[ISSUE DRAFT] Infant Influence

[Orcuo]

I made a new issue draft. I know, very crazy. This one experiments with vat-infants so bear with me. Anyway, start reading.

Current Draft:

[Title]: Infant Influence

[Validity]: Must have Capitalism; Must have Vat-Produced Infants; Must have high levels of Corruption.

[Description]: A recent report found that certain people produced by vat laboratories owned by VioletGenetics, a vat infant production and pharmaceutical company, have an unusual behavior of glorifying their parent company. Among other things they have a tendency to almost exclusively buy medical products made by the company alongside choosing to start their employment career with them. Currently it remains unclear why this is.

[Option (1)]: "These private vat labs need to be stopped!" States journalist @@RANDOMNAME@@. "It is clear that this company is obviously influencing the infants they produce through some form of genetic manipulation to make them more susceptible to the bidding of these greedy @@CURRENCY@@ hoarders. If this continues more corporations could follow suit, soon enough there’ll be legions of vat-produced people solely loyal to their parent company! The government must seize all corporate vat laboratories to continue nursing pre-existing infants while banning corporations from starting any new vat laboratories, with the government assuming full control of the industry."

[Fallout (1)]: mommy government won the case and is keeping the kids

[Option (2)]: "The dilemma at hand is being overdramatized," Says @@RANDOMNAME@@, CEO of VioletGenetics. "This is clearly not because of any schemes on our end. It should be obvious that the infants created by our company have a special connection to us because we literally made them. Just like how offspring have a relationship with their parents, our vat-produced infants have a relationship with our company. Now we are aware that some of these ‘quirks’ are slightly unnatural and unhealthy, and we’re working to fix it. If the government would be so kind as to give us a little financial support it would bolster our research efforts into finding and fixing the issue."

[Fallout (2)]: big business holds the minds of vat infants for ransom

[Option (3)]: "I believe the solution is quite simple" Interrupts @@RANDOMNAME@@, one of your personal legal assistants. "We should allow them to continue operations with vat infant production, however regulations need to be set in place. Enact strict laws to ensure that vat infants’ cannot have their mind - or any part of their body for that matter - altered in a way that would cause these undesirable inclinations. Furthermore send agents into these laboratories to oversee their operations and enforce these codes. Any other company who have this problem can and will be subjugated to the same measures we’ve employed onto the VioletGenetics corporation."

[Fallout (3)]: certain baby formulas are deemed too influential

---

Previous Drafts:

[Title]: Infant Influence

[Validity]: Must have Capitalism; Must have Vat-Produced Infants; Must have high levels of Corruption.

[Description]: A recent report found that certain people produced by vat laboratories owned by VioletGenetics, a vat infant production and pharmaceutical company, have an unusual behavior of glorifying their parent company. Among other things they have a tendency of almost exclusively buying medical products made by the company alongside choosing to start their employment career with them. Currently it remains unclear on why this is.

[Option (1)]: “These private vat labs need to be stopped!” States journalist @@RANDOMNAME@@. “It is clear that this company is obviously influencing the infants they produce through some form of genetic manipulation to make them more susceptible to the bidding of these greedy @@CURRENCY@@ hoarders. If this continues more corporations could follow suit, soon enough there could be legions of vat-produced people solely loyal to their parent company! The government needs to permanently ban this company from producing vat infants. In fact the government needs to outlaw all corporations from producing vat infants and assume full control of the industry! Of course the government would continue nursing all vat infants collected from the shutdown.”

[Fallout (1)]: mommy government won the case and is keeping the kids

[Option (2)]: “The dilemma at hand is being overdramatized,” Says @@RANDOMNAME@@, CEO of VioletGenetics. “This clearly is not because of any schemes on our end. It should be obvious that the infants created by our company have a special connection to us because we literally made them. Just like how offspring have a relationship with their parents, our vat-produced infants have a relationship with the company. Now we are aware that some of this praising is slightly unnatural and unhealthy, and we’re working to fix it. If the government would be so kind to give us a little support we could speed along this process and ensure that all infants produced don’t have this issue in the future.”

