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Features Writer
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OP
Features Writer
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Top Banana
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Top Banana
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Who is that friendly,logical, reasonable, economist and what did he do with the hard-*ss Smith?
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Merriwether
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Merriwether
Joined: Jan 2004
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I'm out of time for tonight but I promise to read in the AM.
Two words: blue arrow. I hate missing posts because I miss the arrowless ones.
Elisabeth
who gets pushy when she's tired and grumpy
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Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
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Wow, Shayne! A great chapter, and obviously you've done your research. I didn't know half these things. “I’m a little suspicious of any offer that seems too good to be true,” Clark said. Good for Clark! “Insurance companies own fifteen billion dollars worth of communication satellites many of which have nothing wrong with them other than needing minor repairs…repairs that aren’t available at any price. What happens when Superman offers to repair those satellites for $5 million apiece?” Wasn't it Heinlein who said that once you're out of Earth's gravity well, you're halfway to anywhere? Somebody check me on this. “This wasn’t what I was expecting to hear from you,” Lois admitted. “I thought you’d talk about Clark working for the government.”
“You were thinking we’d want to use Clark as a weapon?” Mr. Smith asked. He smirked. “We don’t actually need him. As long as nobody else uses him as a weapon we’re reasonably content.” Wow! The government's being reasonable! Is this all a facade? “You seem a little different than the others,” Clark said. “I thought you were going to try to sell me on promoting American interests.”
“I am,” Mr. Smith said. At Clark’s look he said, “These things I’m suggesting are very much in the best interest of America.” Excellent point! We're all connected. Very clearly explained here, Shayne - good job. People think, Why should I care about people in Africa? You've just told us why. “Couldn’t I just set up a Superman Foundation and accept charitable donations to do the same thing?” Clark asked. “Maybe license the use of my name and image…”
“DC Comics already owns that, unless you want to change to a different suit,” Mr. Smith said. “They’ll be collecting on all the posters and action figures and underroos for years to come. It’s the only reason they aren’t suing you for copyright violations.” I rolled on the floor laughing at this. I bet the DC guys were rubbing their hands in glee when the Clark/Superman news came out...Also, suing Clark for copyright violation would be a major bad PR move for DC at this time....Of course, if Clark sticks around, what are the comics guys going to do? It's hard to write about a real person. “Because a 500 megawatt coal plant burns 1.43 million tons of coal a year. Eight of those plants would burn over eleven million tons of coal, at a cost of $100 a ton. That’s not counting the employees needed to run the plant, or any of a dozen other costs associated with disposing of waste and the environmental cost.” Shayne, excellent point here. Have you ever read Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell? A textbook deliberately excluding the usual equations and math, but explaining economics in clear terms. The Garden of Eden wasn't an economy because resources were unlimited. Economics is the science of dealing with unlimited wants & needs with limited means - and making the decisions about which wants & needs to fulfill. Dr. Sowell made reference to the 1970's energy crisis. There was plenty of oil around - there just wasn't $10 a barrel oil. It was $30 a barrel oil. (or whatever it was.) It all depends on the cost vs benefits. There's plenty of coal available in the USA - the question is, do we want to pay the price to use it? (The environmental issues, the mining, the ash, as you've pointed out.) Good job in pointing out some of the costs involved. What a really excellent idea this is for Superman! The transport into space is the expensive part. Clark continued. “What does the government get out of this?”
“Clean energy, cheap telecommunications, thousands of jobs in the solar sector with the taxes associated with that. The United States’ dependence on foreign oil would be lessened to some extent.”
“And you don’t think the government would interfere with me?”
“No more than it would interfere with any other citizen,” Mr. Smith said. “People are afraid of you now because you’re a loose cannon. You could decide to join Al Quaida tomorrow and there wouldn’t be anything we could do about it.”
“But owning stakes in a company or even a Foundation…”
“It creates a sense of stability. You’d have assets that could be seized, legal penalties that could be assessed…you’d be part of the system. People would feel that the Foundation would be important to you, so you could in some way be held accountable.”
