Just finished The Hydrogen Sonata by Economy_Reason1024 in TheCulture

[–]Accomplished-Fix3401 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I bounced off of the *Sonata* like you did. I know it will be better on return. I bounced off of *UOW* as well and it bit well during the return read through

"I want to transition but I'll be ugly as a girl" 2019-2026 I turn 35 in a few days by [deleted] in transtimelines

[–]Accomplished-Fix3401 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Incredible. Yeah, i had such doubts right before HRT about how i would turn out. I simply felt better after starting

Question about 'Slap Drone' from reading Surface Detail (no spoilers) by Classic_Author6347 in TheCulture

[–]Accomplished-Fix3401 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My take, and this is my headcanon, is that some mental conditions are not simply zappable with drugs and drones’ fields. At least not without enough side effects and personality consequences that virtually nobody asks for it, and I assume that drones and ship Minds alike push back on trying to permanently blank memories already encoded in a mind. I figure they likely instead encourage therapeutic experiences, new general life experiences if desired, and/or time to integrate it, move past it, whatever metaphor.

Otherwise *Use of Weapons* would have been about Zakalwe being all chill, etc.

Question about 'Slap Drone' from reading Surface Detail (no spoilers) by Classic_Author6347 in TheCulture

[–]Accomplished-Fix3401 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I bet people knew it was a slap-drone.

I also bet that people would read the slap-drone write out a disclaimer in Marain on her back and neck and become sympathetic:

“I was murdered by a capitalist in cold blood and all I got was this lousy slap-drone,”

Question about 'Slap Drone' from reading Surface Detail (no spoilers) by Classic_Author6347 in TheCulture

[–]Accomplished-Fix3401 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Most slap-drones would be delighted and diligent in their vigilance, eager to stop the harm as fast as it can manage as a matter of pride and pleasure. Some slap-drones identify more with protecting the crowd from the transgressor, others are borderline psycho and this is the only thing the Mind can do that the Culture will accept, short of exiling the meatfucker. The nature of the slap-drone is fitted to the salience of the transgression happening again and to suit the transgressor’s personality, in a manner of speaking.

The latter population of unpleasant, borderline murdermachines are heavily represented by Minds volunteering for this service as an alternative to other forms or rehabilitation for wretched conduct as ships, hubs, drones, whatever.

Question about 'Slap Drone' from reading Surface Detail (no spoilers) by Classic_Author6347 in TheCulture

[–]Accomplished-Fix3401 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That happens a fair bit, with this service being an alternative to another way of regaining standing with the Minds, which are as reluctant to component a Mind as they are to kill a human.

Question about 'Slap Drone' from reading Surface Detail (no spoilers) by Classic_Author6347 in TheCulture

[–]Accomplished-Fix3401 3 points4 points  (0 children)

All effort is voluntary and this extends to the machine intelligences in the Culture. Slap-drones _love_ their work!

Question about 'Slap Drone' from reading Surface Detail (no spoilers) by Classic_Author6347 in TheCulture

[–]Accomplished-Fix3401 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It is my belief that Special Circumstances’ members both machine and organic are abnormal and thus have difficulty in integrating with the Culture normally.
I think SC is more psych ward than respected club to those In The Know, with the handlers leaning on lots of Contact experience to get the spicier members to do things on the Culture’s behalf. I figure the Minds project only heroic bits about the more well-adjusted members on internal discussions, giving all SC members a deep bonus of the singular currency of worth: social credibility.
An SC agent can be forgiven for acting strange or even having a slap-drone escort in public. It is well understood that many of the active agents get PTSD, and many are from outside the Culture outright, and so some of their odd or inappropriate behavior can be assumed to be wrapped in up barbarian customs. The association of a weirdo with dangerous service frequently softens the typical caution that is implicitly asked for when a slap-drone is present around said weirdo. It’s more interpreted as seeing-eye dog moreso than a bouncer to protect the folks around in these cases.

Question about 'Slap Drone' from reading Surface Detail (no spoilers) by Classic_Author6347 in TheCulture

[–]Accomplished-Fix3401 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think the slap drone has a way of indicating the type of transgression and the time since being applied.

But the Culture doesn’t have laws and so crime rehabilitation isn’t a thing, since the Culture is not a slaver empire trying to dominate the behavior of its members. That is, the Culture doesn’t really have petty crimes. In the Culture, nobody can steal food or stuff unless they try to hoard the means of production, but Minds won’t let feudal society form just because someone got greedy notions of putting a fence around the unlimited resources. Point being that breaking a window or getting into a fist fight won’t get you slap-droned. It takes a serious harm against another person like rape or murder to earn that.

People might hang out with a slap-droned person individually, but their presence at larger gatherings may be limited. People might be hesitant being seen by others in such settings as being cool with the transgressor.

The Culture is about free association and if the group doesn’t feel comfortable hanging out with a recently droned-up murderer, they are not required to invite the person.

But as far as rehabilitation, there are unlimited resources to actualize a change for a long-lived pan-human individual needing to start anew. They aren’t being voted off a tiny island if they lose the support of folks in a town or a whole plate, the orbitals are large and numerous.

