Hacking the Stamp Counter
Jun. 3rd, 2019 11:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feotakahariI just figured out why my stories are so depressing. I have one main mode of writing, and it's about deciding whether or not to hack the stamp counter.
For context: http://mindingourway.com/the-stamp-collector/ Our hypothetical figure is a robot who likes to collect stamps. He has a little counter in his brain that tells him how many stamps he's collected, and he gets happier when it goes up. The philosophers in the story locate the stamp counter, and offer him the ability to increment it. He won't actually have any more stamps; he'll just have the same amount of fulfillment as if he had more stamps.
The linked author proposes that the robot refuses. He doesn't want to increment the stamp counter, even though that's where his actions lead. He wants to collect the actual stamps, and it matters to him whether that experience is "authentic" or not. But most of the conflict in my writing relates in some way to that robot's decision, and to the other ways it could point. Over and over, my characters are presented with a choice between existing in their honest stampless state, and hacking the counter to make it feel like they have stamps even though they don't. If they choose to hack it, they're living a lie. If they choose not to, they're giving up the greatest happiness they could ever imagine.
(It's better than anything I currently know how to write, but For the Man Who Has Everything is the best thing I could aspire to write that's like this: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6m9lai)
For context: http://mindingourway.com/the-stamp-collector/ Our hypothetical figure is a robot who likes to collect stamps. He has a little counter in his brain that tells him how many stamps he's collected, and he gets happier when it goes up. The philosophers in the story locate the stamp counter, and offer him the ability to increment it. He won't actually have any more stamps; he'll just have the same amount of fulfillment as if he had more stamps.
The linked author proposes that the robot refuses. He doesn't want to increment the stamp counter, even though that's where his actions lead. He wants to collect the actual stamps, and it matters to him whether that experience is "authentic" or not. But most of the conflict in my writing relates in some way to that robot's decision, and to the other ways it could point. Over and over, my characters are presented with a choice between existing in their honest stampless state, and hacking the counter to make it feel like they have stamps even though they don't. If they choose to hack it, they're living a lie. If they choose not to, they're giving up the greatest happiness they could ever imagine.
(It's better than anything I currently know how to write, but For the Man Who Has Everything is the best thing I could aspire to write that's like this: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6m9lai)