“So basically people in Congress would feel safer if Superman was a businessman, because that’s something they can understand,” Lois said. Wow again. Somehow you never read about this in the comic books. Lots of superhero fights....but none of this "boring" economic stuff. But it's the boring economic stuff that determines our lifestyle, what jobs are available, the opportunities for advancement, etc. It's like this: when Rome fell and the Dark Ages came, it wasn't really Rome "falling". The city was still there (although sacked by the barbarians). What fell apart was the intricate web of merchants and transactions and insurance and shipping and risk management and banking all over the Mediterranean world. It wasn't economical to trade anymore - the risk couldn't be managed, the return wasn't great enough. And so the Western Empire descended into feudalism, illiteracy, local warlords, and the breakdown of the previous high civilization. Our civilization today is like that of the Romans - trade from far-off places, management of capital, ways to handle risk. And it's just as vulnerable to rot, decay, and attack as any advanced civilization. As Poul Anderson said, the barbarians always come. He pulled a business card from his jacket pocket and gave it to Lois. “I’d hate for it to get lost in the middle of the Atlantic somewhere.”
Clark scowled. Apparently everyone had been briefed on his problems keeping a wallet. Another ROTFL! Mr. Smith shrugged. “Also, the Astronomers at SETI want to talk to you. They’d like to pinpoint the part of the galaxy that Krypton is in.”
“Why?” Clark asked. In the movie, Lex Luthor had used that information to find kryptonite. He wondered if the government was looking to see if any existed on this world as well.
“Given that are worlds are so analogous, they wonder if maybe the reason a version of you doesn’t exist here is that Krypton never exploded.”
Clark stared at the other man suddenly speechless. Oh, Shayne, Mr. Smith is so seductive.....
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Beat Reporter
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Beat Reporter
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OMG this is the best part yet...in fact, for sheer originality this is the best imagination of Superman's potential that I've ever read.
BRAVO!!!!
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Posts: 5,797
Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 5,797 |
Fantastic! I love how you point out the things that Superman could do in the real world, like helping to put solar power stations in geosynchronos orbit around the Earth. That would clearly be fantastic, and it would go such a very, very long way towards solving the Earth's energy problems, and it would provide us with such clean energy, too. You have given Clark a very good reason to stay in this world and help turn it into a much better place. So far, I have been thinking that Clark would return to his own world and take Lois with him. Now, for the first time, he would have a powerful reason to stay. Interestingly, however, I thought that very many of the other things that Agent Smith was suggesting could easily be done without Clark: “Say he repairs three satellites for fifteen million dollars….do you have any idea what he can do with that?”
“Buy a mansion in Beverly Hills?” Lois asked.
“He could buy approximately 1, 875, 000 bushels of corn. How many starving Africans or Burmese or Chinese could he feed with that?” Yes, Clark could repair three satellites for fifteen million dollars and buy 1,875,000 bushels of corn. But it's not as if other people couldn't buy that corn too, and give the corn to people who need it. It's not as if the sum of fifteen million dollars does not exist elsewhere in the world. It's not as if others don't have that money and could use it to buy food to feed the hungry, if they were only interested. “You seem a little different than the others,” Clark said. “I thought you were going to try to sell me on promoting American interests.”
“I am,” Mr. Smith said. At Clark's look he said, “These things I'm suggesting are very much in the best interest of America.”
“So feeding the hungry, preventing water borne diseases…”
“Where do you think most of the new diseases come from?” Mr. Smith said. “They tend to come from places where people are hungry and already sick, where their bodies have compromised immune systems that are perfect incubators for a new disease to learn its way around until it's virulent enough to spread to everyone else.”
“So this is about self interest?” Lois asked.
“Very much so,” Mr. Smith said. “Those African immune systems are the world's first line of defense against the next super-plague.” This is so true. And yet, the world can't find the money to help those starving and sick African children. Where does most of the world's money go? That's easy: it goes into buying weapons and military equipment. It's really so ironic: it is not hard to justify the need to buy bombs and armies to deter your enemies, but it is next to impossible buy food and clean water to African children to prevent the world's next super-plague. It seems to me that if Clark stays on this world for a while and uses money to really do good with it, he might remind people that they, too, have money that they can do good with. Somehow we've gotten our priorities wrong. For all of Clark's unique abilities, it could be that his ability to get his priorities right might serve as the most powerful example and incentive to this world. Ann
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Kerth
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Kerth
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It's a very interesting proposal - I'd sit down with a lawyer and read the fine print.
