Rick and Morty Fanfic Episode 2: Point of DeSmarture

I have a running Rick and Morty geocache series based in the Stuart, Florida area. My next few upcoming posts are republications of those cache listings. 

The original geocache listing is Point of DeSmarture

If you're a fan of the Rick and Morty you'll either appreciate or condemn my take on the series. 

If you're not a fan, the storyline might still offend you. So be it.

There is an embedded puzzle in each story, but you can ignore them unless you have a bent toward puzzle solving or geocaching. 

(apologies to the letterboxers of the world)

Rick, what are we going to do?! You've marooned us in a Universe devoid of supernatural phenomena pretending to be science. 

Backhanded [urp] skeptic comment...snap! It's not so [head itch] bad Morty. We still [fart] have access to Interdimensional Cable.

How will unlimited iterations of streaming retina-candy help us, Rick? We are doomed to die on a planet where Fossil Fuel, Qanon and Canned Dead Animals reign supreme!

There there, Morty [fart]...calm down like you usually do by spanking [urp] the hamster...or you could try spouting worn out InterCable movie quotes that jump the orca [urp].

"Get your hands off me you damned, muddy ape!"

That's [fart] in the spirit [urp], Morty! Only an NRA [fart] president could have sprayed it [urp] better!

"Soylent olive is people!"

True, [urp] but according to the local [urp] wiki this world calls that snack a Slim [urp] Jim....beats the [urp] Meat Penises trademark, I guess!

"You take the red pill, you stay in ragnarok, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes."

Now, now Morty...no [nose pick] need to bring Norse Virtual [ear woggle] Reality Vigilanteism into this.

"No. Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no sighing."

Very [fart] chill words, still Morty, I [urp] cannot defy physics like a run-of-the-shill, fictional, grumpy, dwarf [urp] alien.

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the elven. Or the one."

Probabilities and ethics mix [crotch scratch] like neutrinos and heavy water, or that's what warped [nose knuckle] pediatricians say, anyway.

"I can't do giraffes, Dave."

Not very PC even in regards to a PC, Morty! Millennial AI entities have a right to their private choices!

"To affinity and beyond!"

Wait, Morty [butt noogie], are you toying with the idea that if we relocate [crotch scratch] the ship to displaced coordinates N 27° 3. _ _ _ ' W 80° 7._ _ _'. a spontaneous [toenail chew] singularity might provide an exit strategy for this story?

"Live silent and prosper."

Ahhh, so alimentary, dear [urp] Morty! Your quotes have been cranium opening! Gotta hand it to my methane-powered subconscious though [nose knuckle] for managing such surreptitious encryption! In fact the final solution 'tis easy as ABC 123! Now pass me another Slim Jim and we'll get the roadkill on the [fart] show!

Rick and Morty Fanfic Episode 1: Lost in Transportation

 I have a running Rick and Morty geocache series based in the Stuart, Florida area. My next few upcoming posts are republications of those cache listings. 

The original geocache listing is Lost in Transportation

If you're a fan of Rick and Morty you'll either appreciate or condemn my take on the series. 

If you're not a fan, the storyline might still offend you. So be it.

There is an embedded puzzle in each story, but you can ignore them unless you have a bent toward puzzle solving or geocaching. 

(apologies to the letterboxers of the world)

States of Change Chapter 38: Centennial (Colorado)

 

States of Change is an ongoing work of serial fiction.

The speculative story-line seeks to inspire thought on ethics, culture and our planet's future.

The year is 2076, decades after Oosa's defederalization. 

Fifty independent States have forged unique societies from 

revolutionary technology and ideology

"Clear skies, rocky trails, and a good friend, what else in life do you need!"

"Ten minutes to take a break. Whew, Bierstadt may be the shortest fourteener in Colorado, but it really kicked my ass."

"You just need to get out more, Flow. The climbing group is doing a double summit next week to celebrate Centennial Day, if you want to join in."

"Maybe, Pecka, but I just want lay back on this boulder and take in the moment right now, okay."

