Pandemonium and Parade

In her last post, Owl talked about reading more literture of substance. This was brought on in part by a conversation we had late one night about reading as a form of self-enrichment, and how reading mindfully and deliberately was a skill we had both once actively cultivated, but have let rust out a bit more recently. Owl made a resolution fo rherself which she talked about in her previous post, and I wanted to do something similar, though not idential, for myself.

The first step in my plan is virtually idential to Owl's. After we had our discussion, we (too eager to wait until morning, and too fearful that we would lose momentum befoure our projects even began were we to postpone) made our way out into the main room. This was tricky, because as of the time of this conversation, less than a week ago, our living room floor was...less floor, and more book. It was carpeted with hundreds of novels, anthologies, textbooks, almanacs, and more dictionaries than anybody really needs to own. Hundreds of books, sorted into a dozen categories, waiting to be subdivided further into a score of subcategories*. Books, as you may be able to tell, are not something we take lightly here.  We collapsed beside a listing tower of non-fiction, which, spwaling out around the legs of our dining table, threatened to spill over into reference on one side and realistic fiction on the other. (You will be pleased to note, incidentally, that this madness is now all happilly contained to our seven bookshelves. And it only took a week) Sorting through the stacks, we together selected just over a dozen books. They currently live by Owl's nightstand, and the idea is that we will each pick one from the stack every month and read it. Eventually we will both have read all the books in the stack, so that when we throw parties we can delight all of our guests by our eerily-uniform knowledge of archaic Chinese burial customs.

...wait,  what do you mean thats not what people talk about at parties? A-are you sure? 

Anyhow, though it might not be quite the party trick I was hoping it would be, we have a pretty exciting selection of books. I admit to having read some of them before. I've kept most of the books I used in college, either as assigned textbooks or as research material, and they are among the most prized installations in my library. Owl very patiently let me pile on a fair few books on my two major collegiate interests: Chinese history and culture, and archaeology. There is a big difference between reading a book for class and reading it for pleasure, however, and I look forward to approaching these books from a new perspective, nd at my own pace. The rest of the books were either picked out by Owl as pertaining to one of her particular areas of study, as is the case with Terror in the Land of the Holy Spirit, her current read, or were chosen since their subject was of interest to us both, or sufficienly unfamiliar to us that we felt we had much to learn from it.

Currently, I am (re)reading a book I read for the special first-year seminar all freshman at my alma mater were required to take. My particular course was Supernatural Japan, and we studied Japanese ghosts and monsters as they pertained to Japanese media and culture. This was a topic that stayed with me all throughout college---in a wonderfully cyclic coincidence, I ended up writing a paper on the pervasiveness of yōkai (妖怪) , Japanese monsters, in popular culture for my Asian Studies seminar my final semester. The book is entitled Pandemonium and Parade: Japanese Monsters and the Culture of Yōkai by Michael Dylan Foster,  and it was one of the first (if not the first) book I ever read at the collegiate level. It was formative in shping my mindset as a scholar, or at least as a reader of scholarly works, but save for the few chapters I consulted for the aforementioned capstone paper, I have not had the opportunity to revisit this work since I was a freshman. I am only a few chapters in but I am enjoying the experience immensely, and it is good to be reading metacognitively again.

The second step in my plan is to write more about what I read. This will force me to read carefully and analytically, will help me cogitate on what I have read, and will ensure that I understand it well enough to speak (or type) coherently about it. You can expect to see some, if not all, of that writing here in the coming months. If hearing me talk about archaeology bored you before, just wait until I start talking about some of my favorite archaeology textbooks! No but seriously, they're superb.

Stay tuned for more talking about reading, and possibly pictures of our sea of books! Maybe even pictures of our pretty, organized bookshelves, if you're lucky.

*And if you're really interested, we can provide you with that breakdown. We have lists. And labels! And pictures. 

Quick Sunday Post Y'all

Hey!

I'm taking Raven's post for the night, but I'm going to make it brief cause we're both pretty tired.

Being out of school has been hard for me. I like to be constantly learning, but I am not great at self motivation (this blog may be a good reference for that...) So today I am going to commit to read more. This comes after Raven and I have (mostly) finished cataloging and shelving our impressive library. There are so many great stories and voices in our apartment. So many I haven't read or heard. I'd like to.

