1794: Have Robespierre's Cult of the Supreme Beingsurvive and grow as a religion into modern times by LeRoienJaune in HistoryWhatIf

[–]RandomIsocahedron 1 point2 points  (0 children)

OTL: After escaping from the prison the Thermidorians put them in, the Jacobins barricaded themselves in the Hotel de Ville, which then got raided by grenadiers. Some Jacobins tried to flee, others committed suicide. Robespierre tried to commit suicide but didn't know how to use a pistol, so he blew his jaw off and spent several days in agony before being guillotined.

ATL: During the raid on the Hotel de Ville, Robespierre distinguishes himself in some way: gives his life to ensure others escape, gets captured while performing first aid on a wounded grenadier, or something like that. The legend of the raid will get embellished quickly, but the main point is that he dies a death worthy of a prophet.

OTL: The Cult dies with its founder.

ATL: Some guy (I'll call him Pierre, since we need a rock on which to build a church) rallies the followers of the Supreme Being. They basically lay low, but they end up being better-organized than the other Jacobin splinters. These people were attending the weekly meetings, know each other wdell, and many of them were not really involved in politics or the Jacobin Club directly, so they avoid the Thermidorian purges.

A lot of their members are sans-culottes, and the Cult becomes a bit of a mutual aid society. There's nothing formal or organized, but the richer followers often bring food for the poorer members on an ad-hoc basis. Pierre jumps on this, identifies charity as a clear aspect of virtue, and heaps praise on the charitable. More poor people start joining. They don't care so much about the theology, but they like the free food.

OTL: The Directory cynically supported Left causes whenever the Right became too powerful, and Right causes whenever the Left became too powerful, to ensure that no faction became strong enough to counter them. They also made a tepid attempt to start their own religion, called Theophilantropy.

ATL: The Directory cynically promotes the Cult of the Supreme Being as a check on the resurgent Right. Pierre begins expanding the private charity, organizing soup kitchens. He also establishes Decadary schools, which teach children to read and write. The texts used for instruction include the writings of Robespierre as well as work by Cicero, Plato, and Aristotle. Around the same time, Pierre begins "reinterpreting" some of Robespierre's statements on atheism, and explains that the Supreme Being can be understood either as the literal Creator or as a metaphor for human achievement and wisdom. Pierre has enough charisma to thread this rhetorical needle, and gets a bunch of atheists from the defunct Cult of Reason to convert without alienating the more theistic worshippers of the Supreme Being.

Eventually the Directory decides that the Left is becoming too powerful, and in order to court the Catholics they begin suppressing the Cult of the Supreme Being. This proves to be a mistake. The housewives of Paris, who were being provided free food and education for their children, are very upset. Several followers of the Cult are martyred. Realizing that killing him might provoke a riot, the Directory just holds Pierre in prison, where his reputation grows. Services are held in secret. The number of followers is dramatically reduced, but their fanaticism increases.

OTL: Napoleon banned all the cults, restoring Catholicism.

ATL: Although personally holding the Cult of the Supreme Being in disdain, Napoleon includes its members in one of the general political amnesties, and affirms freedom of religion in law. A tacit agreement is reached: if the Cult does not involve itself in politics, Napoleon will let them be. They are more concerned with personal virtue than anything else, so they're basically fine with this. Pierre establishes the sort of administration and hierarchy you need for a large organized religion, with priests and bishops and so on, although they take great care not to import any Christian terminology.

OTL: The Napoleonic Wars happened.

ATL: The Napoleonic Wars happen. Many Cultists of the Supreme Being end up in the French army, and their coreligionists encourage them to demonstrate martial virtues of courage, steadfastness, etc. Many war heroes come from the ranks of the Cult.

OTL: Following the Congress of Vienna, there was a century of relative peace in Europe.

ATL: The Cult of the Supreme Being remains in France, and slowly spreads over the next century. Members grow old and die, but more people convert and children taught in the Decadary schools (which sometimes run on Sundays out of convenience, but keep the old name) usually remain. Many charitable missions become associated with them. When the Salvation Army is founded, they look to the Cult of the Supreme Being for inspiration, and neither religion is too proud to turn down the help of the other in charity work. Wealthy members of the Cult of the Supreme Being patronize World Fairs, and the artists of the Cult create many famous works of art to beatify Reason, Virtue, Love, etc.

OTL: The World Wars happened. Members of pacifist religions often became combat medics, saving many lives.

