Declassified documents releasing tomorrow!

The dossier for Trey Donovan, the hero of the Star Legation, has been declassified by the Interstellar Union and will be releasing online, tomorrow, at DriveThruRPG.

Who is Trey Donovan? Find out here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/starlegation/the-star-legation-a-scifi-visual-novel-game

Societal Shifting (part 5)

One thing is for sure—our society is going to experience some changes after this pandemic is over. We are going to learn to be more careful, and learn to be more prepared. Bottles of Purell will probably be stockpiled in homes for years to come, as well as gloves and masks. We may see temperature screenings as part of TSA protocol for passengers, and possibly see new technologies develop that enable fast testing at airports and other public places. Health care workers may influence changes in the hospital, as they lobby for better ways to ensure the protection of their families. But in a lot of ways, we may see a lot of things get “back to normal” and realize that we didn't miss those things and could do without them. Let's hope that we'll use the experience of the quarantine to change our focus instead of getting back to our old lives where we isolated ourselves from what truly matters.

Societal Shifting (part 4)

There will be smaller changes in our society as well, and some old traditions may be completely erased. Consider the handshake, for instance. During this pandemic, handshaking is strongly discouraged, as the COVID-19 virus is easily spread through contact. We each touch our face hundreds of times a day, so passing germs through a handshake can be blamed for some percentage of COVID-19 infections. I've always been a bit of a germophobe and disliked shaking hands, but now I'm convinced that I'll never shake anyone's hand again, even in a post-COVID world. Perhaps we should all adopt the Asian custom of bowing in greeting? It's ironic that the origins of the handshake are believed to have originated with an intention to display that a person is empty-handed without weapons (and the subsequent shaking intended to shake any possible hidden blades from a person's sleeves.) The irony of passing a deadly infection through a handshake has essentially weaponized the handshake. I don't think this custom is going to last in our society's future—it may have already died completely in the last few weeks!

Societal Shifting (part 3)

Another aspect of our society that might shift is something that was already bound to happen someday—online shopping and deliveries becoming the standard. Why go to the store when you can pay a little extra to have it delivered? Many businesses have begun delivering when they didn't before, and the demand has created new jobs for people willing to run the deliveries. Uber and Amazon have both been looking at using automated drone systems, and these endeavors will only be encouraged by what has been happening with the pandemic. Although it is still years away, I think that 3D-printing will also become a part of our isolated future, where the deliveries of some purchases will become obsolete because we can just print the items we bought online through a 3D-printer at home. As there become more reasons to stay indoors, certain technologies will advance to the point that we will be encouraged to be even more isolated. We've already reduced the number of phone calls we make and exchanged talking with texting, so more isolation feels like the next natural stage of our society. During a pandemic, this is good practice. But is it what we want for our society in the future?