Starting today I am making a commitment to read more. To read more books of substance. More new voices. Each month I am going to attempt to read a new non-fiction novel, a new fiction novel, and a novel I wouldn't normally pick up for pleasure reading. On top of reading whatever else I choose to read that month (likely the romance novels and comic books I read in 15 snatched minutes during work breaks).

I'm not sure what all the books for this month will be, but last night I started Terror in the Land of the Holy Spirit: Guatemala Under General Efrain Rios Montt 1982-1983. It's a relatively familiar area for me (I've studied Latin American history fairly extensively), but it's not a period I know in a lot of detail. I haven't gotten far, but already it's nice to get back into the swing of reading for more than just my own enjoyment. I'll keep you all updated on how the book progresses (brace for political posts ahead) and I'll let you know when I pick up other new books this month.

Wish me happy self motivation!

See you around,
Owl

Morality: The Blurred Line Between Black and White

Hey there all,

I know Raven just talked a bit about Daredevil and said she would revisit the show when she and I have watched more, but I am not that patient. I'm talking about it now. And possibly forever. I may never post about anything else ever again! (Lies. I will talk about other things on Monday. I am almost 80% sure of it.)

As Raven noted in her previous post I love the Daredevil comic books. Usually it is Raven that finds dark, gritty, depressing media to be enjoyable more than I. In fact I'm usually pretty opposed to it. Comics are the one medium where I seem to very actively enjoy and seek out darker characters and story lines. My all time favorite superhero (at least for the moment) is Jessica Jones, another of Marvel's Defender superheroes - and one who will also get her own show on Netflix. Luke Cage and Iron Fist round out the four Defenders who will grace Netflix's roster in the coming years. I don't know much about Iron Fist and honestly haven't read any of his comics, but I adore Luke Cage (even in his cheesy 70s costume.)

Though let's all be honest in our joy that he lost that yellow shirt. 

Each Defender is what I would consider a small scale hero. Their comic books aren't usually about saving the world. They're about saving a segment of a city. Usually a very small segment, at that. All of the Defenders are New York City based heroes and the city is as much a part of them as they are a part of it. Though some of the cast of the Defenders eventually goes on to bigger (we can argue if they are better) things, they are primarily concerned with the welfare and well being of their city.

So, back to the show. Thus far I have only watched the first 5 episodes. There are spoilers ahead for those episodes, and the Daredevil universe in general ahead. I will try to keep them to a minimum. What I love about this show, the same as I love about the comic, is the characters. The are all far from perfect. Their circumstances are far from perfect. And the world in which they live is full of chaos, danger, death, crime, and tough obstacles. The way the characters interact with this imperfect world and the other imperfect people in it is very rich and layered.

I'm going to give you a rundown on all the major "good" characters in the story and why I love them. Starting with the obvious...

Matthew Murdock (alias: Daredevil)
Matt Murdock (for the uninitiated out there) was born and raised in Hell's Kitchen - an impoverished, crime-ridden section of New York City. His father was a boxer who wanted a better life for his son. Even after a childhood accident leaves Matt blind (but with heightened senses thanks to some science chemicals) his father pushes him to be a better student, and a better person. His father, needing more money for himself and his son, starts throwing fights for some bad men to make ends meet. Eventually he can't do it anymore - his need to be the best for his son overtaking his need for money - and he refuses to throw a fight, leading to his death.
After his father's death Matt takes charge of his abilities, learning to channel and filter the senses that could otherwise overwhelm him. Later he goes on to law school and then to a small private defense practice with his best friend, Foggy Nelson (who we will get to later).
Now, here's why I love Matt. He's a brilliant lawyer (he can tell when anyone is lying and how any jury is reacting to him by listening to their heartbeat) and he is a strong, talented crime fighter. But sometimes Matt is a huge idiot. He is not careful at concealing his secret identity, he has the worst taste in women (in my opinion), he can be a bit of a jerk to his aforementioned best friend, he forgoes common sense and caution to the detriment of himself and others, and has a tendency to act first and think later. In other words, he's got some flaws.
He's also very grey in terms of morality. He's a lawyer who breaks the law to punish the men that the justice system can't touch. He is a vigilante in every sense of the word. Each side of his character stands on a separate side of the moral fence. As a lawyer he is careful to stay inside the bounds of the law, protecting those who are falsely accused. As a vigilante he breaks laws left and right to punish the people the law has to overlook. It's a complicated relationship that plays to perfection in the show.
And why does he do it all? Because he loves his neighborhood. He loves Hell's Kitchen and even though he could be a big time superhero and a big time lawyer basically anywhere, Matt chooses to stay in his section of New York and focus his efforts there. Because it's enough work for a lifetime.

