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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2646 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for March 29, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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The last time I recall a thought experiment based on global choices being discussed on the Motte, it got quite heated and divisive. Hopefully this one will be more fun, if y'all are willing to indulge in a bit of daydreaming and power fantasy.

Pic related. TLDR: you are one of a number of people given a choice between 10 sets of powers, with corresponding agenda that make them stronger when followed and taboos that make them disappear for a time when broken.

  • Approximately 1 in a million people from those who live now, eligible from age 14 and upwards, are presented with the choice. This is a one-time event.
  • Everyone is explained the choices in the language and terms they understand.
  • Those who were not picked to participate in the choice do not know anything yet.
  • Trying to abuse or bug-test the choice mechanic results in being assigned the 10th option.
  • Everyone who's been picked knows those five stipulations.

What do you pick? What do you think the world will be like, and how do you intend to make it?

Personally, I am a bit torn between Amlia and Marked. My Amlia powers will likely not be too strong, since I don't think I'll find it in me to dedicate myself to healing the sick full-time. However, I can expect a good deal of goodwill and protection from society, and have the Sanctuary to retreat to if shit hits the fan bigly. Marked's total immortality is tempting, but I don't want to stick around floating in the void until the heat death of the universe, whether as a soul or as a body. Finally, XM sounds like a decent, if more daring, pick. (It is not clear whether XM powers are at a constant level, or shift based on an inscrutable variable).

It's Lux for me, anything that boosts your intelligence is very powerful. We live in a world of machines and mathematics.

World would be pretty fucked. However, MBTI suggests most people are inclined towards the Lawful Good end of the spectrum, so the bottom ranks wouldn't be very populous. They'd be manageable. I envisage a huge machine of Ur knights and healers, probably the most popular classes - funded and organized by Lux masterminds who control everything.

Some other CYOAs I like:

Tarots: https://imgur.com/a/y4b0UVY

I'm torn between The Magician and Strength, they're all so good! The Minor Arcanas are an afterthought and don't matter IMO.

Some long-form interactive CYOAs:

https://travellers-cyoas.neocities.org/Cultivation/ (Traveller's made quite a few but I think this is his best, the others tend to be overly complicated)

https://swcyoas.neocities.org/soyouwannarulethegalaxy/ (trending more into that overly complicated zone but there's great charm in the original Expanded Universe idea)

The World tickles my encyclopedia completionist side, I must say. How easy would it be to lift myself off my ass is arguable, even in a brand new fantasy world, though. I'd hope the sense of restlessness the card induces would compensate for my homebodiness.

Do you think the Luxors would be in control? With the divine leadership aura, I expect the Urians to be calling the shots. Von Neumann didn't rule anyone.

Von Neumann was merely a savant, not a remote-control technomancer who can steal knowledge! 3x thought speed is also a huge advantage.

Ur needs guidance, they need to know where the bad guys are to smite them. Who's going to be telling them where the bad people are, who's going to be controlling the satellites, the cameras, the cars and sensors? I see their angels of righteous fire and I raise them swarms of drones and missiles.

Ur, Amilia, and Marked are the easiest to avoid the taboos of passively if you want to just have a free power and not dedicate your life to advancing some cause.

I'd probably go with Amilia, become the head of a magical hospital where I heal people for money (and have enough EMTs and ambulances to keep people alive until I can get to them, and get obscenely rich while simultaneously helping people. I assume that charging money for healing is a lot less pleasing and would advance the agenda less than doing it for free, but it's not strictly taboo. I think as long as I don't turn away poor people, healing anyone who comes and simply charge them proportional to their ability to pay, it'll probably be fine. I assume that the existence of other Amilia users will drop demand to reasonable levels such it won't lead to absurdly high prices like it would if you were the only one who could cure otherwise incurable disease, but one in a million multiplied by the proportion of people who choose Amilia means this will still end up with a lot of money.

Alternatively, see if the Fae power can be munchkinned for absurd amounts of money by growing rare spices or something. Depending on the growth rate and quality/quantity it can be used on at a time, it might be more profitable to heal people entirely for free to boost your strength more and earn all your money from growing stuff. Though again, profits will be mitigated by other Amilia users.

Ersu for the ladies’ locker-rooms.

Link is broken.

Try a VPN. I'd put the picture on imgur, but I only ever see everyone here use catbox.

Boo!