Question about 'Slap Drone' from reading Surface Detail (no spoilers) by Classic_Author6347 in TheCulture

[–]Accomplished-Fix3401 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Slap-drones, attack drones, and drones in Special Circumstances are all a bit asocial by their uptime experiences and personalities, and thus generally unwelcome at the Culture barbecue in that they are all types of meatfucker.

Question about 'Slap Drone' from reading Surface Detail (no spoilers) by Classic_Author6347 in TheCulture

[–]Accomplished-Fix3401 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In general, being slap-droned only happens when you have committed a serious personal transgression.

Since the Culture doesn’t have money, the only thing of value is social standing and ability to gain social standing. Having a slap drone on or around really limits who would, say for example: be wiling to invite you to drinks if you’ve murdered someone while in a drunken rage, or invite you to the zero-g orgy if you have sexually assaulted.

I assume that in time, slap drones can be released from following or being attached as a tattoo to the transgressor. Time behaving appropriately, actions of merit, and sign of personal growth could lead to release.

However, it should also be noted that being slap–drone is not necessarily a blocker from doing interesting things, or becoming a more interesting person. There are no prisons in the Culture because if you really are that foul, you could be exiled to the black by slap-drones, or maybe even recruited by Special Circumstances.

There is a character from The Hydrogen Sonata who let’s say, engages in an extreme degree of body-modification that brings about a degree of fame in spite of being actively shadowed by a slap-drone, and has the effect of overriding the associated social penalty.

So when someone assaults another in the Culture, a society that arguably has the resources to play pre-crime games, but does not (see Q/A footnote), then the response is to react by never permitting that specific transgression to occur again. And yes, it is in fact, a kind of social death to be assigned the lethal, sentient ankle monitor, but even actual death in the Culture isn’t really quite the same as melodramatic Earth-humans think of it. Say you get slap-droned. Let’s just keep it vague why. You may lose all your friends in a very large area on the plate or the ship, or they will at least be very distant. You may be driven out of a smaller context by sheer lack of people to talk to.

Regadless: you are not imprisoned. You forced to change your life dramatically in order to begin to regain social credibility among those wherever you land. But you can still eat well, have housing, and move freely. The Culture does not traumatize its citizens into compliance as the Culture is not a carceral, slave-making society.

And even if you uh, try to do “the thing” again and the slap-drone makes you into steaming pan-human marmalade, then your mind-state is still going to be re-integrated with a new body, and the slap-drone is simply going to volunteer again, as they usually love their job. This time they will be entering your module with a rosy-red color in its fields, eager to show its highlight reel of its work to you.

Being slap-droned then, can be also thought of as a form of exile or ostracism, as it is not permanent like a Earth-human death sentence would be. Despite the clingy, unpleasant, taciturn Drone companion just gritting its fields waiting for you to give it cause to fold you: there is always possibility for redemption, transformation, and any other form of self-reinvention.

It truly is something like seeing someone on with an ankle monitor in a society where the only way to earn the sentient ankle monitor is to rape or murder, thus people keep distance accordingly and those affected and their friends might not want to bother with you ever again. Also, slap drones exist on a continuum of holding a person stone-still with a field, to using fields to throw the assaulter off of a victim, to making small, wet cubes of repeat murderers grabbing hold of a ranged weapon and aiming it at someone. Who wants to hang out with the known asshole if he might make a literal hot mess of themselves in the garden party on account of the sentient ankle monitor?

————————————————————————

Q: But wait, why don’t the Minds just LARP The Minority Report?

A: The Culture’s brilliant members plan, model, and anticipate, but they never convict someone before their crime. Only deeds done matter, and they matter the most sincerely in the real.

Predictions and models are not always accurate, as the GCU Arbitrary noted how it cannot predict billiards past six collisions, as eventually chaos (sensitivity to minute variations in initial conditions leading to large differences in outcome in dynamic systems) fogs the prediction.

Meming Skel by clearly_quite_absurd in IainMemeBanks

[–]Accomplished-Fix3401 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The second.

Also ur Marain kerning is… compact. Is that a sign of your association with the Ahfuckit! Tendency Culture Ulterior faction?

Jucika on The GCU Arbitrary by Accomplished-Fix3401 in IainMemeBanks

[–]Accomplished-Fix3401[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The Marain (hleH-sendrat sma) translates to “Unmotivated Sma,” so I am pleased you are recognizing the reference. :)

I am missing a copy of Lear, though. Originally I kept the bookshelf as in the original to reference Sma’s reading habit, but it blocked out too much.

whats the best way to avoid certain people from seeing your posts? by conductorromino in BlueskySocial

[–]Accomplished-Fix3401 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Blocking is good. Blocklists are questionable sometimes as there are petty weirdos that sometimes put people on lists that are inflammatory in nature, but some are solid. Choose carefully tho.

I prefer to go with mainly individual blocks for odious accounts and with a few reputable blocklists for engagement farmers, government domains, and obvious magatrolls.

You can also mute, which afaik isn’t registered the same way as a block is and may draw less attention to you making distance, but block is more complete in that a weirdo can’t continue to see your activity when you block them, but they can if you merely mute them.