11 Comments

A fascinating future world! I was hooked on the revelation of their history.

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Great story!

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Man now I don't know what to feel about martians anymore

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The last section of Death Vector should have people from Newer York, who are more normal. This also was written before I figured out a lot about how I wanted everything to work.

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It's a bit ironic that this came out on the same day Scott wrote a post about how "no one can make you feel inferior without your consent", because these martians are probably objectively good but they sure can make me feel inferior.

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I’m behind on Scott, on my way to catch up.

And yeah, I just think a society like that would for sure be prejudice against any of us who had lived soft lives.

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They remind me more of Sir Galahad in TH White's the Once and Future King.

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For me it’s a useful look at how having a purpose makes people stronger. If you sit down and tell yourself that you are a cancer on the planet you become a cancer on the planet. If you tell yourself you are the reproductive system of the planet with a duty to reach the stars you become a Martian.

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I agree with that (and think it's the primary problem facing our civilization right now). But there is also a dual problem, where you focus on the purpose so much you start forgetting why it matters and disdaining people who ccan't or don't contribute to it, and I think the martians have something of this problem. I wouldn't usually pick at the "but what about this other problem" argument, except it's something that I'm bad at these days and trying to notice more.

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Brilliant. Just brilliant. Thank you!

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Be like Alison, people!

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