meadowlark | @rey.solo

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@rey.solo

i made a mistake

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ETA
Riverstone is interested in cooperating with the Displaced to learn more about the people who brought us here. They figured out who I was when I put in the paperwork to change my name back. Apparently, I'm still on the UN's most wanted list, but someone prevented the UN from acting to bring me into custody.

I don't know who, and neither does Riverstone — in fact, they asked me about it.

But they know that I'm one of the Displaced, which actually explains a few things. I've been working for Riverstone for months. After I went to Everest, I was gone a bit longer than the rest of us, well beyond El's coverage. They gave me back my job anyway. I don't think this was news to them. If you ask me, that's a sign they're not out to get us, but I realize not everyone will agree there.

Now they want to talk to all of us, or as many of us as are interested. Riverstone is offering to pay travel expenses in New Beijing for one week for anyone who wants to undergo observation and testing of their power, and who's willing to answer some questions. I know that sounds scary. I know scary. The UNA had me in custody for some time, running "tests." But Riverstone claims that what they're offering is different, that we'll preview everything first.

Before you decide, I should mention ... they think they might know something about who's been dropping us off. In return for our cooperation, they're willing to exchange that information.

I'm not telling anyone what to do, and no one else should try to do that either. But if follow (this) link, you can register your information with the Riverstone employees in charge of this, and they'll reach out to you to arrange the trip.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm usually on board with the side of optimism if it seems like it's gonna help people, but I have to be honest with you, this scares me

There are so, so many ways this could go wrong, and so many reasons to be skeptical of their intentions
This isn't exactly like Morningstar
For one, they're a thousand times bigger
For another, you kind of have to stop and think about their moral and ethical reality, being the size that they are

They're one of the largest corporations on the planet, they make billions of dollars in profit each year, maybe more
The people in their hierarchy — board members, the CEO, the CTO — they're making seven figures a year easy while there's an entire suffering and struggling lower class
Companies don't get to be as bloated as they are while being genuine and philanthropic

At the end of the day, their primary motivation is most likely going to be profit. They're not a person, they're not even a charity group, they're a commercial company. Their entire existence is structured around the idea of making money. If they're interested in us, there's something of value that will bring them financial gain

That's already a self-serving motivation

Even if they intend to use our harvested information for something like furthering the evolution of the human race, or curing disease, or stopping the monsters, the question is:

how do they plan to make money off of it

where I'm from, before the world fell apart, corporations like this would charge over five hundred dollars for a single pill used to treat cancer
a pill that started out as fourteen dollars

I know this is different, but
It might not actually be all that different
Especially when there's absolutely nothing holding them accountable

Well, can you think of how research into us would help them profit?

[ because the concept is all well and good, but it's only useful if it helps narrow down the offer in some way. ]

This is gonna be entirely theoretical, but I can make a few realistic guesses

-collecting personal data has been a valuable thing for hundreds of years; even if they don't retain any tissue sampling they could simply sell that data to an interested party for a significant amount of money. who that party could be entirely depends on who else in the world wants to know about us, for whatever reason that could entail.

-reverse engineering our biology would be the most valuable thing on the planet; if they can figure out why we can do the things we can do and they can sell it? there won't be an organization in the world that isn't interested in buying.

-even if they can't, hell, we're all aliens. there are going to be things in our blood they've never even seen before — antibodies in our immune systems that could combat a similar disease on this planet, or the opposite, things that could be weaponized that they're not immune to like chicken pox or measles

-if they learn absolutely nothing else by testing us, they learn what we're capable of and our contact information. that's something that, again, a thousand different parties would be interested in buying for a variety of reasons. it could be as innocuous as reaching out to us to make job offers for something our powers can do, or as nefarious as using our information to plan counter-measures to neutralize us if we threaten their interests. imagine if the UNA got their hands on a list of all of our powers so they knew exactly what weapon to build to negate each of us? they're not exactly fans.

-the secondary type of monster is made by combining multiple animal/monster DNAs together; if they collect our DNA — even if they don't do it themselves — they could sell it for an unbelievable amount to someone like JPG with an interest in gene-splicing. it would breed the potential to mix our strengths in with the rest of their crop for an even stronger species of monster.

-on a slightly more optimistic note, they may very well use us to create something that combats the monsters. however, they're a company, they aren't a paramilitary group, which means they're going to sell whatever they design to someone who is. una, independent contractors or mercenaries, whatever the the case they'll be able to purchase weapons intended to combat monsters with no real guarantees that's all they'll be used for

While some potential good can come of this via the vaccines, cures, or anti-monster technology, that's contingent on believing that a money-driven mega-corporation will abide by the same set of morals and principals to which we hold ourselves accountable

Hello again. Long time no talk. I'd ask if you were settled in all right, but frankly, I don't give a damn.

So let's move on.

A fair list of points. I'm not sure Riverstone is doing this to amass money, unless they did it purely to be predictable. My best guess is that we have something that Riverstone doesn't have, but we don't know what that could be just yet. They're playing with the full scope, while we're quite limited.

Your points cover some of those potential outlets for information, but we need to consider that it may be outside the realm of anything you suggested.

Which is to say: we need to consider what Riverstone themselves will do with this information. What they seek to gain. And how they might spin it so that they continue to be the good guys.

