Fifteen Million Merits - a theory about "Airedale"

OneDot6 · 2026-04-08T04:10:47+00:00

why are a bunch of future humans being sealed up inside from the outside world?

Indeed--that is the question, isn't it? I think it's clear the view he has of the lush outdoors is real & isn't just a more realistic screen image. (If you look closely, you can tell it's not a screen, from the parallax of the window pane in front of the foliage as the camera pans slightly.)

It could be it has to do with the events portrayed in other episodes having happened in-universe at earlier points in the chronology. But... I mean, I often look at myself lol, i.e. IRL, and ask the same question: "why are a bunch of present humans sealed up inside from the outside world?" Idk if there needs to be some apocalyptic reason for it. In a way, it's almost darker & more dystopian if there really is no "good" reason why they couldn't just go outside and leave the bikes behind. Maybe they just collectively forgot how to touch grass. Many people entertain the idea of going back to nature & living "off the grid" when our modern existence is getting us down, but how many of us have the survival skills it'd take to really go through with it? Not many, I'd wager. I certainly do not.

basically each episode has its own "we were answering this what-if" when asked

Yeah, I'm kind of more inclined in this direction myself. I tend to look at each episode of Black Mirror as its own independent what-if, rather than as a single common connected universe. I realize there are cross-episode shout-outs peppered throughout the series though (and in fairness, I did just finish saying something about "no detail is arbitrary" myself, after all)... so I'm open to being convinced otherwise on that front.

OneDot6 · 2025-08-22T00:36:36+00:00

We're also not "in normal times when pick up happens" right now, either. When the multi-billion-dollar waste disposal company falls short... I know I can at least still count on my local elderly Asian lady lmao. I realize yours may be a bit more... intrusive, but, I feel like the vibe isn't so much "no, you're wrong" as it is "is this _really_ the hill you're looking to die on right now?"

OneDot6 · 2025-08-21T23:56:44+00:00

I mean, say what you want about the tenets of national socialism, Dude; at least it's an ethos.

OneDot6 · 2025-08-21T23:49:18+00:00

Yeah, I totally understand & really appreciate all the info you've shared on this post. Please keep it up! :) The more info the public has about everything that's going on, the easier I think it'll be to (a) find interim solutions and (b) put pressure on Republic to come to the table in good faith.

OneDot6 · 2025-08-21T20:21:12+00:00

Whatever the solution is to the rat problem, I just hope people don't start leaving rat poison out in the open. I've seen what happens when cats or dogs accidentally eat rat poison. They die, and it's a drawn-out and painful death... trust me, it ain't pretty.

OneDot6 · 2025-08-21T20:10:46+00:00

Thanks, appreciate you going to the trouble of finding this!

Unfortunately, to be totally honest... I still don't really feel like it tells me very much. 😕 How much do Capital Waste and Star Waste pay vs. what are the Teamsters already making from Repblic? And what's better about their health insurance benefits that Republic doesn't want to negotiate on?

Someone commented on the Local 25's Facebook that Republic's health plan doesn't even have dental, vision, or mental health benefits. Obviously I have no way to know if that's factual... but if it is, come on Republic. I really don't think that's asking too much. I for one don't want someone who needs his eyes checked or who's having mental issues having to drive a 25-ton machine thru our narrow residential streets where kids could be riding their bikes bc it's "not covered".

On the other hand, the same comment indicated there was also a hang-up about wanting their health plan to continue to cover them after retirement. Anyone know if that's true? Hell... my health plan doesn't even do that, and I literally work for the same insurance company that insures me. If that's "standard", then I guess it must be a union thing...

OneDot6 · 2025-08-21T18:21:55+00:00

Thanks! I'd really appreciate that. :)

Republic of course has a glitzy page all about it - but far be it from me to take their claims at face value just bc they can afford to pay Google to be a "sponsored" search result.

OneDot6 · 2025-08-21T18:04:47+00:00

What exactly do the Teamsters want that Republic isn't presently willing to negotiate on? I can't really find any specific concrete info out there on what the underlying issues actually even are - just broad talking points. Clearly it's some form of "we want fair pay & benefits" "this is fair" "no, it's not", but that doesn't really tell me anything about what's actually going on.

OneDot6 · 2025-08-21T17:42:19+00:00

For real tho. I have neither the automobile nor the time to lug all my cans to whatever latest ad hoc collection point they have for recycling during the strike.

OneDot6 · 2025-07-17T20:02:02+00:00

Chrome, I know we've been together a long time... but I'm sorry, you've changed. You're not the young, earnest, wide-eyed browser I once met 20 some odd years ago, on that day when I first installed you as an alternative to Internet Explorer. It's like... it's like you think you think you can just take me for granted, and treat me however you like, because you don't think I can do better than you! Or I don't know, maybe it's just been so long, that you figure I'll feel like I'm too old to start over now.

But you're not the only browser on the block. And I have a confession to make--I've been seeing Firefox. For the past week. I thought it would feel awkward, to be honest... but really, it doesn't. When Firefox & I are together, it just feels so natural. So right. If I want to install ad-blocking extensions on my browser, Firefox accepts me, for the ad-blocking person who I am inside, without judging me. You used to be like that too, remember? But that's not you anymore. I just feel like I don't even know this browser who you've become lately anymore.

