Grrl Power #770 – Reactions are… mixed
I would watch Most Extreme News Network. I’m assuming the format is them mentioning a top level piece of news, basically just the headline. Nothing in depth. Then they make a bunch of bad puns and tangentially related goofy comments.
I’m not 100% sure that what Suzie is saying totally makes sense, but I figure her exuberance is part of her charm.
Deus not knowing how to use PowerPoint is a lot funnier to me than it should be, just because he’s supposed to be pretty smart, and PowerPoint is some basic ass software.
Thinking about exporting our entertainment to the universe, pornographic or otherwise, I’ve come to the conclusion that it would radically change the economy of Earth. Imagine if someone made a movie here on Earth that cost $200 million to make, and after international ticket sales were accounted for, it nets a billion dollars. Now imagine that there are 5,000 other worlds the studio could sell that movie to. So, okay, let’s be conservative and say only 1,000 of those worlds really do gangbuster sales, because we’re talking about aliens and The Titanic, or Avatar, or Airplane III may not land culturally with every species. So 1,000 new worlds of audiences with comparable populations and desire for entertainment, etc.
That would be a trillion dollars in revenue… okay, minus a few bucks for advertising. But still, that’s one movie. Studios with 80 years of back catalog would become economic superpowers with more clout that all the world governments combined, and it would happen practically overnight.
Independent authors could knock out a book, what, it only sold 1,000 copies on Amazon? Guess what, it sold one million copies on Galamazon, and at $2.50 net revenue per copy, they’d be set for life. And that’s for a book that sold pretty poorly by local standards. Stephen King would be able to buy Saudi Arabia just to use as a place to keep all the rest of his money.
Seriously, if the galactic appetite for human porn was at that same level, every webcam girl would be able to retire comfortably after six months of weekly shows.
I’m telling you, the world economy would shift dramatically and rapidly. Of course, we’d probably have a massive trade deficit for a while. Even if we couldn’t get our hands on the latest portable holodeck gameboy gadgets and other sorts of tech, our own consumption of alien media would be completely nuts for decades to come. I mean, imagine if there was a show like Red Dwarf or Star Trek that were literal documentaries because spaceships were fucking real. Ice Road Truckers, except its… well, Planet Express.
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The reporter in the first panel would probably get on well with Sydney.
Suzie News (Wen) already does get on well with her, remember she was the first one on the scene at the bank in the very first few pages and has been one of the more excitable in favour of superheroes.
She does! Suzie News (Wen) is the first reporter to break the story about Archon when Sydney and Max foiled a “bank robbery”.
I strongly recommend a thorough archive dive for this and other fun stories :)
Suzie’s in the sweet spot to ride this wave all the way through. Or down. Or whatever the surfing term is; I regretfully don’t have that particular athletic skill set.
“All the way in”
That sounds like Dabbler’s wave.
That’s her family motto.
On the family crest.
That is so vulgar, it is a crime in three different parallel universes to even look in its general direction.
She already has gotten along well with Sydney, although Sydney wound up being too much for her with her stories.
Fortunately Suzie News was saved by Maxima when she took Sydney away to Archon HQ.
Is she ever gonna find out what she said to Mabel she said?
Nobody ever gets to find that out.
And should YOU ever talk to Mabel, none of us will get to find out what you tell her either.
Probably never find out. This “Mabel said” thing is a specific example that falls under the general category of Noodle Incident.
Actually I can tell you, because I was talking to Mabel just the other day.
So… I says to Mabel, I says…..
Wait, have to something in court. I’ll tell you later.
I’d almost bet that if the judge’s name happens to be Mabel, Pander will never tell us ‘what she said’
This is excellent, and what would happen.
Nice to see Susie News get all excited. She’s one of my favorite characters!
I’m kind of disappointed with the World Domination file
I wanted to see Deus as kind of The Light in Young Justice or Lex in Superman returns
Bring fire to the people, make sure the galaxy at large doesn’t F*** with Earth, and of course, he wants his piece.
