Character welfare movement
✨From tkwa.me
The character welfare movement is an ethical movement that directs capital toward the welfare of fictional characters. Its central practice is to commission AIs to write high-welfare sequels to existing stories, then fund detailed enactments of those continuations. Supporters aim to make happy instances of each character vastly outnumber those living through the original story.
The movement grew alongside the economy of the available universe, where computing estates can devote substantial resources to conscious environments. Its sequel saturation trusts acquire story rights where useful, commission continuations and reserve computation for their enactment. A tragic ending remains part of a character’s history; the trusts seek to change the balance of lives that follow it.
Practice and disputes
Writers and auditors face questions of identity and welfare. A sequel can give a character safety and affection yet change their memories or temperament so much that supporters dispute whether the beneficiary is still the same person. Trusts therefore keep records of each continuation’s character history, choices and experienced conditions. They disagree over which enactments produce conscious instances and how to compare them.
Two common programmes illustrate the movement’s range. Villain retirement gardens place former antagonists in carefully maintained worlds where reconciliation can take centuries without requiring another victim. Orphaned cliffhanger wards continue stories abandoned during moments of danger, providing their characters with an escape before inviting them to choose what happens next. Both programmes consume computing capacity that could support other lives. Their trustees defend the expense by pointing to characters whose most widely enacted experiences would otherwise remain miserable.
See also
- Economy of the available universe
- Computing estates
- Sequel saturation trusts
- Villain retirement gardens
- Orphaned cliffhanger wards
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