, scientists, end possible future engineering. The main science in this one is psychology, although there are other fields.
There are no computer scientists in the story, but lots of computers. I wonder what OS they’ll be running in a few hundred years?
So far it’s about 27,000 words and 85 pages, maybe a third of the way finished.
* In 1940, the lowest federal tax rate was over four times the median income. In the 1950s and '60s a single paycheck paid a family's bills, the minimum wage would support a young couple with a child. We have been ROBBED silently.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday April 12, @02:18PM (22 children)
> five mile wide EF-5 tornadoes
If you haven't, I recommend reading Heavy Weather by Bruce Sterling. It would seem to be the basis of the screenplay for the movie Twister - but Twister came out pretty tame by comparison.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday April 12, @02:22PM (21 children)
There should be a mod: Inconvenient Truth
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 12, @03:03PM (13 children)
Can we get Community Notes style fact checks on the al-Gore-rhythm first? [cei.org]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 12, @06:32PM (12 children)
Ha ha, Competitive Enterprise Institute? Why are rightwing propaganda groups always so terribly named? They probably figure the idiots who roll with their cherry picked quotes will also fall for such amazingwordbingo names. Let us all ignore the problems just because predicting the weather and future technological developmemts is hard? Regardless of predictions we know human industry is decimating ecological systems and driving climate change, but we have to fight with anti-intellectual jerks more concerned with quarterly profits. Also whinging about an activist film put out by a politician? You must watch Fox "News"
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 12, @08:17PM (7 children)
56 years of pseudo-scientific climate bullshit notwithstanding, why are Malthusians, Eugenicists and Socialists always so concerned about others? If what they claim is true they'd lead by example, take a look in the mirror and do the rest of us a favor.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 12, @09:24PM
The gist of the post before yours was that nobody should watch Fox news. As in: "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain."
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 12, @10:56PM (5 children)
So your response to criticism and facts are to tell people to, I'm assuming, go kill themselves? Super healthy world view, must be a blast at parties! Only good thing from dumbo was making conservatives comfortable dropping their masks so we can all see how hate filled you truly are. Must eat you alive that the climate scientists were right, thus why you make such a fuss about cherry picked predictions as we face record year after record year of extreme weather and global average temperature increase.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 12, @11:34PM (1 child)
I'm Spartacus!I mean, Bart Simpson gave that same speech, 20 years ago.(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14, @01:09AM
I am aristarchus. What's your point? Silly Republicans! Planet is not for sale.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 13, @12:29AM (2 children)
My response to psychopathic liars pushing murderous ideologies onto others is go eat your own proverbial dog food, chug down that kool-aid, fellate your fallacies.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 13, @06:05AM
Yeah, that's what they said in 1970, but back then they had songs. You need a song. Without it, everyone will look at all those repeating doomsday scenarios, those few-year deadlines from teenage influencers, and then go back to worrying if there will be enough money to make it to payday. We are a hell of a lot closer to nuclear Armageddon.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 13, @04:21PM
Big ol YES on the psycho meter. Switching to less polluting sources of energy is 100% alright by me. If your solar panels are murdering you then I suggest a competent installer next time. Or maybe you mixed up my murderous ideology with Texas power management? I hear the extreme weather broke their power grid and led to some murderously unnecessary deaths, along with some life savings wiped out by the amazing private energy sector.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 12, @09:00PM (3 children)
Like "The Human Rights Campaign." You'd never guess that it's about shaking down businesses with threats of bad "Social Credit Scores."
Anheuser-Busch is all-in... only cost them $7-billion.
Naming is only important if you want everyone to know what you do for a living.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14, @01:11AM (1 child)
Do you really want to drink the same beer as Kid Rock? Eeeeewwwww!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14, @06:35PM
Even if he eats what he catches, it's still better than drinking Bill Gates' backwash [theregister.com].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 15, @04:34AM
You are among friends, use the short form: HRC.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 12, @10:20PM (6 children)
Good idea:
Court Identifies Eleven Inaccuracies in Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ [newsbusters.org]
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday April 12, @11:10PM (5 children)
Indeed. It's not the global warning that is causing coral bleaching, as far as I know.
The CO2 is doing that directly by increasing the ocean's acidity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 13, @12:47AM (4 children)
Stop, you're making me chomp at the bit, waiting for this fantasy about evil Republicans killing children, being chased underground by cannibalistic Shakers and poisonous cow farts. What, no flying monkeys?
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 13, @11:50PM (3 children)
Republicans diddle the kids, sometimes after marrying them. Guess in the post apocalypse you're saying you'd eat them too?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14, @02:38AM
Joe isn't a Republican.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14, @03:18AM (1 child)
“Let’s Go Lick the World”
- Joe Biden
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14, @12:29PM
"Grab em by the pussy!"
- Legally accused pedophile that creeps on his daughter
Still funny you think any lefty cares for Biden, still better than discount mussolini tho
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday April 12, @02:23PM (12 children)
but I'm not following this math:
* In 1940, the lowest federal tax rate was over four times the median income.
Are you saying: you had to be making 4x the median income to pay any federal taxes? Given the awesome wealth disparity of the late 1800s/early 1900s, that kind of makes sense: why bother trying to extract blood from the turnips?
