Complete Original Introduction (many spoilers)

spoilers below return to 🏠 main page Planet B(e) A story of three worlds, Planets A, B, and C. All containing intelligent life. At different time periods all resembling our current Earth.

A is a planet that continued on our current path. Conditions on A worsened to the point of becoming uninhabitable. The intelligent species had brought about its own potential destruction. They had technology to send some into space in stasis, not knowing if any would ever reach another world. It was a last attempt to preserve the history of this world.

B is a planet that was much like current Earth when it received a stasis tube from A. The information accompanying the tube inspired a movement on B to change their world's path. Knowledge of Planet A transformed Planet B. The history of A was preserved on B. B transitioned to a sustainable existence. Eventually B revives the person from A. Hijinks ensue, maybe. Maybe touching moments.

C is our planet. Now. The above story was received in transmissions, by a government controlled satellite (or research facility here on Earth I dunno yet). It was translated. Arguments over whether or not to release the story resulted in it being given (leaked?) to me, an unknown artist with hope for a better world.

Everything is Rough Rough. Rougher than rough draft. I am open to receiving your links & ideas, with the following understanding: If a completed work ever results from this I will claim it as mine (currently I am an artist with no income). UNLESS someone or ones wants to work together extensively, then I would be thrilled to put forward a collaborative product! For now I'll share the outlines of my fictional #solarpunk world. I have notes elsewhere that I'll be importing eventually. Many creative dreams are never expressed. I'm choosing to share even as I'm unsure of this project's future form because completion may or may not come. This is now. Based on past experience I feel the web is the most lasting place for me to collect all Planet Be ideas for further development.

I aspire to write something boring. There are many sci fi stories in which I take comfort in the details. The plot and characters are going to be the flavorful sauce. The meal is the boring governmental details.

Like many, especially unsuccessful artists, I gripe about the society I live in. Capitalism. Work culture. Advertising. Marketing. The media. Politics. Militarism. Consumerism. Environmental doom. Supremacy delusions of the white, first world, global north. Smart friends don't simply nod (or keep quiet in disagreement). I'm fortunate to have smart friends who've asked me, “What would you do instead?” That's why I want to produce a detailed account of my ideas for a better world, Planet Be.

Earlier today I stared at some food packaging that I will have to throw away [1]. Wastefulness is difficult for me, emotionally and intellectually. I imagine the workings of a society that treats resources thoughtfully. Setting a story in a well functioning world could easily be boring, and its efficient operations would be largely invisible.

What I seek to emphasize: – how a better world might function – how to make such a better world from the starting point of current Earth

That requires multiple settings. The framing I'm considering is a fish out of water person from a world like ours finding themselves in a world that functions. Their questions and confusion is our window into understanding the improvements. BUT I don't want it to be too pedantic! And I don't want every interaction to be: boorish person from Earth does, says, or believes something stupid that the superior planet people correct. I also don't want to present a story that shows how the “superior” people lost sight of important aspects of themselves that they need to relearn from the primitive Earth person. Why don't I want to do that? I think a lot of Star Trek & other sci-fi presented seemingly superior societies that had a hidden fatal flaw & they had denied their humanity that they needed to relearn from our self-insert lead characters. I want to present a world that is truly better. The purpose of my story is not narrative drama but hope. I want to believe that better is possible.

Challenges: – how to present a contrast between our ways and better ways and not have it be too repetitive and pedantic – how to explain the details of a well functioning improved society when such a society would not be especially focused on their solved problems [2] Note [2] is important and summarizes what I want to do. It's just that it's a run on sentence that I didn't feel like taming.

My thought is that the better world would have a historical record of their transition that my Earth character would consult. So that would open the story into a setting that is like our world now, as it transitioned to sustainable.

The Transition

My thoughts on the transition are that it grows out of a network like the fediverse! Global communication that is freed from money influence has enormous potential for advancing humanity. An extra governmental Movement For All arises that enumerates simple core principles of respect. It's the “New World Order” that conservatives/nationalists have feared but it grows from the bottom up. This body (MFA—of course it may be renamed) is in constant communication. Thoughtful policies are produced that take into account different religious beliefs and political systems and cultural practices. Mass scale international voting precedes any group statement. The group grows in power and influence. The group has no military and little money. The group has passionate people. The group makes policy recommendations and candidate voting recommendations. Many members pledge to act in line with the group recommendations. It's a long term strategy of hope. Not violent revolution. Never violent revolution. Only cooperation. Autonomy & Consent are the ~~king & queen~~ core of this movement.