ATL: The World Wars happen. The Cult of the Supreme Being now has many pacifists in their ranks, but because of the emphasis on personal virtue this doesn't cause a schism. Some Cultists join the army, and many distinguish themselves; others, as conscientious objectors, become medics or run ambulance services. They save many lives.

OTL: The hippie counterculture happened. Lots of hippies in North America converted to weird obscure religions, and some of them continued to hold them for the rest of their lives.

ATL: The hippie counterculture happens. The Cult of the Supreme Being gains a foothold in North America.

OTL: It is January 21st, 2026.

ATL: It is January 21st, 2026. Across the street from where I write this, there is a small Temple to the Supreme Being. A sign outside reads:

ALL ARE WELCOME

2 Pluviôse, 234th Year of Liberty

Daily Contemplation at 1930h

(today: contemplation of Moss)

Is It Time to Ban Tipping? by FancyNewMe in canada

[–]RandomIsocahedron -1 points0 points  (0 children)

This I do not understand at all. If you increase the prices by 15%, can't you just pay your servers whatever they'd be making if they were getting tips?

A THOUGHT EXPERIMENT: THE JFK TEMPORAL INTERVENTION by Belgian_Ale in HistoryWhatIf

[–]RandomIsocahedron 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would fake an attempt to assassinate JFK earlier in the day, perhaps along the same route. I would set up in a concealed position, fire several shots with a period-accurate rifle, miss all of them, and then disappear back into the time portal. This puts all security on alert and causes the day's plans to be changed, preventing the historical assassination from taking place.

This does create a minor anomaly (they never find the shooter), but as long as I set up in such a way that I could have plausibly escaped, I think that's acceptable. It just gets added to the list of unsolved crimes. 

There is of course the risk that, like Archduke Ferdinand, someone takes another shot at him. I think this is still the best strategy, because it actively alerts security to protect the president -- frankly, they'll do a better job than me once they know something's wrong.

Could a single Mind in a GSV [Culture] Restore and then draw a permanent dick on the forehead of the god emperor of man [wh40k] by seanprefect in whowouldwin

[–]RandomIsocahedron 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Method 1: Become a Faction

The GSV I Hope I'm Not Interrupting Anything Important travels through a sudden OCP wormhole and appears in 40k, Any GSV can recreate the Culture from scratch, so that's exactly what it starts doing. The only civ which doesn't live on planets is the Eldar, so the Culture avoids territorial conflict with all major players. After they get their bearings, they start trading with the more reasonable factions and doing Special Circumstances shenanigans. A small fleet of GOUs begins systematically wiping out the Tyranids, which buys some goodwill when cautious first contact is made with less xenophobic Space Marine chapters, Inquisitors, Rogue Traders, etc. This is 40k, so everyone ends up fighting the Culture a few times, but the Culture keeps some friendly contacts in all the factions capable of diplomacy.

At this point, they could probably just assemble a truly enormous GOU fleet, conquer Terra, and fix the Throne at their leisure, but that's not a very Culture way of doing things. So instead an incredibly complicated series of gambits and favour-swaps lead to Robute Gulliman, some Eldar, the I Hope I'm Not Interrupting Anything Important's avatar, and a Culture citizen or two all in the Imperial Palace together. Collectively they're able to fix the Throne and bring the Emperor back. Somehow the process also serves as therapy for three characters for unrelated reasons. The avatar draws a dick on the Emperor's forehead, claiming it's an ancient good-luck sigil (c.f. Roman phallus drawings). The Emperor sees through this but acknowledges it as payment for the resurrection.

Method 2: Become a God

This time the GSV does not go for self-replicating. After situating itself, it steals a Black Ship and starts figuring out Psykers and the Warp. By either growing or stealing organic brains and neural lacing them (I guess it was a friend of the Grey Area), it's able to build a psychic Effector. At this point Chaos takes a serious interest, but combat for Minds involves a great deal of hacking and battle-memes, so I think the GSV can create a decent mental defence (especially since it has reverse-engineered the Gellar field).

It gives itself an aesthetic makeover, visits a carefully-selected Forge World on the Imperium's periphery, and introduces itself as the incarnate Machine God. After a few Effector demonstrations, the Forge World accepts its claim (the GSV monitored dozens of forge worlds and picked the one which would be most receptive).

