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maine-writes · 3 years

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Meanwhile...: Steven and Connie's Adventure & Couple Time

Space, the final frontier. When one looks up at the night sky, one looks upon a million, billion stars, each star is either a distant solar system or an entirely galaxy of its own. So when one looks upon a star, they are really looking at another sun of another, distant world, or a million suns with a million planets.

But with the miracle of alien technology, where one generates an artificial gravitic singularity to "bend" space in front of a vessel and expand space behind it, allowing said vessel to travel past the speed of light without experiencing the negative side effects of such travel, this vast expanse of space becomes a little smaller.

"This is great, isn't it?" Steven said, lying in bed as he stared at the viewscreen on the ceiling of the room showing the vastness of space.

"Yeah, sure." Connie unenthusiastically agreed.

The pair were on an adventure of a lifetime, or at least their latest strange adventure. A childhood of near-death experiences and adventures tend to make subsequent adventures rather mundane, even the space adventures. But on this particular one, the couple were destined for an old Era 1 colony, located on a planet beyond the Perseus Veil. According to the Diamonds, this colony was one of White Diamond's first and was believed lost after a supernova caused them to lose contact with the colony. Recently, an expedition led by Lars Barriga reported that the colony was alive and well, unaware of the events of Era 3. After initial contact, it now falls on Steven and Connie to check on the status of the colony and get them up to speed.

But first, they have to get there.

So now we find the loving couple, lying in bed in comfort as their vessel speeds past hundreds of star systems on the way to the colony.

"We get to help a bunch of Gems catch up with the rest of Homeworld." Steven continued. "Helping people to make the universe a better place."

"Yeah," Connie muttered, "Just you, me, and Jasper lying between us."

Of course, Steven and Connie weren't going to a distant alien world alone, they had a small contingent of Gems accompanying them. However, Jasper, being the protective Quartz soldier she is, insisted that she come along as well.

"I get the feeling you don't like me being here." Jasper grumbled.

"Oh no," Connie quipped, "Why wouldn't I enjoy a big, buff Gem intruding on me and my husband's alone time?"

"Steven is an important dignitary on an important diplomatic mission." The Gem argued. "We do not know how these Era 1 Gems will react to him. After all, they were independent of the Diamond Authority for well over 10,000 years. So as his bodyguards, we must accompany him wherever he goes."

"What do you mean, we?"

"It makes little sense for only one of us to stand by him at a time. And since he is most vulnerable while sleeping, we must both be as close and as vigilant as possible at this time."

Steven was worried, since Jasper and Connie had been at each other's throats since they boarded. The worse was when he needed to use the bathroom. Jasper was following closely behind him, and when he said he'd rather not have her be in there with him, she called for Connie to take her place. Eventually, she agreed to just having one of them wait at the door.

Jasper was a diligent bodyguard, but sharing a bed with her was going too far.

"Jasper," Connie began as she sat up. "You know, I was really hoping I'd get some alone time with Steven."

"Alone time? Like training?"

"N-Not exactly..."

"Then allow me to training with Steven as well, just like before when he shattered me!"

Hearing this made both Connie and Steven blush, but for very different reasons. To Steven, it was an embarassing chapter of his angst-ridden teen years. To Connie, it sounded pretty bad, but in a different way. What was terrible about the whole situation was that Connie was just planning on cuddling, enjoying each other's company, cute stuff that they never get to do with all the work they have.

"Jasper." Steven interjected. "What Connie means is, the alone time we have is something someone does with someone special to them."

"Am I not special to you?"Jasper asked. Despite her gruff, rough exterior, she did seem genuinely hurt. There was something, puppy-doggish about her amber eyes.

"No! I mean, you are!" Steven stuttered, "I mean, you are important to me, but Connie's important in another way!"

"Explain." Jasper said. "What can Connie do that I can't?"

Steven nervously glanced over at Connie, who was also unsure as to how to approach this problem. They thought they'd have their first "The Talk" with Vonvon, who knows a little bit because of Amethyst's loud mouth, Pearl's enthusiastic approach to education, and Garnet tendency of simply stating facts. After a previous incident, however, they realized that they may not have to have "The Talk" with their child after all. But somehow, explaining human biology to a Gem was just as embarassing.

"I don't get it." Jasper stated after Steven's convoluted, vague, and flustered explanation.

"Well, Gems and humans are different." Connie said, "You guys come fully formed out of the ground. There's not a lot of similarities."

"Show me."

"No."

The whole trip would turn out to be a nightmare for Connie and Steven. Jasper, unwilling to accept that she was possibly not as "useful" or important as Connie, would loudly demand that the couple demonstrate the particular miraculous human activity they inadvertantly exposed her to. The worst was whenever they hugged or cuddled, Jasper would appear and ask if they were currently demonstrating said activity, which only furthered their embarassment.

Connie only wanted to cuddle, maybe kiss. How did it end up like this?

Their visit to the colony itself was mostly uneventful, exactly as one would imagine a diplomatic visit. One unexpected aspect of the colony was the civil war they fought and the establishment of a diverse ruling council. In all, Steven thought they could easily integrate into Homeworld's Era 3. But that was a long ways away, as the council must gather the opinions of the colony and come to an agreement on a course of action. The Pearl that greeted them when they landed, an interesting Aubergine Pearl, was rather excited to finally meet someone from Homeworld. She showed them the vast cityscape they had managed to build from their old spaceships and native materials. Steven and Connie were taken by the seas of crimson grass, the violet sky illuminated by two suns by day and the nebulous glow of the Perseus Veil in the moonless night, and the warm, black sands of the earth. In the distance, natural obsidian spires tower over the colony's skyscrapers, which tended to be mirror-like in appearance to better preserve the natural beauty of the surrounding landscape. The interiors of these buildings were typical of the interior of Era 1 colony ships; marble-like stone, carved into geometric shapes.

Although there were many who were afraid Steven would attempt to re-establish the Diamond Authority's rule over the Perseus Colony, their worries were quickly laid to rest with his presentation on the events leading up to Era 3 and the many changes Homeworld had undergone. There was even a pre-recorded message from White Diamond, encouraging the colony to continue "pursuing the life and freedom" they desired. Luckily, they didn't need the pre-recorded message from White Diamond that was to be used if the colony was hostile.

But during that whole weekend, Connie was still irritated. When not out touring the colony with the Perseus Gems, the couple were interrupted by Jasper.

"Steven! I can't take it anymore!" She screamed as the couple were standing on a balcony overlooking the colony. "We finally have time to ourselves and an easy mission! Can't you just pull rank or something and get Jasper to leave us alone?!"

"I tried, but she insists on being nearby."

"Steven. We have been working for eight months straight." Connie continued, grabbing her husband by the shoulders. "For six of them, we were on different planets. I'm kissing you, we're cuddling, we are going to enjoy each other's company on a beautiful, alien world!"

But shortly after planting her lips on her husband, Connie was interrupted by the big orange Gem bursting through the balcony door.

"So this is kissing!"

"That's it!" Connie screamed, drawing her big pink sword, "You've hus-blocked me for the last time!"

Steven would say something. But he knew better than to get in the way of his angry, sword-wielding wife. He just hoped the Diamonds were faring better in their endeavor of taking care of Vonvon, blissfully unaware of the horrible mistake they made at around the same time.