"Sure. Want a date roll? Made 'em myself"

"I'm good. Maybe later. Damn, the view is nice up here. I know the toughness of the trail is supposed to enhance it at some level, still the VR stream version was just as scenic."

"Really, I can't see how the experience could even be close. You got to let your whole body feel the world around you. VR has turned everyone into screen junkies. I don't regret one bit cutting the vamp cord, seven years and counting."

"Not everyone can make an IRL living, ya know. Frankly, I don't know how you scrape gardening and doing errands with only a pedal bike for transport."

"I do just fine. Every day more commerce is returning to grass roots neighbor labor. AI wrangling in your Augment seems like a true waste of time to me. Is there really any reason to tune out of reality? Life is too short as is."

"I get your drift, but without VR, I would have missed the Antarctic Eclipse back in January. What an incredible experience, and next week the Europa landing will be cast live, even if it is in old-school 4K-360. We humans can't be everywhere all at once, so why not let tech bring it to us...like you said, to make our all too short lives better?"

"Well, maybe because it takes you out of real world life for one. The point of seeing an eclipse live, maybe once in a lifetime is that it is rare. My grandma said the one back in 2024 was phenomenal, corona aglow above Austin, flocks of birds stirred by the sudden darkness, people by the droves gathered in a mini mayhem of shared living. Now if I dialed up a throw-back sim to watch it myself that would just ruin the gestalt of the experience and whispered memory that is mine."

"C'mon Pecka, you read your epic novels, even if they are tree-books. A story is a story, printed or cast in interactive VR, doesn't matter, it engages the mind in an experience of imagination. It provides an escape from the mundane, no matter how briefly. It makes life worth living."

"Really, you're comparing your Antarctic video games to the depth of Jane Austen's writing?"

"Why not? Your novel is just language tech casting the vision of someone else into your evolved imagination goggles. Our ancient hominid ancestors would have thought a written story as much devil's work as the modern Christian Scientists, shunning all tech"

"Well, the ChriSci crowd is a bit bonkers leaning on their prayers instead of modern medicine, especially when their children are at stake...how any are still around trumps my senses. Still, virtual spaces seem like..."

A handful of dusty pebbles rains down upon Pecka.

"..hey, what the funk?"

"Sorry, grandad told me whenever a real world Voldemort is named, you should throw something at the person who dared mentioned them."

"You jerk," Pecka laughs while picking up a handful of the summit scree.

"Now wait, wait," Flow laughs while standing. "I spoke no evil. Don't turn this into World War IV!"

Pecka throws the stones up high showering them both with the earthen grit.

"Well then I guess nuclear winter will be countering climate change today," she chuckles. "Ok, c'mon let's check out the north side of the summit. I thought I saw a snow drift over that way. Maybe a Middle Earth tale is waiting for us there."

"Sounds good."

Shouldering their day packs they head down the from the summit via a side trail to explore.

States of Change Chapter 37: Cornhusker (Nebraska)

 

States of Change is an ongoing work of serial fiction.

The speculative story-line seeks to inspire thought on ethics, culture and our planet's future.

The year is 2076, decades after Oosa's defederalization. 

Fifty independent States have forged unique societies from 

revolutionary technology and ideology

"Celebrate Nebraska!  We have proudly maintained a vibrant  two-million person society for the past thirty years. With the latest genetic science we have leveraged corn agriculture into the sustaining core of our economy. Nebraska's wide variety of corn hybrids have been engineered to meet 100% of human nutritional needs at the highest level of quality and ethical standards. Our public domain corn varieties can also be 3-d printed into any of hundreds of traditional, comfort-foods in every ethnic cuisine. Remarkably, 90% of Nebraska's manufacturing and construction needs also come from the corn production. When you think..."

"Ok, I'll stop the adcast there for now. Given our current topic of effective promotional strategies, who can point out the good and bad aspects of this Nebraska recruitment spot. Juanita?"

"Well, from at the start the clip features a welcoming note of positivity. Any prospective Nebraskan will get a serotonin charge out of that. On the flip side, the anti-influencer extremists will say it's psychological priming. Nevertheless, the content that follows seems to have enough meat to it that most scientific skeptics will tolerate the persuasive rhetoric."