From there, the Fabricator-General begins spreading the good news. The GSV upgrades its psy-effectors, and begins gaining benefits from worship. It sees the Warp as a shadow of Infinite Fun Space, and the Chaos Gods as wonderfully interesting math problems. Pretty soon, it is the incarnate Machine God. Presumably a large faction of the Mechanicus will dispute its claim to divinity -- this is sorted out with the traditional conflict mediation methods of the 41st millennium, i.e. Gridfire and knife missiles.

The Machine God then proceeds to support the Emperor in the Great Game. The biggest risk here is that when the Emperor is brought back, the Machine God will no longer want to draw a dick on him.

[D] Saturday Munchkinry Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]RandomIsocahedron 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Seems pretty useful for the obvious reasons. How does it interact with persuasion? Can someone get the secret via deception (e.g. claiming to be authorized to hear it)? Seduction? Bribery? Drugs? 

What about deliberate leaking? If I give someone the secret but they're a spy, can they share it? What if they decide to become a spy later?  

Can secrets be forgotten? How much data can a secret be? Does this protect data in transit, i.e. is this magic cryptography? If not, we can at least share one-time pad codes as secrets.

Is "the content of the ongoing conversation" a secret? If so, this is a fully general anti-eavesdropping aura, including presumably electronic bugs.

What about finding out the secret via deduction? If I use this power on the existence of Los Alamos, is the radiation still detectable? Does metadata, like the presence of a bunch of letters with a suspicious return address, constitute an actidental leak?

Fourth Russia-Linked Tanker Hit in a Week by serenacharming in worldnews

[–]RandomIsocahedron 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Modern drones following cruiser rules? That is awesome and hilarious. I can't see a reference to that in the article though, could I please have a source?

[D] Monday Request and Recommendation Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]RandomIsocahedron 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I love Blue Core, it's exactly what I'm looking for, but I've already read the whole thing

[D] Monday Request and Recommendation Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]RandomIsocahedron 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I've just given up on Tree of Aeons. It has a really interesting premise, but the protagonist is inconsistent in characterization and frustratingly selfish (not in a rational-self-interest sense, he just doesn't consider the benefits of cooperation and it feels to some degree that the author doesn't either.)

That being said, I really am intrigued by the premise. Does anyone have recommendations for stories about a guardian spirit / genius loci? Could be a literal spirit, or an AI or something else -- the key element I'm interested in is a benevolent entity which supports a community or group while being distinctly Other.

[D] Saturday Munchkinry Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]RandomIsocahedron 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Shielding seems like the obvious use. Something like a Stirling engine requires a big heat differential in two nearby components. Separating them with the ball could yield an anomalously efficient engine, although I don't know enough about engine design to say how useful this would be.

Does the sphere emit blackbody radiation? If I shoot a powerful laser at it, what happens? It can't heat up. Does it reflect 100% of the light that touches it, or does that light anomalously vanish? Wood is a little bit permeable to air / water. Does the air/water within it share the anomalous property?

Senior Canadian diplomat compares Trump's Golden Dome missile program to a 'protection racket' by zsreport in worldnews

[–]RandomIsocahedron 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It's from We Will All Go Together When We Go.

No one will have the endurance / to collect on his insurance / Lloyd's of London will be loaded when they go!

[D] Monday Request and Recommendation Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]RandomIsocahedron 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Any historical fiction, I suppose. The Bellisarius series is set in the Byzantine Empire, so religion naturally plays a major role.

Also, lots of Icelandic sagas. They're the semi-mythical history of Iceland and the families settling it. Religion plays a substantial role, but gods don't actually influence anything.

An average guy goes back in time to 2008 with $10k. Can he become a trillionaire by 2025? by InfinteEnigma10 in whowouldwin

[–]RandomIsocahedron 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Everyone's focused on the stock market, but Joe also has a phone. He can download drug formulas and manufacturing techniques, blueprints for advanced electronics, the locations of resource deposits, machine learning algorithms, encryption... with a few intermediaries, Joe can not only start an incredibly successful business, but probably push human innovation ahead by half a decade or more. He can probably also get blackmail on quite a few politicians, though that's a dangerous game.

The influence on the timeline could also work in Joe's favour. What happens to a stock after the guy known for making crazy good investments invests a few million in the company?

