Timeline for Can a world government convince a modern public to support the creation of child soldiers?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
40 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Nov 7, 2018 at 3:52 | comment | added | Richard Smith | You should try to justify why the aliens have not destroyed the earth with a relativistic kill vehicle, or have the characters bring this up and state that it is a mystery. | |
| Nov 7, 2018 at 3:51 | comment | added | Richard Smith | @TSar Actually, from the nonfiction books (admittedly few) that I have read about war, good soldiers have few emotions and act logically, coldly, and dispassionately at all times. | |
| Sep 25, 2017 at 7:09 | history | edited | Secespitus | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Fixed typo in title
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| May 24, 2017 at 5:42 | answer | added | Esco | timeline score: 2 | |
| May 18, 2017 at 17:25 | comment | added | Mermaker | It saddens me every single time that someone pops up here asking for plausible way to justify killing/raping/brainwashing kids. | |
| May 18, 2017 at 17:18 | comment | added | Mermaker | @Luaan I'm not saying that Ender's Game is about murdering children - I'm saying that the plot proposed on the question is. It is a flawed assumption that emotionless, super soldier kids are a concept capable of generating fun for anyone that is not a deranged basement dweller. | |
| May 18, 2017 at 15:04 | comment | added | M.Mat | Let's see, we have a president who convinced a substantial number of Americans he could make it 1952 again, so yeah. | |
| May 18, 2017 at 14:39 | answer | added | Falc | timeline score: 1 | |
| May 18, 2017 at 13:47 | comment | added | Luaan | @TSar I'm not sure what exactly you read into Ender's Game, but given your description, I understand why you'd find it deplorable. I don't think any of the people who read the book and enjoyed it took away the same thing you did from it. And I find it extremely disturbing that murdering children (which doesn't happen anywhere in the novel, just to make this clear - there's two cases of child manslaughter) seems to you like the bigger ethical problem compared to a genocide of an entire civilisation and the total destruction of their world and way of life. Did you read the story/book? | |
| May 18, 2017 at 13:39 | comment | added | Deolater | @TSar The popularity of Hunger Games and its ripoffs suggests that readers are perfectly on board with young adults/teens/kids killing and being killed in sci-fi scenarios. | |
| May 18, 2017 at 13:17 | comment | added | user32862 | Warhammer 40k does a decent job of the concept, introducing space marines as the defenders of the galaxy. | |
| May 18, 2017 at 12:46 | comment | added | Mermaker | @Luaan This isn't about broadening your appeal, it is about shooting yourself in the foot with your audience. Neither Asimov nor Clarke would be able to create an entertaining story about murdering children - this isn't an entertaining topic for starts. Sure, it can be a minor element on a broader, bigger story. However, if you go too dark and isn't trying to write an horror story, expect a huge turnover from your own target audience. A provocative book is a thing, a insulting one is completely different. | |
| May 18, 2017 at 12:31 | comment | added | Luaan | @TSar If your purpose is to have the greatest possible reach, sure. But I don't think it's bad to target your work to a group of people - and all the "too smart", (partially) alienated kids loved Ender's game. It resonated with their own experience. For me, that's just one great way of writing. And in hardish sci-fi, a great author isn't the one that copies great sci-fi works and broadens their appeal; it's the one who comes with something new, surprising yet consistent; who raises questions that haven't been raised before. Your mileage may vary, of course :) | |
| May 18, 2017 at 10:34 | comment | added | Mermaker | @luaan I'm not talking from a moralist viewpoint, I'm talking from a writer viewpoint. Those concepts may even work out in practice but they leave a really sour taste on your public and cause a huge turnover. It's not for nothing that the "Dark Tower" book series has so much people giving up on it after the third book - the story becomes unbearably bitter. There is dark, there is grim, and there is grimderp. This is the latter. | |
| May 18, 2017 at 9:23 | comment | added | Luaan | @TSar Adults are more likely to pass that judgement than children. It's just so convenient to believe that children could never be so self-conscious or capable :) Put a kid in a grown-up situation, with no adults to rely on, and you'll see them grow up real fast. I'm not saying it has literally nothing to do with age, but you might be surprised how early a human being can mature :) | |
