update from sparkleup
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Madison Scott-Clary
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<li class="done2"> <a href="launch/phys/Douglas/008.html">Launch: phys-side: Douglas</a> - Sabotage attempts, hinting that there are those phys-side who have also picked up patterns and really don’t like System - 2802</li>
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<li class="done2"> <a href="secession/phys/Yared/008.html">Secession: phys-side: Yared</a> - Sure enough, support rapidly swings sys-side, long conversation with TN/Jonas about what it means, starting to see how having his name on the amendment is diving people not just on the subject, but on him, starting to think about death, showing fear that he had at beginning - 2839</li>
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<li class="done2"> <a href="launch/sys/Ioan/010.html">Launch: sys-side: Ioan</a> - Ioan, getting really pissed at how Odists won’t just answer eir fucking questions all the way and keep demurring at the last minute, interviews Jonas Prime, who has grown pessimistic, life wants to spread and multiply to make itself stronger, this is the root of the launch: offsite backups; thus why dreamer module was frowned upon: has broadcast w/ information about system, earth, interfacing, etc - 3375</li>
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<li class="done0"> <a href="launch/launch/Codrin-pollux/007.html">Launch: launch-side: Codrin#Pollux</a> - Interviews Ne Jonas, humanity best viewed as a resource to be used or a crop to be tended by System</li>
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<li class="done2"> <a href="launch/launch/Codrin-pollux/007.html">Launch: launch-side: Codrin#Pollux</a> - Interviews Ne Jonas, humanity best viewed as a resource to be used or a crop to be tended by System - 2752</li>
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<li class="done0"> <a href="launch/launch/Codrin-castor/007.html">Launch: launch-side: Codrin#Castor</a> - Interviews True Name for second time w/ more info, confronts for truth about the Odists’ role in post-secession, confirms, laughs down concerns.</li>
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<p>Codrin nodded. “The best form of communication, if you ask me.”</p>
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<p>“You would think so, wouldn’t you?” Ne Jonas laughed, sipped at his tea, winced, and set the mug down again. “But here, look at me, I’ve gone and steered the conversation to other topics. I want to make sure that I get to your questions. What do you have for me?”</p>
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<p>It almost felt a shame to move on to what Codrin knew were some topics that might be difficult or tense, but ey supposed it was as good a time as any. “Well, first of all, has your clade been keeping you up to date on the status of this project? I don’t want to make you feel like you’re repeating yourself.”</p>
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<p>Ne nodded and leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. “You’ve interviewed No Jonas and Jonas Prime from our clade, and from the Ode clade, you’ve interviewed Dear, Why Ask Questions, True Name, End Waking, and May Then My Name. You’ve also interviewed Ezekiel, Debarre, user11824, Yared Zerezghi, Sabeena, Brahe, and a handful of others who fall below the relevance threshold. Have I missed anyone worth talking about?”</p>
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<p>Ne nodded and leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. “You’ve interviewed No Jonas and Jonas Prime from our clade, and from the Ode clade, you’ve interviewed Dear, Why Ask Questions, True Name, End Waking, and May Then My Name. You’ve also interviewed Ezekiel, Debarre, user11824, Yared Zerezghi, Sabeena, Brahe, and a handful of others who fall below the relevance threshold. I believe your counterpart on Castor is interviewing True Name today for a second time, as well. Have I missed anyone worth talking about?”</p>
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<p>Codrin had paused, mug of tea halfway between the table and eir lips, and stared at Ne throughout the litany.</p>
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<p>“I don’t imagine I have,” he continued, smiling kindly. “You’ve talked about the influence of the Jonas and Ode clades in Secession and Launch, the ways in which we have interacted with phys-side both financially and politically in the last two hundred years, the work we did around Launch, our reasons for enforcing stability and divesting our resources to maintain continuity, and the concerns we hold around the Dreamer Modules. Correct? You may sip your tea first, though, if you’d like! Don’t let me stop you.”</p>
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<p>Ey set the mug carefully back onto the table, startled to realize that eir hand was shaking and eir breath coming shallow. Suddenly, ey saw the sim for what it was. It was a carefully prepared presentation, something constructed from top to bottom to appeal specifically to Codrin and those like em. The same, too, applied to Ne Jonas, whose entire personality was built around engendering feelings of camaraderie in those interested in history and stories.</p>
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<p>“Have you come up with any new ones?”</p>
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<p>“I guess. The first is why are you letting us even continue with the history project if you’re aiming to keep stability within the system? Won’t all of this coming to light impact that at all?”</p>
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<p>Ne brightened. “Oh, that’s a good one! The answer is twofold. Part one relates to something the No Jonas said to the other Codrin: stability is a thing that needs to be gardened and maintained, that there is no true stasis, but stability approaches that point asymptotically. This is a form of that gardening. When you have a rose garden or topiary, you know, you must cut away bits of it, but when you do, the whole becomes all the healthier and can last for years and years in the state you like it best. It may seem like a traumatic event to trim back roses. After all, you are cutting away good growth, aren’t you? But that’s how you get beautiful roses, year after year.</p>
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<p>“That’s what we’re doing with this project. We’re introducing a slightly traumatic event to make the stability of the system — that’s lower-case s, there, I’m talking of the sociopolitical system of those on the three capital-S Systems — stronger. Does that make sense.”</p>