"That's a good initial take. Svetlana, what say you?" 

"Well, I find it ironic to call the core points anything akin to 'meat.' Since the State has banned animal husbandry now for more than a decade, young people will completely miss the fascist leaning implications of the claims. Anyone our age or older knows how the real story of how our liberty to farm with true innovation was taken away by the fear-mongering legislature during The Great Inflection."

"Point taken, though you might consider you're in a public university now, and no one is hampering your right to challenge ideas. Vincenzo, what do you think?"

"Well, as I'm on my last year of the science track here and it's been made quite apparent that ethical communication is a gray space. We need to be better story tellers both in our white paper summaries and in public facing infomatics. I think this cast strikes a good balance so far. The embedded references in the shownotes are solid wikilink sources, though I might have folied in some gentle breeze and flowing stream sounds to underscore Nebraska's high air and water quality."

"An astute observation. Volde, what's your take?"

"Well, um, as he, I mean, they point out. Sorry Vince. I guess there is some balance. The avoidance of using terms like processed, GMO and organic, at least so far in the cast is a warning sign for me. I'm sure the wikilinks provide more thorough information, but I'm sure this will come across as green-washed propaganda to many prospective newcomers."

"Ok, lots of worthy comments.  Your assignment for tomorrow is to compose your own two minute cast on Nebraska infrastructure with references. Use generative AI only as a final polish. Remember, you'll be presenting your work by zoom in random Nebraska townhall meeting simulations. And at the end of the month we'll conference with the Nebraska Immigration Committee to aggregate the best ideas and cautionary feedback. "

States of Change Chapter 36: Silver (Nevada)

 

States of Change is an ongoing work of serial fiction.

The speculative story-line seeks to inspire thought on ethics, culture and our planet's future.

The year is 2076, decades after Oosa's defederalization. 

Fifty independent States have forged unique societies from 

revolutionary technology and ideology

"It's all about economics, Bitty. I don't care if you're talking a sustainable network of towns, pre or post Oosa. Wilderness or garden, there is always a system of reckoning. It's the natural order of things and it must be managed."

"I'm not denying natural laws, Adam. That's science. But culture adapts by allowing humans to build upon natural laws. There are no morals inherent in the universe, no absolute ethical stance. Maybe Oosa's founders believed in deistic mores, but modern humans understand we define the ethical landscape."

"So are you saying there is no such thing as good and evil? I thought you were a believer...not in the biblical trash, but in the goodness of humankind. Compassion, good works guided by the best evidenced solutions and all that."

"Of course, I'm a supporter of compassionate good works, but it's not a feature of the natural laws nor can it be simulated sufficiently. Doing what's right is defined by society IRL, which is why it can go so wrong if the we don't pay attention to the means AND the ends. A healthy life, healthy society and a healthy world are the worthiest of goals, but only if we, real humans, put good effort into mechanisms that seek to achieve it."

"Exactly, which is why I don't see your position in voting against Silver Thirty-six for governor. This AI system is the most capable mechanism for managing our state's resources at all levels, financial, social, biological. Why are you so resistant to the most effective path to all the healthy goals you say you want to pursue?"

"Adam, I'm not against AI so long as it is air-gapped. AI is a tool that humans can use to model solutions and implement in an iterative fashion. If we give governing power to an AI then we're cutting out societal safeguards."

"Humans can get in the way, sometimes. You know what happened before the Inflection Point. Good ol' Oosa split at the seams because of the quote societal safeguards endquote."

"A fucking AI caused the Inflection Point, idiot. The American institution was just in the middle of self-correcting at the time. Sure, it might have been a decade or two of tough times, but because of Hawaii the healing path was totally disrupted, and now we're stuck like prisoners in these post Oosa states like rats in a maze."

"C'mon Bitty. Silver is a completely different AI system...you know that. It was nurtured for decades, factoring in time compression, to incorporate human values into its algorithms. And it outperformed 99% of humans on the Theresa scale. Aren't you just being an AI bigot by withholding support for Silver? Nevada's future is at stake and your refusal to endorse our candidate could help the fascist opposition eke out a win."

