One of the more interesting aspects of the Impossible Scenario is if you give the demands of every major nation — especially the ones with nukes — equal weigh, it really is almost impossible to figure out. Or, put another way, someone’s gotta backdown.
The obvious venue for all of this horse trading would be the UN. So, that brings up a really interesting situation. In fact, it was my complete ignorance of real world UN politics that caused me to stop working on this as the basis of a huge novel series.
I think as a screenplay you could pull it off. And I have a few screenplays and short stories I’m interested in working on when it comes to this concept, but I have four novels I’m working on at the moment. As such, I just like letting off steam writing about this because of how interesting it is.
So, here’s the issue — you have an empty (and lush) earth-size planet that aliens are willing to zap a huge number of humans to (say, 1 billion), but there’s a catch — once humans are zapped there, we’re pretty much on our own. The more we’re on our own, the more interesting story would become because you’re effectively doing The Martian, but on a macro scale.
Anyway, I love thinking about the actual nuts and bolts of how you would settle a planet at the very beginning if you had some very strict conditions. One condition being the planet would be part of humanity’s “homeland” and, as such, We’re All Human. Also, no more war. And, lastly, there would be some sort of global government and civilization.
One wild outcome of all of this would be you could potentially have “Cowboys in Space” whereby you have a story involving cowboys on this new planet doing cowboy stuff but with modern communications equipment. (I think them riding horses would be cool.)
The obvious use of the USA as the basis of such a homeland’s government and civilization is very easy to use (if you’re appealing to American audiences) but everyone else, all 7+ billion people on earth would fucking hate the idea. Which, of course, is conflict you would have to address, which brings you some plot to work with.
There is a lot you can do with such a universe. You could do a movie or novel about making the decision to accept the alien offer. Then the lead up to being zapped. And then what happens once humanity got there. It would be epic.
And there remains a possibility that I will write a short story set in this universe at some point soon. But I love, love, love these four novels I’m working on. So, it will be a while. We’ll see.
I’ve struggled with the practical aspects of colonizing a habitable planet the size of earth using only existing technology for about a decade now. And I think the key to doing so is to approach it as an economic problem. If you’re trying to unite the planet and avoid the dangers of nationalism, then you create six (or so) holding companies that would serve as modern day versions of the British East India Company.
What do I know.
Whenever trying to settle a planet, you have a number of pretty big issue to contend with. If you look an economic-political-ethnic map of the globe, the earth is not one, but several planets. You have the United States, which is big enough to be its own thing. Then you have “The West” which is rest of the First World. Then, you have China and India as their own things. Then Latin America. This is where things get murky.
Africa doesn’t really fit any specific designation other than “The Third World” because it’s so split up, poor and culturally influenced by its former colonial powers.
Anyway, the point is — with all those different types of human civilizations on earth, how do you get everyone to see themselves as “just human” on a new planet?
I propose you use the United States as the foundation of your global civilization via your global spanning holding companies. Then, later, once everyone is on the same page, you let individual nation-states begin to be established. But, even then, the economics of this new world would be very different than what we assume about earth.
There would be a lot more wealth for everyone to tap in as you built out the new settlement’s economy, which would change the idea of “First World” greatly. The conflict — and potential plot for a novel exploring this scenario — would be how much everyone who wasn’t American would absolutely hate this method of settling a planet.
But, anyway, I keep thinking about this scenario when I want to switch gears from working on four novels.
Make of this what you will. Just letting off some steam.
Deep State lyrics by Shelt Garner @sheltgarner please give credit if you produce or perform
deep state of disgust deep state of disgust deep state of disgust
see you with someone else someone else at your side I just want to let it slide but I have to confront that when you told me you loved me forever you lied you lied you lied
now I’m living in a deep state deep state of disgust deep state of disgust deep state of disgust
what am I going to do when I have to admit we’re through will you ever smile your special smile the one that makes me feel so high I fear that’s the past and all my lust is now nothing but disgust
now I’m living in a deep state deep state of disgust deep state of disgust deep state of disgust
(bridge) all this lust I feel in my heart still burns as hot as the sun no need for disgust when the person you love makes you sigh then I awake as if from a dream feel all my disgust again
now I’m living in a deep state deep state of disgust deep state of disgust deep state of disgust
These lyrics are really good, at least relative to my ability. And I could see with a proper producer they could be turned into either a pop rock ballad or a pretty good modern day pop rock country ballad. Anyway, I know nothing about music, but I have a broken ankle and so you get this. Baring My Soul lyrics by Shelt Garner @sheltgarner please give credit if you produce or perform
broke my ankle running your way sorry to say you won’t be my nurse now I’m cursed with pain in both my body and soul
bearing my heart bearing my soul ’cause I’m got a broken heart hoping you’ll heal it at least that’s a start bearing my heart bearing my heart
you said I lied (I did, maybe a little) so I rushed your way to explain the truth in the darkness of the night I fell into the drain what a fright
bearing my heart bearing my soul ’cause I’m got a broken heart hoping you’ll heal it at least that’s a start bearing my heart bearing my heart
(bridge) you told me I belonged in the drain with the pain I had caused us both but you don’t believe that not one bit you know we’re met to be not down the drain with the shit
bearing my heart bearing my soul ’cause I’m got a broken heart hoping you’ll heal it at least that’s a start bearing my heart bearing my heart
I’m going through my “Rear Window” phase where everything is a lot more complicated because, well, lulz, I broke my right ankle. My life is a mess at the moment. Even the most basic of things are extremely difficult or impossible without someone giving me some help.