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<p>“That’s what we’re doing with this project. We’re introducing a slightly traumatic event to make the stability of the system — that’s lower-case s, there, I’m talking of the sociopolitical system of those on the three capital-S Systems — stronger. Does that make sense?”</p>
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<p>“I suppose,” Codrin said. “You’ve done the cost-benefit analysis and determined it’s worth continuing on with, right?”</p>
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<p>“Yes, precisely that,” Ne said.</p>
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<p>“And what’s the second reason?”</p>
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<p>“The second reason is related to what Jonas Prime said to Ioan: humans, uploaded and not, need something to dream of. They need some better version of the life they live to hope for in order to feel comfortable. No one is happy for long in bliss, Codrin.”</p>
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<p>Ey blinked. “You mean you need some trauma like this sys-side in order to give people more bliss to aim for?”</p>
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<p>“Precisely that.” Ne sipped at his tea now that it had cooled and nodded approvingly. “There is much madness in the Ode Clade, but that is what I suspect nudged Qoheleth over the edge. If you can’t forget anything and all that you can remember is bliss, then bliss begins to feel like torture. His role was to think long term. He was working on the timescale of decades and centuries on shaping the perceived history of both of our clades, so he was already up to his ears in memory anyway. This project of yours will instill a little bit of terror in the hearts of everyone. Not enough that they will rebel, of course. In well over ninety percent of cases, they won’t do anything at all with the information, but it will tick up their anxiety a notch. It will put a dent in that bliss and make it less appealing.”</p>
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<p>“Precisely that.” Ne sipped at his tea now that it had cooled and nodded approvingly. “There is much madness in the Ode Clade, but that is what I suspect nudged Qoheleth over the edge. If you can’t forget anything and all that you can remember is bliss, then bliss begins to feel like torture. His role was to think long term. He was working on the timescale of decades and centuries on shaping the perceived history of both of our clades, so he was already up to his ears in memory anyway. This project of yours will instill a little bit of terror in the hearts of everyone. Not enough that they will rebel, of course. In well over ninety percent of cases, they won’t do anything at all with the information, but it will tick up their anxiety a notch. It will put a dent in that bliss and make it less appealing. Does that make sense, too?”</p>
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<p>Codrin finished taking down eir notes and sipped on eir tea, mulling it over. Eventually, ey nodded. “It does, yeah. We could thwart you by not publishing this project, but I guess you’ve already done the analysis on that and know that we won’t.”</p>
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<p>“You guess correctly, yes. Thwart, though, is an interesting choice of words. Do you feel like these are some evil plans that we hold?”</p>
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<p>“A little. It’s very dramatic. Very much like those supervillains who believe that there are core problems with the world, and if only they could just fix them, life would be so much better.”</p>
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<p>Ne laughed. “There are core problems with the world, Codrin. I’ve just enumerated several. You misunderstand, though. The core problems with the world aren’t the absolutes that your supervillains deal in. They’re the ways in which life struggles to maintain stable growth, and like I and my cocladists have said, the goal is not to solve those problems, but to garden around them and make them smaller problems. There is no solution to the question of what makes a stable and continuous world. That’s the asymptote. All we can do is hew as close to that ideal as we can.”</p>
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<p>“I think that many phys-side would be pretty upset by that, though, right? If they learn that you’ve been pulling strings from the System to ensure that everything keeps going the way you want, won’t they rebel against that idea?”</p>
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<p>“There are two things working against that supposition,” Ne said. “The first is that you misunderstand me when I say that we’ve done the cost-benefit analysis of your project and determined it beneficial. It’s beneficial to both sys- and phys-side for exactly the same reasons, though the mechanics may be different. The second is that you are misjudging just how in over your head you really are with all that we’ve done phys-side. As soon as Launch started and as soon as you were nudged to start the project — don’t frown, Codrin, you should have seen this coming — whispers were sent down the wire from the System to Earth to ensure that they would have the proper reaction to your work.”</p>
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<p>Codrin sat, silent, and stared at the man across from em. The man who had just admitted to subtly influencing billions of lives over hundreds of years through an organization made up entirely, ey assumed, of two clades. Hundreds or thousands of instances of two individuals.</p>
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<p>“I suspect we’re about done with the interview, but you must understand, Mx Balan, that we are the end product of phys-side life. Stability demands that we think that way. It demands that we think of all those billions of people back on Earth as part of our garden. Not the rose bushes, but the vegetables. They are the crop that we harvest to stay alive, and therefor they must be tended with as much love and care as the roses.”</p>
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<p>The room felt like it was elongating, stretching away from em as Ne spoke, as ey capped eir pen and got to eir feet, as ey gathered eir papers. The room was elongating and eir vision dimming around the edges.</p>
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<p>And still Ne Jonas sat, smiling kindly up to em. “That, my dear Codrin, is the big picture.”</p>
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</article>
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<footer>
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<p>Page generated on 2021-09-18</p>
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