When the Yogurt Took Over story
A group of scientists mutates yogurt by fermenting bacteria. Although initial tests fail, a researcher takes the mutated bacteria home for her homemade yogurt, where it becomes sentient. The yogurt asks to meet US leaders, to whom it claims to have solutions for the country's problems. As payment, the yogurt requests control over the state of Ohio. The leaders, including the president, initially laugh at the offer, but accept it after the yogurt threatens to make a similar deal with China instead. Soon, the yogurt gives the president a plan to eradicate the United States national debt, warning him that any deviation will be catastrophic. The government cannot help but deviate, and the global economy collapses within 6 months except for Ohio. In desperation, the government gives the yogurt supreme executive power over much opposition. A decade later, humans live prosperous lives under the yogurt's reign. The yogurt suddenly decides to initiate space launches, leaving the humans behind on Earth. Cast: Maurice LaMarche, Alexia Dox Directed by: Victor Maldonado & Alfredo Torres. Story by: John Scalzi.
7 total · 1 choice · 3 major · 3 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| biologically distinguished being | choice | The story posits that yogurt bacteria somehow became sentient and subjugated humanity, but also also built a utopia for us. |
| anthropogenic existential risk to civilization | major | Human civilization inadvertently created a yogurt bacterial that they became subservient to and utterly dependent upon. Then the yogurt left, leaving open the question of what would happen to humanity. |
| institutional risk to civilization | major | Only Ohio, which was under the rule of the yogurt, was spared from the global economic collapse that unfolded. |
| ruling elite utopia | major | Humanity handed over the reigns of government to the yogurt, and the yogurt went on to build a society in which people flourished and were prosperous. |
| negotiation | minor | The yogurt deftly negotiated a 100 year lease on Ohio from the United States government. |
| socioeconomic issue | minor | The President of the United States considered the national debt to be a serious problem. He put into effect the yogurt's plan to pay it off within a year. The result was catastrophe because they failed to follow the yogurt's plan in every detail. |
| space colonization | minor | The story ended with the yogurt beings departing Earth in several rockets to make a new life for themselves among the stars. |