Dystopia
I keep wanting to post on here, but then thinking, 'Meh, why bother?' and doing something else instead. So I've been quiet on here... Growing away as I predicted I would, eventually. But anyways...
I had an idea for a story. I was reading some cyberpunkish stuff I bought with birthday money, and was thinking about dystopian future type stories. I started to think, why would they have so much technology? I started to think about a world where all the things are breaking down and there's heavy social stratification. My idea:
In the lower strata, there isn't even running water or electricty, and they live in near starvation in burnt out old buildings like rats. In the upper strata they have amazing technology like cybernetics, but they spend all their time isolated and communicating electronically. Both levels spend much of their time pursuing stimulants when they can find the time. The police effectively no longer exist, and any police situations are handled by the military. The military is distant from the rest of the US, supported by the children of the existing soldiers, with very little recruitment.
I figured out the military, more or less, but I was thinking, where does the food come from? Large hydroponics and pens. How do the lower class get it? Don't know that one. If everything in the upper strata is run by machines, who maintains the machines? There seems like there must be some small sort of middle class that does these things. Where does the lower strata get water? I think I have that one worked out.
Money is virtually unknown in the lower strata of society, and they mostly barter or steal. Rape and murder are everyday occurrances, not worthy of mention. Very few can read, name the state they're in, or name the president, but making fire with sticks is a basic skill everyone has. Living day-to-day, each meal is salvation, and few live to 25. This is the place my story would start in, with a protagonist with values created from this world.
It would be about his leaving the filthy warrens he'd grown up in and sort of trekking cross-country, conveniently exploring the world I set up.
I had an idea for a story. I was reading some cyberpunkish stuff I bought with birthday money, and was thinking about dystopian future type stories. I started to think, why would they have so much technology? I started to think about a world where all the things are breaking down and there's heavy social stratification. My idea:
In the lower strata, there isn't even running water or electricty, and they live in near starvation in burnt out old buildings like rats. In the upper strata they have amazing technology like cybernetics, but they spend all their time isolated and communicating electronically. Both levels spend much of their time pursuing stimulants when they can find the time. The police effectively no longer exist, and any police situations are handled by the military. The military is distant from the rest of the US, supported by the children of the existing soldiers, with very little recruitment.
I figured out the military, more or less, but I was thinking, where does the food come from? Large hydroponics and pens. How do the lower class get it? Don't know that one. If everything in the upper strata is run by machines, who maintains the machines? There seems like there must be some small sort of middle class that does these things. Where does the lower strata get water? I think I have that one worked out.
Money is virtually unknown in the lower strata of society, and they mostly barter or steal. Rape and murder are everyday occurrances, not worthy of mention. Very few can read, name the state they're in, or name the president, but making fire with sticks is a basic skill everyone has. Living day-to-day, each meal is salvation, and few live to 25. This is the place my story would start in, with a protagonist with values created from this world.
It would be about his leaving the filthy warrens he'd grown up in and sort of trekking cross-country, conveniently exploring the world I set up.