Concluding Recommendations: Spheven Kain

I realize that in my current position, you have little reason to heed my recommendation, as I am no longer a member of the Butterfly Effect Advisory Committee. Nevertheless, though I cannot erase the past, neither can my fall from grace, for despite my revoked credentials I am still a trained computational anthropologist. In this respect, the Disarrangement Act is of great interest to me, since it is both a possibility realized by human technological advancement and the brainchild of the Hegemony of Whales, whose race is relatively technologically primitive. In my computational anthropological work, I studied the effect of computers on the development of human culture. Because of this, I feel I have something of interest to say on the Disarrangement Act, and I humbly beg your consideration.

The most striking thing about human technological advancement is the interconnectedness it brings. When human civilization was relatively parochial, governments only had to worry about things they could see and the Esoteric Order of Florists. Consider how many problems are solved simply by being far away from them. Few people outside of Careless mind Joran Lake, because the Joranian fauna are (probably) too far away to attack them. Global crises like the War of Durun's Ass or the Goats on Boats Affair were only possible because naval technology had made it possible for geographically distant problems to reach close to home. Some may claim that these crises were just as much the product of the machinations of the Stratsky Foundation or the hotbloodedness of Selestei. But consider: would either of these have happened if Selestei or the Compass Republic were geographically isolated from the rest of the world? There's a reason Secretary Tomas puts sovereigns in the corner when they misbehave.

The development of the computer is no different. With global networking, anyone across the globe can feel threatened by anything going on anywhere. Before information technology, the average Kingslander didn't have to think about Panark authorizing Shaster to order Captain Gunnerson to take control of the Taurus and wipe Kingsland off the map. Now, said Kingslander has to wake up each morning to the distressing fact that they haven't been annihilated from orbit. (They had to before, too, but this just makes it worse.)

All of this leads me to agree with our esteemed Dr. Hanson that, ultimately, everything goes to shit. If we want to bring about some manner of world peace, drastic measures must be taken, and the Disarrangement Act is exactly the sort of measure we are in desperate need of. As M.Hon. Milton has noted in his article on HEM Seraphi Ironheart, one potentially dangerous consequence of the Act is that some unlucky country may become the new neighbor of an irritated HEM Ironheart. But what if Flandre was nobody's neighbor? She's dangerous enough to sit next to at Assembly sessions, why take any more risk with your own homeland? Let's just put every dangerous country in the middle of the ocean somewhere where they can't hurt anyone. If they need to contact the rest of us, Ulgravian airships can carry their letters. I'm sure Flandre would adapt, at least; they've got contingency plans for all sorts of weird things, they'd probably like having fewer threats on their borders.

This proposal has historical antecedents that speak in its favor. A little over half a century ago, the completion of the Yggdrasil Project ended the conflict between the Vulterbase rebels and JUSTICE. Since then, have they bothered anybody in the rest of the world? Of course not. The Vulterbase rebels are ensconced behind an impassible combination of squid-trees and the Vulterstrom. Imagine a world where any threat to global peace were so ensconced, able to affect the global community only by going through Ulgravian skies. Now that sounds like world peace.

Peace, of course, is not just preventative. Some wrongs of the past must be righted in the new world order. Many sovereigns sit in the Assembly who have little to no land. Surely if they command equal estate in the Assembly chambers, they deserve a little of the estate of the world as well. I think of Incendia, Ulgrav, or Panark. Shouldn't we help these countries out and give them some solid ground to stand on? The Selesteines control a lot of land, but they leave Razor Valley mostly uninhabited even though they're pretty much the only ones who can make a living there. Why not give some of their safer land to some deserving sovereigns? We could even give some land to Placeholden, so we'd finally be able to locate the damn place. This is a chance for justice to prevail, honored sovereigns. Don't let it pass you by!

I thank you again for your consideration, and I hope the Assembly comes to an agreeable consensus on the Disarrangement Act. Unfortunately, I will be unavailable for comment and/or arrest when this Committee's report is presented to the Assembly, as I will be taking a short vacation to go windstriding with Dr. Hanson through Yasser's Yells. Yasser's got a special deal for windstriding over Vulter I'm eager to take.

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Spheven Kain

Ah, Mr. Kain, I'm quite pleased that you found the time to put this together, what with how busy you've been clearing out your office over the past two years. (Speaking of which, I was pleasantly surprised to see your very clean office this morning. Though the loss of your academic career was tragic, I've always felt your work as a night janitor has been exceptional.) Now, I know you've had your qualifications revoked, but I do think this is good scholarship, so I'll see if I can get it into the final report. Enjoy your trip with Dr. Hanson!

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Dr. Herbert Jones
University of Eyesland
Professor of Cataloguing Various Things
Heinrich Stafford Chair of Arrangement
PhD in Miscenallia