[Fallout (2)]: big business holds the minds of vat infants for ransom

[Option (3)]: “I believe the solution is quite simple” Interrupts @@RANDOMNAME@@, one of your personal assistants. “We should allow them to continue operations with vat infant production, however regulations need to be set in place. Enact strict laws to ensure that vat infants’ cannot have their mind - or any part of the body for that matter - altered in a way that would cause these undesirable manners. Furthermore send agents into these laboratories to oversee their operations and enforce these codes. Any other companies that have this problem can and will be subjugated to the same measures we’ve resorted to with the VioletGenetics corporation.”

[Fallout (3)]: certain baby formulas are deemed too influential

[Title]: Infant Influence

[Validity]: Must have Capitalism; Must have Vat-Produced Infants; Must have high levels of Corruption.

[Description]: A recent report found that certain people produced by vat laboratories owned by VioletGenetics, a vat infant production and pharmaceutical company, have an unusual behavior of glorifying their apparent company. Among other things they have a tendency of almost exclusively buying medical products made by the company alongside choosing to start their employment career with them. Though it’s unclear why this is, public outcry has demanded the government take action.

[Option (1)]: “These private vat labs need to be stopped!” States journalist @@RANDOMNAME@@. “It is clear that this company is obviously influencing the infants they produce through some form of genetic manipulation to make them more susceptible to the bidding of these greedy @@CURRENCY@@ hoarders. If this continues more corporations could follow suite, soon enough there could be legions of vat-produced people solely loyal to their apparent company! The government needs to permanently ban this company from producing vat infants. In fact the government needs to outlaw all corporations from producing vat infants and assume full control of the industry! Of course the government would continue nursing all vat infants collected from the shutdown.”

[Fallout (1)]: mommy government won the case and is keeping the kids

[Option (2)]: “The dilemma at hand is being overdramatized.” Says @@RANDOMNAME@@, CEO of VioletGenetics. “This clearly is not because of any schemes on our end. It should be obvious that the infants created by our company have a special connection to us because we literally made them. Just like how offspring have a relationship with their parents, our vat-produced infants have a relationship with the company. Now we are aware that some of this praising is slightly unnaturally and unhealthy, and we’re working to fix it. If the government would be so kind to give us a little support we could speed along this process and ensure that all infants produced don’t have this issue in the future.”

[Fallout (2)]: big business uses the minds of vat infants for ransom

[Option (3)]: “I believe the solution is very simple.” Interrupts @@RANDOMNAME@@, one of your personal assistants. “In order to stop this issue the government needs to take action and place regulations on VioletGenetics’ vat laboratories. By ensuring that all genetic alterations made and psychological trials run on the vat infants don’t cause the behavior we’ve had with the ‘company glorifiers’ this problematic situation will be resolved easily. It’s much easier than shutting down all their labs and much cheaper than feeding them subsidies. Now assuming any other companies have similar issues we can enact the same regulations on them.”

[Fallout (3)]: certain baby formulas are deemed too influential

[Title]: Infant Influence

[Validity]: Must have Capitalism; Must have Vat-Produced Infants; Must have high levels of Corruption.

[Description]: A recent report found that certain people produced by vat laboratories owned by VioletGenetics, a vat infant production and pharmaceutical company, have an unusual behavior of glorifying their apparent company. Among other things they have a tendency of almost exclusively buying medical products made by the company alongside choosing to start their employment career with them. Though it’s unclear why this is, public outcry has demanded the government take action.

[Option (1)]: “These private vat labs need to be stopped!” States journalist @@RANDOMNAME@@. “It is clear that this company is obviously influencing the infants they produce through some form of brainwashing or genetic manipulation to make them more susceptible to the bidding of these greedy @@CURRENCY@@ hoarders. If this continues more corporations could follow suite, soon enough there could be legions of vat-produced people solely loyal to their apparent company! The government needs to permanently ban this company from producing vat infants. In fact the government needs to outlaw all corporations from producing vat infants and assume full control of the industry! Of course the government would continue nursing all vat infants collected from the shutdown.”

