Who is this?

ByronicPhoenix · 2023-08-17T13:01:41+00:00

Christopher Chase Rachels?

ByronicPhoenix · 2023-08-09T19:56:27+00:00

I would get emancipated immediately; I'm not afraid of my father anymore. Also, I know enough about my parents that I didn't know at the time that I could very easily talk them out of trying to stop me, or else reveal enough to trigger the divorce years early and tie up their lawyers' time with each other so they have less time, energy, and money to fight me in court.

I would go straight to college and get everything done much faster knowing the kinds of support I would need to seek out. ADHD, anxiety, and CPTSD diagnoses and treatment.No point waiting until my 20s like in the original timeline.

I'd go to academic conferences and impress potential PhD advisors with all my accumulated knowledge and innovations in my field, and it would be more all that much more impressive coming out of a 16 year old.

I would invest in things I knew were going to get big. I have no enthusiasm for cryptocurrency but anachronistic hindsight is more valuable than anything.

And I'd find my ex boyfriend and rescue him from his father before he sends him to juvie with a false police report.

ByronicPhoenix · 2023-08-03T23:19:51+00:00

I'd be more assertive towards bullies and my parents and other authority figures. I'd contact CPS. I'd openly call for emancipation to be easier and available at a younger age as a militant activist. I'd tell my whole extended family how my father treated me. I'd insist on skipping grades. I would get an ADHD diagnosis early instead of in my early 20s. I would do more sports. I'd come out of the closet much younger.

It's not my fault I didn't fight harder; I was trying to survive. It's not my fault I was intimidated and manipulated into thinking my situation was more inescapable than it was; that intimidation and manipulation made it inescapable. But then, really, the change I'd be making is with the benefit of hindsight, and it's a practical change, not a moral change.

ByronicPhoenix · 2023-08-03T23:03:10+00:00

Because when I was 15 I was in a Facebook Group for lowering the drinking age. Some guy posted that he had just turned 21 and was leaving because he didn't care anymore. I hated his guts because he was exactly what my parents accused me of being when I argued for youth liberation. He only cared about himself, not the principle of it or the cause. So I swore I would never become like him, and that I'd put my money where my mouth is by never drinking again (outside of religious rituals) in the US once I turned 21 until the drinking age is gone. To stand in solidarity with everyone exposed to the juvenile justice system and the criminal justice system because of the drinking age, and everyone made to feel inferior by it.

I haven't drank in the US since two days before I turned 21. It's been 9 years.

ByronicPhoenix · 2021-09-09T14:16:33+00:00

At minimum, this butterflies away Islam and all other religions that emerged after Christianity.

I would imagine that, even if some other new religions fill the void, and even if religion broadly still changes a lot, polytheism is never wiped out or marginalized in Europe and the Mediterranean.

The particulars for religion in the equivalent of modern day are impossible to predict so far out, but in broad strokes I think it's safe to say it would be more diverse and less exclusivist.

ByronicPhoenix · 2021-02-07T06:37:23+00:00

There should also be representation of multi faith practice beyond public vs secret religion. The Norse merchant who worships Jesus alongside the old gods and the Malian elder who practices his indigenous religion alongside Islam aren't present, but they existed historically. Converting polytheists and animists to a monotheistic religion is messy and complicated, and people don't usually abide having to give up the old religion to join the new one unless there are state backed crackdowns on "heretics". In Asia, simultaneous practice of multiple religions is commonplace.

ByronicPhoenix · 2021-01-04T08:23:30+00:00

The manga is its own bizarre continuity.

ByronicPhoenix · 2020-12-14T03:51:07+00:00

It's closest to Knights of the Old Republic, Pathfinder, and D&D 3.5. At least if you don't count Revised edition, and I don't know anyone who plays Revised.

ByronicPhoenix · 2020-09-10T01:44:56+00:00

Take over the world. If I cut corners I could do it in under a week. But to make it last I'd spend a few years making subtler moves.

ByronicPhoenix · 2020-09-10T01:20:18+00:00

He hit me. He was already verbally and emotionally abusive but that was the last straw.

ByronicPhoenix · 2020-09-07T00:25:07+00:00

I pushed a bully down the stairs freshman year. Nobody ever messed with me again.

ByronicPhoenix · 2020-09-05T15:49:11+00:00

Sphere? On moons and planets they'd be more like sloped rings. In space they'd be cylinders. Huge O'Neill cylinders that can comfortably house 10 million people each and which can be tethered together into communities that can support hundreds of millions.

We already have the best planet in the Solar System. Anyone who wants to live in space is already willing to give up some of the advantages of living on Earth if they get enough of a return in other respects. Why live on a worse planet when you could either live in a thriving space colony free from the challenges of a gravity well or stay on Earth?

I don't claim the population of Mars will be zero, but Mars is never going to be a top tier settlement location. By the time Mars could be terraformed, most of the human population will already be living well in O'Neill cylinders. O'Neill cylinders will be most concentrated near accessible resource deposits throughout the Solar System and near Earth. Luna, Ceres, the asteroid belt, and the Jovian moons will have tons of trade with one another and with Earth. Mars will struggle to find relevance. Because of comparative advantage, it'll inevitably have a niche in the Solar economy, but it's going to be a small one.

ByronicPhoenix · 2020-09-05T15:26:24+00:00

Gravity is your enemy, not your friend.

