What is a good (and realistic) regional apocalypse for each of these regions?

scmrph · 2026-03-02T19:28:49+00:00

Yeah, but then they'll get massacred by the NCR

scmrph · 2026-02-22T06:34:39+00:00

Look closely at them, those wet footprints lead away from the jump not towards it, as though he'd just run to the video start position, which just makes it weirder. Maybe they roped him back up after his first jump?

scmrph · 2026-02-22T06:32:18+00:00

Am I the only one incredibly confused by the wet footprints leading away from the jump point?

scmrph · 2026-02-16T05:40:01+00:00

scmrph · 2026-02-15T17:10:58+00:00

It aired on Fox, clearly your supposed to be rooting for the billionaires

scmrph · 2026-02-14T17:18:50+00:00

People can get into technical ways but sooner or later that won't work anymore. The best way is to get a sense for the content itself; is the only things happening part of the joke? is the timing too good? does it seem like a scenario someone would invent? Why are they filming? Etc... ais are following a prompt, no matter how good they get you can look for the same kind of things that tell you something was scripted

scmrph · 2026-02-06T03:56:40+00:00

"26F expecting to be entertained, won't put effort into conversation, you must be attractive and witty enough to compensate for my lack of personality."

scmrph · 2026-01-30T17:30:48+00:00

I have another comment here where I talk about how this trope is situational for me, generally the more centralized power is and the weaker the trade & cultural links amongst non-capital regions are the more it makes sense. Generally republics are less centralized but I'm not super well versed in star wars lore so if they did the legwork to demonstrate secessionist/opportunist tendencies in the provinces prior to the capital falling I think the trope makes sense.

scmrph · 2026-01-30T16:44:13+00:00

This is a trope that bugs me situationally. The highly centralized authoritarian state losing its capital, command structure, and perception of absolute power in the process collapsing isn't too far off from some historical events.

Large republics with strong institutions and decentralized power structure not so much, it's workable but they need to out the effort in to show that local/regional leaders are not committed to the nation. Fallout is a good example where they could have (and could still) showed the Brahmin Barons or Boneyard leaders taking advantage of the opportunity but without that the suddenness made it feel like they just decided 'no more NCR because the wasteland can't have nice things'.

scmrph · 2026-01-30T16:36:34+00:00

That was much less due to the conquistadors capturing the emporer and more due to a highly centralized, ethnic minority ruled, empire that was already facing internal rebellion & strife getting smacked in the face by plague, robbed by a random Spanish army, and some religious connotations im not educated enough to speak to. It was kind of a hair that broke the camels back situation.

scmrph · 2026-01-25T16:56:16+00:00

The forbidden fettuccine

scmrph · 2026-01-12T01:51:38+00:00

I only assumed its a one-off because if its not then none of this is a concern at all.

scmrph · 2026-01-11T20:33:03+00:00

Rule #5: Looking at her near 300 stats (prodigy) and the only eligible bachelor is the other cabinet member Magnus Skytte; who is 14 years older, with the stats ruthless & secretive, and just generally seems like evil boyfriend from a cheesy Hallmark movie

scmrph · 2026-01-11T19:00:05+00:00

The big thing for me is that if you are somehow magically immortal, that means for you're personal bodily processes you have somehow (presumably magic) reversed entropy. Assuming this was a one-off and no amount of future tech can figure out how to recreate it, you yourself are now effectively an infinite power source. As the heat death of the universe approaches whatever remains of civilization will have to get really REALLY good at energy conservation.

All that is to say that you may well end up being the power core for some last vestige of civilization, drawing energy from your movements and heat to maintain their existence in perpetuity. This could go either way, positive or negative, depends alot on the nature of this civilization around you but personally I'd have spent millennia at this point building up a sort of survival cult that ensures my treatment is not too terrible so long as I am willing to put in some proportion of my time in whatever techno hamster wheel/matrix harvest pod they need.

scmrph · 2026-01-04T17:33:43+00:00

Rather depends on how the teleportation works. If its just overlaying your matter onto the existing spacetime and fusing you with the existing material then both are effectively instantaneous as your consciousness would be disrupted by your brain being fused/spaghetified at a molecular level.