| May 18, 2017 at 3:19 | comment | added | Cloud | @Shardmartin Star Trek joke. If you follow the plot from the original series, along with the 1982 movie, it will make sense. Or, just google "Shatner shouting Kahn". Khan Noonien Singh once controlled one-quarter of the Earth during the "Eugenics Wars". The irony of my statement is even more pronounced in the 2013 "Star Trek Intro Darkness" (missing a colon, people?), with Admiral Marcus AND the protagonist, Captain Kirk, utilizing the super-human Kahn as a biological weapon. In both cases, Kahn outsmarts his would-be masters. | |
| May 17, 2017 at 22:53 | comment | added | user32862 | @DevNull I don't get it. | |
| May 17, 2017 at 22:16 | comment | added | Cloud | @RonJohn Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhnnnnnnnn! | |
| May 17, 2017 at 21:23 | answer | added | Ambrose Winters | timeline score: 7 | |
| May 17, 2017 at 20:15 | comment | added | Maja Piechotka | Cynic in me tells me that modern society is not so modern. Child resistance fighters (such as Grey Ranks) from WWII are celebrated nowadays and Yazidi girl with rifle was met with more admiration then horror. | |
| May 17, 2017 at 18:08 | review | Close votes | |||
| May 17, 2017 at 18:38 | |||||
| May 17, 2017 at 13:35 | comment | added | David Starkey | The Halo universe kidnapped children and replaced them with clones. Those kids were then trained and enhanced into super soldiers. When disaster struck, no one questioned where they came from, but were happy to have them. | |
| May 17, 2017 at 13:34 | answer | added | Burki | timeline score: 3 | |
| May 17, 2017 at 13:03 | comment | added | yan yankelevich | This looks ALOT like the scenario of the Halo game franchise. Yet in the books the kids where trained and augmented before humanity knew about the bad aliens, the spartans ended up pretty convicing about their necessity. | |
| S May 17, 2017 at 0:00 | history | edited | MozerShmozer | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
fixed grammar
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| S May 17, 2017 at 0:00 | history | suggested | Gryphon | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
fixed grammar
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| May 16, 2017 at 23:47 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S May 17, 2017 at 0:00 | |||||
| May 16, 2017 at 23:10 | answer | added | user32463 | timeline score: 9 | |
| May 16, 2017 at 21:56 | comment | added | AlexP | In most places throughout most of history 14 year old men were considered adults. Even 12 year old men were considered adults in many places and in many historical periods. And 16 year old people are considered adults in many if not most European countries. Just saying. | |
| May 16, 2017 at 21:29 | answer | added | ivanivan | timeline score: 15 | |
| May 16, 2017 at 20:44 | comment | added | Mermaker | Another note - take real care when dealing with children in this fashion. Those types of behavior are so far away from what the reader expects from the society that it ends up making your work looking more like mad pen's dream than a proper work. Ender's Game is sucky for this same reason. | |
| May 16, 2017 at 20:39 | comment | added | Mermaker | You are making a few mistakes here - Emotions are exactly what you need to fight a war. Removing then removes motivation, and you end up with pathetic drones instead of super soldiers. Just check the best soldiers in the world - they are not "emotionless warriors" - it is the love for their families, their country and their identity that makes then scary good. | |
| May 16, 2017 at 20:17 | answer | added | Andrew Neely | timeline score: 15 | |
| May 16, 2017 at 20:02 | comment | added | RonJohn | What is the benefit of "the strength to lift dozens of tons" when space aliens are dropping nukes and shooting death rays at us? | |
| May 16, 2017 at 20:00 | comment | added | RonJohn | Off topic, but after the war, those demigods are going to (1) run the world, and (b) think that the rest of us are worthless vermin. | |
| May 16, 2017 at 19:53 | comment | added | smurtagh | I thought of ender's game, too. In the chaos of possible extinction, they might be able to do it without even asking. | |
| May 16, 2017 at 19:40 | answer | added | Thorsten S. | timeline score: 47 | |
| May 16, 2017 at 19:10 | answer | added | Gray Sheep | timeline score: 8 | |
| May 16, 2017 at 18:55 | comment | added | BrettFromLA | Ender's Game accomplished this, somehow. | |
| May 16, 2017 at 18:53 | history | asked | user32862 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |