tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7882696241406815138.post4068230587880623477..comments2023-09-02T14:13:10.364-07:00Comments on Mouse's Musings: Tomorrow Belongs To Me!Mousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11936002393931074811noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7882696241406815138.post-73295412060402482942017-02-01T09:28:25.588-08:002017-02-01T09:28:25.588-08:00Though I do find myself wondering if, in an attemp...Though I do find myself wondering if, in an attempt to curb the massive population growth among the TOL, the MK will try to outlaw heterosexuality and make homosexuality the law, because homosexual couples can't produce children and...yeah, like hell that would happen. It just amuses me though, trying to take arguments to extremes to show the insanity of it all. <br /><br />Comic version of the argument: http://www.shortpacked.com/index.php?id=86Mousehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11936002393931074811noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7882696241406815138.post-45380957990826385242017-02-01T04:26:00.024-08:002017-02-01T04:26:00.024-08:00You're probably right: exponential curves have...You're probably right: exponential curves have a subtle power... except that it's all of a sudden not to subtle when it hits the inflexion point. Plus, in this setting Christians live longer (I asked Jerry Jenkins on his FB page, and he said that unbelievers over 100 simply "die of unbelief", which implies that eventually someone would develop the tech to restart the body again since there's nothing wrong with it - it's actually a major plot point in Left Beyond, the Metabolic Extension Controller. Here's a real life version: http://www.sciencealert.com/this-guy-lived-for-more-than-a-year-without-a-heart-in-his-body ) and people who live longer have fewer kids. And apparently keep dropping them off at COT throughout the Millennium until the last 200 years or so when COT is turned into an old peoples home. <br /><br />So, it's reasonable to guess that believer population grows more or less linearly, while unbeliever population grows more or less exponentially. This is actually a classic theoretical ecology problem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R/K_selection_theory<br /><br />So let's see. We have a believer population that starts strong, lives long, and grows slowly, and an unbeliever population that starts small, has a short lifespan, and grows quickly. Why am I reminded of Elves and Men?<br /><br />An interesting question would be whether a speciation event would occur. I'd have to go with no: 1000 years isn't fast enough. It'd be amusing if TurboJesus forgot to set the alarm, and got out of His Throne in the Temple after a while longer to find Eloi and Morlocks... (And yes, Jesus never leaves the Temple for 1000 years in KC. The Biblical heroes do, but they never leave Greater Jerusalem either. Maybe there's a containment field, maybe they built a wall and made The Other Light pay for it, who knows.)<br /><br />In his books, Jenkins generally has the "bad guys" only do well as little as necessary for the plot to advance: Satan getting to "again tempt the nations for a little while" lasts about two D&D rounds, Carpathia's meteoric ascent to power happens in a time skip, and in general we don't ever get to see the bad guys kick some ass. Most of Kingdom Come is a time skip, so I am guessing that The Other Light spends nine centuries kicking ass and taking names, otherwise they couldn't take a giant army to Jerusalem.<br /><br />I started my strategy game in +900, which has The Other Light doing relatively well but not in control of any territory (but remember the exponential curve thing!). Now it's +981 and they formally still don't control any territories, but are almost in parity with regards to population. Omega has recently lost California to the Christians, but they have managed to pierce the sky canopy and build colonies, on the off chance that those would survive. The Other Light is about to make their big push.spiritplumberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11103152769766633350noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7882696241406815138.post-14411715834232667532017-01-31T08:58:21.431-08:002017-01-31T08:58:21.431-08:00For the record, I know it's totally all about ...For the record, I know it's totally all about Abdullah, just as all the problems with Ellanjay can be summed up as "They Just Didn't Care" and "Filthy Filthy Lucre," but I try to be somewhat creative with these posts. I know it's hard to believe, given how much I repeat myself, but I try. <br /><br />Though, spiritplumber, if the Unbelievers are the majority when TurboJesus shows up in a thousand years, I'm trying to figure out how they managed that. The best answer I can come up with, is sex. Lots and lots of raucous sex. As a result, they produce a lot of kids, which they raise to be all hardened and evil, and in turn, those kids have lots and lots of sex and produce their own kids as well. Y'know the TOL is sounding suspiciously like the Quiverfull people. But they're a lot more fun to be around. <br /><br />Because again, here's a side-by-side comparison.<br /><br />Millies' Activities in Heaven: singing hymns, working around hordes of kids, listening to Biblical figures who tell copied and pasted stories from the Bible, and dourly looking down on people who live their lives in a manner different from yours. <br /><br />TOL activities: enjoying alcohol and drugs and having lots of sex, without any of the bad consequences of Earth, and dancing and rocking out to music with an actual beat. <br /><br />Again, they just keep undermining their own case. Mousehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11936002393931074811noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7882696241406815138.post-71495777569388350172017-01-30T11:33:15.648-08:002017-01-30T11:33:15.648-08:00Melvina, here I have Abdullah handle a death in a ...Melvina, here I have Abdullah handle a death in a TOL workshop in the same way that Buck handles Cendrillon's death: I think I haven't been fair to the character though. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11934303/1/Partial-Successspiritplumberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11103152769766633350noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7882696241406815138.post-84388205002528450672017-01-30T11:30:58.128-08:002017-01-30T11:30:58.128-08:00I'd like to point out that there is room for g...I'd like to point out that there is room for good stories in the Millennial Kingdom, if they are written in such a way that the "good guys" do basically nothing and the "bad guys" are so derpy that they manage to self-sabotage enough for the "bad guys" to win.<br /><br />Don't forget, at the end of the Millennium, unbelievers will once again be the majority, just so TurboJesus has the satisfaction of blowing them all up all over again like He did in the Glorious Appearing.<br /><br />That means that over the next 910 years or so, TOL... slowly but surely wins the culture war!<br /><br />There can be a lot of little back and forths that make for good stories.<br /><br />For example... <br /><br />A territory legalizing homosexuality, being slapped down by the central government, and political battles in parliament and in the street about freedom of conscience. <br /><br />TOL hardliners doing something particularly evil or stupid, like kidnapping a Glorified person to extract their organs for life extension purposes, and believers having to team up with non-insane nonbelievers to handle the matter.<br /><br />People trying to bring back some beauty into the flat, samey world of the Millennial Kingdom by geoengineering, or reconstructing a museum, or building a rocket drill to pierce the water/ice canopy that prevents the night sky from being visible (don't forget, there have been 93 years of eternal daylight! The Kingdom doesn't have mountains, or valleys, or waterfalls, or even the Milky Way to look at).<br /><br />http://exharpazo.blogspot.com/2007/05/children-of-goats-part-1.html How about children of the damned trying to get their parents out?<br /><br />Or you can take the long view and explore the next 900 years from a bird's eye so to speak. http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=left%20beyond The Left Beyond strategy game started in the year 900 and has now reached 980 (and is now longer than the book itself!). The Omega faction of nonbelievers have just lost the last election California is likely to have, and mostly have taken refuge in Egypt... however they've also managed to breach the canopy and build a moon base, which TOL has promptly tried to steal. All the while Tsion and Ely have teamed up to peacefully retake the West Coast and turn it back from being a hive of scum and villainy. TOL has built a huge Antarctic base to store their enormous army in. And so on.<br /><br />I think Kingdom Come is a little dull as a story, but as a setting, it can be quite interesting! There's lots of room for interesting stories even if they don't alter the overall plot, which is pretty set in stone (Stuff happens, TurboJesus pushes the win button, end) they can be used to explore the setting and the mindset of a people who are in the anteroom of Heaven yet conserve some of their humanity.<br /><br />I don't know why L&J chose to tell a couple of office-politics plots instead, or why they resorted to so much padding. The sitcom plots here could've taken 20 pages to do, and the many other interesting things about this settings could've been explored in the remaining 380.<br /><br />https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11569518/1/Cendrillon Work on Cendrillon's story continues.<br /><br />Happily, I have managed to convince someone else on Fanfiction of the above, and they've gotten back to writing: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12330438/1/Mercyspiritplumberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11103152769766633350noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7882696241406815138.post-34587153057570031502017-01-30T06:48:47.461-08:002017-01-30T06:48:47.461-08:00Exactly! It's all about Abdullah. I was arguin...Exactly! It's all about Abdullah. I was arguing with someone the other day about on my cousin's Facebook post whether it was the government's job to look after the poor and refugees, or private charities. He was saying that he's helped refugees in his community, but he also didn't feel like it should be the government's responsibility to do so - that it should just be a matter for private charities. I was saying it didn't sound like he viewed the people he helped as people, because you'd think if he did, wouldn't he be glad if they were getting as much help as they could? And also, the government is going to be able to help people on a wider scale and have more resources. Governmental aid is far from perfect, but in many ways it's going to be more efficient than a private charity. The last thing I asked was why the government can't just work in tandem with private charities in his worldview? Then he was like, "I don't see them as people? 😕" And I didn't know how to respond to that, so, I didn't... Anyway... Abdullah reminded me of that guy... So that's how it fits in...Melvinahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13990946326200511655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7882696241406815138.post-18201722154094905052017-01-29T14:45:45.946-08:002017-01-29T14:45:45.946-08:00Sure, they could have faded to white, but how else...Sure, they could have faded to white, but how else could they afford another solid gold Humvee? And diamond-studded swimming pools, these things don't grow on trees!<br /><br />Dante wrote about heaven, to some effect - though I think many people (certainly including me) find it the weakest part of the Divine Comedy. That's a heaven in multiple classes, and why (specific person) is in this particular class, and lots of theology.<br /><br />That thing Abdullah's planning to do isn't about TOL. It's about Abdullah. He will feel better, and gain status among the Millies, because he's gone out doing something that he can pretend is dangerous.<br /><br />I'm sure there's an Official Schedule for who gets to sit with Kenny when, just as you'd find in any good polygamous cult. (Even if the note is a fake, everyone finds it plausible!)Firedrakenoreply@blogger.com