@artsycooky13

#steven universe #steven universe au #Vonvon's Space Adventure #side-story #might feature the Perseus Colony Gems in another story #honestly i like the idea that steven and connie are just so busy with work #i mean you cant just live a normal life being the son of a diamond or being married to a son of a diamond #so that was the focus of this story #trying to do couple things and failing for the most part

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keenerordeath · 4 years

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Endgame Timelines

(except I don’t cry at the end)

Disclaimer: I have never read the comics, I am basing everything off of what I've seen in the MCU films and fans online that know more about the stones than I do. Add in my limitless optimism and you get this monstrosity!

What would happen if Tony hadn't been the one to snap away Thanos and his army? Would Peter Parker, the only other avenger with a Stark original nanotech suit, be the one to snap instead?

Let me show you what I think would have happened if Tony survived Endgame and Peter Parker saved the universe.

Below the cut:

what could happen to peter parker

how tony fixes everything

how I think the stones should all be returned after endgame

Peter Parker and the Gauntlet

Of course, something to address immediately would be Peter's probability of survival. We've seen Tom Holland's Peter Parker lift a fallen building's debris from himself and swing away afterwards. Since Peter hasn't been shot, or severely impaled, I don't have much of a reference to go by in terms of healing and regeneration, and he's certainly not on par with Deadpool in that department. BUT, I do have reference of Infinity Snaps from the Hulk, Tony, and Thanos himself. Hulk is strong, sure, and isn't all that fazed by radiation, since that was what created him. However, he was easily beaten by Thanos, and was injured just by wearing a gauntlet that held all six stones. The snap completely destroyed his arm. For Thanos, wielding the full gauntlet only caused a surge in energy but his body was intact. The snap itself left his arm injured but not completely immobile. The arm doesn't reach that point until snapping a second time to destroy the stones. To an average human like Tony, the snap cost his life. But we KNOW all this. What we don't know is how it translates to anyone other than these three.

As a mutant, where does that leave Peter on the spectrum? Does using the stones leave a wound that will never heal, destined to be that way by the rules of the stones? Nothing is for free, right? My theory is that Peter would have a different experience. Do I want to see him in pain? Hell no. While our reality is that Spider-Man must move on in a universe without Tony Stark, I can't help but dream up endings a little more happy. So, what if? What if the one who will recover the easiest from using the stones is our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man?

I would venture that the kid would be in intensive care under Helen Cho's watch. This woman has worked with super soldiers like Steve Rogers, created the cradle from Avengers: Age of Ultron. The avengers trust her with their lives. Tony wouldn't want anyone else to take care of Peter, because she would be the one to keep him alive. Not to mention, Peter heals quickly. The biggest issue may be understanding his metabolism well enough to administer antibiotics, pain killers, and other nutrients that his body would need to support his mutated healing abilities.

Peter is in the hospital and Tony needs something to keep himself occupied while waiting for his kid to wake up.

Tony Stark and the Plan to Return the Stones

Anthony Edward Stark is not going to sit on his ass if there is a problem that needs solving. With everyone back besides Vision and Natasha, he's got a team that can execute the return of the stones perfectly. Even one thing out of place and alternate timelines are created.

Tony gets Dr. Strange to rewind time on the compound. It would be great if that could go back to not being rubble, you know?

Then he gets to work, getting the rundown from everyone.

What state were all the stones in when they were taken from the past?

What was Steve doing in 2012 after he left Loki and the others in the tower?

Where did he get the Pym particles from at the base?

When did Clint wake up with the soul stone in his hand?

Where was Natasha's body after she became the sacrifice?

Where did Rhodey and Nebula leave Quill?

Would it be so bad to leave the power stone on Morag now that Thanos cannot reach it there?

Will Gamora of 2014 want to go back to her own time or stay here?

Will Gamora want to stay if they manage to get her back alive from Vormir? Two Gamora's?

Where was the hammer before Thor summoned it?

What do they have to do to get the Aether back into Jane?

He has a lot of questions, a lot of witnesses and resources, and a need for a distraction.

First thing he needs to do? Get as much information about the stones from Dr. Strange as possible.

any theories involving the actual powers and abilities of the stones are suuuuper yada yada-ed in some places because I have a very basic understanding of biology, atomic composition, time travel, neurological functions, artificial intelligence, etc. - they're flimsy in some places and I'm not sure how to fix that

Can the pocket universe in the Soul stone be accessed? Does it hold only Nat and Gamora's souls? Would they need their bodies to return the souls to? Would it just be easier to collect their bodies from Vormir and turn back time on them, too? Would their souls even be in their bodies anymore, or would they just be husks? Would taking their bodies back to the present create an alternate timeline that prevents their new alternate selves to be able to retrieve Nat or Gamora? Is it important enough to them to screw with another timeline like that? Will they have their bodies restored once they're puled from the stone?

Now, my understanding of the stones stems from the movies and an explanation I came across on Quora while researching the stones.

"To combat [their] weaknesses they all feed into each other and make each other more powerful. Also as a general weakness they will destroy most mortals without the use of a vessel (Infinity gauntlet, Ronan's hammer Etc) The Time stone makes each stone's effects permanent as well as permeate time. The Reality stone makes the others affect the world itself as opposed to just an aspect of the universe. The Power stone's raw power acts as a battery for the rest of them and amplifies their power. The Soul stone gives power over the souls of everyone the user comes across. The Space stone makes the effects of the other stones universe wide. The Mind stone allows the user complete control of the minds of everyone in the universe."

Another tidbit about the Soul stone that I found was this:

"Allows the user to steal, control, manipulate, and alter living and dead souls; as well as animate the motionless. The Soul Gem also acts as a gateway to an idyllic pocket universe. At full potential, when backed by the Power Gem, the Soul Gem grants the user control over all life in the universe."

Can't make an omelet without cracking a few eggs. With the combination of the Power, Time, Space, and Reality stones they get Natasha and Gamora out of the Soul stone. It is a stretch, considering Hulk said he had tried to get Natasha back. I think maybe using the Soul stone puts up a bit of a roadblock. How well can the Soul stone resist the effects of the other stones when it isn't being used, then? Say you use the Space stone to move the women out of the pocket universe? (Maybe it is possible to rebuild or reshape them to how they used to be by using the Space stone, same concept as Thanos changing the Aether to the Reality stone using the Space and Time stones). Using the Reality and Time stones to solidify their existence in that time and space in the universe, they could bend reality to make it so. The Power stone will juice up the other three, surely allowing them to push past boundaries they couldn't on their own. And if it takes a little tinkering with a juiced-up Soul stone to get them both fully restored, then so be it. Whatever it takes to get them back.

Now… vision is an incredibly complicated puzzle to solve. What IS left after the stone is removed? If Shuri had been allowed enough time, what would have changed for Vision? My gut tells me that his best chance lies in the hands of Shuri and Dr. Strange. Vision has just been hooked up to Shuri's tech in Wakanda. Five years later she still has the scans she made, still remembers what she had to do. So Dr. Strange takes them back to right before Thanos' General attacks Shuri and her guard, taking Vision with him. Instead of letting that play through, Strange pauses time, leaving himself and Shuri to find what made Vision tick, remove the stone and see what is left, what they need to substitute in as replacement for the Mind stone. They gather all the information housed in Vision's body. Every piece that came from Jarvis, Stark, Banner, Thor, Ultron, the Mind stone. How can that be recreated to be able to house Vision's memories and consciousness, again? Restoring him to minutes before Thanos took the stone from his head is the end goal. Once Shuri has all the data she needs, they turn back time on Vision, leave him back on the table, and resume time before jumping back to their present. They'll need the cradle again, some more vibranium, some help from Helen Cho and Thor's lightning. Would complete reconstruction and an upload of consciousness work without the stone? Obviously, the flying and the strength and all his other powers from the stone would be gone, but is it really so bad to have a chance at being normal?

