As you may know, I'm writing and "epic" story, Bittersweet Seeds, that I will share for feedback when the first draft is presentable.
(FYI, this article needs more attention: China's Coronavirus: Did The Virus Originate in the US? ~ Global Research)
This whole corona virus + market crash + disaster capitalism thing has me thinking about one of many many many scenarios I've built up in my head that may or may not ultimately make it into Bittersweet Seeds. Many of them are extraneous to the main narrative, yet can add to the general atmosphere and describe my fictional world set 30 years from now. These scenarios may come up in natural conversation between characters, be viewed as news reports, or be background "filler" seen but not commented on (ie. as video billboards with news bulletins and ads).
This particular scenario, that I've built up over the last decade or so in my imagination, covers several serious issues: Our world's greatest problemic nuclear standoff between India and Pakistan, covert ops, engineered events, propaganda, hysteria, pandemics, engineered viruses, eugenics, the future prevalence of drones, etc. It might also allow me to present unique insights into Indian culture I've been exposed to across my lifetime, and limited though it may be, it may still be of interest to so many who have not witnessed it. Further, Asians are vastly under represented in North American corporate media, an entirely different discussion.
The scenario:
For reasons as yet unknown (I lack a strong way to weave it in) and may never be known (as with much of history), a reasonably well resourced covert operation plants many drones around a few major cities in India.
Where they are planted is important and can be traced back to blame specific targets later. Also the drones are planted in a place they are exceptionally unlikely to be discovered.
When they are planted is also of import, because in an era of perpetual surveillance the covert op team has managed to have seemingly random little blackout windows to plant the drones. The drones will remain dormant until the critical time calls for it.
Either by preprogrammed timecode or via telecommunications signal, the activated drones will fly to the most densely populated regions possible, perhaps a religious or sporting event. There they will spray a fine mist of inescapable ethno-genetic contagion over the crowd. The drones then have nearby destinations that will obliterate most evidence that the drones even existed (ie. melted in foundries, mulched and mixed in trash compactors, vats of acid, sunk in rivers/oceans, high altitude explosion spreading wide debris on the winds, etc). Part of the mystery would be the origins of the drones and who's behind them, but few details would emerge despite a drone or few may even be dramatically captured somehow, yet they reveal little.
The intended direct targets are not the poorest population as inevitably the contagion will spread to their densely populated communities and they will be helpless, immobile, and without defensive means. The true targets are those affluent enough to travel by land or sea or air.
By the time the contagion really takes effect it's already spread far and wide and the Indian subcontinent is promptly quarantined and borders a shut (or attempted closures among violent outbreaks). Some suspect the covert ops were already across the border to Pakistan before the drones even took flight. Why Pakistan? Why not? They're enemies after all.
The entho-genetic targeting of South and East Asian people will not be made well known until well after the tribal rivalry is already at fever pitch. Whether this is a Western covert op or just the most effective eugenics for that region remains to be determined.
Of all the chaos among the medical-scientific community, one thing they can agree on is that the contagion spreading time until it is detected crossed with the time it takes to spread across the nation and abroad is so ideal to be a perfect bioweapon worth admiration. Any longer of a gestation period would simply have been unnecessary - almost as if it were optimally engineered.
Naturally there is chaos, or staged chaos, among the political elites and the ruling class, all vying for their opportunity to advance their ambitions amid the fallout and disaster capitalism. News organizations are not exempted from this farce.
Speaking of fallout... The above fictional events can be trickled throughout the length of Bittersweet Seeds, but the climax of both stories take place in outer space.
However the story unfolds and is told (or not told), the ultimate resolution would be some nukes going off somewhere to be witnessed from space. After all, this is a cautionary tale.
Someone might witness the nuke from orbit - and even go blind (in zero-G), or something dramatic, assuming it could have that effect. I haven't looked into that. However I have looked up EMPs. Mass media would have you believe that a small electromagnetic pulse can be generated from small portable devices - and that is utter nonsense. A real EMP needs something serious like a nuke high in the atmosphere releasing gamma rays to cover half a continent and utterly disrupt everything with electronics. They are no small thing. And if there was a nuke, or several, at ground level or high in the atmosphere - and there was a space craft within striking distance... would that shut off all their electronics? Maybe, maybe not. It would be interesting. Space craft are designed to be tough enough to endure liftoff and shielded from solar and cosmic radiation.
So, between the contagion and the nukes how does this fit into my story that's about a demi-god-like artificial intelligence global hive mind? I'm not quite sure, yet, if at all. Perhaps the A.I. didn't see either of them coming, nor did any of the corporatocracy's A.I.'s that weren't in on staging the event. Maybe the A.I. is something of a Cassandra - warning people but not being listened to until it's all too late. Maybe these events are the catalyst (seed) for change that humanity needs - away from those who promise protection and prosperity but never deliver, towards a new fair authentic paradigm. (Wishful thinking I know.)
I honestly hadn't made any connection between my concept above and current events until yesterday. You may doubt whether I had this concept before now and that's fine, because I don't have to prove myself to you. You can try to find a single instance where I have intentionally lied anywhere online, or you can come to my home and peruse my chaotic and vastly extensive notes that prove that it's not all just in my head. The fact that I had already thought of this does not reassure me, rather I find it spooky, and now doubly predictable.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
If this scenario can be imagined by some basement dwelling neckbeard, imagine what an entire deep state with unlimited resources could do against their trade enemies. (If there are any secret or overt agencies that feel free to donate bitcoin to me, the info is on my InfoGalactic page, but you already know that, and you've likely already scanned my PC and know all of this narrative and more already.)
While the drone story above may not make it into Bittersweet Seeds, I have a variety of drones firmly featured in my story, some critically so, though none are focused on - all in order: surveillance drones, delivery drones and bots, police drones and bots, home bot, camera drones, lighting/lightshow drones, sabotage drones, spy drone(s), explosives drones, and security drones and bots.
Thumbnail illustration by me. I might make it the logo for Glossed And Profound. I drew it on a postit note while animating at Curious ?ictures in Manhattan on a TV show or a Lugz commercial around 1998, then vectorized it soon after.
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