They are the corporation that Ricky Ling was the head of. I believe that is something we can't just forget.

Yeah, I settled in great. Got a job at Giles-Bell, just signed the lease on an apartment a week or two ago. It's got a decent view. I've also been working on recreating Sunny D for a few weeks. It's been like 14 batches but I think I'm starting to get close. I think I'm starting to get, like, this patch of dry skin on my elbow, though, so that's kind of annoying. Traffic yesterday was insane. How are you? Have a good weekend? Been sleeping alright?

If Riverstone is interested in us for something we have that they don't, the next logical question would be: why? Why do they want it, and what would they plan to do with it? It's safe to assume that the motivation is either going to be a) money, b) power, or c) control. Often those 3 things work in conjunction with each other.

You're right that my list of theories isn't comprehensive, not even by a mile. The possibilities are endless, but what's important to take away from it is that most of those possibilities aren't innocent, or won't end innocently even if they begin that way.

Well enough. Repairs on my building are progressing slowly. What is SunnyD?

I believe we may need to consider both B and C as the actual aims here, because the first is too predictable and doesn't make sense. There is nothing in the short term that helps Riverstone financially, and the end result would be very finite.

Oh my god, you poor people and your sunnyd-less upbringings. I'm gonna fix this for the good of all of us. Maybe restart the market on it and become the next Riverstone. As soon as I perfect it I'll drop you a line and you can try it out. It's like the best drink ever made.

Completely valid points. When I'm from, money is intrinsically tied to power and control, they tend to be synonymous. I guess it's a different story here, but a lot of the potential consequences are still the same.

Indescribable, then? I see.

I believe it's not that money isn't a factor, but that a company like Riverstone has rooted itself so that it is this world. No company I've ever seen runs a city like the one in New Beijing. They even own the transportation. Money likely grows for them on trees.

i'm pretty concerned about whatever data or samples they gather becoming proprietary and being sold to the highest bidder

based on their production portfolio i think it's definitely safe to say they're going to use it for something internally, but like you've pointed out there are a million and one possibilities there

If we can't dissuade her we at least need to get a really good lawyer involved. It's not just an agreement about defining consent at this point, it's going to have to be a carefully worded arrangement.

-clear terms that all harvested organic material is the property of the participant of the study, but granting permission to Riverstone to complete a pre-approved list of tests they communicate in advance
-any genetic material has to either be returned or destroyed upon completion of the testing, and what exactly completion means
-PII needs to be considered confidential and shouldn't be stored by Riverstone beyond a specifically allotted time period after testing, with the exception probably being people still employed with the company
-we'd need some kind of statement on their security policies or data maintenance in the event that they're conveniently hacked
-we'd need an airtight nondisclosure agreement that includes our interests, not just theirs
-maybe some kind of declaration of intent with the stipulation that anything outside of the specified use cases be approved by all parties involved
-an agreement to release all findings to the participants of the study, or a specified list of contacts in the event that participant can't be located

Not that we can enforce any part of it if they're doing shady shit behind closed doors, but at least we'd have some form of potential recourse in the event that we can prove misuse

I don't doubt they know how exactly how much they're taking advantage of her by making her feel like she should be the sole decisionmaker without any legal representation before she signs off on this

[ Nate knew Ian was incredibly smart - the guy is an engineer, for Christ's sake - but consider him wildly delighted to get a wall of text back with a whole slew of legalese in tow. ]

1. holy shit are you also a lawyer and didn't tell me?
2. getting "our" interests organized is going to be pretty tough with this crowd, especially since there are already people in this exact conversation who are pretty opposed to this. any idea on how to make that a little easier, process-wise?

i don't think we can or should stop some displaced from wanting to get answers, because this is a good opportunity. the least we can do is make sure they've got the stuff you've outlined and a means to mitigate the risk if something goes sideways in the riverstone facilities. as in a group that can extract volunteers.

1. Yeah, and a doctor and a rocket surgeon, it's hard being this talented. Just doing my job, ma'am.

2. I think — and maybe I'm being optimistic here — the one thing we can all agree on is jealously guarding our independent rights and privacies. We may not ever agree on actually doing it vs. not doing it, but if we take away that choice, and it seems like that's exactly what's happening, the next best thing is offering people legally protected autonomy. I can't think of a single person on any side of the array of arguments that have played out on the network so far that would disagree with that sentiment. Granted, they'll probably (extremely vocally) complain that it isn't enough, and it isn't, but in lieu of getting to do anything about that...

and frankly if you stick it all in a contract it'll be so long and complex most of them won't bother reading enough of it to bicker about the minutia

If it's got to happen, the best way to do it would be to preemptively gather the people intent on signing up and pull them into an initial breakout session with a legal team to give their input high-level, let the experts do their job drafting up something that thoroughly covers the specifics, meet up again to confirm the finalized contract, then have that team represent them in the negotiations with Riverstone before anybody signs a single fucking thing

I'm not saying that's the best or only solution, but it's the first idea that comes to mind

i had no idea rockets needed surgical procedures that often.

my experience with legal matters is mostly relegated to maritime law and private salvage so we'll have to put out an internal inquiry to see who actually has the right experience for this. or see if morningstar's got an attorney in their pocket. it's been 500+ years, i'm sure to some extent law has changed so we can't apply a 1-to-1 equivalence.

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