0133 - Good at three things. - 2020.04.20

Comic!

Comment:

I like to think that Green Lantern's power ring represents the apex of technology.

As any piece of technology is refined, its abilities become more varied, more sophisticated and more powerful, while it becomes easier and more intuitive to use. The logical endpoint, then, is a device that is nigh-omnipotent, that responds perfectly to your thoughts, and that protects and accomodates you so well that you don't even have to think about things like radiation, vacuum, or alien viruses.

The technology in Forward, of course, is not nearly that advanced. I would say that if a pointy stick is a 1, a Green Lantern ring is 100, and your smartphone is a 50, then the various implants and AIs of Forward are in the neighbourhood of a 60. Of course, the thing about power rings is that they are given - they give themselves - to individuals who merit their use. There is no failsafe circuitry in iPhones or general purpose automatons that prevent them from being used by or sold to idiots.

Transcript:

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0133 - 2167/07/06/15:39 - Lee Caldavera's apartment, front door.
LC [peeking out from around corner]: Uh... hi. I'm not dead.
CP: Oh. Okay. Good. You offered to sell hugs on the Internet for a few minutes?
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LC: That was... Zoa has a tendency to sign me up for things based on entirely hypothetical conversations we have. Don't you, Zoa?
Zoa: Yyyeah, that was my bad. In my defense, at no point did you use the word "hypothetical".
LC: I know, I'm bad at technology, whatever.
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CP: Y-you shouldn't have to be good at technology. Technology should be good at you.
Zoa: Yes, yes, I'm a klutz, it's entirely my fault, we've established this.
LC: No, no, Zoa, you're fine, I'm just... I...
LC: I suck, okay? I suck at everything other than just watching TV and taking up space.
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CP: You were rated ten out of ten for cuddling, though. Briefly.
Zoa: Caleb's right, you're good at at least three things!
LC: Well, yay me.
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