Marked, just because I'd assume it's a lie or demonic scam so I'd walk out on it.

I think the problem with refusing deals with the devil is that there's the assumption that the devil needs your consent. (to present a choice where all options are a change from the status quo)

Forces outside my control or understanding can determine my entire life- my parents certainly did when I was little! But if I have no actual agency ever then I'd like to petition a higher power to turn my consciousness off forever.

I didn't get past the second choice. Amila, 100%. There was a time where I debated to myself what kind of superpower would be the best to have. That was before I became a parent. No debate, it's magical healing, by a long shot. Everything else can be fixed, except people.

If I had such a power I'd spend the rest of my life traveling from hospital to hospital, healing everyone there. I'd let people know in advance, so they could bring their sick and crippled. I'd start a nonprofit organization to support my work and auction off the right to be the first three people healed by me at any of my stops to the highest bidder in order to fund it.

I would never retire.

And what do you do when a disciple of Quet comes calling?

In the early days, just die probably. Assuming the sanctuary power doesn’t work when cursed.

If I can get my operation going, we can expand. I could hire disciples of Ur as bodygaurds, hire more healers to expand my operation, and eventually build a secure hospital facility of my own that people can be flown to. If we pair healers up two by two then if one is cursed the other could potentially sanctuary them both to safety.

Heal the mental illness that caused them to choose Quet, at which point they will see logic and throw themselves off a bridge.

While I don't think being murderous is necessarily a disease, an Amlian's touch does "remove anger and aggression". Also, it isn't against Amlia's taboo to have a bodyguard squad nearby who will shoot dead anyone who resists your calming touch, smacks you with curses or brings a pack of zombies with them.

Also also, I'd expect Amlians to be among the least attractive targets. Their powerset is one of the least useful for a murderboner, they are liked and protected, and if you're heavily wounded just ask for their service like any other normal disciple. Tank the disfavor for sparing them if you have to.

Ur the Wheel. Bring righteousness, inspire respect in others. What’s not to like?

Optus the burdened. I don't see why a hedonist would chose anything else. I would turn my tap water into gold and sell it. The vault would be extremely useful. You can summon a weapon, use it on someone and then disappear it. You could also store all your cars, helicopters, jets and boats in the vault so no worry of theft or vandalism.

Lux Divine Watchmaker is amazing but no sex is a deal breaker.

Why would anyone chose Quet? You would have to be so angry at the world to want to fight disciples you've never met.

I've polled one of my chats and saw one person pick Quet, as they said, to ensure other Quets don't touch them. I suppose that's where the parallels with "red button/blue button" come in.

Why would anyone chose Quet? You would have to be so angry at the world to want to fight disciples you've never met.

You are aware this is from 4chan, correct?

There's something to like in most of these. I'm most tempted by the top row, but what I like most of all is Ersu's offer of immortality. I see I could get that on the cheap as Marked; that plus immunity from the power of the thousands of other disciples who will be out there breaking the world seems to make Marked the most obvious choice.

Technically all of the option offer immortality: the Marked description specifically says they can't die because there is no afterlife that will let them in, which implies that everyone else does get an afterlife. So they're all immortal, but the Marked have to stay in this world forever instead of moving on to another.

These files (many, many more are available at this link) always make me extremely angry. Why are people so obsessed with making them images rather than PDFs (or, even better, HTML files)? The 4000×4000 JPEG file linked above is literally four megabytes! Imagine how much smaller it would be if text were actually stored as text.

Image hosting is straightforward, jpeg decoders are well established and safe.

They can be easily generated by taking a screenshot.

Bundling text and images together into a safe format that works in different screen aspect ratios is a surprisingly difficult problem. You're introducing a lot of complexity in generating them and safely displaying them.

I find it extremely unlikely that the thousands of people who create and view these "CYOA" documents have all refused to install PDF and HTML/EPUB viewers on their computers due to fanatical cybersecurity concerns.

I can't open the original file on mobile. Are one of these the same as what OP linked?

They're all big JPEG files in the same vein, but not identical.

Probably due to the fact that websites such as the one you linked are called imageboards.

The format is pretty awful, though, at least in the image linked in the top post. A grid of 3x3 means having to scroll left and right and then down then left and right, which is a pain in basically any browser compared to just scrolling down on 9 rows of 1 column.

/tg/ allows PDFs as well as images to be uploaded.

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