Such is life and it's getting sucher and sucher

Because being mildly foolish is not, in fact, a sin worthy of seeing the only thing worth caring about ripped from your arms and taken into the grasping claws of strangers.

Because credits, when properly implemented, need to be fungible in order to work properly, and the economic ramifications of them suddenly being static are enough to make the most emotionally durable economist tremble.

Because rape exists, and forcing modestly incautious victims of it through the most harrowing experience possible- again- is the act of a tyrant and a madman, an idiot and a sadist, of one who cares not what inner light he extinguishes.

Because being mildly foolish is not, in fact, a sin worthy of seeing the only thing worth caring about ripped from your arms and taken into the grasping claws of strangers.

Because credits, when properly implemented, need to be fungible in order to work properly, and the economic ramifications of them suddenly being static are enough to make the most emotionally durable economist tremble.

Because rape exists, and forcing modestly incautious victims of it through the most harrowing experience possible- again- is the act of a tyrant and a madman, an idiot and a sadist, of one who cares not what inner light he extinguishes.

I think that when a lot of people are trying to make ethical or policy decisions, they miss just how beneficial FTL would be.

Like, FTL could end the suffering of empty springs. It could allow billions of happy new lives that could not have otherwise existed. Even a tiny increase in the chance of getting FTL dwarfs any other possible choice we could ever make.

So take the obvious example: child allocation. A lot of Voans support the Voan system because it “reduces suffering.” But even if using credits instead increases the chance of developing FTL from 1% to 1.0001%, that difference is still worth it because FTL is that important. Likewise, when politicians are deciding what caste to set the marginal credits at, it’s clear they should be green – purples, even brilliant purples, aren’t going to invent FTL.

But this is relevant in other areas as well! Rather than spending money funding research into Ancient Nredani Literature or the evolution of the grey dialect of Medieval Tapap, we should be funneling as much money as we can into FTL research. There are probably some other fields where additional funding is worth it, but only because they could help us get FTL sooner. For instance, genetic engineering could help us make smarter greens, which would make them more likely to invent FTL. Honestly, there are lots of sources of funding we should look at cutting to make more room for FTL research. The public art subsidy is nice and all, but if we lose some pretty buildings to increase by a tiny fraction of a percent the odds of FTL, it’s worth it.

On the other hand, we do know that hypovernal people exist, we know that they can be just as happy as everyone else, and it’s very likely that research would at least lead to a way of making springs midler.