Foggy Nelson
The show has not delved into Foggy's past so neither will I, but suffice it to say Foggy and Matt are old friends and their relationship is one of the few constants in Matt's life. And likely in Foggy's. Foggy is not always as altruistic as Matt, often playing a more average Joe-type character driven by more than a need to help save the world. Foggy might be happy working as a high powered lawyer were he not so close with Matt. As it stands Foggy shares his friend's morals and do-gooder spirit, but it's not always so easy for him. And he makes it known.
Foggy is one of my favorites parts of both the show and the comic series. He is unendingly loyal, though not necessarily unendingly patient with Matt. When he finds out about his friend's double life he has plenty to say about it and like a true friend he doesn't pull his punches. He is usually very good at telling Matt what he needs to hear, even and especially when Matt doesn't want to hear it.
He's less confident than Matt and this often manifests in his relationship with women. He is quite endearing, but not always attractive to the women he wants in life, especially when Matt is standing right next to him, getting all the ladies. But I love the way Elden Henson (a tragically underrated actor, I think) plays Foggy's relationship with Karen Page in the show. It is a delightfully friendly, hopeful, and supportive relationship thus far - even though I'm fairly sure the writers intend Karen for Matt (after all, that's how it goes down in the comics.) But Henson, with his perfectly timed jokes, casual self-deprecating flirtation, and more realistic (non-superhero) reactions to life have me rooting for him and Karen way more than I expected.
Foggy will definitely be the common man's view of the world. He is what I would be in that position - and Henson makes me feel okay about that.

Karen Page
Not my favorite character in the comics, but so far I am loving her in the show. She shows up as the damsel in distress in the first episode. She discovers some bad stuff about her company and in response bad men try to frame her for murder and then try to murder her when that doesn't work. Enter new lawyers, Foggy Nelson and Matt Murdock. They save her and get to bottom of the mess with her old bosses in the meantime, though justice is certainly not served as we would all like by the end of the episode.
The show's Karen is, to me, very naive - a blonde ingenue type (a type I admit to finding very, very dull). But she combines that with a very strong sense of right and wrong. Karen doesn't seem to see the shades of grey the rest of the characters do. There is no scale, only right and wrong, and she will fight to bring those in the wrong to justice. Even when it gets her into a lot of trouble (spoilers: it does.) She charges into fights she doesn't fully comprehend and thus far hasn't been great at extricating herself without help. I hope that will change as the show progresses.
I enjoy her camaraderie with Foggy and I wish she were less obviously pining for Matt. I think it would be refreshing to see a female character in a platonic relationship with all the show's men. I understand why Karen Page cannot be that person for this show... but my wish still remains.

Claire Temple
We don't know much about this character yet. She claims to be a nurse and she saves Matt's life after he takes some dumb changes as Daredevil. She puts herself in situations of immense risk for him, without asking much in return except his assurance that he is on the right side of the fight. She even gets kidnapped by the Russian mob to try to lure Daredevil into the open, or find some information on him. But Claire is as much a fighter as she is a healer, an uncommon combination that I relish. She is very tough and although she has been the primary love interest for Matt so far I hold high hopes that she will either come to her senses or become more than just a love interest.
Raven and I found ourselves saying something about how stupid Matt had just been and then Claire would say the same thing a few scenes later. She, like Foggy, doesn't hold back against Matt's carelessness. She also voices some concerns about Matt's morality that I think serve to show the audience that although Matt may be on the right side he may not be fighting the right people, or the right way. Even good people make bad decisions.
So far, Claire may be my favorite character in the show. If I could choose a character I would like to be most like it is undoubtedly her. (It helps that she is played by Rosario Dawson who I think is amazing all the way through.) She has a lot of attributes I particularly value in a good person: loyalty, competence, caring, intelligence, and a no bullshit attitude a mile wide. Temple may end up being the conscience for Daredevil reminding him not to stray too far into the world he fights against.
Claire Temple, from the comics doesn't actually appear in Daredevil. She is a part of Luke Cage's world. Hopefully she will bridge the gap between the worlds and show up in both shows. I certainly hope they keep her arch with Luke, despite adding her to the Daredevil world.

Here is a good, quick rundown of all the character and who plays them if you want to put some faces with these names.

