This does for me what the skip does not. Good job.
(account deleted)This is so Kafka-ish, and and that's actually a good point. The way you describe it is delightful and overall, a pretty good man-clam conversion tale.
Now, my issue with this, and the reason of my downvote, is those damn, sadistic researchers. "The Foundation is cold, not evil" is what we all hear and repéat here, but analyze it even at its surface, you would inmediately say this is plain evil -at least from my definition of Evil-. You can't even argue back to me because that female researcher turned happy because she managed to give it eye-slids… Are you serious kid?
Once again, not bad, but rather bad in the bad -evil- sense. -1
I think it fits, because the Foundation's "cold not cruel" mantra is, to my mind, a crock of nonsense. A way of feeling better about what they do. Because the coldness of their distance is just a less direct form of cruelty.
I mean look at this - they just pulled an "I have no mouth and must scream" on a guy just to learn if the process gave you eye-stalks. In a way, that's almost worse than AM - AM tortures you because he HATES you. The Foundation will torture you just because it fills out the paperwork.
I think the "cold not cruel" thing falls apart once you start thinking about it.
Is animal testing today cold, or cruel? If you think it's just cold, then so is this (as is most D-class testing). If you think it's cruel, then yes, Foundation testing is cruel.
Gleefully sadistic? No. But cruel nonetheless.
In "this" test, you can argue the actual "limpet" thing is extreme. Warranted? Yes, as the Foundation wants to know the limits of what the scip can do, and how long it takes.
Hell, if people feel bad, just pretend they turned him back again afterwards.
Haha maybe I should do an "alternative ending."
Edit. Also, I think even if the Foundation is cold, not cruel, it would be naive to think all personnel follow that same philosophy. There are bound to be some nasty, ugly people in the dark corners; ordinary people who could give any Nazi medical experimenter a run for their money. None of the people in this story fall into that category, but they exist in the Foundation, just as they exist everywhere.
The problem is that this tale encourages the idea that the Foundation is either full of psychopaths, or they are porpusefully creating sociopaths in order to work with the anomalous. People do pass through a huge change when they are exposed to life-changing truths, but I would think such an organization would have some psychologic tratment for those who have a hard time dealing with it.. Also, most of the cruelty in an organization like the Foundation would happen under similar circustances as the Milgram Experiment. I don't mind cruelty in the Foundation, but I do despise when the characters enjoy their acts of cruelty1. The best and most popular example to show this is 231. In that case, the not so subtle situation that is built there shows when "be cruel for the greater good" is well done. And if you check their containment procedures, you'll come to realize it favors the conditions that allow people to detach themselves from such madness.
Still not liking the article. The problem is just because my point of view, that's all.
Great tale, love the Kafka type metamorphosis (see what I did there)… only problem is the cold coffee reference… well if you have cream and some sugar you can make a ice coffee/coffee on the rocks, +1 to the story but please don't diss cold coffee
well if you have cream and some sugar you can make a ice coffee/coffee on the rocks, +1 to the story but please don't diss cold coffee
Maybe Kelster doesn't like ice coffee/coffee on the rocks either. Maybe she likes it less. d:
Probably a no-vote from me. The squick got me a little, but the payoff didn't feel totally there for me. I see what you were going for, but that last line felt too blatant for me. I get what others are saying about the cruelty thing, but with the Foundation canon can't care that much about what is and isn't in-character. It's just obvious to the point of losing all of its cutting power for me.
This was a triumph.
I'm making a note here: "HUGE SUCCESS!"
It's hard to overstate my satisfaction.
Foundation Science: We do what we must (because we can).
Seriously. Listen to "Still Alive" while reading this and try tell me that the Foundation hasn't secretly been GLaDOS this whole time.
Dammit MacLeod. Now I am reading all the skips in GLaDOS voice.
This is bad how?
For bonus points, read every bit of dialogue in Cave Johnson's voice.
The room was bright, clinical, shadowless; a faint, lingering smell of disinfectant; wipe-clean furnishings; tiled walls and floor. Hygienic and stark.
Ha ha The thing is, I was thinking specifically of the Portal test chambers when I wrote that, AND the end music from Portal 2 (I think it's "Want You Gone"?) was in my head the whole time.
I know some don't like the sense of unrequired cruelty in this test, but seriously: if you don't approach the horrors with a sense of humour, you'd better have another damned good coping mechanism up your sleeve.
AND the end music from Portal 2 (I think it's "Want You Gone"?) was in my head the whole time.
The time has come again
to black out names and details
I don’t remember
all the things we hide
Report after report
expunging and redacting
These circumstances must seem so different to each side.
Sometimes there still are dangers
Problems still going on
But we can’t let them know that
Change the file and now it’s gone.
don't have a demo for this Song Containment Parody yet, but you can see other things on my author page shameless promotion ignore lame cell phone mic quality plz
