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Feb. 5th, 2024 03:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethYesterday I read an SF story from 2020 about economic devastation in the wake of high tech AI and robots type changes to the economy
and it was vaguely bothering me
and I just realised why:
the story imagined the change happened because aliens sold us new tech so the rich got richer
and it solved it by having someone be biologically useful enough to sell their cells to the aliens
and like, that's taking an actual existing incoming problem, and changing the causes, and then imagining a whole extra twist at the end to set up a solution.
and I dont see the value added?
like, it didnt have to be aliens for them to be interested in the biology,
it just had to be aliens for them to be plausibly averse to just taking it.
the whole human vs human side of the problem was about use of force
but the solution was to have someone in the equation who had all the power but wouldnt use force.
I mean, it feels flatter the longer I think about it.
Like why would they even need to? The levels of tech shown elsewhere in the story suggest they could just pick up DNA that was lying around or like skin cells that fell off or just scan stuff in situ.
But no. The solve to the world's problems relied on someone being unwilling to take something without making a deal for it.
So that someone was an alien.
Bored now.
and it was vaguely bothering me
and I just realised why:
the story imagined the change happened because aliens sold us new tech so the rich got richer
and it solved it by having someone be biologically useful enough to sell their cells to the aliens
and like, that's taking an actual existing incoming problem, and changing the causes, and then imagining a whole extra twist at the end to set up a solution.
and I dont see the value added?
like, it didnt have to be aliens for them to be interested in the biology,
it just had to be aliens for them to be plausibly averse to just taking it.
the whole human vs human side of the problem was about use of force
but the solution was to have someone in the equation who had all the power but wouldnt use force.
I mean, it feels flatter the longer I think about it.
Like why would they even need to? The levels of tech shown elsewhere in the story suggest they could just pick up DNA that was lying around or like skin cells that fell off or just scan stuff in situ.
But no. The solve to the world's problems relied on someone being unwilling to take something without making a deal for it.
So that someone was an alien.
Bored now.