Just wanting world domination cheapens a great character like Deus
Oops, meant to post this as a seperate post, and accidentaly replied. My bad
This is a guy who has devices installed in his office specifically so he can have dramatic lightning in the background while laughing maniacally. He seems to like playing the stereotypical Bond villain, I mean this is literally something the Evil Overlord List says to NOT do.
All I’m saying is, the name might not be entirely indicative of his actual plans.
This is a guy who has devices installed in his office specifically so he can have dramatic lightning in the background while laughing maniacally. He seems to enjoy playing the stereotypical Bond villain, I mean this is literally something the Evil Overlord List tells you to NOT do!
All I’m saying is, the name might not be entirely indicative of the his actual plans.
Who says he JUST wants world domination? Just because it’s on the list, doesn’t make it all of the list or even a sizable portion of the list.
World Domination could easily be just one file with several steps. Deus strikes me as a man who gives the details of a plan due diligence, and separates and compartmentalizes his personal goals.
The Access worksheet linking those various Powerpoint presentations probably looks like the neural map of a schizophrenic coke fiend having a seizure.
Wait back up…
Deus has infinity stone cufflinks?!?!
Ha! I didn’t notice!
Deus:Cufflinks……right. Sydney: Hmmmm. Deus: Hmmmm. Sydney: Hmmmm.
I just snorted in a very manly fash- Oh who am I kidding, that made me laugh.
That gauntlet is so obvious and unwieldy, and it’s most definitely not elegant.
In short, it’s not his style.
A) They’re buttons, not cufflinks
B) No Soul Stone
The Soul Stone is on the shirt sleeve.
Deus wears his soul on his sleeve :)
I legit had to look back and make sure the cufflinks were new, not something I just overlooked like a doof.
Hoping someone would mention this.
He probably saw the movie and felt he should have them too.
Nope. Though certainly a more timely reference these days I admit.
powerpoint ? why not exel sheat
I honestly expected a MS Project file with all kinds of milestones listed…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNjxe8ShM-8
Only Powerpoint is sufficient to commit to file the madness in his mind. :^)
EXEL helps you organise data, And allows you to quickly recalculate many numbers, when you change a single value.
but powerpoint would be better for displaying the relationship between different points.
And things like “world domination” seems like it would require a lot of “conditions” to be met.
Take for example the recent artefact heist. because someone else did it, he could walk in and take every item EXCEPT the one “she” picked up. that item was still picked up later, when it was considered lost.
Conditions upon conditions that have nothing to do with raw numbers.
One of my favorite software quotes: “Excel is the 2nd best tool for everything.”
Excel is for manipulating data, not organizing it. You want organization, you want a database. STOP USING EXCEL FOR DATABASES!!!
Sorry– one of my pets just got peeved on.
Ditto. Excel is fine for many things, but it’s not a freaking database
LOL infinity stone buttons/cufflinks.
I love these details :)
Its extra funny now that we kinda know what Vale actuallly is. Deus has brass balls or Vale is a very understanding eldritch entity…
I think she just “works” for him because it’s been a few billion years and she’s gotten bored, so why NOT “apprentice” yourself to a wannabe “god”, just for kicks………..
I could see actually see that.
“You’re an eldritch abomination from beyond space and time. But you’re working as a private investigator.”
“Do you have a problem with that?”
“No, I just figured you’d be out gathering cultists to try and take over the world.”
“Been there, done that, destroyed universes, got the t shirt. I wanted something different this time.”
“Oh … ok.”
Eldritch Abominations need money for shopping as well, yknow. Plus Deus offers nice amenities like a luxurious plane where you can watch Teen Titans Go to the Movies while taking a hottub soak.
So that’s why I saw Azathoth working in the company’s mail room…
I have a hard time remembering where they’re not she was his secretary or his bodyguard
whether or not. dear god I almost had a stroke trying to read that.
I’m pretty sure Deus has a a hard time remembering, as well.
True enough. Deus probably just views her as a ultra-powerful minion who’s loyal if sassy
Ahh, panel 2: I get that reference. Guy LeDouche should interview Maxima. That should go over well.
Now I want to go back and watch people get their spines folded in by giant rollers all over again.
I totally read that in their voices.
I foresee the Hentai industry going into overdrive now they know Alien women and things with tentacles are real.
Until you have Tentaculon or somebody suing over unauthorized use of their likeness.
Other potential lawsuits would be over defamation, slander, and liable.
*libel
How do we know the better hentai porn isn’t Tentaculon doing sex tourisim and wanting soveneer videos?
BAH, The Hentai industry would be destroyed. Just utter these Four Words and you will know it to be true.
Live. Action. Tentacle. Porn.
It MIGHT survive in Japan, where live action porn censors all the genitals (Japan is strangely very conservative) and animation was the loophole to the film censorship laws. But “Western” porn is very popular I hear, even though it is illegal.
Odd. I’ve seen pixilated animations. And even censor bars on still cartoons.
Yeah, I have heard that Japan has been reforming many laws so my information might be out of date.
Here is and “Explanation” that I found both humorous and disturbing (it starts at 10:15 ish)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa2oHxME-aY
“Can I go now?”
Vale’s magazine should probably say “secrete” rather than “secret”
No, it’s right. Secret can be used as a synonym of concealed, and the article appears to be about hiding knives rather than generating them or releasing them from somewhere.
Modus is correct in that Secret is perfectly fine in this use, but Mayhem has a point.
Secret is a noun and/or adjective. Secrete is a verb that in addition to meaning ‘generated or produced’ is the proper verb to use for hiding or concealing an object, e.g. “the assassin secreted(Sea-cree-ted) knives about her person in advance of approaching the Patrician’s Palace.”
you can see how the back formation occurred.
It’s still not Secrete . Secret (v) past tense just happens to be secreted or hid. Too secret (v) means hide.
Secrete just is closer to the past tense of secret is all. Ain’t English vunderbar?
As somebody once said, most languages adopt occasional foreign words. English mugs foreign languages in the alleyway and empties their wallets.
English is not so much a proper language as 3 midgets in a trenchcoat…
Old English, Middle French, Dutch, various Native American languages, Yiddish, and some Spanish and assorted Central African languages for American English, as I understand it.
You forgot all the Old Norse the various variants of vikings brought with them mostly to the northern part of England. Also a lot of German loan words.
It is a vibrant and integral part of our culture.
“Rifles through their pockets for spare grammar.”
The quote about the purity of the English language is from James Nicoll
Wikipedia link
Evidence for my point of view: The online editions of the Merriam-Webster, Oxford English, and Cambridge English dictionaries all list Secret as a noun, adjective, and the adverb form of secretly, but lack a ‘verb form’ of secret.
Evidence for YOUR point of view: Wiktionary’s entry on Secret claims that all other dictionaries label the use of Secret as a verb ‘obsolete’, offers citations for Secret being used as a verb and while it DOES mention Secrete as a ‘Alteration of verb sense of secret’ in its article for “Secrete”, it has no citations for use.
All sources agree that Secrete and Secret are both formed from the Middle English word formed from the French secré, which in turn is the Latin past participle secernere, “to separate, distinguish”.
This ambiguity due to the same flaw that causes spell check to think that it’s me who doesn’t know how to spell most verbs that end with a vowel followed by a single consonant letter, put into the past tense.
There’s a simple rule, which we as a culture apply to distressingly few words, which would allow us to distinguish secretted from secreted. Unfortunately, most of y’all probably look at secretted and think that *I* don’t know how to spell.
I understand that the instinct when one is told off is to try to say that you were right, but I prefer to *be* right. If people preferred to be right, we’d automatically double the consonant, like we do with ‘prefer’, and there wouldn’t be a problem. But the idiots insist on asserting that it doesn’t matter, so that they can be certain to look as dumb as possible for the maximum amount of time. I really don’t get it, but whatever.
1) “Secret” is a verb meaning “to hide”. It works perfectly well in this context of trying to hide knives on your person, especially with the revealing supervillain outfit on the cover that appears less than concealment-friendly.
2) “Secrete” means to generate or expel, especially in the sense of some sort of bodily fluid. It works…. less well.
3) The more I think about an article about where to secrete knives in the context of a world with lots of weird superpowers, the more I want it to be “secrete”.