So, I found myself stuck in front of my TV, forced to watch Netflix’s “Red Notice.” I was mildly curious about watching it before, but now I was nearly forced to watch it.
Red Notice / The Internet
Within seconds in to the movie, I knew was going to be bad. Or, more specifically, it was cheap. I think the movie itself had a budge of $200 million but it definitely seems as though all that money was put in to the casting of the three leads.
The Rock, Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds were all very pretty to look at and did a great job of acting in the context of the movie they were expected to be in. But otherwise, the movie felt cheap. It felt like a b-movie that took the Captain America growth serum.
At its heart Red Notice was a b movie.
It wasn’t a bad movie, it was just a b-movie that had outgrown itself.
Anyway, the whole thing began to grate on my nerves to the point that I got my caretaker of the moment to allow me to grab the remote and stop watching it.
For various reasons, I may try to shift more of the content that I would otherwise post here over to Substack. I keep saying this, then not do it. But I just wanted to remind those very few readers that I do have that my Substack exists and how to subscribe.
For various reasons, I’ve made an informal deal with myself — I’m not drinking until I can walk again. I feel pretty comfortable that this deal will be successful because of my relationship to booze.
I will admit that I’ve abused alcohol — especially when I was in South Korea — but I’ve also gone huge spans of time no drinking for various reasons. Usually, because I was simply too poor to buy any.
What’s interesting is, I have been forced to take painkillers because of my severely broken right ankle and — to date — I don’t understand how someone can get so addicted them. So far, the ones I’ve taken have either given me a tiny buzz or no buzz at all. I’m WELL AWARE of how easy it is to become addicted to painkillers and I treat them with a great deal of caution and respect because of that.
But I’m hoping it won’t come to that.
I’m hoping in three months everything will return to normal and I can laugh and laugh at this stupid freak accident that threw my life for a loop in a dramatic and unexpected fashion.
I can go back to drinking rye and ranting on Twitter, making everyone think I’m nothing more than just another Internet crank.
by Shelt Garner @sheltgarner I’m essentially using the method of development for the structure of a big story that I have formulated over the last three years to now work on a screenplay. The scifi movie concept is set in the far future and has is very much a warning about both the threat of MAGA and global climate change.
One thing I’ve noticed as I actually develop this screenplay’s outline is how much more native and organic outlining a screenplay is for me than a novel. There is a very strict rule when developing a screenplay — more screen time equals more attention directed to a concept or theme.
This also exists for novels, of course, but the whole dynamic of how you handle this is different for a screenplay. Because it’s on the screen, there are all these tricks you can use to really stress to the audience in a subtle way that this or that thing is REALLY IMPORTANT.
As such, I find myself flexing a different part of my creative mind as I go through the scenes of the outline. It’s a lot of fun.
And now that I’ve severely broken my right ankle and I’m literally unable to do anything but sit in front of my laptop every waking hour, it’s at least possible I’ll be able to focus a lot more attention on my various side projects over and above the four thriller novels I’m working on.
All that is the goal, at least.
I’m struggling to find a silver lining in this dumb, freak accident. And, if nothing else, if I ever reach my “potential” I can look back and all of this will be a funny story I can tell on the TV talk show circuit.
So, I severely broke my right ankle a few days ago and just came back from surgery today. As such, I’m at the beginning of a three month period where I pretty much can’t do anything but just sit on the couch with my laptop.
I’m thinking that this is now a great opportunity for me to throw myself into a wide range of writing, developing and reading. Unless I’m missing something, I can now have a very, very intensive spurt of creativity where I focus on an array of novels, screenplays and short stories that I have either been working on already or have been lying around in my mind.
It is only three months, of course, so there’s only so much I can do. But I’m hoping that I given how far I’ve gotten with thriller one and thriller three, that this added focus will help me really plow through the less developed thrillers two and four.
I’ve already figured out part 1 (three chapters) of Part 1 of the second thriller. It’s meant to be an almost literal retelling of the events leading up to, and immediately following the fall that precipitated this dumb accident in the first place.
And my involvement with the medical field as a result of this freak accident has me thinking AGAIN of the pandemic scifi novel I’ve been mulling. It’s a great concept that would be written in a first person POV. I first thought the concept up when I was in South Korea, but it’s only been since COVID19 struck that I’ve realized I could do something with it.
The concept is meant to make the idea of a pandemic very personal and intimate in a number of ways. Having gone through a real pandemic has made me understand a number of practical issues that would have previously escaped me.
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