Worldbuilding.... Things You Would Change

[Spacescifi]

 

Among other things in scifi, worldbuilding is an opportunity to 'fix' things you do not like in society, and insert them into the fictional civilization/alien race of your choice. Or not if you choose to copy humanity.

So what things would you 'fix' in a fictional society/alien race that you do not like in real life?

 

Me? No more paperwork and adverisements. One card ID for everything. All that extra mail would no longer exist, as well as all that wasteful packaging. Reusability would be stressed, and food and other items would be apportioned out by workers to customers, so a totally different store setup.

Granted, it may take a behavior pattern different than humanity in some ways to pull off, but I don't care, it is a fictional society or alien civilization.

 

So what about you? What things about society would you 'fix' in scifi?

 

EDIT: Some advertisement is a good thing, but not the excess of today. I would bring back the town cryer tp wherever people gather in public outside.

 

Edited October 16, 2019 by Spacescifi

[kerbiloid]

A multiverse and a pocket universe as a personal HQ.

Spoiler

No Marvel. H8 Marvel. Just a normal multiverse.

 

Edited October 17, 2019 by kerbiloid

[Guest]

On 10/16/2019 at 10:24 AM, Spacescifi said:

bad ideas

That actually sounds quite dystopian, having a single card means everything you do can be tracked and having things rationed to you instead of choosing how to spend your money is a serious reduction of freedom

Edited October 18, 2019 by Guest

[Bill Phil]

I don’t think world building in sci fi should be about fixing society. Rather it should be about the impact of scientific advances or even the laws of physics themselves on human society. For example, what would happen if we discovered aliens? What would happen if we advanced in propulsion technology fairly rapidly? What would happen if humanity’s waste heat became a problem in and of itself? And so on.

When it comes to “fixing” society, that may best be left to utopian/dystopian fiction. Some of the best ones are built around ideas to fix society. After getting the concepts straightened out you think about how they’ll affect people - and you can pretty easily make a decent dystopia.

[Spacescifi]

58 minutes ago, Aperture Science said:

That actually sounds quite dystopian, having a single card means everything you do can be tracked and having things rationed to you instead of choosing how to spend your money is a serious reduction of freedom

 

Everything you do already can be tracked if there is cause to check you or anyone else out.

As for rationing, I view it more like picnic with servers. You pay, wait in line and get your portion. If you want another you may, but get back in line. There could also be mass food delivery, where if you order something online, you can buy it only at a certsin quantity unless you have cleared it with the authorities. Then at the distribution center everyone gets in line and takes their stuff.

 

And it need not be dystopian if the behavior is not human to begin with. Humans tend to be corruptible, so any system they make, no matter how noble, is disregarded by some, and exploited by others. This need not be the ,case among a fictional society.

They may have problems we do not even have! Like we may have behavior problems, but they may have a population problem due to long life spans, prompting mass terraforming and colonization of space. Along with culling as needed of the unproductive in society.

Cruel? Likely, but that is not my view, it's just something to give them a more extreme flavor as opposed to what we know.

Edited October 18, 2019 by Spacescifi

[TheSaint]

"The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it." - H. L. Mencken

[Spacescifi]

5 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

"The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it." - H. L. Mencken

 

Believe me when I say I have no desire to rule/baby-sit humans. Any of the fixes would not work as well if at all because humans are involved.

It is only fun to play with the concepts in non-human civilizations for scifi.

 

Edited October 18, 2019 by Spacescifi

[Spacescifi]

1 hour ago, Bill Phil said:

I don’t think world building in sci fi should be about fixing society. Rather it should be about the impact of scientific advances or even the laws of physics themselves on human society. For example, what would happen if we discovered aliens? What would happen if we advanced in propulsion technology fairly rapidly? What would happen if humanity’s waste heat became a problem in and of itself? And so on.

 

 

The answers to your questions are straight forward enough.

For example, what would happen if we discovered aliens?

Answer: The human reaction: "Threat? Profit? Help us? Knlowledge?"

What would happen if we advanced in propulsion technology fairly rapidly?