I will get around to posting about the villains (and one more hero) of the Daredevil world soon. Suffice to say for now they are every bit as compelling and interesting and even likeable as the heroes.

Until next time,
Owl

Rivendell is Watching...

Owl and I are finishing up redecorating the apartment. We have these stick-on decals from Owl's store, with chalkboard and whiteboard fronts that can be written on, and we've put one by our media room---Crow's old room, in which we've put our TV and computers. We're putting on it a list of what Rivendell (our apartment's nick name) is watching, and I thought it might be interesting to have a brief review of the shows on that list as they change.

So. Here's what Rivendell is watching currently:

Daredevil
This Netflix original series was released today, with thirteen episodes making up the first season. Daredevil is one of Owl's favorite superheroes, and she's been busy reading the Bendis and Maleev Daredevil omnibus. So she's been anxiously awaiting the Daredevil release all week, and we're huddled up in the media room (it just sounds so fancy, right?) watching.

I have to say that so far I've been incredibly impressed with all of the Netflix originals, and Daredevil seems to be living up to their standard of quality. It's definitely a dark and gritty superhero adaptation, a la Nolan's Batman series or Snyder's Watchmen, but it has a persistent and delightful humor to it as well.

Granted, I say this as we watch a man skewer his own head on an iron spike, so take the TV-MA rating seriously. They don't shy away from gore.

As we get further into the series, I'll talk more at length about the series, as it looks quite promising.

Steven Universe
Oh man, where do I start?

So, let me right off the bat just clarify: this is a children's cartoon. There's been an upwards trend in kids' TV towards smarter, more self-aware, and often much darker and more mature shows. Pendleton Ward's Adventure Time is perhaps the most famous example of this, but shows like Gravity Falls and the five-night, ten-episode Over the Garden Wall follow in the same vein, and often have overlapping creative talent. Steven Universe is a show created by Rebecca Sugar, an Adventure Time writer and storyboard artist. Steven Universe is the first Cartoon Network show to be created by a woman, and the show is one of the best examples of strong female casts I've ever seen.

The show is a ton of fun, silly and light in tone but often asking serious question and providing insightful answers. An anime-inspired story about the Crystal Gems, intergalactic warriors who protect the earth, it consistently does a stellar job on talking about gender roles and family dynamics. It has also introduced an openly gay romantic pairing, going so far as to show one character kissing the other on the cheek---a degree of affection henceforth denied to on-screen gay couples in children's TV. Both Adventure Time and Legend of Korra have been hindered in attempting to portray lesbian relationships by network restrictions, and Steven Universe is breaking ground with this relationship.

Ouran High School Host Club
I first started watching Ouran High School Host Club in high school, and though its appeal is far from universal, I have a deep and lasting love for it. I hesitated before showing it to Owl, as she is not nearly as fond in general of anime as I am, and Ouran can be a lot to take in at once.

A satire of Shōjo anime---a subgenre marketed towards teen and preteen girls often with heavily dramatized romantic relationships---Ouran centers around a group of high school students who are part of a student host club. Popular in Japan, host clubs are typically bars with male staff that entertain predominantly female clientele who come for conversation and light flirtation. They are a newer take on hostess clubs, where female staff cater to a predominately male audience. The show takes the concept to humorously drastic extremes by setting up a high school host club composed of heavily-exaggerated tropes---the  dramatic, princely character, the cute boy-lolita, the "cool" one, etc. The protagonist, Haruhi, stumbles upon the club by mistake. Because of her short hair and androgynous style of dress, Haru is mistaken as a male student, and as she sees little difference she doesn't bother to correct the assumptions. She accidentally breaks an expensive vase belonging to the host club, becomes indebted to them, and joins the host club as a natural entertainer. Hijinks ensue! Haruhi becomes the lens through which the outlandish antics of the host club are highlighted. 

It's an odd list, to be sure, but we've had a lot of fun with these shows. We're in the middle of watching quite a few shows right now, and the Rivendell is watching list only highlights a few and is far from comprehensive. Hopefully we'll have some more shows to put up on our board soon, and I'll talk more about those then!

Any recommendations for us, readers? We're always on the lookout for new shows.

See you Sunday,
Raven

Merging Libraries*

Night shifts make for inconsistent bloggers. Sorry guys. I've been working all night shifts this week at work, but we just hired someone new so things are looking up for my blogging future.