Unless American English has spawned a radically different meaning from British English (which is not unknown to happen):
[1] “Secret” is an adjective, not a verb. It describes the state of something that is hidden, concealed, or otherwise not common knowledge, not the act of making it so.
[2] “Secrete” is a verb with two distinct meanings. One is the biological meaning you mention. The other is the act of hiding something, especially in the context of a small physical object – the act of making it secret, if you will.
[3] In a world with Supers, there may be examples of both meanings. Potentially by the same person.
Example: Edward is able to secrete (extrude) blades from his body. But it’s a slow process, it requires him to consume and digest the raw materials, and it bloody hurts. So he chooses to secrete (hide) already-produced blades in his clothing to be available at a moment’s notice.
Your proposal assumes people would recognize earth copyright laws and/or provide the authors with any compensation whatsoever.
Not to mention the fact that you then have to compete with other planet’s entertainment industry, I assume it’d be a wash unless you found a planet that really wanted human entertainment more than any other.
It’d be a wash…. until you realize that the galactic entertainment industry has a much higher tech base. It doesn’t need to spend billions on CGI for a fantasy battle or a stunning scifi planetscape. A director can instead just describe the scene to a computer with an advanced-but-nonsapient AI and have the battle rendered in the afternoon, or send cameras crew to the planet if he wants to do it the hard way. You won’t even have the problem Matt Damon strutting around on Mars under what is clearly 1 g of gravity. We, meanwhile, have a whole lot of wrong assumptions about how the galaxy works, in terms of physics, technology, magic, AND fantasy beasties like vampires and werewolves, and our artistic works would be so riddled with these false assumptions as to constitute major plot holes.
All said, I’d imagine human-made products would have an advantage on Earth because our narratives will appeal to human psychology and on an instinctive level we’d identify with film protagonists that look human. Exploring extraterrestrial entertainment would be a novelty, and one that took a significant share of the market, but not a huge share after the initial hype died down. For the same reason, we would get a bit of penetration into the galactic market, but probably not much. …. except the porn industry probably would get a lot of penetration since for whatever reason Earth is a sex tourism hot spot and obviously we’ve got something the galaxy wants.
“the porn industry probably would get a lot of penetration” – Reltzik
That is generally one of its defining features. (Insert puns as required.)
Copyright schmapieright. Two of those films would cause a Holy War and all the trillions of profits made from other civilizations would end up being spent on mercenaries and war materiel.
Vale’s magazine should say “secrete” not “secret”.
Definitely NOT.
Secrete means exude… think Ooze out. Your sweat glands secrete sweat.
Secret or too secret (V) is fine.
Personally, i think the word “hide” is hiding somewhere.
Nope, its an alternate meaning
From Merriam Webster
secrete verb (2)
se·crete | \ si-ˈkrēt How to pronounce secrete (audio) , ˈsē-krət\
secreted; secreting
Definition of secrete (Entry 2 of 2)
transitive verb
1: to deposit or conceal in a hiding place
2: to appropriate secretly : ABSTRACT
Reason world has war later: Vale is not a damn secretary, and the plans for world domination stay!!
ok i admit i didnt catch the porn reference until i read the caption….i feel ashamed it flew over my head so readily. *hands over perv card*
anyways world domination always good to have evidence of your evil schemes…it makes it so much easier for you to lose.
vale i just want to pat her head when she is angry so cute and cuddly, inversely she is very scary and sexy when she isn’t how odd. I think she broke my survival instincts.
I fully expect that powerpoint to be album of kitten images. Deus just seems like that kind of mess-with-your-opponents villain that likes to play every villain trope ever invented and subvert it – preferably at the same time.
well he has so far had reasonably simple plans, and methods that are not colossally detrimental. i think his world domination might be expansive yet simple enough that many might misconstrued it as very aggressive capitalism on a global scale.
i suspect he is the kinda villain that would tell you the exact truth about his plans word for word and still get away with it with them not even realizing it until its to late.
“The greatest lie is to tell a truth” he has already been out in public on tv about his Diet villain mentality. he has popular opinion for helping a war torn country. he is suspicious as heck but telling a truth about his plans, its hiding in plain sight. it actually subverts a lot of the villain troupes and only clips a few of them on technicalities.
by the way he is playing it if he truly is a villain, he is the rare breed, the bracket of completely successful or basically successful villains
He definitely is a Machiavellian villain with extre levels in the Xanatos Gambit advantage. The most dangerous about him, going by his philosophy of employee relations, he is the kind of villain one would want to be ruled by.
“You fool! The Attack Kittens ARE the master plan!”
Clever girl….
Kitten: Mow
I swear to God, I could hear that second panel.
I admit I have rewatched the entire run, and all their voices are firmly embedded in by brain.
What stops the aliens from just pirating everything we create? Why should they worry with Earth’s silly capitalist bullshit, when they can just use our digital creations without participating?
P.S. Well, it looks like our Great Filter wasn’t global nuclear war. It was capitalism.
I am pretty certain, the aliens are also still using money. Cora had to pay Sydney’s food bill on the hub. But I agree, there is no reason they would feel hugely compelled to obey our copyright laws, especially when they find out that, especially in the music industry and porn industry, the artists get barely a penny and the corporations are reaping all the profits.
I thought she’d traded the price of her gaak for the film rights of her eating another bowl of gaaak?
Cora bought her the illusionary wings projector.
Grakz. It’s called Grakz. Gaak is the Klingon food on Star Trek, best served live.
Again copyright schmapieright. Since actual actors/actresses are paid so little the opportunity to Rules of Acquisition them is amazingly high. An alien pron promoter could pay them more to get them to do exactly what they want them to do in scenes that are not earth-scenes and then digitally secure them with their own civilization’s formats and protections for a much bigger personal gain.
1)aliens still use money.
2)Some probably do(like the barista Sydney first saw) and some probably don’t.
What stops people here on Earth from just pirating everything that is created? While I’m sure a lot would be pirated, I also would think there are a lot that would do the right thing and pay for what they consume, similar as it happens now on Earth already.
And that is why Quark is the best character in Star Trek. Capitalism.
Panel 4: Hentai Foundry. Heh! I’ve seen…references to that place while surfing the net…
the Hub for it really isn’t worth mentioning as a reference here because, well, who hasn’t heard of that one already?
Deus’ file system…He actually named that “World Domination.” Really?
Maybe he should check out the Evil Overlord’s List for some useful tips. In this case, here’s a good one:
#74: When I create a multimedia presentation of my plan designed so that my five-year-old advisor can easily understand the details, I will not label the disk “Project Overlord” and leave it lying on top of my desk.
Can you imagine the HR nightmare involved with having a five year old advisor?
I wanna see! I wanna see! Because Deus would absolutely try that under controlled circumstances, just to see it it’d work. Or, ooh, he could get the girl who made him the ashtray. Because SHE’S never gonna betray him.
This idea give a whole new meaning to “Day Care”.
That Evil Overlord’s List is neat and all, but Rule 21 is bogus. The reason why all evil armies look like wholesale nazis is because the nazis had the most skilled tailors to create the most elegant uniforms. Uniforms of the good guys always look like Walmart rags in comparison.
Unless it’s a Bollywood film.
Frankly, the average five-year old can be FAR more ruthless than any number of third-world despots……
What makes you think that’s the actual plan, and not just his playbook of boardgame strategies?
The most shocking part of the whole scene with Deus, at least for me?
That he has no prober secretary. Even considering his less than legal activitys, a well skilled secretary is worth her weight in gold, or probably, given how much money Deus must kick around, platin.
Theres a good example of this in the 90ties animated series Gargoyles.
Xanatos, a type very similar to Deus, had the choice of a wish from a relatively high tier fairy (Puck) or keep the fairy as his alter ego Owen which was his long time secretary.
Xanatos didnt even hesitate a second and kept Owen, good secretarys are simply irreplacable.
Why would you want a secretary who probes? Payback for alien stories maybe being true?
I feel for Vale sooo much right now.
If you wanna watch Extreme News Network.. just turn in to Parliament TV when they’re discussing Brexit. :-)
I think you missed something in your calculations of increased profit for entertainment. Yes, the market increases since there’s now 5000 other planets that could potentially consume our entertainment.
On the other hand, everyone has entertainment from 5000 planets to chose. There’s only so much time in a day, so they’re not watching everything that every planet produces.