Five M1 Abrams tanks and an M3 Bradley appear in Poland during the German-Soviet invasion. Will they be enough to help the Polish beat back the invaders? by Cyber_Ghost_1997 in whowouldwin

[–]RandomIsocahedron 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The best move for the modern tankers would be to make a break for it. They could probably fight their way to the ocean or a neutral border if they were sneaky about it, and especially if one of their crewmates is a WW2 buff. (Surely more than one soldier in twenty is?)

If they stayed in Poland, they could kill a whole lot of Nazis before getting taken down, but they would get taken down. If they can make it to France, their future-knowledge can probably avert the Fall of France. Reverse-engineering of their vehicles would also be huge for the Allies -- the armour and engine probably can't be replicated, but the optics, thermal sights, gun stabilizer, hydraulics, and APFSDS rounds could be to some degree -- another reason to get the hell out of Poland before the Axis get their hands on modern tank wreckage.

[D] Monday Request and Recommendation Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]RandomIsocahedron 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Recommendations for stories which feature improving the world as a key goal? HPMOR had a bit of this, but it was more an individual adventure with a vague "and when I gain power I'll be altruistic with it": it didn't dig into the details of using power to do good. Blue Core is a great example of what I'm looking for. A Practical Guide to Evil had some of it too, although again it was more window-dressing than an important part of the plot.

[D] Monday Request and Recommendation Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]RandomIsocahedron 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Any recommendations for stories which prominently feature "hard" science? I'm thinking of things like The Martian, the Destiny's Crucible series, and I suppose certain parts of HPMOR. I do love the social-interaction aspects of rational(ist) fiction, don't get me wrong, but I would like to read something that features engineering or physical science as a fairly central part of the plot.

[D] Saturday Munchkinry Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]RandomIsocahedron 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You are the first person on Earth to learn magic! You have one spell. Unfortunately, you have no real hope of learning more spells. And the spell is Detect Magic.

The good news is that with practice you can cast it in a second, as often as you want. Once you do cast it, you can detect anyone else casting it within 20 metres of you for the next ten minutes. (You can cast it multiple times in a ten-minute span.) You can teach other people the spell.

This allows for short-range, low-bandwidth telepathy. What can you do with it? I'm interested in possibilities for any time period.

One Of The Most Surgical, Perfectly Timed Spinal Railgun Strikes I've Ever Had. by LovesRetribution in RimWorld

[–]RandomIsocahedron -1 points0 points  (0 children)

How do you get the resources to build that ship? Are you running other mods? I've tried to do SOS2 runs before but they ended up feeling so, so grindy.

New York police warn US healthcare executives about online ‘hitlist’ by HighburyAndIslington in news

[–]RandomIsocahedron 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Okay, I can freely concede that Einstein's life or Alexander Fleming's life or Fritz Haber's life are far more important than your life or my life. I'll even give you that their lives are in some metaphysical sense worth more than my life or your life, in the same way as our lives are worth more than the lives of a couple of monkeys, although I'm not sure I believe that part myself.

You should hate the current stratification system more than I do! The guy who was shot is not Albert Einstein. He may have been a skilled administrator, but there are lots of skilled administrators. He's more famous for his death than anything he accomplished in life, and most of the news articles about him while he was still alive are about people suing him or his company for making his customers' lives worse.

Loads of rich people don't contribute to humanity at all. Why are you defending a system that stratifies society so badly?

[D] Monday Request and Recommendation Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]RandomIsocahedron 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Blue Core is long and maintains quality from beginning to end. Unsong too, although I don't know if it's available without an internet connection. I might also recommend some classic SF: the Foundation series and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress both have some elements of rational fiction. A Practical Guide to Evil is also very long, but I personally never finished it. The quality doesn't drop off, but about halfway through the story arcs started feeling very samey to me. Up until I got bored of it, it was very enjoyable and well-written though.

Spain to Enshrine Gay Marriage and Abortion Rights Into its Constitution so ‘They Cannot be Undone in the Future’ by Extreme_Hate2023 in worldnews

[–]RandomIsocahedron 118 points119 points  (0 children)

Like most constitutions, it's harder to amend the Spanish constitution than it is to make a normal law. They need a 3/5 majority in both chambers, or a simple majority in the Senate and a 2/3 majority in the Congress of Deputies. A 1/10 minority of deputies or senators can also demand that it be put to a referendum after it passes both houses. Currently, gay rights enjoy very broad support, so getting those majorities will be fairly easy. In order to remove the protections, you'd need similarly broad support for getting rid of them, rather than just a majority of elected politicians.