As many of you already know Crow has left us for the great western frontier. He left us with a lot of empty space, a lot of his less treasured possessions, and a huge number of books. Not to mention some serious holes in the beloved roommate section of our lives. But this week and last we have been aiming to fill the physical holes left by his departure. That has meant turning his old room into a media room for entertaining nerdy guests (and also an insomnia room for when Raven can't sleep - ironically, I, as an owl, am not a night person). 

As anyone who has ever shared space with a significant other can tell you, decorating a shared apartment or house can be a make or break experience for many relationships. What one partner may think is a lovely shade of green the other partner may think is a trashy throwback to the 70s and makes them physically sick to look at. And let's not even get started on artwork! Fortunately for Raven and me this particular area of discord has never been much of a concern. 

Though we have slightly diverging tastes in some areas of decorating, we find ourselves in agreement more often than not. And when we don't agree usually one opinion is fairly weak and easily overlooked. For example, I have never put much artwork on my walls, but Raven loves to decorate wall space. I didn't have strong feelings about the issue and now that our apartment is decorated with tons of wall art, I have to say I have come around one hundred percent to Raven's way of thinking. So, Raven and I seemed to have weathered that relationship test relatively easily.

Today was another story. The mother of all relationship tests. At least as far as we were concerned. Joining and organizing our divergent libraries. Raven has Feelings on how a library should be organized and where books belong. I have (admittedly weaker) Feelings on the subject as well. I have fewer books than Raven, but most of them have been with me since middle or high school and I cherish them deeply. Fortunately we have few duplicates as literary taste is one area where our interests diverge a bit. 

But organizing and categorizing our massive library was quite a trial in itself. And caused more than one minor disagreement and a very near existential crisis for one of us! But a couple hours later all our books are carefully divided into a few huge piles across our living room floor. The broad categories range from non-fiction to poetry to fantasy. There is a sizable romance collection (my influence and a definite divergent area) and a huge science fiction section (her influence and my great fortune as I am getting to the genre more now than I ever have before). There is also a reference section and a non-fiction section, piled so close they are almost indistinguishable. This is not an accident since their initial separation was the cause of the narrowly averted existential crisis mentioned earlier. 

Soon we will have smaller, more numerous piles of subgenres like steampunk, literary reference, distopian YA, anime, and comic fantasy. Out of the chaos will come order. And out of strife (or more put more accurately, academic discourse and bargaining) Raven and my relationship remains intact. Another test passed, another milestone cleared. Hopefully shelving doesn't prove to be our undoing...

*Title adapted from Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman. "Marrying Libraries" is the title of the first of her essays in the book and is one of my favorite essays of all time. Thank you to Crow for introducing me to this marvelous book (and author). If you love books and haven't read Ex Libris, you ought.

“Today is declared an unscheduled holiday”

Hi Owl,

It really has been awhile. Sorry, everybody!

I really loved the segment of your story you shared with us yesterday, Owl. It was wonderfully written, and it brought up a lot of interesting concepts. I particularly liked the distinction made between artificial intelligence and simulated intelligence. You asked me a particularly hard question yesterday about what I like to see in science fiction, and I will do my best to give a partial answer today.

Science fiction is my all-time favorite genre to read and write, and it's the questions like the ones your story is starting to pose that make it so. In my mind, the best science fiction has always been that which uses the fictionalized scenarios in the story as a lens through which contemporary issues can be viewed. Generally, these pieces can be seen as sociopolitical commentary, or as imagined outcomes of certain real-world issues. In that regard, dystopic science fiction is a strong contender for my favorite sub-genre, as it lends itself particularly well to this sort of commentary, since it imagines the drastic extremes of social engineering gone wrong.  George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World are perfect examples of this.

There's one thing that I really loathe about most writing advice, and that is that it presumes there are hard and fast rules that one must follow. For virtually any "rule" of writing you can find, there is at least one exception of something that breaks that rule, and does it well.That said, when attempting genre fiction, there are certain guidelines that are often followed. Very broadly speaking, fantasy creates a world that can never be, realistic fiction portrays variants of the world that is, and science fiction imagines a world that ours might one day become. In many ways science fiction is best outfitted to be the ideal mechanism for the hypothetical. Many story concepts start with a what if. Good science fiction is often the conclusion of those particularly elaborate or ambitious what if questions.

There are hundreds of aesthetic, philosophical, stylistic, and atmospheric elements that I can list that I like to see in science fiction. Without narrowing it down to subgenres I could talk for days on what factors I most like to see in science fiction. Try me sometime----I'll do it, really.