[Fallout (1)]: mommy government won the case and is keeping the kids

[Option (2)]: “The dilemma at hand is being overdramatized.” Says @@RANDOMNAME@@, CEO of VioletGenetics. “This clearly is not because of any schemes on our end. It should be obvious that the infants created by our company have a special connection to us because we literally made them. Just like how offspring have a relationship with their parents, our vat-produced infants have a relationship with the company. Now we are aware that some of this praising is slightly unnaturally and unhealthy, and we’re working to fix it. If the government would be so kind to give us a little support we could speed along this process and ensure that all infants produced don’t have this issue in the future.”

[Fallout (2)]: big business uses the minds of vat infants for ransom

[Option (3)]: “I believe the solution is very simple.” Interrupts @@RANDOMNAME@@, one of your personal assistants. “In order to stop this issue the government needs to take action and place regulations on VioletGenetics’ vat laboratories. By ensuring that all genetic alterations made and psychological trials run on the vat infants don’t cause the behavior we’ve had with the ‘company glorifiers’ this problematic situation will be resolved easily. It’s much easier than shutting down all their labs and much cheaper than feeding them subsidies. Now assuming any other companies have similar issues we can enact the same regulations on them.”

[Fallout (3)]: certain baby formulas are deemed too influential

[Title]: Infant Influence

[Validity]: Must have Capitalism; Must have Vat-Produced Infants.

[Description]: A recent report found that a majority of people produced in vat laboratories owned by private corporations have an unusual behavior of glorifying their apparent company. Among other things they have a tendency of almost exclusively buying products made by their given company alongside choosing to work for them their entire employment career. Though it’s unclear why this is, public outcry has demanded the government take action.

[Option (1)]: “These private vat labs need to be stopped!” States journalist @@RANDOMNAME@@. “It is clear that these companies are obviously influencing the infants they produce through some form of brainwashing or genetic manipulation to make them more susceptible to the bidding of these greedy @@CURRENCY@@ hoarders. If this continues, who knows what these corporations could do with legions of vat-produced citizens loyal to them and them only! The government needs to permanently ban any company from operating a vat laboratory and producing infants. Of course the government would continue nursing all vat infants collected from the shutdown.”

[Fallout (1)]: mommy government won the case and is keeping the kids

[Option (2)]: “The dilemma at hand is being overdramatized.” Says @@RANDOMNAME@@, CEO of VioletGenetics, a vat infant producing company. “This clearly is not because of any schemes on our end. It should be obvious that the infants created by our company have a special connection to us because we literally made them. Just like how offspring have a relationship with their parents, our vat-produced infants have a relationship with the company. Now we are aware that some of this praising is slightly unnaturally and unhealthy, and we’re working to fix it. If the government would be so kind to give us a little support we could speed along this process and ensure that all infants produced don’t have this issue in the future.”

[Fallout (2)]: big business uses the minds of vat infants for ransom

[Option (3)]: “I think the solution is in a compromise.” Interrupts @@RANDOMNAME@@, one of your personal assistants. “We shouldn’t shut down all the corporate owned vat lab operations, and we shouldn’t have to give them support in order to fix the issue. I think it is safe to say that this phenomenon is caused by these corporations’ bad practices, intentional or not. So it’s only fair that the government should enact laws to restrict what these companies are allowed to do towards these infants. The goal being to ensure that nothing they do can impact the infants’ abilities to think and act freely. That way these companies get to keep making vat-produced infants and in-turn the infants get to grow up without any negative influences affecting them.”

[Fallout (3)]: certain baby formulas are deemed too influential

Now feed me your juicy criticism.

[Verdant Haven]

This seems like a clever concept for an Issue. Might need to be wary of a couple minor assumptions here and there, but shouldn't be too problematic. It seems like the sort of thing one might also see from AI citizens, but having it be vat babies definitely carries that stronger Brave New World indoctrination feel. Nice.

- Some thoughts on validities (consider them, but you might not need them – up to you): It feels like high corruption or underfunded government education budgets might contribute to this problem. I feel like the indoctrination angle is probably less likely to work if the Child Self-Rearing policy exists (since the company won't be raising the kids).

- While we can never know how long ago a nation established a given policy (like vat-growing infants), it's fair to say that vats are a new enough technology there probably aren't any vat babies who have yet had the chance to work their whole careers for a company. Perhaps saying they choose to start their career with the company would be a little safer for the description.

- Description: Does this work better as "the majority of people" from private labs in general, or as certain people from a certain lab? I think if it was the majority of all of them, it would have been easily noticed before, plus given that the whole population is being made in vats, there's the question of how so many people would all be able to work for the same company. If this is a unique situation where a particular lab has done some chicanery that gives them an advantage, I think that's a more interesting debate (since it feels like your decision can change the direction of things, rather than being too little too late).

- I feel like Option 3 is describing a *concept* for action, rather than describing an action. Instead of merely explaining the motivations for the choice, argue some specific steps. What laws should be passed? Who'll judge if an effect is negative? Why is it safe to assume corporate bad practice?

- Give it a proof-read for wording, capitalization, etc.

[Orcuo]

New Draft is up.

> I made the issue about one corporation instead of “an undefined amount” of them.

> I changed option 3 to be less passive and give more of a strong, but still fairly neutral and compromising answer to the problem.

> The issue now requires high levels of Corruption per Verdant’s suggestion. The reason I didn’t add low education or self-rearing child is that I feel even if you removed the company’s ability to brainwash them *at birth*, they could still (theoretically) alter their brains during growth to make them more susceptible to their influence and whatnot. Not that I’m implying that they’re doing that…

> Grammar & punctuation fixes, deal with it.

[Millenhaal]

Quick suggestion, an obvious issue answer here as a crazy alternative would be to have an option where the government takes over vat industries and instead chooses to make the infants infinitely loyal to the government. Just a thought, do what you will.

[Orcuo]

Quick suggestion, an obvious issue answer here as a crazy alternative would be to have an option where the government takes over vat industries and instead chooses to make the infants infinitely loyal to the government. Just a thought, do what you will.

I’ll consider it, thanks.

[Orcuo]

/bump

[Australian rePublic]

Option 1- how would that even work? How do you brainwash a sperm and an egg? By the time the baby is out of the VAT, it's probably too early

[Orcuo]

Option 1- how would that even work? How do you brainwash a sperm and an egg? By the time the baby is out of the VAT, it's probably too early

I suppose it would just make more sense to just say “they genetically altered them!” than going with the brainwashing thing. I’ll fix it.

[Edit: Done]

[Verdant Haven]

This is much clearer and more straightforward now – good edits.

- Play on words alert for the Description and Option 1: "apparent company" -> "parent company"

- You do a good job making the dilemma clear in the description -- I think you can delete the final summary sentence about public outcry. Probably need an extra comma or two added to what remains, but it's nothing major.

- For Option 2 and Option 3, you can remove the period at the end of the opening quote, or replace it with a comma. For all three options, the dialogue tag should begin with a lower-case letter.

- Option 1: "follow suite" -> "follow suit"

- Option 2: "unnaturally" -> "unnatural"

- Effect 2: It would be more typical to say that big business "holds" minds for random, rather than "uses" minds for ransom (which would suggest paying ransom, rather than demanding it).

- Option 3: This is the only one that I feel still needs notable work. It feels a bit passive at the moment, just waiting to see whether what the company does leads to a lack of the undesirable behavior. This could work nicely as a more active intervention – enforcing regulations dictating exactly what alterations can be made, and how the infants can be conditioned. That may be what you have in mind, but it doesn't feel quite so interventive with the current language. Basically, make it clear that this is allowing the company to produce children, but is about providing the industry with a required "recipe."

[Orcuo]

I’ve fixed the grammar, and updated option 3 to be less passive and more aggressively on-the-nose. (And by a little I mean a lot.)

[Orcuo]

/bump

[Orcuo]

/bump

[Australian rePublic]

Medicine for what? Wouldn't VAT companies weed out genetic disease?

[Orcuo]

Medicine for what? Wouldn't VAT companies weed out genetic disease?

Perhaps. But I think is safe to assume that vat infants could still get the common cold, flu, stomach bug, etc. Even if you were to assume that the company produces them with immunity to all diseases, medical products are still used for other things. For example, if you had an open wound you need medicine to clean it up and stop the risk on an infection.

[The Marsupial Illuminati]

I like this issue.

[Orcuo]

I like this issue.

Thx! Tho it is not exactly an issue yet… your support is still appreciated! If you have any recommendations, let me know!

[Orcuo]

/bump

[Orcuo]

/bump
(If I don’t get any more suggestions, I’ll be submitting this once the month ends.)

[Orcuo]

The deadline for submission has been pushed back to the end of may.

[Lindsay]

This is a clever one. I enjoy issues that add flavor to nations that have been pushed into unexplored territory with previous decisions.

The government needs to permanently ban this company from producing vat infants. In fact the government needs to outlaw all corporations from producing vat infants and assume full control of the industry! Of course the government would continue nursing all vat infants collected from the shutdown.”

These could probably be consolidated to make the option more concise. I would say something like "the government needs to seize the entire operation and take custody of the infants that have already been created", but with some added characterization to fit the journalist you're envisioning here.

For the second option I would make the company representative be even more covert about the admissions being made for the the unnatural dispositions of the children. Maybe establish it as transactional; "if the government gives us money we can afford to research some of the personality quirks of our infants". Obviously the company could have afforded to research this all along and chose not to, but that's for the reader to pick up on.

Finally, I would add some more flair to how the assistant in option 3 speaks. The "however"s, "furthermore"s, and "subjugated"s are quite verbose. The character could definitely be changed to be an administrator or a legal expert who you'd expect to speak like this, or the wording could be changed to fit the personality of a lowly assistant.

Other than those comments, I'm a big fan of this issue. I think it'll add a lot to the game and help pad out some drastic policy decisions that are otherwise dead ends. The effect lines are very humorous as well.

[Varnash]

key:
consider adding
consider removing
(comment)

[Title]: Infant Influence

[Validity]: Must have Capitalism; Must have Vat-Produced Infants; Must have high levels of Corruption.

[Description]: A recent report found that certain people produced by vat laboratories owned by VioletGenetics, a vat infant production and pharmaceutical company, have an unusual behavior of glorifying their parent company. Among other things, they have a tendency of to almost exclusively buying medical products made by the company alongside chooseing to start their employment career with them. Currently, it remains unclear on why this is.

[Option (1)]: “These private vat labs need to be stopped!” States journalist @@RANDOMNAME@@. “It is clear that this company is obviously influencing the infants they produce through some form of genetic manipulation to make them more susceptible to the bidding of these greedy @@CURRENCY@@ hoarders. If this continues more corporations could follow suit, soon enough there could be legions of vat-produced people solely loyal to their parent company! The government needs to permanently ban this company from producing vat infants. In fact, the government needs to (perhaps consider changing 'needs to' to 'must') outlaw all corporations from producing vat infants and assume full control of the industry! Of course the government would continue nursing all vat infants collected from the shutdown.”

[Fallout (1)]: mommy government won the case and is keeping the kids

[Option (2)]: “The dilemma at hand is being overdramatized,” Says @@RANDOMNAME@@, CEO of VioletGenetics. “This clearly is clearly not because of any schemes on our end. It should be obvious that the infants created by our company have a special connection to us because we literally made them. Just like how offspring have a relationship with their parents, our vat-produced infants have a relationship with the their company. Now, we are aware that some of this praising is slightly unnatural and unhealthy, and we’re working to fix it. If the government would be so kind as to give us a little support, we could speed along this process and ensure that all infants produced don’t have this issue in the future.”

[Fallout (2)]: big business holds the minds of vat infants for ransom

[Option (3)]: “I believe the solution is quite simple,” Interrupts @@RANDOMNAME@@, one of your personal assistants. “We should allow them to continue operations with vat infant production, however, regulations need to be set in place. Enact strict laws to ensure that vat infants’ cannot have their mind - or any part of the their body for that matter - altered in a way that would cause these undesirable manners inclinations. Furthermore, send agents into these laboratories to oversee their operations and enforce these codes. Any other companies who that have this problem can and will be subjugated to the same measures we’ve resorted to with the VioletGenetics corporation.”

[Fallout (3)]: certain baby formulas are deemed too influential

[Orcuo]

Thanks to all for the awesome suggestions! I’ve cooked up a new draft that fixes some of the issues from the previous. I think it is looking pretty good so far. Any more suggestions are welcomed!