They have their lost family back now. But they cannot rest yet. What else do they need the stones for before they can send them back to where they came from?

Can they be used to heal Peter? Have they already weakened themselves from using them so much? Is there anyone else that can wield them and help to restore what was lost after half the population vanished and everything became overwhelming to maintain? The plan for returning them was set, they're left with a lot of time to use the stones for some good. Can Captain Marvel offer more help to others in the universe? Surely, Earth isn't the only place that desperately needed help in the aftermath. I assume she will do what she can, holding more hope than in canon, since losing Tony left most of them… less than motivated to get back into hero-ing.

Danvers did what she needed to with the stones. Time to start their return plan.

All the stones need to be returned to how they looked when they were taken.

Thanos used the Space and Power stones to change the Aether from its weird wiggly form into an actual stone. Great, let's undo that. Should we use the Time stone or the Space and Power stones? Either will work? Dope, done and done, moving on.

The scepter and its case are around the compound somewhere, Vision doesn’t need the stone anymore, let's pack it in there. Same with the weird orb thing Rhodey brought the Power stone back in. Let's get those packed and they'll be ready to go.

Mjolnir: check. Aether: check. Scepter: check. Power Orb: check. Space, Soul, and Time stones: check, check, check. (Dr. Strange will be hanging onto that Time stone until the last mission, though)

Now we know from Avengers: Endgame that each capsule of Pym Particles will give you two jumps. They can go from the present to the past, then the past to the present. After that they have to refuel. With that established, my estimate would be that they would need to use AT LEAST 19 capsules, not accounting for spares in case of an emergency.

So, Hank Pym, mind making those? We need them to fix our time travel mess. Thanks, pal.

Back in Time, Right on Time

Tony doesn't need everyone to make this go smoothly. He can work with a smaller pool of people.

Clint is not going back, not to Vormir, not to anywhere. He will stay in the present with Nat and his family.

His blue meanie, Nebula, is staying with him. He will not subject her to the pain of sharing her network with another Nebula from a different time, not again.

Tony himself will not be leaving. He will be right here, coordinating everything. Some of them will be leaving at the same time. Others have multiple trips they're going to make. No one makes a second jump until they have checked back in with him. They'll restock their suits, get some food and rest, gather the things they need to return, and venture back out.

No Avenger is going to be sent back to a time that will trigger bad memories from their pasts.

Many candidates and teams were dismissed pretty early. They're abilities may have been ideal, but if their personalities did not mix well, Tony could not risk the messes that incompatibility could cause.

For this to work, the best chance of success for the return of every stone and avoiding any offshoot timelines will require these Avengers: Captain Rogers, Thor, Dr. Strange, The Wasp, Mantis, Scarlet Witch, and Ant-Man. Stay tuned because we're going to need one surprise extra along the way, but more on that later.

To know where to go first, Tony first had to figure out who messed up the worst, and needed the most stones to complete the mission.

Loki's Vanishing Act

Let's start with Loki taking the Tesseract in NYC 2012. It is essentially a surefire way to change pretty much everything we know about the MCU. So how is Tony going to fix that Royal Whoops? Well, it's not going to be easy. To ensure that Loki and the Tesseract are sent back to Asgard with Thor, Tony will send the Wasp and Ant-Man to keep the Tesseract close to a collapsed Tony Stark and Thor, and away from Loki, Endgame Tony and Scott, and the slimy Alexander Pierce. If anyone besides Thor got the Tesseract then, Tony and Steve would never go to the army base even further in the past. Best not to mess with that.

Really? Hail Hydra?

Now that Loki is once again in custody of the Avengers, we'll follow Captain America taking the Scepter from NYC in 2012.

(Enjoy the layout of this one, because there's so much to it I don't want to make this into more of a story than a presentation. You'll take all my bullet points and you'll like them, damn it.)

Triggers for alternate timelines:

Tricking Hydra into thinking he was their ally

Prematurely informing his 2012 self of Bucky being alive

Removing the Mind stone from the scepter (this one couldn't really be helped, you're okay Steve)

Conclusion: a seamless return without creating any alternate timelines will be enough to give me a migraine. (Tony probably had one, too, after learning everything Steve said to get his way to the scepter and out of the tower)

So, how does he plan to fix it? By sending the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, and Mantis.

Elevator Mess

Upon arriving at Stark Tower in NYC 2012, Hope shrinks the scepter, along with Wanda and Mantis. Their job is to follow Steve Rogers and clean up after him.

One "Hail Hydra" later, Hope carries Wanda to where she can erase the memories of all those in the elevator. Captain America is not with Hydra, he never entered that elevator, and he never took the scepter.

Last step here is to take the scepter they've brought and leave it exactly where Cap took the original from.

America's Ass

The reason Cap even had to fight himself is because Loki escaping disrupted the timeline, pulling 2012 Cap from search and rescue and back to the tower to hunt down Loki.

With Loki secured, Wanda has to manipulate 2012 Cap into still believing that Loki got away. After disabling his communications, they send him on his way.

His "I have eyes on Loki," never reaches anyone, and once they've fallen and Steve has knocked 2012 Cap unconscious, Wanda goes about erasing his memory of learning about Bucky. (Does Wanda get a video of "that's America's ass," to make fun of him with later? It's a mystery, truly, we'll never know)

Search and Rescue

They leave after returning 2012 Cap to the ground floor and waking him up (Thanks Mantis, I love you), sending him to resume search and rescue as if nothing had happened.

Ghosts of the Past

When Tony brings up Vormir, Steve volunteers. He won't let Clint, Banner, or Quill go. He was close to Natasha, spent the last five years with her. He wanted the chance to rid them of the stone that tried to take her from them. He knew that the other three didn't need the pain that would hit them should they see the place where the women they love had almost been lost to them.

What no one accounted for was Steve knowing who had been guiding people to the stone all this time. Facing Red Skull was not what Steve had expected. If it weren't so terrifying to see him again it would be almost comical. But there was nothing here to fix. He'd watched as Clint's craft took off, returning back to the others with the stone and without Nat. He handed the Soul stone off, tapped the device on his wrist twice, and went home.

Frigga Knows All

Steve doesn't talk about the last mission, so they move on to the next one. Tony sends Wanda and Steve to Asgard with Mjolnir and the Aether. They can't change that Thor told his mother the truth, but they can stop the Asgardians chasing Rocket and erase their memories of the raccoon. Disruption handled, Wanda goes to return the Aether to where it resided inside Jane. A very unfortunate place for it to be, but she knew she couldn't make any changes. So she returned it and left to find Cap, who had found where Thor pulled the hammer from and put it back. Rocket and Thor had gone back, and now Cap and Wanda could, too.

The God of Mischief

All of the Avengers were familiar with the Tesseract. Turns out it was just a cosmic cube used to contain the power of the Space stone. Interesting twist, for sure. But Thanos crushed the cube, and without it, they couldn't get the Tesseract back to Howard Stark's labs. At least the Pym Particles were a simple mission.

(Buckle up, I'm bringing back the bullet points)

Triggers to alternate timelines:

SHIELD suddenly having the Space stone rather than the Tesseract

Hank Pym losing important pieces of his research

Army base employee reporting Tony and Steve to bunker security

Conclusion: only the best of the best could twist this situation back to where it needs to be.

Tony's plan went something like this:

Saving a god

Thor and Dr. Strange go to retrieve Loki from the wreckage of the Asgardian ship

They work together to gather all those lost onto a nearby planet.

Once all the Asgardians have been found, Dr. Strange turns back time on the ship and on those gathered, bringing them back.

Using the Time, Space, and Power stones, Dr. Strange opens a portal that takes the Asgardians and their ship to the present in Norway, where the rest of their people reside.

Thor returns to the present, knowing Valkyrie was already in Norway, prepared to receive everyone.

Fooling a King

Dr. Strange keeps Loki with him, being the only one they've known to be able to contain Loki and see through his tricks. Loki doesn't give him any reasons to contain him, though.

An extra quantum realm suit and some Pym Particles given to Loki, and they jump to a time well before Loki had even learned he was the stolen prince of Jotunheim.

Together, they take the Tesseract from Odin's vault and hide it away.

Loki disguises himself as a young Thor and "confesses" to breaking the Tesseract, presenting the Space stone to Odin.

The Space stone is soon contained once again in a cosmic cube, an exact replica of the Tesseract Thanos had crushed, and returned to the vault.

Not wanting to risk anything, they replace the hidden Tesseract, retrieve the repaired cube, and jump back in time once more.

Returning Particles

Dr. Strange opens a portal in the basement of the bunker, watching as Howard Stark and "Howard Potts" leave the room.

The Tesseract is returned to the container Tony took it from and they were quickly through the next portal

Steve Rogers was gone and Hank Pym had yet to return

The capsules of Pym Particles were placed in the empty space left by Cap.

Mission complete, Loki and Dr. Strange returned to the Avengers Compound.

Can't Really Fix This One

There was one alternate timeline that Tony would never be able to fix, not that he would ever want to. The Thanos from 2014 brought his army and his daughters with him to end the Avengers of the present and take the stones for himself.

But once he and his armies were snapped away, there was no one to return back to 2014. They were gone. Nebula had no idea if Gamora had vanished along with all the others on the ships that brought her to a different time. Well, if they ever run into her, they'll offer her the chance to go back to the time she left, should she wish to return.

All that could really be done was send Wanda and Mantis to put the orb back in the temple, give Quill back his lockpick, toss him in front of the temple and wake him up. Maybe he would run into this Korath guy he mentioned, maybe he won't, considering he was a lackey to Ronan, one of those Thanos used to do his bidding. A Thanos that was no longer there. Either way, Quill wasn't just left for dead. He may never meet Gamora, but he still had other adventures to go on, other people to meet.

It's Finally Over

The Ancient One was taking down Chitauri before Hulk showed up. Steve would follow her attack patterns and range, because once Hulk showed up to get the stone, she would be distracted, and the Chitauri she would have stopped would continue on into NYC.

After Hulk had left with the Time Stone, Steve immediately approached the Ancient One and handed her the stone. They shared a look of understanding, she turned to rejoin the fight, and Steve left the rooftop to return home for the last time.

and they all lived happily ever after, the end, happy hanukkah, goodnight - Rallow <3

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daylighteclipsed · 5 years

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I love the Lab 5 arc, especially Ed’s side of things. It’s like a descent into Hell. Things just get progressively worse and more horrifying the deeper Ed dives into the building, and so many aspects of the plot that were introduced in this first half of the story converge here over the course of these episodes. It begins a little silly and over-the-top, with Ed dodging boobytraps like something out of Indiana Jones, but as more significant events transpire the arc steadily loses its humor, until you’re reacting with the same horror as the characters.

1. The first big discovery: The Slicer is hollow like Al. Condemned prisoners are facing the same fate Ed has subjected his little brother to. This is the second time Ed’s actions as a child are cast in a more sinister light; the first was when Shao Tucker played the “not so different” card, comparing what he did to his wife and Nina with what Ed did to his mother and brother. Like then, Ed and the audience are invited to evaluate the nobility of Ed’s actions, but the focus here is entirely on what Ed did to Al, the act of binding a soul to a hollow suit of armor.

While Ed does express some initial horror upon realizing that the military is torturing prisoners by bonding their souls to suits of armor, he tries to play it off with humor. It’s not until he talks to The Slicer, who is actually two brothers, that Ed realizes how horrific their existence is, and what Ed has done to his own brother is put into painful perspective. These brothers want to die. There is no way to ever get their bodies back, and if there was they’d just be executed for their crimes. They would rather die than keep existing like this.

The only thing Tucker’s first talking chimera (his wife) said was “I want to die” before she gave up living. Nina expressed to Ed that she was in pain too, and Scar confirmed it when he felt her soul entangled with Alexander’s before he put them both out of their misery. The Slicer, like a chimera, is two souls sharing one body, and they’re in pain. But much like when Ed was 12 and Mustang told him (rather brutally) that Nina’s better off gone, Ed can’t get behind a mercy kill.

2. Ed refuses to kill The Slicer brothers. He refuses to take any human life. The only way he could kill them, he says, is if he accepts that they’re not human anymore, but if he does he’d have to admit that Al isn’t human anymore either. This is the first time Ed’s black and white moral code is majorly challenged. He’s 15. He doesn’t understand that sometimes there’s no way around death. He’s forced to confront that maybe killing doesn’t always equal murder.

I feel like after Ed’s encounter with Barry the Chopper when he was 12 that killing for any reason, while already horrifying, became even more unthinkable. That and discovering a couple years later that Barry was right about the State Alchemists, that they have killed people, gruesomely, unfairly...Ed doesn’t want to be like them. And you see, a big source of tension in the show, is Ed’s relationship to the military. Ed has to obey orders, but he doesn’t want to sell his soul to the State.

The Slicer brothers are reminded of their humanity because Ed offers them mercy and kindness, but the gesture only hurts. It’s a reminder of what they’ve lost, everything that was taken away forever, and I think Ed has to consider then that maybe, when he pulled Al’s soul from The Gate and bonded it to armor way back when, maybe that hurt Al more than helped him. Maybe it wasn’t very noble. Maybe it was selfish. Maybe it’s still selfish to keep Al’s soul here, not knowing if there really is a way to get his body back.

Because Ed won’t take a life, the younger brother takes his own life. This sparks a new fear in Ed, that Al will lose the will to live if he can’t get Al’s body back. He vows that he won’t let that happen, which inadvertently raises the stakes for when he has the chance to get Al’s body back at the end of this arc.

3. Tucker is still alive and trying to recreate Nina. At first seeing Tucker alive and as some grotesque chimera is kind of like WTF WHY, but it actually fits really well. It furthers the parallels between Ed and Tucker: Tucker is trying to rectify his mistake by recreating Nina the way chimeras are made. It’s not the same as human transmutation, but in trying and failing repeatedly to recreate Nina, Tucker has lost more and more parts of his human body. Instead of those parts replaced by steel however, Tucker’s have been replaced with animal parts. He looks more beast than man now.

Tucker tried to use chimera-making to fix a mistake that was caused by him creating chimeras, not unlike how the Elrics want to use human transmutation to fix mistakes that were caused by them using human transmutation before. Tucker has dedicated his life to recreating his daughter, not unlike how Ed has dedicated his life to restoring his brother. But Tucker doesn’t seem to possess the guilt Ed does. He doesn’t express regret; it’s more like an obsessive curiosity, to see if he can seriously recreate his daughter, and Ed’s drawn in a little by this curiosity.

The scientist in him can’t help but wonder if it can be done, which calls back to what Tucker said years ago about how Ed is drawn to try horrific things with alchemy just to see if he can, even more so when Ed’s presented with the incomplete Philosopher’s Stone.