For now, though, I think it's time for another list. Since I talked earlier in this post about dystopian novels best demonstrating the speculative nature of science fiction, here's 5 of Raven's Favorite Dystopian Science Fiction Novels

1. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? 
2. The Giver 
3. 1984
4. Brave New World
5. Feed

(Title quote courtesy of The Giver, Lois Lowry)

A Return

Hey! Wow! It's been a while. Sorry Raven (and everyone reading). Crow's departure and then a week of misadventures has put us very off schedule with posting. That stops this week. Back to every day updates. Starting with some puttering from me (Owl) in the new space world I'm trying to piece together. I am so new to writing science fiction it's actually a bit embarrassing. Raven, if you feel the inclination to make a post about things you like seeing in science fiction (and maybe some things you hate) that would help me out! Everyone reading this please feel free to do the same in comments. Or chime in with some problems, changes, gadgets, or new ideas you think the future might hold (when we're all living on spaceships searching for lots of new worlds to colonize and stuff).



Security Bot Protocol Scan
11.3.5382
Keyword Search: Artificial Intelligence, AI, Simulated Intelligence, SI,
Searching...
Retrieving...
Retrieved.
Commencing scan...

....Even before our ancestors left Earth in search of new worlds the question of an artificially intelligent machine loomed large. The now defunct Council of Twenty, made up of the highest earning corporations and countries of the day, came together to decide the issue at the 3892 Beijing Summit in the Earth city of Beijing. The resulting months of negotiations have become known as the Turing Summit and the document it produced was named the Turing Protocol. The Turing Protocol did many things, but the most important and lasting effect of both the summit and protocol was the legal distinction drawn between a simulated intelligence machine and an artificial intelligence machine.

An artificial intelligence machine would duplicate human intelligence or surpass it. It would be able to reason, respond, evolve, and think independently from its creator. A simulated intelligence was viewed by the Turing Protocol to be anything that fell short of that mark. This vague legal definition persisted until 3920 when the Watts v. Micropolis case forced the issue. The Council of Twenty reconvened, this time in Earth city Mumbai to more concretely define the term simulated intelligence. The resulting definition decreed that a simulated intelligence could not change its own programming, or make any value judgments that were not built in by a human creator. For example, a programmer could build in a fail safe that would change the programming of a Rover bot from exploring a new planet and gathering data to protecting itself and returning to a docking station when it was damaged.

The 3920 definition of simulated intelligence has become standard over the last millennium and any bots falling outside the scope of SI are still outlawed by all companies and fleet governing bodies. Machine dependence on human minds keeps the human population employed and dominant, while optimizing fleet productivity and happiness...

....Scan complete...
....Threat level.... 0
....Scan concluded.
Time elapsed... 0.0000001 seconds.

--------

Micropolis Memo
Dictated by Paul York, Micropolis CEO
2.15.5367

On my way to a meeting with the board. The numbers indicate that overall consumer spending on Micro products is down by 5 percent this quarter. The board should consider raising overall corporation wage and  implementing the proposed incentive buying program Li and his bot seem convinced will skyrocket our profits. I'm more concerned about getting our new research division off Teros this year. We don't have any business hanging around a settled chunk of rock. Once the colonizers move in, its time for us to move out. There's no money in colonization. Leave that for Suvidha and Ousar. Guess I'll let Li play his little game with the staff then. He'll probably want to hire back some of our old employees, too.

--------

Chicago Chronicle
December 17th 5368

Paul York, embattled CEO of Micropolis, has finally stepped down after his company lost a massive lawsuit against the family members of the ill-fated Blackbird R&D outfit. The entire outfit has been presumed dead since December of last year. Communications with the head researcher, Alberto Soriano, were cut off unexpectedly after Soriano's report of strange heat signatures and a planet with an abnormal rotation.
York, reportedly ordered the team to investigate despite strong opposition from his board of directors. It has not yet been announced who will be replacing York as the new CEO, though a source at the company who wishes to remain anonymous hinted that York's replacement will be none other than Li Yang, the economic genius behind many of Micropolis' recent workers' incentive programs and their new line of VR implants.
Micropolis' stock fell a whopping 45 percent this morning when news hit that the veteran CEO who has helmed the company for the last 37 years would be stepping down.



A few bits of world building to piece together. Thanks to Raven's brother, Rook, for showing me CGP Grey's video: Humans Need Not Apply to get me thinking about how human beings will survive in a world populated by job-competent machines.