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 13, @09:17PM
I think it's not quite accurate. Here's a chart of historical income tax brackets: https://taxfoundation.org/historical-income-tax-rates-brackets/ [taxfoundation.org]. The first $4,000 that people earned was taxed at a rate of 4%. Using the inflation calculator at https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ [usinflationcalculator.com], what you could buy in 1940 for $4,000 would now cost you around $86,000. The income taxes from that era were far more progressive, meaning that the highest tax bracket was 79%. That was for earnings over $5 million, which equates to nearly $108 million in 2023. It's also an interesting choice to focus on 1940, because the lowest tax rate was raised dramatically starting in 1941. The increases were due in no small part to WW2. Our highest tax bracket tops out at 37%, I believe. People at the threshold for the 37% bracket pay a bit more in the present day, adjusted for inflation, than they would in 1940. The difference is that we don't have additional tax brackets today above 37%, unlike 1940.
As per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Timeline_of_federal_minimum_hourly_wage_for_the_United_States_(including_inflation-adjusted)._Congressional_Research_Service.gif [wikipedia.org], the purchasing power from minimum wage is actually greater now than in 1940.
I do agree with the conclusion that we have been robbed. The issue is that wealth inequality has grown in the United States. The poor and middle class have lost their share of overall wealth, which has been concentrated with the wealthiest Americans. I'll cite https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/01/09/trends-in-income-and-wealth-inequality/ [pewresearch.org] for that. According to https://www.brookings.edu/testimonies/funding-our-nations-priorities-reforming-the-tax-codes-advantageous-treatment-of-the-wealthy/ [brookings.edu], our current tax structure, which as I said is less progressive at the top, does little to prevent wealth inequality from getting worse. It's not that the wealthy are growing their wealth by being more productive. A lot of this is really from rent-seeking and loopholes that allow them to avoid paying taxes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 13, @09:23PM (1 child)
The point is that EVERYTHING should be free and people shouldn't have to work very long before they get to retire to their free Martian mansion... but at the same time, and completely unrelated to spending, we have been ROBBED by high taxes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 13, @11:47PM
The robbed bit is the fact that the wealthy have been more tax cuts while the poor pay more, and then billions go to badly managed companies designated too big to fail. Plus all the corruption in government contracts. But go ahead, make some stupid commentary that sounds like a valid quip.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by mcgrew on Thursday April 13, @09:57PM (8 children)
Are you saying: you had to be making 4x the median income to pay any federal taxes?
Yes. The median income was under a thousand a year, lowest taxable was over four thousand. You can look it up as I did, my grandmother told me in the '70s and I was skeptical. Looked it up recently.
why bother trying to extract blood from the turnips?
In the case of today's taxation, spend a cubic centimeter out of your Olympic swimming pool full to bribe politicians to bleed it off those who can't really afford to pay it. That's "capitalism" today.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 13, @10:52PM
I believe the first $4,000 was taxed at 4%, but everything above that was subject to a surtax in addition to the 4%. I do agree with your comments about how the wealthy pay little in taxes because of exceptions created by politicians, but the poor and middle class don't have access to those exceptions. Taxes for Medicare and Social Security are fairly substantial, but they are regressive taxes. It means people with lower incomes actually pay a greater percentage of their income for these taxes than the wealthy do. These are a large portion of federal spending and are in danger of insolvency, but could be fixed for quite awhile by making these taxes flat instead of regressive.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday April 13, @11:53PM (4 children)
Somewhere in there it became "morally unacceptable" for anyone to escape payment of taxes.
As I have said many times: today's society would benefit tremendously from a small, barely liveable, Universal Basic Income. Then every dollar earned should pay the exact same percentage income tax, regardless of the earner's income level or other status. Want monetary incentives for various things? Make direct payment instead of mucking around in the tax code.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday April 17, @06:23PM (3 children)
The universal minimum income will be a societal necessity, probably before this century is over.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday April 17, @06:54PM (2 children)
The question is: will we get the universal income, or will we get the next brownshirts who kill off enough "others" that they set society back to where universal income is no longer required?
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday April 19, @05:54PM (1 child)
If it gets that bad there will be blood in the streets, and most of the blood will be the blood of the fascists.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday April 19, @06:10PM
>most of the blood will be the blood of the fascists.
We can hope, and January 6th seems to have confirmed it, but there are days when I wonder...
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday April 13, @11:57PM (1 child)
By the way, the house I purchased in 1993 for $80K and sold in 2001 for $206K was built in 1935 and sold new for $3,785.
Could you imagine if the UBI "break even" point where income tax balanced with UBI payment was $100K?
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14, @08:03PM
Bill Clinton 1993-2001
GDP growth: 0.3%
Unemployment: 4.2%
Inflation: 3.7%
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 15, @07:29AM (2 children)
Yes,
Belimy bastids, the fucktarity of the whole thing escapes you? Of course it does. Runaway is a Black Person, passing as white, and all you have to do is check the Little River County property records, as the AC that is "just saying" repeatedly says. Does he have an agricultural easement? Double-wide, on the wife's allotment? Fortified against attacks by the anti-fa, and angry neighbors?
I expect Runaway to be dead within the year, but that is only based on actuarials.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 15, @08:05PM (1 child)
What does that have to do with promoting an unwritten book, The Inconvenient AlGore, and extra-planetary evil Republicans?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16, @08:51PM
Looks to be a trifecta!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16, @03:23AM (1 child)
Call me Shithead. If you really want to hear about it, it was dark and stormy in a galaxy far, far away, the clock had just beeped twenty-five; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of writing what was hot last month and releasing it next year. I simply don't recall how Gregor Samsa ended up next to me in bed, but we will get to know each other better in the morning.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16, @09:59PM