Settings & Characters

This sci-fi in this story is not the superior technology of Planet B, because I think my Earth's current technology could be used such that we live sustainably. I may imagine some things that we don't have yet, but very little. The essence of the story is a world that cooperates for the good of all, something that is in our grasp.

The sci-fi tech that makes this story possible is the ability to slow human life in stasis, suspended animation, freezing — whatever I haven't fully worked out yet. There is no ability to travel faster than light. Slowing down the life process of a human is the only method of crossing the great distances from one inhabited planet to another.

Planet A a messed up planet (very much like ours in a few more days) puts some volunteers into stasis tubes that are shot into multiple directions. There is story to be had here. How the volunteers are chosen, how many, who becomes our lead character... Possibly details of the world and its messes but as I say it's basically our Earth as we know it.

Planet B(e) multiple settings I call this blog Planet Be, but I think I would title the book Planet B, but also I'm not sure. I started using A, B, and C to differentiate these places as I imagined this story into being. A, B, and C are chronological. There's a Planet A that is so messed up it sends out people in stasis. However many years later [3] the stasis vessel from A arrives within the solar system of B / arrives within the area of B's ability to detect.

Potential setting & characters B1 tube arrives, B reacts The scientists and officials who discover the stasis tube. How they deal with it. Do they have to “pull it in” from somewhere? How close does it get to B?

One idea: stasis tube A requires cooperation of outside beings to resuscitate. This can be explained in scenes on Planet A. There's no point in being awakened in a hostile environment. Most volunteers getting into stasis tubes will never wake up again. It's a peaceful death & escape from a dying Planet A. It's a hopeful adventure. The tube contains instructions and messages for whoever finds it. [See Voyager messages.] Planet B scientists, linguists, politicians, philosophers, all would be involved in the discussion of the new arrival. All material accompanying the stasis tube would have to be translated. So I have this idea that the character from A remains in stasis on B for a long time.

Potentially, Planet B could also be a lot like current Earth (which is Planet C in my schema btw) at the time the stasis tube from A arrives. It is a wake up call to them. The existence of other intelligent life in the universe, and the realization that the only other intelligent life that B is aware of destroyed their planet... It really makes B dwellers think. They see their future. So ok in that sense A is some years ahead of current Earth and maybe B is almost exactly where we are now. At first. They get their shit together and that's a whole part of the story. [That I called The Transition above.] But I imagine them not waking the A person until the later period.

B2 Person A is awakened, fish out of water on much improved Planet B I think of as the main section. Potential plots involve... Starling • I think of the stasis character from Planet B as named Starling by the B-dwellers who received him. It's how they referred to him in the years before they were able to translate any of the A materials. This character must also have his own name _?_. I want moments in which the B people struggle with their primary value of consent and their preference for calling Person A Starling. There is so much room for consideration about translation. [see Planet C, below] I consider this the core of the book and I have very few ideas for it so far. I have to make decisions about these life forms. How similar and dissimilar are they? My intention is for Starling to have (at least) one minder who he becomes close to. I have an idea that this minder has a child and that the adult from another planet (Starling) and this child kinda grow up together in terms of coming to understand the ways of living on Planet B. And maybe when kids on B reach their adulthood or young adulthood/ age of reason / whatever they have a kind of ritual of entering into the society. And A person ends up in the same “class” as minder's kid. If I focus on consent and autonomy with self identity this Coming Into Adulthood ceremony could involve a choosing of name and gender / sex (I'm not sure these things need to be publicly declared — these are ideas for me to consider). But anyway in this imagining the stasis man could come around to publicly choosing the name Starling bc he likes his new planet so much it's like he has a new identity.

Planet C our Earth now This is the story of how the book came to be published. The conceit is that Planet B sent a tube (with a person?) or a transmission that contained this story offering the wisdom of their experience. This portion of the story would focus on translation. One possibility is that the information is collected and translated by scientists working for governments. Perhaps there is debate on whether or how to release such info. A loopy guy on the internet, an unknown artist who hopes for a better world is chosen to put out the story. Conservatives in the government decision tree believe that this release will be dismissed as lunacy while true believers in the program have hope that a non government entity might have credibility to get this kind of message heard.

Notes

More on that phrase will factor in at some point! Where is this 'away' that you're throwing things to?
for example a story set in my current environment would not naturally center on water treatment, but if it were a sci-fi story to be shared with city dwellers from centuries ago to offer them hopeful ideas for a better future then the easy availability of fresh water that I enjoy & the afaik proper treatment of waste water would be a major focus. That's what I want to do with my imagined future global improvements.
If I want I can look up Earth-like planets and light year distances. Also the Voyager timeline. I don't really think it matters to the story but could be a detail sci-fi folks like to read.