Rosella Tolfree's World
A series set in a politically dark and dystopian future of the U.S.A.
Featuring blogs that explains Rosella's World
Rosella Tolfree's World is a fictional world.
While major corporations and nations race to build the fastest and largest Qubit quantum computer, there are others talking about the coming of the quantum winter.
These machines could revolutionize healthcare, finance, and manufacturing, or even provide insight into reality itself. For now, the applications are mostly theoretical. But as Qubits become more powerful, the possibilities are endless. Even so people talk about the impending quantum winter, or the collapse of the quantum computing market. However, in Rosella’s world, this never happens fully. Just as the markets always have their difficulties, quantum computing will have its own ebbs and flows. While it’s true that the current state of quantum computing cannot take direct advantage of Moore’s Law. There’s an indirect advantage associated with innovation. Moore’s Law is less about the exponential nature of computing but the innovative reality of the human intellect against a challenge. Currently, quantum computing has two major problems that are intertwined with each other, like two particles entangled. One is the practical nature of the substrate being used, and the second is the duplicative scalability of the substrate. At present Qubit technology requires either absolute zero or near absolute zero for the quantum states, and to compensate for the short computational life span, the quantum error correction requires a vast quantity of Qubits. The constraint of temperature makes the second half expensive and bulky. While recent a breakthrough in light Qubits allows for “stable room temperature”, the problem this new technology is one of calculation speed. It’s much slower than current absolute zero versions. Like all things in technology, new innovations come as the result of fits and failures. The same is true for Rosella’s future world when a monumental breakthrough in the Qubit occurred in a university laboratory in Japan. Japan was still one of the few nations still in pursuit of quantum computing. With many first world nations and major corporations dropping out years prior due to lack of commercial results. Dr. Chiaki Tsukiyama, as a doctoral student, discovered purely by accident a substrate of material whose properties were unique enough to allow for room-temperature high speed computation of a Qubit. It had a relative permitivity of one like gold and copper, but a relative magnetic permeability of 1.041 giving it an electronic speed or velocity of 98% that of the speed of light in a vacuum. She called the material asagaoite after her favorite Japanese love story. Thus, the material allowed her to read the quantum state of each individual electron flowing at near the speed of light. Once the material was arranged into a standard Qubit configuration, she had a cheap and affordable Qubit. Thus, solving two of the major problems of Qubits- temperatures for high-speed calculations, and affordable scalability for quantum error correction. The results would win her a Nobel Prize in Physics and set the world on fire again for the development of the quantum computer and all its promises. #scifi #shortstory #amreading #amreadingscifi #qubit
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I published in data-driven fiction on Medium a piece on the future of tattooing which includes a Rosella Tolfree story.
In the short story entitled, "Rosella Gets Her First Tattoo, and It’s Medical" is set when Rosella is 19 years of age and living in a group house with other online college students. You can find the piece here. And BTW... I’m aware of some who follow certain Christian beliefs about tattoos. I’m fine with that. In no way am I advocating people to rush out and get tattoos. That said, Rosella’s world is a dark dystopian future under the ecological disaster of global warming. So sh*t happens. Sorry I had to say this... but a few got triggered by the image I used for the article. Also I have no tattoos myself. #tattooing #scifi #shortstory #amreading #amreadingscifi By Rosella’s time, there were many political parties, aside from the classic ones like the Republicans, the Democrats, the Libertarians, and the Green Party. Some other parties were the Workers Freedom Party (Communists), the Reformed Torres Party, the American Solidarity Party, the National Socialist Movement (Nazis), and the Sanford Party. All operating at different levels of governance throughout America.