Only the very best entertainment (depending on what actually appeals to the aliens) would have any chance of making it there.
Also, they might think that Star Trek is a comedy show.
Actually, it’s already being licensed as a comedy show in the rest of the Galactic Spiral Arm.
(I believe the title used ‘out there’ translates to something like ‘Third Nebula Over’ )
Where do you think they get all the ideas from?
It’s fan suggestions.
Also, a lot of the more fanciful aliens you often see seated in 10 forward, walking in a street or generally being ‘background,’?
Not makeup. More fans that have actually paid for or won a walk-on cameo.
I’m not sure we would sale much more entertainment because we would have A LOT of competiton, keeping the same ratio supply/demand
Deus is soooo 2003… Powerpoints are saved as .pptx since Office 2007…. or he is just cheap, not updateing IT infrastructure.
Well the comic is set in 2011 so he’s only 4 years out of date…
We all KNOW IT never gets the funds it needs.
IT never gets what it *wants*. But sometimes, IT gets what it needs.
He’s just being polite & saving his domination plans in a compatible format for anyone who opens the file from the meeting minutes.
1st thought: That icon was used from Office 2013 to Office 2018, so it’s probably just force of habit, not outdated software.
2nd thought: .ppt icons and .pptx icons look different (the .ppt one uses the old logo), so that file’s actual name is probably World Domination.ppt.pptx, with the real extension hidden.
3rd thought: That’s actually the application’s icon, not a file icon. What’s going on?
4th thought: I am probably overthinking this.
It is not necessarily the case that he is cheap… Updating IT Infrastructure can be a complex challenge and there are always niche’s where you will find hold-outs (A honest survey of fortune 500 companies that asks “Do you have Access 97 in your environment” would result in over 50% responding “Yes” (I help companies with this sort of thing for a living), It is either that lab app that was written in a garage by a retired technician who passed away 10 years ago or the app that the CEO uses every day and he or she refuses to learn how to use the current version and don’t even get me started on Oracle…) I have seen companies that bring a wheelbarrow filled with $100 bills into the IT department every morning for incidental items that are fighting the challenge of transitioning to more up to date solutions.
The influx of wealth in the movie/novel/porn industry would only last a week at most. Due to the sudden unflux of revenue, a super-inflation would occur since the federal reserve would have to print all those greens the movie studios and porntube stars will want to throw into the economy. A trillion greenbacks would be barely enough to buy a can of coke.
Given what we’ve seen so far from the alien sources we have in the comic, their more open culture, sexually speaking, seems like it would make our porn industry seem rather tame by comparison. I mean we have tentacle porn on the internet as a fantasy aspect, but they have an actual tentacle porn closet on the ship for the fun of it. Seems like fetishes that we come up with as a fantasy they’ve probably engineered to a reality and are probably entering more into the area of mundane for them.
There is a massive market for very basic vanilla stuff. One could extrapolate that out quite far with a galactic market.
Dabbler seems to have no problems, or is bored by, regular sex.
How’s Deus going to achieve his goals during an alien invasion?
By ‘donating’ his company’s products to all Earth defense forces. They have of course been created with all kinds of spyware and viruses. This will give Deus access to political and military information from various government’s databases. Very useful for reverse engineering other people’s tech, or for blackmail on the more embarrassing items.
Ah, that second panel-I recognize that reference. Takeshi Kitano ftw.
Well, that took a bit – just marathoned my way through this comic after discovering it a few days ago. Interesting spot to halt and have to start waiting for normal release pace; the earth now knows of aliens, and aliens are about to know about the power of Earth’s people.
I am *extremely* curious as to the origin of supers now, since apparently nothing even remotely similar exists anywhere else in the galaxy. I’m going to speculate some Nth may have really messed with Earth at some point somehow for whatever inscrutable reason such high level being(s) might have.
Also a bit curious that word hadn’t gotten out into the galaxy about supers yet what with all the alien tourists hiding under the Veil.
The word probably has gotten out, but supers are so rare it’s likely this is the first direct observation by a reliable source.