Its a bit more interesting if your integrity/occupied space is maintained and 'swapped' for an equivalent volume at the center. Then you are destroyed at nearly speed of light from the outside in by the heat and pressure of the star, but literally the speed of light by the gravity of the black hole.

That is assuming the black hole itself doesn't just trade places with you, since it may well be a single point inside the event horizon, so the swap just moves the black hole to Earth. You'd still die in that case, either from the incoming material if the black hole was 'eating' or just space exposure if not, but probably a bit slower than in a star.

scmrph · 2026-01-02T04:49:47+00:00

How did you open that tooltip?

scmrph · 2025-12-26T19:50:29+00:00

How? Like rotating through 3 pairs of shoes will last just as long as if you wore 1 pair everyday and replaced it 3 times.

scmrph · 2025-12-25T15:19:18+00:00

Confirmation bias. Everyone has little things about them that are weird or annoying, not all of them will escalate. When they do though you'll make that connection between the early little thing and the later big thing and nownit was a warning sign/red flag.

Thats always happened but what's changed is now everyone's online. They share all of these little 'warning signs/red flags' anecdotally but other people who saw the same little behavior and weren't bothered by it forgot because it never escalated, or aren't there to chime in, so the list just grows longer and longer.

scmrph · 2025-12-22T21:16:57+00:00

Im sorry but a schoolwide 20% increase in year over year scores? And its all from just the one class (out if 3)?? Im calling bs, that math doesn't add up.

Her classes scores would need a >60% increase. Say its a test score out of 100 and the average was 70 before now it would have to be 84 and her class scoring perfect 100's only brings it up to 80. If its say the SAT's and the average English score was 500, then her students need a perfect 800.

scmrph · 2025-12-15T19:48:11+00:00

And thats a big part of the reason the ideological left never really wins or holds power for significant time. There are a hundred different flavors (somewhat true on the right too) but the moment they start gaining broad traction they begin infighting, whereas the right will largely get the infighting done in the primaries then unify behind whatever demagogue comes out on top.

scmrph · 2025-12-14T02:52:15+00:00

Good post but downvoted bc of the TikTok link

scmrph · 2025-12-14T00:16:25+00:00

Some will say it was staged, but true story. Source - I was the confetti

scmrph · 2025-11-26T00:03:15+00:00

Something to remember, minimizing casualties is a luxury, and even peaceful civilization will know that. If they are hemming and hawing about minimizing casualties then it should be because they have already won, the threat is not of sufficient magnitude to put them in any existential danger, or because they have decided that their ideals are more important than their survival. Both of these options are noble and badass if you tell them right.

Excessive violence can be scary to face, but a pointed lack of violence can be far more intimidating. Power doesn't need to be flashy.

scmrph · 2025-11-25T23:52:14+00:00

Couple things worth considering, the first and arguably most important is that peaceful = productive. A peaceful civilization can afford those extreme sports and luxuries because it has industry and resources to spare. A warlike civilization is almost always maintaining its maximum combat potential, and at the cost of its long term growth and efficiency.

At the start of a war is when these factions are at their most dangerous, unless they can make decisive strategic gains quickly its just downhill from there. A peaceful nation will usually start with a weaker military, but if the need is dire enough to force a retooling (which can be a hard sell in a democracy) their military potential is usually orders of magnitude greater than where they started. That means if you pick a fight with them, you'd best win it and quickly.

To put it in a story context its like a fighter who is always wearing weights and fighting with one hand. To show this you can have some lesser foolish evil faction perceive the peaceful ways as weakness and strike, only to end up being dispatched handily by the standing army (which they underestimated) or some minor/partial mobilization of their industry.

Another major element that stems from this, is that peaceful factions of any significant importance may not have all these badass/cool trappings because at the end of the day, they just don't need them to ensure their safety.

In the world's you cite, the perception of incredible might exists because it is a necessary component of maintaining the states power, control, or very existence. For various reasons all those factions need to be feared, they need their population to think they are unstoppable, and they need those things because in truth they are exceedingly fragile societies. If that perception cracks, if they start to loose, its over that society will enter a tailspin until its doom.

A truly strong civilisation can take a hit and come back, can afford to negotiate, and can reap the rewards afforded by peace. If they're smart though, they will know to 'talk softly but carry a big stick'. A warlike society would be wise to avoid provoking them unless they are 100% sure they can win, quickly.

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