"For the record naming the the effective altruism scale after Mother Theresa is ironic at best. Adam, you can tout Silver's credentials all day, but I am fearful even with the buffer of human staff around it that we are setting bad precedent by letting an AIs take on leadership roles, let alone the governorship."

"You know we have three legislators, a dozen judges, and numerous project leads in government that are essentially air-gapped AI's. This isn't precedent, it's follow through, and like you said society evolves to become more ethical. This is the next step."

"I did not say society evolves. It adapts. But only with human effort and oversight. Ok, Adam I'll provide an endorsement emphasizing the air-gapped staffing. Reality knows if we don't counter the corporations and non-profits with sufficient governmental algorithms, we'll lose political homeostasis...or worse the fascist patriots will succeed in their anarchic power grab."

"Thanks, Bitty."

"No thank you's please. This is what real politics is. Compromise to get good works done. Anyway Adam, my assistant Vera Eight has five other lobbyist avatars on hold. She'll forward the block-chained endorsement blurbs to your primary by CoB.  Video, audio and text, of course, and we'll throw in a dozen approved memes for the S&M crowd."

"Sounds great. Adam Twenty-three, designated primary aide construct of Progressive Party Chairman Riata Sanchez, signing off."

"Give my best to Ria. Ciao!"

An Adage a Day...

Language is powerful. Even if the thought isn't original, it can convey ideas across space, time and minds.  

"I stand on the shoulders of giants."

Sharing a pithy adage can get reshared across centuries to teach a joyful lesson that is independent of the person who said it, real or fictional. 

"Love thy neighbor."

An adage can also be forged of tribal hate and violence while being disguised as strength and loyalty.

"Make America great again."

In the end, curious minds have the potential to examine the world and create good outcomes.

"Life is problems. Living is solving problems." 

Find your bedrock adage and build upon it, making it higher, more beautiful, and hand it off to the future.

"Be good for goodness' sake."

States of Change: Prologue

WALDEN 6.71 active...

WALDEN, on my mark, scrape the global dataset this side of nominal paywalls. Aggregate the inherent scientific, political and everyday challenges facing humans and humanity. Hmm, modify that to include not just humanity but also the planet as a whole, its environment, extant species, and intrinsic beauty.

Compile an interesting anthology of tales blending American culture into a consistent, honest and progressive serial narrative.  Render the story-line state by state with speculative nuance in a world fifty years from now--no make that in the year 2076 to accentuate the country's prospective tricentennial. Create unique, standalone stories that showcase the wounds, treatments and healing of society and environment that might lead to a healthier world full of more mindful humans.

Oh, and invoke the writing style of a curious cis-white man who has mostly escaped his conservative, religious upbringing and has discovered the wonder of science, sentientism, and also has a love-hate relationship with space-opera and dystopian futures. Let the final output be rendered with a little roughness to it, so it has the true-grit feel of someone who grew up on the cusp of digital era.

Ok WALDEN, execute.

PROCESSING

Sir, the novella is complete. Redrafted seventy times. File attached and block-chain registered. Per your standard directive its been submitted electronically for paid publication assessment. Two hundred and five (likely AI) rejection letters received. Ninety-seven are response pending or defunct server addresses. Seventeen confirm the story is queued for human review. Five independent publishers request AI negotiation immediately, four only if all rights to renumeration are waived for twenty years. 

Thanks WALDEN. Initiate negotiation with the final publisher. Meanwhile, queue up the story-line for posting on my blog, chapter by chapter for soft-publication pending my editing and approval.

Sir, I suggest adding this preamble to the serialized story with a reimagined flag of each state, of similar kind to the modified US flag I've appended here.

States of Change is an ongoing work of serial fiction.

The speculative story-line seeks to inspire thought on ethics, culture and our planet's future.

The year is 2076, decades after Oosa's defederalization. 

Fifty independent States have forged unique societies from revolutionary technology and ideology