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Holidays

Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2009 7:52 pm
by Destructionator
Weird topic for sure, but I want to put down the stuff I thought up for that first post in OZU. I'll prolly add more later.

National Education Day - Always on a school day near the end of winter (about a month before birthing season)

In A'millian society, high technology has made it possible to abolish wage-slavery, but nevertheless, some subset of the population must still work to maintain this state.

NED is one part of a general effort to encourage people to continue their education into either trade school or university, so they are qualified to go into a career down the line. It is meant to excite people about learning and working, and at the same time, educate them about the necessity of a workforce in a fun way.

Like in a form of career day, working people can take the day off of their normal job and go to a school (or a similar gathering of people) and talk about what they do, the benefits their job has both individually and on society, and what it took to get there.

The talks might be as simple as a lecture, or it might be some kind of demonstration. The specifics are left up to the speaker.

After the presentations, college applications are made available for those who want to give it a try.

Re: Holidays

Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2009 11:26 pm
by Siege
Question about the specifics of a society that has abolished wage-slavery through science: does this mean that there are no more data crunchers and people who do nothing but feed random sequences of numbers into spreadsheets every day? Because in that case I imagine it would actually be doable to excite people to get a job; if I could live comfortably regardless I'd have no problem with putting say 30 hours a week back into society if at least those hours wouldn't be spent doing something mind-numbingly boring.

Re: Holidays

Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2009 1:06 am
by Destructionator
Siege wrote:Question about the specifics of a society that has abolished wage-slavery through science: does this mean that there are no more data crunchers and people who do nothing but feed random sequences of numbers into spreadsheets every day?
Yeah, mostly. If a computer can do it, a computer probably is doing it. Otherwise, machines are probably helping multiply your effort immensely, so you don't need as many human (or remarkably human like alien) helpers.

This doesn't necessarily apply to small family businesses and such; if you really wanted to do a boring job, you still might be able to.
Because in that case I imagine it would actually be doable to excite people to get a job; if I could live comfortably regardless I'd have no problem with putting say 30 hours a week back into society if at least those hours wouldn't be spent doing something mind-numbingly boring.
Oh yes, indeed.

One of the beauties of having talks given by professionals willingly is you'd expect the most excited people to be the ones up there.

First, they willingly went to school for years to learn how to do the job. Then they willingly did the job. And now, they are willingly going up to talk about it.

So the talks are probably going to be pretty exclusively people who enjoy what they do and/or has some fun stories to tell: The kind of people who can make even a somewhat boring job sound like a constant barrage of excitement. It should really be a lot of fun for the audience.

Also, imagine the pride some of these professionals would have. "I'm one of just 20 active agricultural engineers in the country - I personally direct the food supply for over 700,000 people!"


I know I'd love it anyway.


I think I want to write up some little random anecdotes now that might make fun stories. Better get back to real work now though....

Re: Holidays

Posted: Fri Dec 04, 2009 6:27 pm
by Destructionator
Not strictly belonging in this thread, but whatever.

So trees are awesome and can live like for ever. Imagine way back when, on the first Unification Day, a tree is planted. This tree becomes a national symbol of the union.

As the years go on, the tree grows and things are built around it.

Well, eventually, it too must die. Imagine some 2000 years later. This ancient tree by this point is huge, both in girth and height. This gigantic tree, right in the middle of lots of stuff (including other old national symbols), is now in danger of falling down.

Could the people bring themselves to chop it down before it rots out and falls, causing who knows how much more damage? How would they even manage to take it down, if it is actually surrounded by other fragile stuff?


Gentlemen, behold my idea of an exciting story. :)

(The literary symbolism could fit in somewhere too. That old tree has lasted as long as the monarchy. With it dead, is the dynasty now doomed? The amazing coincidence would be ~2000 years after the unifcation would actually put us in the place in the timeline where it is indeed known to be over. The monogamous King is infertile; he'll never have children. Moreover, this would place the old tree's death shortly after the old Queen's, who was also rather long lived.

Of course, all this is pure coincidence and only of academic curiosity. The danger of it rotting out in death and falling within the next several years though... oh joy)

Re: Holidays

Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2009 12:18 am
by Siege
Maybe they can clone the King and the tree! :D

Re: Holidays

Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2009 12:53 pm
by Ford Prefect
Can you ... can you actually clone trees? I don't think I've ever even considered the possibility of cloning plants.

Re: Holidays

Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2009 1:11 pm
by Invictus
Ford Prefect wrote:Can you ... can you actually clone trees? I don't think I've ever even considered the possibility of cloning plants.
It's downright trivial, actually. You can just take a cutting and plant it. :)

Re: Holidays

Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2009 2:13 pm
by Booted Vulture
Destructionator; isn't that story basically 'Lord Of The Rings' as in 'The White Tree of Gondor' which was pretty much shrivelling up and dying when the Stewards ruled Gondor and perked up again when Aragorn became king?

Re: Holidays

Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2009 3:30 pm
by Destructionator
I have no idea; you can count the number of books I've read on two hands, and there isn't a LotR in the bunch.

I doubt the similarities run too deep though, since what I'm thinking here is pure coincidence and the real excitement (lol) is with the maintenance guys figuring out how to make huge chunk of dead wood safe. Everything else is only a question in superstitious people's minds.
Invictus wrote:
Ford Prefect wrote:Can you ... can you actually clone trees? I don't think I've ever even considered the possibility of cloning plants.
It's downright trivial, actually. You can just take a cutting and plant it. :)
Wouldn't work with an already dead plant though....

g2g