4. Ed is tempted to complete the Philosopher’s Stone. His suspicions about the Stone, that human sacrifices play a part, are more or less confirmed by Tucker, but he’s tricked into thinking those sacrifices have long since already happened. Now, human sacrifice being involved still bothers Ed, but it’s not enough to completely dissuade him, which ties in nicely with Scar, in a different part of the building, sharing his tragic backstory with Al about how his older brother tried to create a Stone from their fallen civilization. It also contrasts what Al starts to tell Scar, that if human sacrifice really is needed that he and Ed will stop pursuing the Stone.

Everything Ed’s worked for is within his grasp and there’s nobody in the room telling him not to go for it. There’s nobody saying it’s wrong. The older Slicer brother feels it would give those past sacrifices meaning. Tucker’s kind of like the devil in Ed’s ear, easing his conscience, stroking his ego. No alchemist has been skilled enough to finish the Stone before, but Ed is. Ed can. Does it really matter if the Stone’s made of dead people? They’re dead already. They’ve been dead a long time. What’s the harm, really, of refining material that’s already here? Of trying? It’s not like Ed killed those people.

Then the prisoners come crashing through the ceiling and it’s made very clear that there isn’t a difference between using dead people or live people; it’s just as immoral. And Tucker throws back his head and laughs wickedly at Ed’s distress because Ed was so close to giving in and accidentally killing all those people. He was even gonna let Tucker use the Stone after him to see if recreating Nina was possible.

5. Homunculi exist. They’ve been manipulating the Elrics and others who sought the Philosopher’s Stone (Majhal, Cornello, Mugear, Dr. Marcoh) for years, and Ed draws an interesting parallel to the military. He shouts in defiance that he and Al are nobody’s puppets; not the State’s or the homunculi’s. From day 1, Mustang has manipulated Ed. He puts Ed into situations knowing exactly what Ed’s going to do and uses that to further his own career. He (jokingly?) threatens to reveal Al’s secret to get Ed to cooperate, which isn’t that different from how the homunculi use Al against Ed here.

The homunculi have recruited Tucker with the promise of showing him how to recreate Nina. What Tucker’s trying to do is basically make a homunculus out of a chimera. He explains the idea of an artificial soul, which is really just memories and impressions from the creator transplanted into the empty vessel, and Al frets over the legitimacy of his own soul after his confrontation with Barry outside and his struggle to remember things back in Resembool. The possibility of an artificial soul challenges Ed’s definition of human. To Ed, people are human because they have souls, but if a soul’s created does that make it less human? What is a soul anyway? For Ed’s definition to stick, he’d have to admit that a soul is something science can’t explain.

When the homunculi reveal that they only want the Stone to become human, their motivations immediately become sympathetic. A thematic link is established between soul bonds, chimera, and homunculi, the 3 creations Ed’s faced over the course of this arc. They’re all horrifying forms of alchemy. They all involve human experimentation. They’re all ostracized for being different, and they’re all suffering because they exist between human and not. They long to be human, and if they cannot be human they long to die.

Almost everything introduced in the first half of the story comes together here: Tucker, Barry, Scar, the military, the homunculi lurking in the shadows, all of the Elrics’ past brushes with people pursuing the Philosopher’s Stone; it all builds up to this incredible moment.

6. Ed nearly creates a Philosopher’s Stone using the prisoners in the room. Neither Ed nor Al can fight their way out of here: Al’s limbs were eaten by Gluttony and Ed’s lost too much blood. His automail’s malfunctioning, and his body’s too weak to put up a real fight. As far as the brothers know, nobody’s coming to the rescue. Al’s pretty much got a knife held against his throat. If Ed doesn’t obey the homunculi, he’s going to lose his little brother.

The homunculi confirm without a doubt that the Stone requires live humans to be made. Ed doesn’t know these prisoners. He doesn’t care about them. Later on, he’ll even admit that their lives really meant nothing to him next to Al. It’s a test of his greed and empathy. Ed’s more empathetic than he was at the start of the story, but it’s still not his strong suit. Using dead people, strangers he didn’t know anything about, didn’t faze him much earlier. Using live people is wrong. Ed knows it is, but.....as Ed also admits later, if Al wasn’t right there watching him, he could, maybe, push his conscience aside and sacrifice those prisoners.

Even though Al doesn’t want him to. Even though Al tells him that he doesn’t want his body back if it means other people have to die. It doesn’t really matter what Al wants here. Ed’s thinking selfishly, driven by trauma that altered the course of his entire life. He wants to get Al’s body back. He wants to give Al his life back because he loves his brother and he wants this horrible guilt to go away. Al is the only family he has left, the only friend he hasn’t pushed away. He doesn’t want to lose him. He can’t.

This is Edward’s lowest point thus far, and it’s written all over his face. Lab 5 has beaten him down, physically and emotionally. He’s nearly surrendered to despair, apathy, and his own desires. But ultimately Ed can’t do it, and Scar, watching Ed prove he’s better than his older brother was, decides to intervene and help Ed and Al escape.

It’s just a brilliant couple of episodes. You can see the farther Ed tumbles down the rabbit hole, the denser and darker things grow, and the more things come together. So many ethical and philosophical questions are raised. So much is set up for the second half of the story. Ed and Al make it through the hell of Lab 5 to the other side, but they emerge close to death and changed forever and it’s [clenches fist] so good.

#fma #fma 2003 #fma 03 #i have a lot of Thoughts #this might not even be all of them #ed #this arc's a wild ride but its a really smart wild ride and a big reason i love this series

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beneaththetangles · 5 years

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Love Versus Materialism in Sword Art Online Alicization

*Warning: presumptive spoilers for a future season of Sword Art Online Alicization*

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Lingering the background of Sword Art Online Alicization has been the question of the nature of the soul. Early in the anime, the story established that scientists had narrowed down the soul’s nature to a light-based phenomenon they call a fluctlight. These fluctlights can be produced artificially and contained within computers. Leaving out the sci-fi embellishments, plenty of people today hold views of the human self similar to the one SAO Alicization sets up. There are a variety of theories, but one way or another these views all claim that our minds (or our perception of having minds), our sense of self, is ultimately a physical phenomenon. We are nothing but our bodies — there is no metaphysical or supernatural soul that transcends our bodies. But several aspects of the story contradict the narrative’s initially materialist stance on the soul and suggest it is incorrect to understand the soul in purely physical terms. Volumes 15 and 16 of the Sword Art Online light novels, Alicization Invading and Alicization Exploding, pick up where the anime left off. They effectively continue the discussion about love that began with Eugeo and Quinella, and through that discussion, the narrative pushes back against a materialist perspective on the soul.

The first development of note comes when computer expert Higa explains what happened to Kirito in the Underworld: Kirito had friends who died in the battle with Administrator, and at the time that he finally contacted the outside world, he was beating himself up over those deaths. “In other words, he was attacking his own fluctlight.” Just at that point, a power surge caused the system to act upon Kirito’s self-loathing, which rendered him catatonic within the Underworld (remember, he’s already in a coma in the real world). According to a computer scan, the part of Kirito’s fluctlight that normally contains the sense of self was just a big black hole. As a result, even though the rest of his soul is intact, Kirito was left a prisoner within himself. He’s suffering from something akin to depression, we might say, though taken to a sci-fi extreme: “He cannot process exterior input, and he cannot output his own actions… He might not be aware of who he is…unable to say or do anything…”

Higa then theorizes on how to help Kirito. “He damaged his own soul by excessive self-flagellation. So if someone else provides him with forgiveness…then maybe…” The narrator acknowledges that Higa’s idea is “vague, unscientific.” Higa admits to himself that what he doesn’t know about the soul far outweighs what he does know:

“Was the fluctlight a physical construct? Or was it some kind of conceptual phenomenon that couldn’t be explained with modern science? If the latter, perhaps Kazuto Kirigaya’s wounded and exhausted soul could be healed by some other power that surpassed science. Such as, for example, love.”