I'd love to see the DC versus Superman lawsuit...
Later: A belated and very cynical thought - if Clark starts to do these things he will inevitably be associated very strongly with the USA. The government needn't ask him to go after terrorists - sooner or later the terrorists will go after him, and he'll be forced to take action to protect the people around him.
Marcus L. Rowland
Forgotten Futures, The Scientific Romance Role Playing Game
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Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
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Gobsmacked, absolutely gobsmacked!
I actually have adrenaline running over the ideas you presented here.
I have a question, though. Why do insurance companies have satellites? And what do the satellites do?
I can just see what would happen if one of the satellites turns out to be a spy satellite. One vaporised hunk of metal coming down.
Also, if the energy from the solar satellite could be used to distabilize a hurricane, couldn't it also be used to keep Florida's citrus crops from getting frostbite? AND... if it can do that, why couldn't it be used to offset La Niña. Of course, messing around with the Earth's weather like that could have serious repercussions that they can't even guess at until it has already happened.
James
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Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
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Absolutely amazing ideas, Shayne. Way to go! The possibilities really do get the adrenaline pumping!  Artemis
History is easy once you've lived it. - Duncan MacLeod
Writing history is easy once you've lived it. - Artemis
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Freelance Reporter
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Freelance Reporter
Joined: Sep 2005
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I was just beginning to think that Mr. Smith was a stand-up guy...and then he goes and says something like this: “Also, the Astronomers at SETI want to talk to you. They’d like to pinpoint the part of the galaxy that Krypton is in.”
“Why?” Clark asked. In the movie, Lex Luthor had used that information to find kryptonite. He wondered if the government was looking to see if any existed on this world as well.
“Given that are worlds are so analogous, they wonder if maybe the reason a version of you doesn’t exist here is that Krypton never exploded.”
Clark stared at the other man suddenly speechless.
“You may be our best chance of actually contacting an extraterrestrial civilization.” Mr. Smith said. He smiled suddenly. “At the rate things are going I may start having to hire a lot of people.” Why in the world would Earth possibly want to contact Krypton?? Given the government paranoia surrounding Clark's existence here, there would be *nothing* they could conceive of which would be worse than a whole world of invulnerable, super-powered Kryptonians looking hungrily at the Earth. The government would assume that if the DC-comics version of the Superman mythos holds true to the extent that Krypton exists, that it would also have a red sun, and therefore the real Kryptonians would know nothing about super-powers until they came here. So *why would we want to advertise our existence to them*?! So the only motive I can see for asking Clark where they are, is so that nuclear-powered America can find them first, and use a pre-emptive strike to destroy all Kryptonians before they become super! --Snave (who wasn't cynical to begin with, but had to cultivate the talent)
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Hack from Nowheresville
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Hack from Nowheresville
Joined: Feb 2006
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What a chapter! Just talk, but wow!  “Why?” Clark asked. In the movie, Lex Luthor had used that information to find kryptonite. He wondered if the government was looking to see if any existed on this world as well.
“Given that are worlds are so analogous, they wonder if maybe the reason a version of you doesn’t exist here is that Krypton never exploded.”
Clark stared at the other man suddenly speechless.
“You may be our best chance of actually contacting an extraterrestrial civilization.” Mr. Smith said. He smiled suddenly. “At the rate things are going I may start having to hire a lot of people.” Wow. I didn´t see that one coming! Simply wow! But: contacting an extraterrestrial civilization of beings that will be superpowered as soon as they reach earth? No earth government would actually do that. I think it´s about getting their hands on some pieces of kryptonite. And perhaps space travel technology? There are all kinds of traps for Clark and Lois in this chapter. I just hope they don´t fall for it! Eagerly waiting for the next chapter... 