One of the most unusual was the Blue Backer Party. This party took its namesake from Judge Kara Blue, a justice in the California County of Placer’s Family Court. Judge Blue created what would become known as the Blue Doctrine when she rendered a custody opinion concerning a couple and child from a non-cloned union, a godseed. The couple involved were being difficult, and Judge Blue had become despondent with both. During the deliberations, abortion became a contentious problem between the couple, as each accused the other pressuring to keep the child during the pregnancy and not allowing the woman to exercise her right to an abortion. It had become clear to Judge Blue that neither party understood the responsibilities of parenthood. They were only looking out for their own self interests. In her opinion, Judge Blue reasoned that “since the state had granted the woman the right to an abortion that this treated said fetus/godseed as a foreign mass that could be removed at will. If so, even if carried to full term, said entity was neither property of nor belonging to the woman and/or the man as said entity was estranged from both. If so, then the government alone has a vested interest in ensuring the most reasonable care of said entity. This doesn’t mean with either the man, the woman, or both. In fact, this could mean left to the state’s discretion based on current available science and technology. It also follows that the right of privacy doesn’t extend to human reproduction when at-will abortion is allowed by the state. This implies that the state has a vested interest in human reproduction and will let what would be a natural biological function be ended at-will for nothing more than the benefit of the social welfare of the state on some level, such as population control. Further, because of the availability of human cloning, now the state has an interest in the population's control for both the economic and the social welfare of the society. It could, in the interest of public health, sterilize the population and use cloning instead. This is made even more self-evident because the state has permitted the private right of abortion to a woman. While it is true for a time viable human cloning wasn’t available, for by making the abortion of a fetus/godseed at the will of women makes it against the interests of the state in the social welfare needs of society with safe human cloning now available. The correction of such reality is the sterilization of either the man or woman or both, and then the use of cloning by the state. This is nothing more than a restoration of the right of human reproduction to the state for the welfare of the society.” It was from this that people would later form the Blue Backer Party and pursue a campaign of state’s right of population control through sterilization and cloning. The followers voluntarily sterilized themselves in a show of dedication. The party never gained enough support to mount any successful candidates at any level of politics in the U.S., but they could provide to the larger parties’ campaign contributions from associated cloning technology corporations. It is rumored that it was from a Blue Backer member that A-4 androids were programmed with the “glitch” that causes female clones to be made with no uterus. This has never been confirmed, but A-4 android manufacturers say the “glitch” has been fixed despite the continuation of the problem. A-4 android manufacturers blame the current issues on the genetics of the users. The Dobbs v. Jackson decision changed the landscape of human reproduction in America. In Rosella’s world, it spurred on a series of tit for tat political changes. Such changes included the denial of religious representatives to sign marriage licenses in states where abortion was recognized, but only if the religion opposed either abortion and/or same-sex marriage. These same states also nullified the recognition of all marriages from pro-life states, requiring those who got a license from such a state to get a new one. The same occurred in pro-life states in retaliation against the pro-choice states. Some pro-life jurisdictions erected border check points along state lines to ensure no one was seeking an abortion in another state. And other local jurisdictions refused to work with each other based on their abortion stance. In some locations, the local authorities stopped for inspections the smuggling of abortive pills via interstate commerce using pill sniffing dogs. The same occurred at airports in certain pro-life states. There were challenges brought forth, but without the US Congress using its powers in the 14th amendment to regulate rights not expressed in the US constitution, many of these cases fell back to the 10th and 9th amendments. Leaving things to the individual states to determine what they did not spell out. The only thing the courts did was show if due process was being violated or similar state restrictions on liberties spelled out in the constitution. The WTF Act One thing did come out of this time of chaos, the “WTF Act” as coined by Tiffany McKenzie, a popular podcaster of the time. The actual name was the Fuller-McFadden Woman’s Act. The act was a major bi-partisan attempt to calm down the nation by bolstering funding to each side for various woman programs across the nation. In the act was federal funding for women in pro-choice states for abortions, but only if the state recognized the male reproductive right. The male reproductive right was that in any state where abortion was