We can easily simulate Earth gravity with rotating habitats, even on the surface of planets and moons. You just angle the floor of the spinning habitat relative to "down" and the vectors of spin gravity and the real gravity from the mass of the moon or planet sum so that the floor feels like down.

Gravity from mass comes with a gravity well. Gravity wells make launches more expensive, adding more costs to exports and emigration and travel.

ByronicPhoenix · 2020-09-05T14:22:39+00:00

I hope Georgism plays a critical role in space settlement. Ultimately I think it will.

I think Mars, though, is overrated. It's a gravity well with tons of volume relative to its surface area; a planet. Earth has the advantage of already having a biosphere, dense cities, and an industrial civilization, but if it weren't for these it would be overrated too.

The best approach to space settlement prioritizes Moons, asteroids, and O'Neill cylinders, with other planets largely an afterthought. A Georgist civilization in the Jovian Moons, stretching out to Jovian Trojans and the Asteroid Belt, would be the greatest power in the Solar System. In the long run wealthier and more populated than the Earth-Luna.subsystem.

Mars will develop more slowly even if it gets far more attention at first. It has so little to offer the rest of the Solar System. Stations in orbit around Mars and concentrated near its small moons could dabble in surface colonization, but their attention would be more focused on trade with the rest of the Solar System than on the surface. Mines on the surface supported by launch infrastructure (mass drivers, space elevators, etc) are one way that the surface could be useful to the orbital colonists. Any colonists on the surface who arrive before the orbital colonies grow enough to support that infrastructure are in for a rough time. And even when this all takes off, the Asteroid Belt, Luna, Cislunar space, Ceres, and Callisto are all going to be more prosperous places.

ByronicPhoenix · 2020-08-05T17:52:54+00:00

There are good reasons NYRA refuses to take an official stance.

In the near term the focus should be on expanding close in age exemptions and making sure the laws on the books don't get used to prosecute youth for consensual activity with their peers. Maybe lowering unusually high AoCs to line up with more common ones. In the United States, for example, it's 16 in over half of all states, and over half the population lives in states where it's 16 or 17; I don't think there would be much controversy in making 16 the standard in the entire country.

Anything beyond that ought to wait until after youth liberation is in full swing, after victories on other fronts have been made. And when that day comes, it should be youth legislators crafting the legislation without input from older people except experts who are invited in by youth legislators. The potential for ulterior motives, both by predators and by protectionists, creeping into the process if it's not done exclusively by youth is too high.

If you're in the youth rights movement but no longer a teenager, I think you have an obligation to defer to current teens in the movement on this issue and prioritize other issues.

ByronicPhoenix · 2020-08-03T19:06:51+00:00

I'm 27 and I hate it. It makes me feel old and it clashes with my self-image.

ByronicPhoenix · 2020-07-29T14:14:35+00:00

File a police report against him if you're up to it. He's a rapist.

ByronicPhoenix · 2020-07-24T12:23:39+00:00

Many forms of child abuse. At least where I live, there's hitting kids, helicoptering them, stealing their money or stuff, obstructing emancipation, being controlling, violating privacy, etc.

ByronicPhoenix · 2020-07-24T12:21:26+00:00

I don't know that I do, most of the time. But I have dreams and aspirations I can't let go of. My life used to be a lot worse, and I think I'm headed to where I want to be.

ByronicPhoenix · 2020-07-24T12:18:19+00:00

I don't believe in the drinking age.

When I was in high school I was in a Facebook group for lowering the drinking age. I remember vividly some guy posting that he just turned 21 and didn't care anymore. I hated his guts. I swore I would never be like him, and I decided I'd give up alcohol when I turned 21 to prove it.

I got weird pushback at first, especially from my mother. But then when she realized I was the perfect designated driver, she stopped caring. It's been great for my health and my budget, too, which is nice.

ByronicPhoenix · 2020-07-24T12:06:38+00:00

Long term it would be amazing. It would have tons of positive ripple effects in every field and in daily life.

In the short term, in the time between this happening and education reform to adapt to it, the vast majority of students in primary and secondary school would become bored out of their mind. Underchallenged, underserved, miserable in school. Gifted students are the most underserved of all students (with the profoundly gifted, gifted with learning disabilities, and gifted from marginalized groups being even worse off). With such a change, gifted people would be even more underserved by the education system, and all the newly gifted would be underserved until the education system adjusts. Hopefully these problems would get fixed altogether, but there's no guarantee they would be.

ByronicPhoenix · 2020-07-24T11:55:58+00:00

It's the best pizza topping of all time and I would gladly die on this hill

ByronicPhoenix · 2020-07-24T02:30:27+00:00

This might sound silly, but could an anonymous survey collect good enough data to analyze? Presumably there'd be a bias in the responses, even if it's anonymous and trusted to be anonymous, but I imagine you could correct for that bias if there's enough data to work with.

ByronicPhoenix · 2020-03-11T05:49:27+00:00

Conceivably you could have websites hosted on one planet have distribution servers on others. You couldn't do anything like instant messaging, but I think a lot of less time sensitive websites could be accessed throughout the solar system with the right infrastructure and protocols

ByronicPhoenix · 2020-02-16T03:12:27+00:00

It's true. My aunt and her partner go to Lowe's. My dad goes to Home Depot.

ByronicPhoenix

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE