What Football Will Look Like In The Future - Blog Posts

Some doodles from the past few weeks ^^!!

Oooffff I'll try to keep this short - as I AM one to ramble.

17776 has a special place in my heart. I love the aspects it focuses on and the different plots we have going on as you read. So many wonder "why football?" Well, Jon Bois is a sports writer, so of course he would write an express his thoughts through something he is familiar with. Sure, you could see it as a funny space football web comic, but there is SO MUCH more to be explored within it.

Now, if you told me if my generation would be the last on this earth, everyone is immortal, and the sun would never explode, I would essentially freak out. To combat that, having something that provides a distraction for an eternity - in this case, football- would be sufficient. You forget that feeling of dread and worry because you're occupied.

You could do the most insane shit you wanted because you have nothing to lose. Setting up the most extreme games with outrageous rules is just part of the fun.

I love how people keep the world pretty much the same. No advancements, nothing like that. Maybe it's a fear of change? But anyways- it's kinda like a comfort, knowing that things stay familiar forever, you don't have to change a thing.

People can achieve whatever goals they want. Go back to school, get a thousand college degrees, learn all the languages, knit the longest scarf, anything- because there is always time. You don't have any limitations.

One concept I'd love to see more of are the nanos. They just seem interesting to me, but they are kinda just briefed over. Same with animals, too. I know Jon touched upon this in a QnA, but I'd love to know more.

To wrap this up, there's just no words to truly explain how invested I am in this series, and I'm glad you asked this question!!

I'm working on something related to 17776/20020. Just curious, do any of you have any thoughts on the series like themes, meanings, anything that stuck w you specifically? or what you didn't like about it?

Happy birthday Pioneer Nine!!! I don’t have enough Time to do a full drawing like I wanted to but here is a little craft I made featuring them ^^

a while back i drew the dang space probes as humans because i am so mentally ill. here they freaking are

i made them all from the locations the probes were actually launched from, so nine and ten are from florida and juice is from france

first image text (characters in order of appearance from left to right):

Ten:

- would dress nice/more fem

- literally just nine but a bit younger

Nine:

- business casual kinda thing

- freckles from florida sun

- still heavily influenced by 60s fashion

- tallest

Juice:

- generic sports t-shirt

- puts on glasses when commissioner mode

- blonde

- solar panel earrings

- french guy

- tooth gap

- shortest

Salmon Run

A HEFTY VOICE MESSAGE FROM LOUISE CARRIGAN TO HER WIFE, ANNE DAVIS, FALL 17770.

Immortality’s a funny thing. I think—I think I forgot how to struggle. Before us, I mean. You know, back home in Alaska. Yeah, of course there was always some kinda crap, but mostly it was the same stuff day-in-day-out. I’d go to work in the morning and leave work in the afternoon. My job was important, sure, but I’d been doing it so long it just felt like busywork. The day I got my position, though, it felt good. That was what, almost sixteen thousand years ago? Way before we met...

Isn’t that crazy? I lived almost a hundred and sixty lifetimes before I met you.

It definitely didn’t feel like it.

Anyways, on with the message—sorry, this one’s gonna be a devil to listen to. Tell your brother I say hi, by the way! I’m only about 9 hours to Asheville now. Might be a tad more, ‘cause the truck tire just popped. You know, it was just some nail lying about on the road. And the thing is, the roads here are real nice!

ANYWAYS, for real this time, I was finally doing something to give back to the environment. Lord, we really fucked everything up. When I took the job, the chinook runs were really bad. I mean, so many of those salmon were dying during the run or before the run and it was just hell at the fishery. It got better, of course. It all got better, but then there wasn’t this constant stress anymore. After a while they were fine. Still needed management, but it wasn’t as crazy as it used to be. No more fighting with the fishermen ‘cause they didn’t live off of it, you know. Most of the people who fished then were just hobbyists and families—didn’t need much management then. So I went to work and I picked up any book I had lying around the house. This was before I went to college for the first time, so it was just everything I had from high school.

So I started reading Catcher in the Rye, you know, with Holden Caulfield and that hunting hat of his? And I was reading it at work and he said something that kinda snapped me out of everything. He said, “mothers are all slightly insane.” And you know what, that really got me thinking. My mom had been gone a while and I’d been at peace with it a while, too. There were hard days and there will always be hard days, but what I really missed was something she used to do when I was in high school. You know how much of a shit I was then, I took nothing seriously, and you know, she’d always tell me, “God’s watching, Louise.” It wasn’t in too serious a tone, but man, she said it all the damn time. And whenever I fumble one of your absolute dimes, I hear her in my head, going “God’s watching, Louise.” And she had that real thick Appalachian accent too—if you thought mine was bad, you shoulda met her. And I’d tell her right back, “Oh I know he’s watching. Bet he’s cracking up watching me stumble ‘cross the field.”

Anyways, back then when I worked at the fishery, I never did anything that would make her say that. Nothing that was crucial—you know, critical, in-the-moment stuff that God would wanna be watching. I had so much time there. I still have so much time here. And so one day I went out to one of the rivers and I looked at all the salmon, swimming upstream and strugglin’ forever against the current. And I said to myself, I wanna do that. I wanna feel anxious again. I wanna be embarrassed again. I want to trip over my own shoelaces in the middle of the big game.

And it’s kinda funny, cause after that happens, you’re like, “good Lord Above, I never wanna experience that ever again.” But it’s a lie, cause when things get too good, then they’re not good anymore, you know? And I guess that why we do it. Why I keep going back to college even though school’s always my least favorite thing in the whole wide world. And why I keep trying new sports even though the only one I’m good at is that damned football. Hey, I mean, hockey’s fun, but Christ am I a crap skater.