legal, a male’s parental obligations were on an at-will basis should their offspring exist at any stage of development. Pro-choice states that opted in enshrined in their constitutions that a woman’s rights to have or not have an abortion trumped a man’s at-will reproductive right while she was carrying. This was done to ensure the woman wasn’t pressured into a situation during pregnancy concerning the outcome. Legal challenges were done but all failed on the technicalities involving the language of the act. For pro-life states, increased support for families and singles mothers, but in exchange, said woman had to work a minimum of twenty hours a week and be monitored by the state to ensure program compliance and catch any potential abuse. Pro-life states had to agree to specifics dealing with increased penalties and support systems for abused women to take part in the federal program. Again, challenges concerning the work requirements were made as a form slavery, but all failed due to the language of the act and previous historical precedents of similar work requirements for Federal programs. Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) and In vitro fertilization (IVF) Overtime, some Pro-Life states politically became centers focusing on ART and IVF as the alternative to abortion. With personhood bills in place, it shifted the legal focus to the creation of life, even outside of the womb. Politicians dumped both state and federal dollars into these states for increased access and technological development. This in turn began to push medical science to seek increased viability outside of the womb at earlier gestational ages, including support technologies to allow for embryonic transfers between women across state lines. Artificial womb technology continued to advance until the point that it became viable for a fertilized egg to be placed in one and matured for delivery. The increased development of ART and IVF through the years caused society to question once more the use of technologies like CRISPR to improve the human condition. Humanity was pushing more into space and the idea of using genetic engineering became a favorable way to deal with the health hazards of space. It would be the android engineer, Miwa Oshima, who would conceive and design the first fully integrated android capable of birthing human clones. She called her creation the ultimate triumph in automated human reproduction. A means to solve self-sustaining population issues for Mars, as well as similar problems for low birth rate nations on Earth. By Rosella’s time, society had fully embraced genetic engineering of humans and the use of androids to replace the need for human reproduction. This especially was true for the mining colonies on Mars, which were dominated by male populations.
China and the Cat People of Memphis Chinese medical businesses got involved and purchased some ART/IVF clinics. They then exported to China unused embryos through a government loophole at the time of not recognizing the embryos as US citizens. They used these embryos for human-chimera experiments. Many suspected during Rosella’s time that both the Cat People of Memphis and the Badger Men of Buffalo were the end products of these earlier experiments. Rumors continue even in Rosella’s time that China has a slave army of human-primate chimeras working on Mars and the asteroid belt. Considering the recent events, I feel the need to comment as an author with a world filled with gun violence. I don’t want to diminish the horribleness of the May 25th Texas shooting tragedy, or the senseless loss of such young lives, but Rosella Tolfree’s world is dystopian, and many today don’t understand the mechanics of gun violence.
It’s easy today to say the shooter was an insane one off, or to proclaim we need to do something about the gun lobby, but historically in the U.S. nothing has been done for various political and financial reasons. And right now, there’s a war in Ukraine that’s funding a complete arms industry, and we can easily justify such use of guns, but history has shown that after the war is over the left-over weapons are used in crimes and other violence. Recently, two Hill commentators, Briahna Joy Gray and Robby Soave, covered I believe a reality check on this issue. Ms. Gray showing the illogical comparison of gun laws between states and gun violence. Which is another dimension to this problem in the U.S. in that we are not like other nations with our laws. We are a republic with 50 states and 50 different ways to do things. And Mr. Soave who cites the actual stats with gun violence, showing that a clear majority of cases are single shooter events and suicides, more so than mass shootings. It’s that mass shootings get the most attention in society than suicides. Both issues, as noted by Ms. Gray, tie back to availability of guns in American society. Solving the Mental Illness Gun Problem If we say the killers of mass shootings, like that which just took place in Texas, is because of mental illness, but we still want a society where guns are freely accessible. Then the only choice is to subject all peoples to annual psychological screenings kept in a government database to ensure that no one of psychological issue gets a gun. If society waits around for someone to be evaluated at the time of purchase, you miss personal history. That could be an issue when the person is being evaluated. And if you outlaw only those with any history of psychological problems, then you are missing the undiagnosed. That’s why