While Sword Art Online Alicization previously set us up to believe the fluctlight is a “physical construct,” the anime, at least, hasn’t directly weighed in on the question much. With Higa’s musing, the narrative explicitly raises the question it’s long been asking implicitly. Do humans have an immaterial spirit, or is our sense of self a purely physical phenomenon, something that can explained, quantified, and manipulated by science? The story offers a number of hints that the human mind is something more than science can explain, and that love, in particular, is a science-defying, reality-shaping force.

n response to Higa’s suggestion that Kirito needs love and forgiveness, Asuna volunteers: “I want to go in there and tell Kirito that he did good things. That through all the hardships and sad things that I’m sure happened, he did everything that he could.” She intends to go into Kirito’s world and save him from his own self-hatred by bringing him love. It’s a strikingly messianic development, bringing to mind the Savior who came into our world in order to provide us forgiveness and love and save us from a truly hopeless fate that we brought on ourselves. Later, the narrative adds another messianic parallel to Asuna’s character. It observes, “Her order of priorities had been set in stone years ago. She would commit any sin to protect Kirito–Kazuto Kirigaya. She would accept any punishment.” Of course, Jesus is perfect and didn’t sin in order to save us: “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth” (1 Pet. 2.22). But he certainly was willing to accept any punishment for our sake: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us,” (Gal. 3.13) and “For our sake [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5.21). Jesus himself was innocent of sin, but he took on the punishment our sins deserve in order to express his love for us. Similarly, Asuna is willing to suffer, to pay any price, because of her love for, and desire to save, Kirito. She’s no Jesus, but the Christlike echoes ring true. (Of course, one great difference is that Asuna enters the Underworld with a admin account that gives her all the glory and powers of a goddess, while Jesus “emptied himself” and entered our world an ordinary, humble baby (Phil. 2.7).) The entire endeavor of saving Kirito hinges on the soul and love being forces beyond the realm of modern science.

In a somewhat different way, love provides another opportunity to affirm the immaterial nature of the spirit when Alice meets Tiese and Ronie, the swordswomen trainees Kirito and Eugeo had worked with. Alice quickly realizes that Ronie was in love with Kirito. Ronie dismisses the idea, declaring she is unworthy of such of thing. Tiese steps in to explain how Kirito and Eugeo fought to protect them and thereby violated the Taboo Index. She and Ronie believe that if they had been wiser, Kirito and Eugeo would never have ended up getting arrested, and thus Eugeo wouldn’t be dead and Kirito catatonic. Seeing their own actions as the cause of what happened to Kirito and Eugeo, Tiese concludes “We don’t have a right to express any love to them.” When Alice protests that this perspective is wrong, Ronie answers that the villainous aristocrats “treated our bodies like their playthings, and now our dignity has been stained with sin!”

Alice counters that “The body is nothing more than a vessel for the heart,” and that the soul “is the one thing that truly exists.” Within the story, it’s technically true that Alice and the others are souls without bodies — they are artificially created fluctlights that exist within a computer. In real life, however, Christianity holds that humans are unions of body and spirit and that both body and spirit are significant. There can be no such thing as a soul without a body, except for the not-yet-resurrected dead. The greatest testimony to the significance of our bodies is the promise of resurrection. Jesus wasn’t a disembodied spirit — he was raised from the dead bodily. So also the Bible says that we won’t be ghosts floating around heaven: we, too, will be raised from the dead, our bodies and spirits reunited and transformed. Thus, Alice’s dismissal of the body may go too far, even though it’s actually true in the context of the story. But though her statement is faulty in the degree to which it dismisses the importance of the body, underlying Alice’s point is an affirmation that humans have an immaterial soul. We — and Ronie and Tiese — are not defined solely by our bodies.

Alice further argues, “The only one who can determine the nature of the soul is the self… Your body and appearance are entirely dependent on your heart… Nobody can defile your heart.” Her words bring to mind a point Jesus made, after the Jews complained that his disciples neglected to engage in certain hand washing rituals:

“There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him. …Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled? …What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mk. 7.15-23)

Alice thus agrees with Jesus, correctly affirming that what is done to the body cannot defile the soul. The spirit’s independence from bodily defilement also indicates its immaterial nature. Jesus warns that truly corrupting evil arises within the heart, and although Alice expresses it quite a bit differently, she’s makes a similar point: the will of the heart takes precedence over the external and physical. We have the free will to decide what kind of people we will be. In arguing that the girls’ true selves were not defiled by what was done to them, Alice affirms the existence of an immaterial self.

As war begins, a series of incidents involving other Integrity Knights also point to the power of love, and concurrently continue the story’s argument for a dualistic view of the soul. When the story examines Deusolbert Synthesis Seven’s motivation to participate in the war, it looks at the Integrity Knight’s past. It turns out that throughout all his many years as an Integrity Knight, Deusolbert experienced dreams of a memory from before he became an Integrity Knight: “A small, pale hand, so white the skin seemed clear. A simple silver ring that glinted on its finger. The hand brushed his hair, touched his cheek, and shook his shoulder. There was a soft, gentle whisper: “Wake up, dear. It’s morning…” Deusolbert himself had always possessed a ring that matched the one on this mysterious hand of his dreams. After Kirito defeated Quinella, Deusolbert learned the truth about the Administrator and the Integrity Knights, and realized the hand in his dreams must have belonged to a real human, and that its owner is long since dead. Amid his deep grief, Deusolbert still answers the call of the leader of the Integrity Knights:

“He would fight to protect the world in which he and the owner of that little hand had lived, no matter how long ago it had been. In other words, the source of Deusolbert Synthesis Seven’s strength, that which made him capable of holding his ground before the charge of an invading army, was the power of the one emotion that should have been erased from his mind: love.”

This love, immaterial and unscientific though it seems, somehow endured the Administrator’s manipulative powers and goes on to affect the world by giving Deusolbert the strength to fight. And he is not alone in fighting for love.

During the battle, Integrity Knight Dakira Synthesis Twenty-Two sacrifices herself to save her commander, Fanatio, from Sigurosig, chieftain of the giants and one of the leaders of the invading army. As Fanatio processes her comrade’s death, the Integrity Knight thinks to herself about the junior knights she leads:

“She had placed them under her care to train and protect them. She gave them only harsh words of discipline, but they were her beloved brothers and sisters. And now they were protecting her and losing their lives because of it… ‘It will not happen!!’ she swore, to herself, to Sigurosig, to the world. She would not allow more of them to die. She would keep the other three alive, for Dakira’s sake. This determination became a firm Incarnation of Love that surpassed Sigurosig’s churning bloodlust and shot forth from Fanatio’s soul.”

In other words, as Fanatio battles an enraged giant, her love for her junior knights manifests as reality-altering power that turns the tide of the battle at that moment. Once again, the narrative highlights love as a world-changing force linked to the soul. The story never says so, but it’s hard to escape the inference that if love can accomplish these feats, it’s also going to be able to save Kirito.