Answer: Research outposts, I do not see mass colonization unless Earth 2 is found. Also a space economy with mining. If space transport is really good the mining may even upset Earth economy.

What would happen if humanity’s waste heat became a problem in and of itself?

Answer: Produce less waste heat or die.Getting rid of stuff will happen. Survival instincts would kick in.

 

Most of these with the exception of the last question I have seen covered heavily in scifi.

[Bill Phil]

25 minutes ago, Spacescifi said:

 

The answers to your questions are straight forward enough.

For example, what would happen if we discovered aliens?

Answer: The human reaction: "Threat? Profit? Help us? Knlowledge?"

What would happen if we advanced in propulsion technology fairly rapidly?

Answer: Research outposts, I do not see mass colonization unless Earth 2 is found. Also a space economy with mining. If space transport is really good the mining may even upset Earth economy.

What would happen if humanity’s waste heat became a problem in and of itself?

Answer: Produce less waste heat or die.Getting rid of stuff will happen. Survival instincts would kick in.

 

Most of these with the exception of the last question I have seen covered heavily in scifi.

The answers can be much more complex, however. And they depend on what exactly the situation is.

Aliens: is it intelligent life? Simple life? Is it closeby? Far away? Are they “sufficiently advanced”? And so on and so forth.

Propulsion tech: depends. A lot. We may end up building orbital settlements and abandon finding habitable planets. 

Waste heat: we could theoretically construct an orbital ring setup to carry waste heat from Earth into space to radiate it away. Or we could expand just to more efficiently radiate waste heat. Now that is an interesting reason to colonize space...

[Spacescifi]

13 minutes ago, Bill Phil said:

The answers can be much more complex, however. And they depend on what exactly the situation is.

Aliens: is it intelligent life? Simple life? Is it closeby? Far away? Are they “sufficiently advanced”? And so on and so forth.

Propulsion tech: depends. A lot. We may end up building orbital settlements and abandon finding habitable planets. 

Waste heat: we could theoretically construct an orbital ring setup to carry waste heat from Earth into space to radiate it away. Or we could expand just to more efficiently radiate waste heat. Now that is an interesting reason to colonize space...

 

Aliens: Simple life changes virtually nothing. It will mainly just give scientists grounds for justification of previous theories as well as fodder for new speculation and theories. Same goes for advanced but too far yo communicate or reach advanced fictional aliens.

Propulsion Tech: While possible, I do not see it for any other purpose than than entertainment/fun. Zero g and optional rotational gravity is fun. Unless Earth is ruined, but we have seen that before in fiction.

Edited October 18, 2019 by Spacescifi

[kerbiloid]

5 hours ago, Bill Phil said:

what would happen if we discovered aliens?

We would ask them how much carbon dioxide emission did it take for them to fly here, and wouldn't the Universe be a much greater and nicer place without their smelly saucers.

[Kernel Kraken]

My worldbuilding is usually an alien species with a society based off of human right, expanded:

-everyone has a right to education, food, shelter, water, healthcare, other needs like that

- you can work for everything else.

Takes care of problems like making jobs for my little goo creatures to 'cause i'm too lazy.

[Triop]

On 10/16/2019 at 3:24 PM, Spacescifi said:

Me? No more paperwork and adverisements. One card ID for everything.

What happens when all the power fails ?

You would end up with nothing...

[kerbiloid]

 

1 hour ago, Triop said:

What happens when all the power fails ?

Marvel will restart the franchise.

[Triop]

3 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

Marvel will restart the franchise.

With Jeb, Bill, Bob and Val as the magnificent 4 ?

[kerbiloid]

7 minutes ago, Triop said:

With Jeb, Bill, Bob and Val as the magnificent 4 ?

With Tony Stark, Thor, Loki, and Black Widow as Jeb, Bill, Bob, and Val.

[Triop]

Isn't Tony death now ?

[kerbiloid]

5 minutes ago, Triop said:

Isn't Tony death now ?

Still doesn't mean forever.

[Jacke]

6 hours ago, Triop said:

Isn't Tony death now ?

Like Jeb, he can walk that off, as can Natasha.