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Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
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I have a question, though. Why do insurance companies have satellites? And what do the satellites do? James, what I figured was that the insurance companies own the satellites because they aren't working anymore and need repair. So they are just space junk. The insurance companies paid the satellite owners/developers when then ceased working. Artemis
History is easy once you've lived it. - Duncan MacLeod
Writing history is easy once you've lived it. - Artemis
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Merriwether
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Merriwether
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It seems as if Agent Smith isn't the devil I had envisioned him to be. Instead, he is an idealist. Clark, of course, is an idealist too. I see that Lois is trying to be the voice of reason. While she may or may not be on-base, I appreciate that she is willing to look at everything from all angles before pursuing them.
Well thought out. Well written.
Elisabeth
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Beat Reporter
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Beat Reporter
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It all sounds very tantalizing, but something about Mr. Smith's spiel sounds off to me. It seems like it would be starting Clark down the wrong path. Better than him doing all this charitable stuff himself would be him staying "in character" as Superman, and inspiring other people to do their part.
As others have pointed out, the money Mr. Smith is talking about is peanuts compared to the resources of the rich countries of the world. Why should Clark have to generate the funds to do what's right, to do what's "in the interests of the U.S." If it's in the interests of the U.S., why aren't we doing it already?
This sounds like a convenient ploy for Clark to do the work and the U.S. to take the credit. Shades of the Chinese offer of asylum.
I think Clark would be far more effective sticking to rescue and charitable work he does with his own two (super-powered) hands, instead of trying to leverage it through money. That seems like the road to corruption.
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Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
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Another post - Shayne, just had to tell you how great your ideas are for the Superman who's not in the comic books anymore! Yes, folks, he's in the real world now - and just like everyone else, he has to pay the bills. Except this time he can't have a job under his secret identity, because everyone knows who Clark Kent really is.....
The other posters have been saying the ominous things. Superman could lose his credibility. People will think he's sold out. Lois realizes this. Clark is tempted, as ever, by the thought of doing good. As Martha Kent said to Clark on "Smallville", "That's your greatest weakness, and your greatest strength."
But let's not forget about the primary motivation here. Clark really wants to get that planeload of people back into their/his own universe. It's not looking too good right now, what with the fact that the mad scientists probably don't dare turn on the nuclear project that creates the interdimensional rifts.
(Or maybe they do dare. In fact, they probably dare. They surely dare. Actually, the mad scientists are probably madder than a flock of wet hens that their project has been shut down by some government weenies. All they want to do is the research! I bet some of them don't even know that Superman has come to our world.)
But how will Clark negotiate with the government? Dumb question, he is right now. But what will he say in return to the ever-so-seductive questions of Mr. Smith? Maybe he and Lois should go off flying, somewhere where they can't be eavesdropped upon. And certainly Susan Nguyen should take a good look at all those contracts.
(By the way, is Susan going to get to go flying with Clark? One just assumes that it's the coolest thing in the world, and everyone wants to do it. Maybe Clark would take her as an expression of gratitude for her work? A farewell token?)
And by the way, how is Susan getting paid? Maybe Lois made some money from her Superman interview (I hope a whole lot), but that's Lois' legal bill, not Clark's. I don't see that Clark has come up yet with any long green for Susan. Of course, he has options now....
More random thoughts:
And what about the interdimensional rifts? Are the scientists going to be able to control them? Will they be able (assuming all the political crud gets settled) to send the planeload of passengers, and Clark, and Lois (of course!) back to the proper universe? Will they be able to tour through a million parallel Earths, revel in the infinities of what-might-have-been?
Or will the rifts prove uncontrollable? Or even more dangerous than they have already? If so, how do we justify turning on the LHC to send back our protagonists?
And is there kryptonite in our universe? In "Superman Returns", Lex Luthor goes to a museum to steal kryptonite which is labeled as some sort of fluoride-containing rock. I recently read a news item that this "kryptonite" was actually found on a recent geological survey. What if someone sees "Superman Returns", finds this rock (which does exist in our world) and tries it on Clark? Will it really work? Or do we need the genuine article, Element 126? I guess my real question is, Is Clark vulnerable, physically, in our world?
And what's been happening in the parallel Metropolis? Clark and the passengers have been missing for quite some time now. That's got to be causing some consternation.
You know, I'd love to see Lois go back to Clark's universe and pack a CD-ROM of "The Entire Collection of DC Comics". Then she'd be all set when some minor, or lesser-known, superhero pops up. Or a supervillain. Then they'd know how to deal with them....
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