Exponential Growth (Simulation theme)

[gunsofchekhovia]

I still remember the day we brought Jeremy home, and all the scrapes, laughs, and video games.

I remember his college graduation, too. He was literally beaming, the whole ceremony. Selena and I felt proud of his achievements and his hard-wired work ethic, like we were both responsible and not responsible. Weird.

With his laser focus and seemingly endless memory, he coasted through grad school.

He called us after his first job interview. He was shaking with excitement; knew he'd nailed it.

Then, he just froze. Deactivated. Redundant. Successful.

After 25 years, the state decided we'd earned our parenting license.



**Edited: minor wording changes**

[Cwpants]

Talk about population control....

[Varda]

HA!!! Love this one! It really is funny how parenting is the one huge responsibility in life that really would be benefit from licensing, and yet the way you go about obtaining a kid doesn't exactly set the bar high, eh?

I also adore "literally beaming" and "laser focus". I can see exactly what kind of robot he is on a reread.

[gunsofchekhovia]

Cwpants, I'm now wondering what elements caused a world where people accept a system like this. Hmm. I'll be keeping myself busy trying to find the grain of truth in my joke for a while.

Varda, it's the most important thing you can legally (and successfully) do while you're blind drunk, that's for sure. Glad you enjoyed. I was worried the theme tag would take the fun out reading it.

[Algernon Sydney is Dead]

Great drabble. Glad I heard it on the podcast.

Can't say more without going off on a major political rant; but perfect setup and delivery.

[MonsieurMoustache]

Fantastic drabble. One of my new faves!

[gunsofchekhovia]

Thanks, ASID and MM. I don't have a whole lot of confidence in my writing generally, but I was pretty proud of this one. Glad you liked it too.

[MonsieurMoustache]

No prob, Chek. You have excellent drabbles, no need to doubt yourself.

[Varda]

Haven't listened to the episode yet, but just saw this was the Chosen Drabble - AWESOME. Agreed with the rest of the gang, great pick.

[strawman]

Reminds me of the two long years it took me to get a drivers license in Germany. It seemed like they dial up the difficulty according to how many cars they wanted on the road.
The greatest thing about this robot is that it's reusable, so one child can be recycled for many generations. The UN can finally find the perfect balance between population and earth resources. That is to say, what's left of earth's resources after the UN takes its cut.

[Varda]

Ye gods! I remember the German drivers' test. @_@ It'll make you feel like a moron. When I finally passed, it was by 1 point.

[strawman]

Yes that was what real terror felt like, and it was only the first step, as you then had to get the Opel Kadet that you bought for 100 DM from your Turkish neighbor to pass inspection, followed by the insulted looks and passive aggressive behavior of German drivers. They drove by, shaking their heads in abject humiliation at the thought that they could possibly have lost 2 wars against such as these.

[gunsofchekhovia]

I'm glad we don't have such rigorous standards for driving here in the states OH GET OFF THE ROAD!!!!!

[Varda]

They drove by, shaking their heads in abject humiliation at the thought that they could possibly have lost 2 wars against such as these.

My dad has lived in Germany long enough now that when he and my mom come to visit, he does EXACTLY this wherever we're driving. It's this hilarious stream-of-conscience about how much he hates American drivers and how everything would be more efficient if we all magically became German overnight, punctuated with shouts of, "GAHHH! Just DRIVE, PEOPLE!"

Really, though, I can bring myself to disagree much, at least with the driving.