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submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

I have a few:

  • Chosen ones, fate, destiny, &c. When you get down to it, a story with these themes is one where a single person or handful of people is ontologically, cosmically better and more important than everyone else. It's eerily similar to that right-wing meme about how "most people are just NPCs" (though I disliked the trope before that meme ever took off).
  • Way too much importance being given to bloodlines by the narrative (note, this is different from them being given importance by characters or societies in the story).
  • All of the good characters are handsome and beautiful, while all of the evil characters are ugly and disfigured (with the possible exception of a femme fatale or two).
  • Races that are inherently, unchangeably evil down to the last individual regardless of upbringing, society, or material circumstances.
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[-] [email protected] 51 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)
  • cybernetics makes you evil. No, fuck you Pondsmith, there is no way to make cybernetics mechanically reduce your humanity that is not inexcusable ableist bs. Let it die.

  • any kind of bioconservative/biotrad reactionary anti-transhumanism. Radical bodily autonomy is based and cool and that holds whether you want to be a fish, grow boobs, live forever, or encode your conscious mind in to the magnetic flux of Jupiter's orbital system. I don't care that you lack the imagination and joy for life to live forever. I don't care that you think inhabiting a giant metal deathrobot would be self-alienating. I don't care that you think merging your flesh with six billion other people to form a new gestalt god mind is icky. Work out your own issues, we're going to be over here disfugirng The face of man and woman and having a great time

  • basically all military sci fi. If i never read another book that is just some fascist freak masturbating about murdering immigrants or being the victim of the imperialism they gleefully inflict on others it will be too soon.

  • also if you try to give me a book/show/game where the ai's are evil and want to destroy and enslave all humans but they're only like that because that's literally the only relationship you can imagine between people with any kind of power disparity i will scream until i pass out. A single, high pitched wail. Dogs will bark and a wine glass will shatter in close up to emphasize how loud it is. I will literally turn purple and fall over.

[-] [email protected] 19 points 3 weeks ago

cybernetics makes you evil. No, fuck you Pondsmith, there is no way to make cybernetics mechanically reduce your humanity that is not inexcusable ableist bs. Let it die.

now my guy is a flaming LIB but he does seem to give that choice to the dm. Within universe there's at least three explanations for cyberpsychosis;

AI takeover (there's also the idea that the AIs beyond the Blackwall are actually demons and that a secret cabal has been upholding the wall since Babylonian times), planned obsolescence by the companies(checks out tbh), and then the one that you referenced, which is loss of humanity and not seeing other people as humans anymore.

overall it's just a balancing mechanic, Shadowrun does it better though edgeworth-shrug

[-] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

A reddit comment from the man himself goes into the finer details of his thinking with cyberpsychosis and it really isn't as simple as "get chromed, go crazy" and he delves into the socio-psycho reasonings behind the phenomenon: he presents a more nuanced ideal than most people engaging with the concept will allow either because it's a game with rules, or an anime with plot contrivance (cyberpsycho serum meds)

Oh and he says it isn't AI net demons lol

[-] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago

Oh and he says it isn't AI net demons lol

incredibly uncool kitty-birthday-sad

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this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2024
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