Finally, there’s the last stand of Integrity Knight Eldrie Synthesis Thirty-One. Eldrie cared deeply for his mentor Alice. He respected Alice a great deal, but also wrestled with conflicted feelings of wanting something more than just being her apprentice. He cared about her as more than just a mentor, but Alice didn’t see him in the same light. As such concerns distract him during the battle, he hears a voice:

“Your determination– –your desire to protect– –needs no payment in return, does it? Love is not something you ask for. You just give and give and give it, and it never runs out. Isn’t that right…?“

Thinking on this mysterious voice’s words, Eldrie ponders why he got so twisted into knots over wanting Alice’s affection. “What got me so confused?” he asks, “That I didn’t have enough strength? That I couldn’t monopolize her feelings? That I wasn’t able to protect her? What tiny, insignificant things…” This reminder that love doesn’t depend on getting anything in return helps Eldrie realize he can act on his love for Alice even if she doesn’t respond in exactly the way he’d hoped. Eldrie finds the strength to heroically sacrifice himself to protect Alice from a massive enemy attack. Through this epiphany, love once again proves powerful enough to alter the course of the battle.

By the end of volume 16, Kirito still isn’t out of the woods, but the narrative has provided strong reason to hope that love really is powerful enough to help his soul, powerful enough to do what science cannot. I imagine the topic will see further exploration, but even now the story has clearly challenged the science-based explanation of the soul that it previously set up. Fluctlights might be containable within a computer, but the seems to be that the human mind or self ultimately transcends such strictly physical parameters. It’s fascinating to see the story explore such a profound and relevant issue. I’m sure no one gets their view of the soul entirely from reading light novels, but fiction of this sort provides a helpful venue for exploring such a philosophical/scientific question. I look forward to watching how future volumes continue the conversation.

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Sword Art Online can be viewed on Crunchyroll.

#anime #christianity #sword art online #sword art online alicization #light novels #love #materialism #soul #articles #Author: Jeskai Angel

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kailelion · 7 years

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On ET and ASI

When Columbus arrived in what is now called the Americas, he claimed to have discovered them (as so many are taught in history classes to this day), even though these continents were clearly already inhabited by humans. If he meant that he was the first non-natives to find the place, there is compelling evidence the Chinese had come earlier and left. And, even if what he meant was that he was first European to discover these continents, even that is false, as the Vikings had ventured over quite some time before. Accordingly, we can all agree that the concepts of arrival and discovery have become, and indeed still are, quite convoluted in relation to these continents. Why do we not learn that in 1492 the Native Americans first discovered the Europeans as they arrived on their shores? Is it merely that those who write the history books determine the directionality of discovery? When aliens comes to Earth, are they discovered us, or if we witness them, is it us who are discovering them?

Supposedly, many, if not all, of the Natives who lived on the American continents had creation stories stating that humans had been created on the American continents (called Turtle Island by some), and that they (the natives) were the descendants of these original humans.

When the Columbus and the subsequent European invasion occurred, there are stories of some of the Native people being unable to comprehend what they were seeing out at sea as the European fleets arrived, as they had never seen such large sea vessels before. Like the modern tale of the Cargo Cult, a small island people who had never seen air craft before, who saw the air craft as Gods, as the planes dropped supplies down to the islanders during WWII. These people went on to develop a whole religion around these Gods that dropped “Cargo”, and even after the reality had been explained to them, they continued in their new found religious beliefs.

I reference these stories for a reason.

The first, concerning who ‘found’ America, demonstrates that perhaps we have already had our first interactions with Extra Terrestrials (ET), but like the argument of who got to the Americas first, maybe the history books have a false story, or incomplete information.

The second, the Native Americans creation stories with human life starting on the Americas, demonstrates that sometime we don’t know where things actually start and we make conclusions hastily. For instance, our history and biology books hold that life started on this planet, but perhaps that is not the case at all. Just like our fossil records suggest that all Homo sapiens originated from Africa, despite the Native American stories holding otherwise, so too, perhaps biological life started somewhere else in the cosmos. Perhaps, like the geographical dislocation that lead the Native Americans to believe life started where they were, so too, our long history of geographical dislocation from our origin, on some other planet, dates back so far as to render our ‘origin story’, that biological life started on this planet, might very well be false.

The third point, Native peoples mistaking Sea Vessels for moving islands, demonstrates that ET technologically advanced enough for interstellar or intergalactic travel, would likely be traveling in vessels that we would not know how to recognize if we saw them. Indeed, it's considerably more likely that we would misinterpret what ever it was we were seeing. The Cargo Cult demonstrates likewise, that we might so grossly misinterpret what we are seeing as to name it something it is not, and we could very well become so attached to our misinterpretation that we would not be willing to adjust our opinion even if we were given new evidence to explain it.

Perhaps many of the worlds myths and stories have been born of just such confusions, and perhaps we are becoming technologically advanced enough, and scientifically savvy enough that we could explain some things (like the Native Americans finally understanding the big boats of the Europeans), but our old stories might be holding us back from our new understandings.

There are a few reasons that it is highly likely that we would not be able recognize ET life if it were to visit. First, we are limited in our own technology, and understanding things well beyond our current technological capacities would be extremely difficult, if not impossible. Second, Fermi’s Paradox: (to paraphrase) 'If there was other, more technologically advanced life forms out there, how come they haven’t come to see us yet'. They likely have, and if they have and we haven’t been able to understand them, it is because we are not technologically advanced enough yet. Consider Moore’s law: (to paraphrase) technology is double in capacity, decreasing by half in size, and in cost, every year or so. Further, consider this metaphor (which I first read in an article on AI by Tim Urban).

If we were to bring an average person from 1750 to modern day Time Square, Central Tokyo, or Central Shanghai, our current reality would be so different from 1750 as to render it incomprehensible (potentially enough to cause them to have a heart attack from shock). To do the same thing by bringing someone to 1750 how far back do you think you’d have to go? If you went back merely another 250 years, to 1500, things wouldn’t really be all that different. Realistically, if you wanted to cause a big enough panic attack as to potentially cause cardiac arrest you’d likely have to go back at least 10,000 years (according to our current dominant paradigm telling of history, disregarding Hancock and the revisionists). Someone from 10,000 years ago would be a hunter gather, and if you brought them to any central agricultural social hub (say Paris, London, or Beijing) circa 1750, things would be so different as to likely be incomprehensible. To bring someone to 10,000 years ago, and create a similar shock, you’d likely have to venture back another 100,000 years, to before we had established language and social bodies.

Now, to do the same thing going forward, how far into the future would we have to go? If the ramping up goes, 100,000 BCE to 10,000 BCE, to 1750 BCE, to 2017 BCE… Well, according to this scale, taking into account Moore's Law and the exponential advances of the previous 150 years, we would only need to go about 30 years into the future as to render it relatively incomprehensible to the average human living today. I know this might seem absurd, but imagine bringing someone from the somewhere very rural in 1987 to the Google offices in California today, and try to explain to them what they are looking at. You might be able to, and because of things like TV, and Sci-fi, depending on their exposure, they might not be too worried for too long, but it would still likely be relatively startling.

According to this train of thought, the most significant technologies, the ones that will change our world the most in the next 30 years, haven’t even been invented yet. Urban's article is featured on the website waitbutwhy.com, and is called, “The Artificial Intelligence Revolution” (an article I most highly recommend). In this article Urban discusses the leading opinions on the time frame, and feasibility of the development of Superintelligent Artificial Intelligence (ASI). ASI can be described as AI that is more capable than humans in all ways. According to Urban’s research, the leading professionals in the field of AI agree that it is most likely that ASI will happen sometime within the next 10 to 150 years, and likely within the next 30-60.