Heh, I loved that Japanese-show MXC as a kid
There is a series of books out by Dave Schroeder (https://www.amazon.com/Xenotech-Rising-Galactic-Association-Support-ebook/dp/B00XD6KXGO) wherein the Galactic Free Trade Association contacts Earth through the most powerful person on Earth (the CEO of Goldman Sachs) and the main item that sells out in the Galaxy is coverage of Earth’s political deliberations, which are wildly popular as comedy. The main character is a guy who maintains alien technology, which can go wrong in the strangest ways (why DID they have an Exponent Lock key on a fabber?). I think many of the readers of GP would find the series amusing, and aspects of the series parallel the current arc.
That sounds pretty amazing actually.
Bon apetit :)
Deus & Vale keep giving me some Dr. Drakken and Shego vibes, and I love it.
I would think that an Evil Overlord would have a whole squadron of Evil Administrative Assistants.
Assuming free trade, copyright being honoured, no massive markups, no preference for local stuff in their own languages with their own cultures and non-alien freaks, etc etc …there is also the now an insanely high increase in competition.
So, that pornstar isn’t suddenly simply getting a hugely increased customer base, she’s getting ridiculous amounts of competition with peoples far far more advanced and numerous. Plus however many AI or whatever tech generated competition too. Really, earth’s probably screwed except maybe as a cheap source of whatever.
Deepfake + Vishing + alien technology = bye bye earth entertainment industry. For starters.
For many in the porn industry, the biggest revenue generation is the increase that can be charged to Johns on prostitution.
I see hyperinflation has been mentioned.
Earth needs an agent (agency?) So it buys and sells approxmentently the same amounts.
Video piracy? There’s probably a system in place where Earth has funds held in escrow until
First Contact. If there were aliens on Earth in the 50s maybe they DVRed some TV shows we thought lost.
Many films from a hundred years ago are lost.
(But probably most of those…no big deal.)
One would hope.
Unfortunately, we have some incredibly short-sighted, greedy, and powerful business people who would undoubtedly give zero f***s so long as they got theirs.
Actually, when the young lady goes out of pornstarr character and starts talking Business, she makes all sorts of sense. Oh and Power Point is the most evil vile concentrated piece of evil ever on this planet and if elected presidente for life it will be the only tech I ban.
What I’m thinking is that with the money porn and “adult” entertainment of all kinds would provide we would become a Holiday World, like Risa from StarTrek…. So good for us.
The tradition is excel to do all but true evil is to have it in ppt format. He is a real vilan.
So shallow… Everybody uses MS Word: but true megalomaniacs like myself use Lotus Word Pro, and of course we would also be using Freelance, Approach and 123, not to mention Organizer :>
As an IT professional for many years… Deus not knowing something as simple as PowerPoint even though he’s super intelligent is so on point that it’s kinda sad. So many smart people in business are still totally computer illiterate.
Next page: Deus calls the help desk & enters a support ticket
“Tech Support, have you tried turning it off and on again?” in an Irish accent….
Re: Deus not knowing how to use PowerPoint:
It really doesn’t matter how smart you are. If you don’t do a particular function regularly, you’ll relegate that information to a sub-optimal synapse chain and it’ll get lost before long. In addition, most folks never bother memorizing what they can easily and quickly look up.
That’s exacerbated by Microsoft’s tendency to periodically change where certain functions are located for no apparent reason. (It’s not like the grocery stores which work under the theory that, as you’re looking for what you want, you might “discover” something you’ll buy as well.)
I like your choice of commentators. It’s much more interesting to read than the standard talking heads. The only one I’d probably tune out is MXNN. I can only take so much tangential fluff. At least “iCandi” mentioned the economic repercussions. And I would agree, those repercussions would be immediate and extensive. I’ve got to think that Deus would be much more annoyed. At least part of his schemes seemed to be making use of unknown advanced tech. How long will it be before somebody stumbles upon his “back door” to the Galactic Market World?
I’ll also agree with Taros, the Deus & Vale interactions are reminiscent of Dr. Drakken and Shego. I like it when the second evil is not a sycophantic minion.
Deus is sooo not Drakken. He’s way more suave and cool. He’s more like David Xanatos …. and Shego. :)
If you don’t use something long enough you forget how to do so efficiently. If you’re a businessman who regularly handles presentations you would have to be familiar with whatever fits your usual approach. (Which one would likely default too for any similar work.)
The idea of a professional forgetting how to use a major tool completely undermines his competence which we really haven’t seen anywhere else.
Conversely, one could look at it this way – Deus rareley has to update it due to his ‘suuuuuper genius’, so remembering not so common aspects of it take time, or are forgotten altogether.
Consider this; I am extremely adept with technology and learning new aspects of it, so much so that many people I know seek out my advice and help when something isn’t working right. However, once a year, when the clock on my car stereo needs to be updated for daylight savings, i struggle to remember how to do it. Mind you, I drive almost daily, and use the stereo just as much. Even after owning the car for eleven years, it still escapes me. I eventually figure it out, but there you go.
If it isn’t a function Deus is doing on a regular basis, the skill isn’t learned. If it’s something he’s doing rarely, if ever, it’s forgotten.
“I would watch Most Extreme News Network. I’m assuming the format is them mentioning a top level piece of news, basically just the headline. Nothing in depth. Then they make a bunch of bad puns and tangentially related goofy comments.”
Isn’t that FS1’s format, but with news instead of sports?
I don’t think the boost to the entertainment industry would be that big. Given that there’s countless civilizations putting out content that’s more in line with galactic culture and it probably wouldn’t be worth it to convert payments to a form approved for Earth.
Think of it like this, if some third world country launched a new streaming service on the international market but required payments in something like a package of copper then it would have to have something pretty **** amazing to offer to a guy who already has access to everything else.
We use pure fiat currency already. Anything else would be a step back in tech levels, not forward.
Also remember, it doesn’t have to hit everywhere to be successful. It just has to hit on one planet or civilization and it would open up potentially billions of new customers. And, due to the nature of information as a good that has the minimum possible carrying costs, media would be the easiest and most exploitable export at the beginning until we had the infrastructure in place to import and export more tangible goods.
There has to be some level of trade or else the galactic currency is worthless. For the most part this would be regulated to a level where humans couldn’t reliably order anything and so a barter approach would be more likely.
We’re working with a scenario where Earth is barely acknowledged and interference is kept to a minimum. In the long run if meaningful relations are established things would change. But for now any exchange must be done in a manner where the value is something recognized by Earth.
That is a good point. In that case there are certainly plenty of things of value we can trade for. Directly trade the rights to our media for theirs is one. Strategic or precious minerals is another. That’s especially likely, since any civilization made of corporeal beings must use building materials of some kind.
At the beginning though, a simple information exchange in lieu of currency is the most feasible way to sell our product to the galaxy, until we develop the infrastructure to transport tangible goods on a galactic scale and/or our currencies are properly valued on the galactic marketplace. Hell, if you could trade the distribution rights to your media on Planet X and in return got Planet X’s near-worthless and commonplace design for FTL propulsion or matter transportation, you’d almost instantly become the richest person that ever lived.
Partnering with an existing intergalactic shipping company would be easy enough for physical goods – if Earth’s exports had enough market, it’d be worth someone’s time to make a long, expensive trip to the unfashionable arm of the galaxy in return for a far larger profit (or at least a cut of it) on selling those goods.
Clipper ships were created out of a major trade imbalance, just to get tea across the ocean faster. They were highly profitable in their time – which lasted only 20-25 years, until they were rendered obsolete by the Suez Canal. But for those 25 years, it was well worth it for sellers and buyers to pay a premium for their services, rather than try to build their own network.
Forgetting the loose prime directive? That’s a no on anything that would effect Earth’s development. Technology is the big thing that would be regulated to nonexistence.
I think I’d go with exotic food, especially if I can maintain a monopoly.
‘Remember folks, every shipment is something different, something no Earthling has ever eaten before. If you want to try these Space Chips, act now or you’ll never get another chance.
Let’s start the bidding at $100.’
This assumes that stays in place with the soon-to-broadcast-across-the-entire-galaxy views of Maxima blasting a Fel supercarrier out of the sky with her literal bare hand. That could *easily* change that ruling.