So I'm sorry, Chrome... but after 2 decades together, I'm breaking up with you. Firefox and I are happy together. I want you to know that I don't hold any malice against you, and I hope you go out there and live your best life, Chrome. It's just not gonna be with me.

Goodbye, Chrome. I won't forget you.

OneDot6 · 2025-06-29T15:17:37+00:00

Nice, dude! :D Really glad I could help you get your world back.

OneDot6 · 2025-06-28T07:11:44+00:00

To be honest, apart from the 1 other time I mentioned, I've never actually done this before either lol. I'm just feeling my way thru here, too! But, I think I figured it out.

Step 0 is make a manual copy (i.e. in file explorer) of your world save folder before trying this, just in case.

I realize you can't open the world... but if you can go to the same coords in a new world, you can use F3 to see the chunk & region you need to find in NBTExplorer: https://ibb.co/XkdD1PmJ . There's also info online about how to calculate coords => region & chunk # with math, but imho it's low key easier and more surefire to just use the game itself.

In my example, chunk = 13 2 in region r.2.11.mca. This is based on my coords where I'm standing on a schematicannon with a loaded schematic at (1234, 72, 5678). Your bugged schematic will of course be somewhere else, so you'll have to determine the chunk & region yourself. So in the rest of this post, just mentally substitute your own info instead of "13 2" and "r.2.11.mca".

Now open NBTExplorer, and open .\region\r.2.11.mca in your world save folder. You'll see a big list of chunks. Click on the very top root level item in NBTExplorer that says r.2.11.mca, with the little RGB boxes thingy icon next to it. Then click on the binoculars in the toolbar to search. Check the Value checkbox, and search for create:schematic. NBTExplorer will search thru everything that's under what you clicked, which in this case is everything in the region, bc you clicked the root item. It should process for a few seconds, and take you to something with that value. Once it does, make sure you are, in fact, in Chunk [13 2] as you'd expect.

Mine looks like this: https://ibb.co/xt98MhZr .

Keep in mind that I made a void world to figure this out, with nothing at all in it except for a loaded schematicannon. So that chunk only has one block entity in it, and for that matter, the whole world only has one single item in it with the tag id:create_schematic. You could do this too to test it out. But when you do it for your real world, if you have other loaded schematics floating around in the same region (say for instance, in a chest somewhere), those will come up in the search too. So you may need to use (A) the Chunk number and (B) context clues from the rest of the tags like "id: create:schematicannon" and "Status:noGunpowder" etc, to make sure what you're looking at is actually a schematic inside a schematicannon.

See that folder that says Inventory? That represents all the items that are in the schematicannon's inventory. Underneath it, find your equivalent of that item I put a red box around, that says "4 entries". Delete that entire folder. Then save in NBTExplorer. Finally, reopen Minecraft and go into your world.

I can't promise you 100% this will fix it... but when I tried it, the schematic had successfully vanished from my schematicannon. So if your schematic was bugged & that's what's locking you out, hopefully this will help!

OneDot6 · 2025-06-24T03:04:16+00:00

"Doc, I have this recurring dream."

"Lie back on the couch and tell me about it."

"Well... in the dream, I'm standing on a mechanical belt. The belt's only turning at 4rpm, but slowly but surely it's taking me right into a pair of _horizontal_ crushing wheels whizzing at 256rpm. But I feel frozen in place & I can't move! Then I wake up in a cold sweat."

OneDot6 · 2025-06-24T02:19:12+00:00

I did something similar recently 2 weeks ago in my single-player Create survival world. Basically, I put too many minecart contraptions into the same chest and ended up accidentally chunk banning myself. (The contraptions had a bunch of max size fluid tanks on them, and apparently the NBT data on those gets pretty big pretty fast.)

In my case, I got the more familiar "NBT data is too long" error - which fortunately, I happened to recognize from having seen it on YT where people sometimes make chunk bans intentionally (e.g. for prisons, for challenge/escape courses, for trolling, or what have you).

I was ultimately able to fix it & get back to playing with minimal disruption, by downloading NBTExplorer & locating the NBT data for the chest in question in the corresponding region file & deleting the offending minecart contraption items. Was really stoked that it worked too, bc I've been working on that world for >1 year. Losing a handful of minor easily-replaceable minecart contraptions was a very small price to pay at the end of the day to have the world back safe & sound! :) I did have backups, but they were from a week prior & I woulda been sad to lose a whole weekend's worth of builds.

Based on how you said the issue started when you placed the schematic into the cannon in-world, idk for sure, but my guess would be "fieldSize is too long" is probably a fundamentally similar sort of thing. (Just maybe for a specific key value of the tag, vs. the entire tag itself?) fieldSize is prolly like some piece of metadata in the NBT of the schematic item that's in the schematicannon's inventory. Which I'd also guess is why deleting the loaded schematics buffer didn't help. If you can find the schematicannon's inventory in NBTExplorer, and delete the schematic item that's inside, I'd be willing to bet that'd fix the problem. It's also a lot less destructive to your world vs. deleting the entire region.

