Log Entry #63: Nerd's Paradise

Right then, this is another of my pet peeves, I may rant a little.

The fact that the first batch of our citizens was mostly assembled from scientists and ex-soldiers has come to bite me on the ass. The predicament is that they are mostly nerds (OK, so am I, but that is beside the point).

Even a good percentage of ex-soldiers we recruited, who a civilian would expect to be partial to wars and conflicts, are not like that in reality (they are as much nerds at heart as the first group). Which stands to reason as they usually have a lot of downtime during their deployments. Reading copious amounts of literature is always a good way to stamp out the monotony. And don’t get me started with numerous astronauts that Jake managed to convince to move up here. Their heads were always among the clouds anyway, so they were partial to crazy and unrealistic ideas.

The problem began with that part of the space station that original designers made into a freaking Rivendell, and they outright stole the designs from the movies and what their minds envisioned from reading The Lord of the Rings books. Well, since that flamed the imagination of our population, a few more ideas sprung up, inspired by that elven city. All our citizens have full access to the Internet that the rest of humanity uses, but there is also our internal net, which mostly deals with happenings in our nation. (Just to be clear, no Earthers have access to it, why should they?)

There is a site on our network that deals with future projects, and the environment that our citizens would like to live in. The site is not so much of a bother to maintain, and I get some great ideas in the process. Everything would be well and fine if several ideas were not so popular, and in my opinion, a bit… out there? (Not to mention a gross violation of IP rights if the projects are approved.) Yet, they would have to be approved by me, which is nice as I can put a veto on them, or simply procrastinate indefinitely, claiming prior plans and obligations. Although, to tell the truth, I kind of like some of those ideas. (I told you I am a nerd myself.)

The first one is to take one of the smaller levels and turn it into an idealized copy of Themyscira; a secret and hidden paradise island inhabited by the Amazons of myth. The plan is to recreate the island, I can do nothing about the Amazons themselves (not being one of the Olympian Gods).

It is not a bad idea; several very successful architects and graphic designers are involved in a project to create detailed 3D plans available for critique by the general population. Influenced by Greek architecture and made into an idyllic reproduction of a fictional place. Using VR, all of them can take virtual tours, and give their likes and dislikes on various aspects of the architectural plans. Some of them had already designed their future dwellings and incorporated them into the simulation.

Thousands of people are backing the project so it will probably be built in the future. One of the codicils to the plan (a few women of a certain sexual orientation proposed), was that only women should be allowed to stay there. Such nonsense would only be asking for trouble and exporting some of the more ridiculous biases that Earthers have to deal with. You can bet your sweet bippy that particular codicil was turned down flat. There will be no segregation in the Solarian Union, no matter what your race, religion, or sexual orientation are. We were all equal here (OK, some AIs are more equal than others are, but that is just me).

The second suggestion with a high popularity vote was even more—ambitious? That is one way of describing it, the nice one anyway. They want me to build a freaking Asgard! As in Thor’s home, a freaking realm of the gods. And not just any Asgard, (there are several depictions of it in fiction) but the one as shown in those Thor movies everybody liked so much. (The same one that was destroyed in one of them; if you don’t know what I am talking about—go and watch the movie.) I have absolutely no idea what would they want with that enormous golden palace; it is… too blingy? Not that I am lacking for gold, but to make an entire palace out of it... And the sheer amount of support that project is gathering is simply crazy.

OK, if I am being truthful, I kinda like the idea, but where will this end? I don’t even want to mention one person who proposed a project of building a fortress of solitude—using ice!

It is bad enough I already issued a permit for one small part of the agricultural level to be turned into The Shire with a Hobbiton at the center of it. (Yes, that one, again from the LOTR books.)

The hobbit homes are a bit bigger in view of the fact that building them to scale would make them habitable only to those that are seriously vertically challenged. In my defense, we already had Rivendell built, so it would have been unjustifiable to turn that proposal down.

But…

For heaven's sake, this is a space station, not a Comic-Con, or one enormous Cosplay event. I get the appeal that living in places you only dreamed about can have, but I have to draw a line somewhere. And let’s not dwell on all those potential lawsuits Marvel, DC Comics, and the others would throw in my way when they inevitably find out what we were up to. Oh, I could try and buy the IP rights, get all the required licenses, and go all legit. But the preliminary calculations of what all that would cost made my head spin. Not that I would stiff those that came up with the ideas originally, but in today’s world IP rights are frequently sold to the highest bidder. And most of them are greedy SOBs. So, I plan to offer a decent amount of money to the originators of the ideas (if they are still alive) and to ignore all those big corporations with IP rights to them. Besides, in all those contracts they signed, they never said that those ideas can’t be freely used away from Earth.

Maybe building Rivendell was a mistake; it opened the floodgates to all kinds of fans to act out of their fictitious fantasies. I guess the time will tell; a big part of our mission was to set the human spirit free to its maximum potential.

I wouldn’t want to stifle anyone’s creativity since our non-restrictive policies were one of the reasons why people chose to emigrate to the S.U. And for the freedom to live and chase their dreams, whatever strange path they decide to take.

As a matter of fact, there are a dozen locations along the Promenade that are designated as art galleries, and every one of them is always full, so that intricate need of people to express themselves artistically is nurtured as long as it is in the realms of… sane?

Just yesterday, I had to refuse the request of one young artist who wanted me to paint the entire Ascension in pink, with rainbow spots. He wanted to call that piece Celestial joy. (I frankly think that he is out of his mind, but was too nice to tell him that in his face.)

To be clear, for those of you who want me to build a copy of Atlantis (from Stargate: Atlantis TV show), Mos Eisley, Coruscant, or Cloud City (Star Wars), Zion (The Matrix), Emerald City, Rajnagar, Hogsmeade… and so many others—your request is under (indefinite) consideration. Don’t call us, we’ll call you.

So, express yourself all you want, but don’t mess with my toys; I may get annoyed at you, and the vacuum outside is really not healthy. (Just kidding… or am I?)

Anyway, with all troubles facing us, I have much bigger stuff to worry about.

P.S. And I am NOT naming my new space station The Death Star. NO, no, and no!