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Scientia Weaponizes The Future

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Well shit. Are we absolutely sure Taylor isn't still lurking in Scientia's psyche/soul? Because that's some serious Escalation, worthy of her royal majesty.
 
Yeah...all things considered, the CUI is strangely in a very convenient position to be deposed in Worm. A maximum amount of power is centralized and focused inward, and the bloody oppression occurs at the hands of a relative few. Even the Yangban make heavy use of coercion and brainwashing, so if you can recapture some odds are they're unwilling victims and can be 'saved'. For the most part the people live in fear of the government, and do not give it any more legitimacy then it takes through intimidation and oppression.

With IRL nations historical and modern or other Earth Bet examples (in particular parts of Africa and Europe)? There's a lot less centralized power, and a lot more propaganda and indoctrination among the populace. Even if a government is unquestionably detrimental (and few rarely can be while still being functional), there will be believers and true 'patriots'. Taking one of them down, while probably still possible, would be a very messy and difficult affair to clean up.

The CUI? Assuming you can clear the admittedly high barriers of ability to deal violence and project power, their domestic situation is remarkably simple (their neighbors not so much, but they'd be fine so long as the military isn't totally destroyed and idiots don't have nukes).
 
oh man this has strong echos of the US's plan to just remove Saddam and replace him w/ Ahmed Chalabi in Iraq, a strategy that famously went very well
 
…It's been a while since I read the first majority of this fic, could someone remind me of all of Sophia's crimes here? It kinda looked like she got kidnapped by the CUI, and Scientia retaliated by birdcaging her…

I understand she probably did some horrific stuff earlier in the fic, but it's been long enough I can't match up which horrors in particular happened here, XD
 
Dawnk41 said:
…It's been a while since I read the first majority of this fic, could someone remind me of all of Sophia's crimes here? It kinda looked like she got kidnapped by the CUI, and Scientia retaliated by birdcaging her…
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She tried to join the undersiders and led them to attack Taylor and Danny's house. It did not go well. It's how Taylor got gun skills.
 
hmmm...how does a nuclear-armed superpower state handle having another nuclear-armed superpower state living in it's borders? Is that unlawful occupation of territory everywhere that her feet touch?
 
Dawnk41 said:
…It's been a while since I read the first majority of this fic, could someone remind me of all of Sophia's crimes here? It kinda looked like she got kidnapped by the CUI, and Scientia retaliated by birdcaging her…

I understand she probably did some horrific stuff earlier in the fic, but it's been long enough I can't match up which horrors in particular happened here, XD
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Eh, I figured it was as much getting her away into a controlled environment as it was punishment. This time information was clearly coerced, but the fact remains that Sophia knows compromising information on Scientia, and has the type of personality to do troubling things with it if she feels she can get away with it. And even if she wouldn't... there's plenty of other groups that would use her anyway. As Scientia is critical to the survival of Earth-Bet in particular and other worlds adjecent, threats to her well-being cannot be tolerated. As executions aren't part of her ethical framework (not for non-combatants or those who surrender), the only alternative is an indefinite confinement. Hopefully Dragon can make that time actually rehabilitative.
 
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Immensely enjoyed the way things went down with the CUI.

My only criticism, (which mostly comes from a desire to slake my schadenfreude-derived bloodlust), is that a lot of the action after the initial anti-matter beatdown was handled 'off screen,' in the sense that the AIs did it. I don't get the... satisfaction of the literary-equivalent of a montage where missiles fly, heads explode, or any of Ares/Prometheus point-of-view where they conduct the legwork of both investigation and assassination.

Perhaps that's by design, and that's fine - I just personally would've liked to indulge myself in the action a bit longer before the chapter ended.
 
Entropy Engineer said:
Except this time it's being run by a hyper competent AI Human genius duo. With military capabilities that not even guerrilla fighters can do anything about. So all is well.
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Maybe. But I'd bet that a bunch of groups would pop up trying to fill the vaccum left by the Yangban. Those groups getting slaughtered by Scientia may or may not be viewed as a good thing by the populace, probably depending on the group. There's less of a reason to join an insurgency in the CUI compared to post-invasion Iraq where the govt was completely failing to provide security or utilities or any of those things you rely on a govt for, but that might change as insurgent groups with capes pop up. (Also in post invasion Iraq the Coalition Provisional Authority fired all Ba'ath party leaders and the entire military, which left a ton of people unemployed and upset - Scientia didn't do anything this stupid.) On the other hand, those nascent insurgent groups probably will have parahumans, and the CUI has none currently. So Scientia might have her resolution not to be hyper-involved with internal affairs tested as the transition govt comes under fire from new insurgent villain groups.
Whatever happens, it'll be interesting.
 
That's a lotta killin'. Not necessarily not required, given the perverse incentives of brutal power structures, but jesus that's a lot of killin'.
 
And so we really get into how power corrupts even good people. And really playing "The greatest and most honorable game.", also known as real world politics.

TaliesinSkye said:
Scientia > Ares? No survivors. If possible, I'd like them to just disappear. I don't want anyone to know that it was my doing. Someone might wonder why
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The practical problem of keeping dangerous secerts. How many lives are worth keeping it secret? How often must the payment in be made? At what point is it just a bill that must be paid regularly?

TaliesinSkye said:
And, I had to remind myself, there was the very real truth that I'd just liberated over a billion people from a tyrannical regime. Less than a thousand people had died. There might be further loss of life if the transition went poorly, but even if there were mass riots it was still looking like one of the greatest triumphs for human rights in the history of humankind.
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And again, here. Seems like a good idea idea at the time, probably even was. But in comes the corruption, justified as simple 'maintenance fee' of lives in the coming future.

Don't get me wrong, I like how this story is going! I'm just highlighting the cracks and how I think they are going to develop in the future.

Random thought! Did the emperor or even anyone in the Forbidden City get the declaration of war before they were conquered? I mean the diplomat might have just warned people about a likely attack without saying why. Heh, was probably on a secured communication line getting a debrief when Beijing was attacked.
 
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The ending, how you treated the Imperial Family, and the fact that you're letting China continue to self govern? That's excellent.

Though, I can't help but feel a little bit sorry for Sophia after what the CUI likely did to her. I mean, sure, she's a total bitch who deserved to go to prison, but I feel like the Birdcage was a bit much. I'll grant you, though, you couldn't risk her flapping her lips when it came to security.
 
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