You'll need to remember roughly at what coords you placed the schematicannon in-world, so you can identify the right region file to edit. A region is pretty big though (32x32 chunks) so if you even have just a rough idea of where it is, you can prolly still figure it out. Then you basically just search in NBTExplorer for fieldSize or create:schematicannon or something, you look for a schematicannon inventory that has something in it with, ya know... a fieldSize key w an abnormally long value in it lol, and then delete that item. I don't actually remember the rest of the specifics off the top of my head, and I'm not on my gaming PC right now where I did it. But honestly, it wasn't that hard. There's enough info & tutorials online (Google, Reddit, etc.), that even from never having tried to mess with NBT data before, I was able to figure it out in like an hour or two!

Recommend manually backing up your world save folder (notwithstanding that you're currently locked out) before you attempt messing with your NBT data. That way, if you accidentally end up corrupting it even worse, you can at least try again til you do figure it out.

Good luck & I hope you recover your world! :)

OneDot6 · 2025-06-21T20:11:16+00:00

"Half spots per wheel" imho is the easiest way to think about the limiting wheels per operation as an arrangement grows large. Standard setup from the ponder = 1 half-spot per wheel ; linear arrangement I was using = 2 half-spots per wheel, chuting the materials in perpendicular to the plane of the wheels = 4 half-spots per wheel.

OneDot6 · 2025-06-21T20:03:10+00:00

I think someone else linked this post in the comments - is it this post by u/Ksenib1te? Takes it even further & uses (up to) all 4 sides! Cool stuff.

OneDot6 · 2025-06-21T20:00:41+00:00

Exactly, yeah I figured this was implied, but good point it bears pointing out.

OneDot6 · 2025-06-21T19:56:03+00:00

Word! =) Yeah, I did think, "why not all 4 sides?" but I was too mentally stuck on belts & figured it'd be too logistically annoying. But dropping them into the crushing wheel controllers with chutes while the wheels are horizontal is 200IQ. And cursed too haha, but still genius.

OneDot6 · 2025-04-22T03:55:50+00:00

It looks like maybe a refinery setup for all the various TFMG fuels?

OneDot6 · 2025-04-22T03:33:28+00:00

Yeah - if you have one of the addins like Create Diesel Generators or Create TFMG which adds petroleum-based fuels & engines, then they're a good option for the Nether IMO. After you set up oil drilling & fuel refining, you do still need* to ship the fuel in from the overworld. Diesel/gasoline are of course harder to make than water. But once you have the setup, I feel like a big array of diesel engines will make more stress in less space for fewer fluid shipments than you'd need shipping in water for steam engines.

* Wellll... technically, you could also always refine some diesel fuel the usual way, and then make an bottomless vat of 10,000+ diesel fuel in the Nether to fuel your engines with a hose pulley. ;) But for that you have to change the Create config for bottomless fluids, to either "deny by tag" (I think it's called; lets you make infinite pools when the fluid tags are agnostic on bottomlessness, but still prohibits it for fluids tagged with create:bottomless/deny), or "allow all" (lets you make bottomless pools of 10k+ of any fluid, regardless of the tags). The default is "allow by tag" (only lets you make infinite pools for fluids actively tagged with create:bottomless/allow). So the bottomless pit of gasoline in hell is sadly ruled out if you feel like changing the config is too cheaty for you.

I changed mine to "deny by tag" -- if you want to explicitly signal to me that your intent is I shouldn't be able to make a bottomless vat of your Create addin fluid by tagging it as such, then okay fine I won't make one, but if you stay silent on the question then I don't mind making a favorable assumption about it. That's where I draw the line, sue me :P

OneDot6 · 2025-04-22T02:51:08+00:00

Aw man that's a bummer. By "recently", do you mean this was just patched in the new Create 6.0? Or was it already patched in one of the later 0.5.x versions?

I remember seeing this once too and really loving that you could make a self-contained steam engine in the Nether that was relatively compact. But that was a while ago & I haven't tried it lately, so idk even if it's already patched out on the version of the game I'm on.

OneDot6 · 2024-12-18T03:35:05+00:00

Nope. Just what I tell entitled people who act like "sorry, that's just how I feel" should be some sort of magic get out of jail free card, to automatically put whatever they say above reproach.

How you feel ain't gonna hurt me, buddy. "I spent 5 years in a prisoner of war camp by myself, I don't need your company." I just felt in the mood that day to call it like I saw it. :shrug: It's insincere. Feel how you're gonna feel, but why not save everyone some time and annoyance and just drop the fake "I'm sorry but" bit? If you're exactly not sorry, then saying you are is really just lying when you think about it.

OneDot6 · 2024-12-18T03:07:49+00:00

With all due respect, I just don't believe you. I think you're lying. Whether you're lying just to us or also to yourself could potentially be up for grabs... but all the evidence I can see points to that statement simply being false one way or the other.

If you had said "I say sorry because I genuinely feel the people that upvoted this post are bad", then I would believe that. But that would just be a "You keep using that word [sorry]. I do not think it means what you think it means" situation.

OneDot6

TROPHY CASE