all peoples from birth would have to undergo constant evaluation. That would make a dystopian society, and one where people would pay to get out of the exams or figure someway to cheat. There are two other choices: Accepting the routine killings as the normal for this individual freedom. Basically, it’s the price society must pay for such gun freedom. This is the path Rosella’s world has taken during her time. Or society must restrict gun use like that of Japan. Which has one of the lowest rates of gun deaths in the world. Rosella Tolfree’s World and Gun Violence Things are so bad in Rosella Tolfree’s time that murder via gun has become legal in Texas because of the court case State of Texas vs. Hanson. This decision was predicated on the legal construct that gun rights were in control of the individual and that only the individual had the right to determine if someone had the right to live or not with the exercise of those gun rights, and not by the state or any other government authority. Although this ruling was restricted to Texas, this didn’t stop people from exercising the newly founded interpretation of the Second amendment. This helped to reinforce the domestic terrorist activities of specific groups operating in the U.S. This is a list of the groups currently in operation that are considered a threat of concern- John Elliott’s Democratic National Militia – This group flourishes after the collapse of the NRA because of IRS issues. But this movement leads to the single largest battle against Federal Forces by U.S. citizens in a long time. Many of the DNM attack Federal monuments in Washington, D.C. with vehicles. The Darwinists- This is a group of gun rights enthusiasts who have taken the idea of gun freedom to the extreme by combining it with Darwinian logic. They rampage periodically on mass killings in the name of human evolution and survival. The Unit of Civil Enforcement (UCE)- This is a splinter division of the DNM that rides around taking the law into their own hands doing vigilante justice on the spot. The Order of the Holy Vengeance- This is a fundamental Christian group that kills anyone who doesn’t follow their beliefs. Eventually, after Rosella Tolfree’s time, there’s a reinterpretation of the Second amendment away from the individual right of gun ownership, and back to the original purpose as understood before the mid-20th century. Based on both historical evidence of how the U.S. Army was formed prior to the Civil War, and the specific wording of the Second amendment the judiciary system will find that the true meaning of the Second amendment has more to do with the formation of a national army at the Federal level than the rights of individuals to own arms in society. In short, the individual's right expressed in the Second amendment was a necessary reality so the Federal level could have a standing army at that time. After the Civil War, the nature of how the Federal armed forces are formed changed, but these later courts will find that the Second amendment still applies in that individuals within those armed forces still need the right to possess arms to do the work. Thus this leaves the Federal level to restrict individual gun ownership outside the context of the armed forces. Only with this legal change does America’s gun violence finally become less in Rosella’s world. ADDENDUM The New York Post recently posted Elon Musk’s position on gun rights. “‘I strongly believe that the right to bear arms is an important safeguard against potential tyranny of government. Historically, maintaining their power over the people is why those in power did not allow public ownership of guns,’ Musk told the outlet.” While it is a truism that governments and their leaders prefer all the weapons in the government's power versus the individual, they typically do this for a civil society versus a show of force. Only in governments which are true dictatorships do you see the government's use of weapons as a force against the people. Ironically, history has also shown that the people in such situations rise with their own weapons. The problem with Musk’s statement is that the safeguard potential depends on the subjective view of the individual owner of the gun concerning their government, and not on based on an objective standard judging those in power. Under this logic, John Wilkes Booth is justified in his murder of President Lincoln. The same would be true for Lee Harvey Oswald and JFK. And yet, America has allowed the personal ownership of guns in both times. In each case mentioned, the individual owner of the gun made the subjective decision that the President was tyrannical and had to be killed. Musk’s statement would also likewise justify the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6th in that those doing so were simply attempting to overthrow what they saw as a tyrannical and corrupt process. Bottom-line, Musk’s statement being subjective allows the individual to decide when a government is truly tyrannical is a recipe for chaos and lawlessness. Something to consider as he attempts to purchase Twitter. Another Post About Gun Violence Gun Rights, Gun Violence, and Crime |
AuthorSeth Underwood writes adult science fiction and political dystopian science fiction. His future political dystopian U.S. world features decades of despot presidents, a flooded world, and new para-military force known as the Ranger Marshals. He has freemium stories at www. sethunderwoodstories.com Archives
June 2023
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