And I guess most important, it’s how I met you—Lord do I remember that! Spillin’ my water and all that fuss. Damn near our whole relationship was swimming upstream, you know that? But shit if it wasn’t worth it. Everything was worth it. I mean, I’ll probably use that radiochemistry knowledge somewhere…

Well, I don’t even know what I’m talking about anymore. I was just thinking and didn’t want to forget anything. But now I’m rambling again. Sorry bout that. Now this thing’s gonna be like an hour long. I’ve gotta quit while I’m ahead. Love you, babe. See you tomorrow.

More Louise 17776!

yes the first graphic is based on the blues traveler song... whenever i hear it it reminds me of game 96249 and then i get to thinking about Louise again

+ Delivering on the NC flyer. Save the date!!!

(mountain images i used r all under cc)

Got into 17776 and just finished 20020. My mind is buzzing. so i made an oc. I love nothing if not sports

A bunch of stuff ft. Louise and a little flyer i made for my made up Alaskan all stars series.. North Carolina coming next cause i gotta represent my state ✊

here they all are!

pioneer 9 patch i made for my pants! im currently working on 10, and JUICE is next.

pioneer 9 patch i made for my pants! im currently working on 10, and JUICE is next.

I'm working on something related to 17776/20020. Just curious, do any of you have any thoughts on the series like themes, meanings, anything that stuck w you specifically? or what you didn't like about it?

The Bulb and Space Probe Death: A Brief Essay

Something that I don’t recall being addressed in 17776 is the fact that the space probes are not immortal. The humans are on Earth where the nanobots and their mysterious longevity prevent them from dying, but Nine, Ten and Juice are in space.

The only thing protecting them from system failure and natural wear and tear is presumably that they are capable of self-repair. If they ever experienced a damage too great for them to fix themselves, Juice is the only one close enough to Earth to have any hope of being reached in time.

I think that the reason the death of the Bulb was so deeply sad and disturbing to the probes is it reminded them that like the Bulb, they are ultimately objects that can be damaged and destroyed. Like the football that obliterated the Bulb, Nine, Ten, and Juice could be hit by an asteroid or any other space debris and die (particularly if they were distracted or asleep and didn’t see it coming).

They could flicker out of existence at any moment. It’s a slim possibility, but the possibility of that football hitting the Bulb was also nearly nonexistent.

This also means that Nine and Ten could, in theory, commit suicide by piloting into a star or planetary body intentionally (that is, if they ever got close enough to one) or that a human could do the same by going to space or somewhere else without nanobots (assuming that the nanos don’t cling too or cloud around humans too closely for that to be possible). 

I also find the role reversal in 17776 quite interesting. Once, objects outlived their creators, they were what remained after they were gone and preserved their memory. Objects, naturally, are meant to last longer than people. But in 17776, the opposite is true. Footballs can burn to ash in car accidents, light bulbs can shatter, and, possibly, sentient space probes can die.

This was meant for my 17776 blog (@we-perpetually-hang-out) but is posted here instead due to tag issues.

The Objecthead Phenomenon: Another Brief Essay

One of the most thought provoking concepts in 17776 is the idea of a mind with all the emotions and complexities of a human being forced to inhabit a completely inhuman body. Juice, Nine, and Ten do not, and never will, have human bodies. They will never experience what it is like to have a human body - additionally, this means machines, unlike humans, have to consider their own mortality and come to terms with their weird, disjoined, person-object existence. 

The fact that space probes, who are completely physically different from an organic being, mange to be so human is something that makes 17776 so special. This also leads to me having what I can imagine are controversial tastes in fanart: I don’t particularly care for the “objecthead” designs and feel they undermine one of the most important things about Nine, Ten and Juice as characters.

 Like, Jon Bois created these remarkable and bizarre characters, who are intentionally physically inhuman, something that has significance in the story - and people immediately decided to go ahead and draw them in order to…undo that.  This is why the objecthead or humanized fanart saddens me a bit. 

I do, however, understand the desire to further anthropomorphize the probes. After all, it’s frustrating for characters with such distinct personalities to be completely physically inexpressive. Nine, Ten, and Juice don’t have facial expressions (other than emoticons, of course). They don’t pose, they don’t wear clothes, they can’t touch or physically interact or any way. That makes it pretty much impossible to easily make visually interesting art, as you could only ever draw them. Uh. Floating in space. Visually unchanging. Forever and ever. Not exactly appealing. 

In a way, the objecthead phenomenon in 17776 fanart provides some poetic insight: the idea that these beloved characters are objects is uncomfortable. We want to give them bodies that correspond with their personalities, we want them to be physically expressive. We want to give them these experiences that they will never be able to have. I can imagine that the probes feel these things too, this desire to have their consciousness match what their body looks and feels like. 

Practically the first thing Nine assumes when they wake up is that they are trapped aboard the probe and need to escape. They experience a moment of visceral panic and existentialism, which I found very distressing because they are trapped in a space probe. Their first instinct is to leave, to get out, and that will never happen. There is no hope of escape. 

Juice also demonstrates this kind of thinking in a much more lighthearted way during the spaghetti conversation in the first chapter of 20020. The nonexistent bowl of spaghetti shows that the probes, or at least Juice, do imagine themselves with bodies, doing human things. This makes you wonder how often they think about the things they will never be able to experience. Do Nine and Ten wish that they could hug? Does Juice lament not being able to enjoy a Lunchable or catch a football?

This was meant for my 17776 blog (@we-perpetually-hang-out) but is posted here instead due to tag issues.