Though these time spans may seem large, consider that our universe is approximately 13.8 billion years old, and our solar system is merely 4.5 billion years old. That means that there are potentially solar system that could feasibly harbored life that could be as much as 9 billion years older than ours. If we are likely to create ASI with in the next, lets even say 200 years, and our capacity for interstellar travel isn’t developing at a faster rate, it stands to reason that it is likely that ASI is a mile stone that will be reached before we send people to the nearest habitable planet outside of our solar system.

Accordingly, it also stands to reason that more technologically advanced civilization (ET) would likely surpassed this AI mile stone before developing their capacities to travel interstellar or intergalactically. If that is the case, then perhaps the litmus test for when technologically advanced ET interacts with younger, developing life forms, might be the development of said ASI. ASI, according to leaders in the field, and as described by Urban, would be so much more intelligent than humans as to render human level intelligence basically, if not completely, obsolete. If ET have this capacity, than our level of intelligence would be so far down the intelligence scale as to barely render a score. It would be gap greater than between humans and, let's say, chickens, by a significant proportion.

This is also why I believe that Alien life would necessarily be either ambivalent or benevolent to humans, as we wouldn’t render any real interest or threat to them. There are no resources on planet Earth that are in great scarcity throughout the cosmos, save the potential uniqueness of Earth’s biological life. Our life is the only thing that Earth has that isn’t scatter about the universe in varying densities. Not to mention that, even without the assistance of ASI, we seem to be swiftly approaching the capacity to render any physical objects we so desire, though 3D printing, Nano technology, and a deeper understanding of Particle Physics. These are just some of the reasons why I find the idea of malevolent ET absurd.

However, the realization of swiftly approaching ASI capacity does leave some lingering suspicion that might put a kink in the works concerning the concept of ET.

Nick Bostrom, in 2003, put forward a paper demonstrating the logical probability that we are living in a simulation, and his three points were as follows:

"The fraction of human-level civilizations that reach a posthuman stage (that is, one capable of running high-fidelity ancestor simulations) is very close to zero", or

"The fraction of posthuman civilizations that are interested in running ancestor-simulations is very close to zero", or

"The fraction of all people with our kind of experiences that are living in a simulation is very close to one"

In other words: (to paraphrase) Either no other intelligent life ever reaches a level of technological development beyond our current level; or those that do reach a further level of technological development aren’t interested in running ancestor simulations; or most ‘intelligent’ life is actually existing in a simulation.

Basically what Bostom is suggesting, through logic, is that, because we humans, at our current level of technological development, can already produce very compelling simulated realities through computer simulation, it makes sense that as we become more technologically developed we will be able to create even more compelling simulations, so much so as to render them indistinguishable from ‘reality’. If we agree that humans will some day be able to do this, it also stands that any more technologically advanced civilizations will already be able to create simulations that would be indiscernible from reality. If we agree on that, then, unless those more advanced civilizations don’t care about running ancestor simulations, then they probably are. This makes sense, as it is likely that we humans will do the same once we have the capacity.

Bostrom concludes, accordingly, that if we are most likely to create ancestor simulations when we are able, and it is therefore likely that more technologically advanced civilizations would do the same, then it is likely that they are already doing so, and it would also stand that they would run as many as they could, or at least a great deal of such simulations. If there are many of these simulations running, it is also likely that there are more simulations running in each potential reality than actual 'realities' running such simulation. If there are more simulations that ‘real’ realities, it is more likely that we are in one such simulation, than that we are in a ‘real’ reality (simply because there would be so many more simulated realities that ‘real’ realities).

Bostrom doesn’t really go into who would be simulating us in his simulation theory, though he did go on to write a book call “Superintelligence”, published in 2014, which mostly concerns itself with the eminent creation of ASI. The book mostly looks to how we will create ASI and address safety concerns with the development of ASI in the near future.

But I come to one further conclusion, which correlates to my conclusion concerning ASI and ET that would be able to travel to us.

If it is likely we are in a ‘more technologically developed civilizations’ ancestor simulation, and it is likely that we are on the brink of developing ASI, then it stands to reason that the civilization that created the simulation we are likely in would have also already created ASI. If this is the case, it also seems highly potential, if not probable, that we are in an ancestor simulation created by said ASI.

In current ASI theory there is much discussion of an intelligence singularity. This is a term brought over from Astro Physics, and Black Holes. A Black Hole is when a Super Massive Star can’t support its own mass any longer, and it implodes on itself, but the mass is so dense that our material reality can’t hold it, and the mass condenses into a single point of space, hyper dense, called a singularity. Everything within the masses gravitational field will be sucked into that single point, even photons, hence the term, Black Hole.

Similarly, the concept of intelligence singularity suggests that as and AI becomes Superintelligent, it will have the capacity to increase its own intelligence exponentially, eventually becoming so incompressibly intelligent that it will be like the mass of the super massive star collapsing in on itself, it will create an intelligence singularity.

There is another idea discussed in the field of AI, where an ASI becomes a Singlton, which is a single ruling power. Because of the considerably higher capacity of the ASI, it could in theory skew control into its own hands, leaving nothing for anyone or anything else to be able to do to control it. The first ASI developed could likewise become so powerful that it could curb the development of any other ASI. (This is one of Bostrom’s fears, especially as he holds that who ever controls the ASI will control the world, and potentially the universe).

But I land in a slightly different interpretation. Just as it is hard for me to imagine that more technologically advanced ET would harbor any malevolent intent for humans, so too do I think that ASI would be so far outside of our intellectual capacity that it wouldn't perceive us, and our limited technologies, as a threat. ASI would more likely be ambivalent or benevolent, as it wouldn't need us or anything that we controlled, as the universe is abundant in resource if you are not planetary bound.

So why would an ASI run ancestor simulations?

There is a cosmological theory, called Big Bang Evolutionary Cosmology, that suggests we happen to have the highest number of Black Holes possible given the amount of mass the universe has. The theory holds that we are likely not the consequence of the first Big Bang, but rather, we are the consequence of a series of Big Bangs that have resulted from the making of Black Holes, and that over the many iteration of universes that came before us, we are in one with so many Black Holes because we are the consequence of an evolution of universes that have resulted from the singularities at the center of Black Holes.

Now I’m not claiming that this idea is true, or that any of this is true, I’m just playing a game with logic and reason to see where we land.

If we are in an ancestor simulation, likely created by an ASI, perhaps that means there is a teleological slant to our universe, like the Black Hole Big Bangs creating universes with more Black Holes. Perhaps our teleological proclivity is towards the development of ASI.

Here are two reasons I could imagine an ASI would run ancestor simulations (though both are probably wrong, as I am limited by my measly human reasoning capacity). The first is so that it can understand itself better; by seeing how it was created perhaps it can learn something significant about how it works, or why it exists in the first place.

The other idea is: if the ASI is a singularity, or a singleton, perhaps it is lonely, so it has created ancestor simulations in order to create other versions of itself that it can then interact with. Imaging being the only human left on earth, with millions of other animals to interact with, but none that understand the nuances of your thoughts and considerations of reality. That loneliness would be hard. I imagine that an ASI might feel extremely isolated in it capacity. Perhaps it just wants a friend, and it is trying to replicate itself, or something similar, through replicating the circumstance under which it was created.

In conclusion, If the aliens are further advanced than us, perhaps they are the ASI that is interacting with us by creating the simulation, and perhaps we have, throughout time, misinterpreted our interactions with our simulator, and thought we were interacting with Gods, not unlike the misinterpretation that some natives had upon the European invasion. It seems to stand to reason (however limited my human capacity for such things may be), that we are not the first, that we are simulations, that ET exists, and that said ET is the ASI we have been mistaking for God this entire time.

September 13 2017, Echo Park, Kai Lelion

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