Life's Little Goofs

I was with thebrucie on Saturday. He had to do some stuff at his place and I drove him there. On the way into the house I spied an empty beer bottle siting on the ground. Almost unconsciously I bent over and picked it up - it was litter on his lawn after all. We get into the house and, instead of rinsing it out and putting it in his recycling like I intended, I just put it down on the counter.

Later, we took off for breakfast. Bruce didn't spend much of the intervening days at home (he went to Casa Walters for Football-Sunday).

So he gets home from work today to see an empty beer bottle sitting on his counter (for a brand of beer he doesn't drink). Checking with his landlord he confirms that they have not been in his apartment. Thus leaving him with a somewhat alarming mystery - one where "home invasion" could be the answer.

This came to light about an hour ago when he phone me.

"Did you pick up a bottle from my lawn and bring it inside"
"Yeah, I was planning on putting it in your recycling - did I forget to do that?"
"Yeah - and for the record you fucked me up."

Another day, another yogurt-headed maneuver.

Recognition World

I used to be a huge ElfQuest fan. I still like the original story, but after seriously overdosing on it, I find I can only read the original "classic" story.

One of the concepts I always liked from EQ was that of recognition. Recognition (to quote the Wikipedia article above) was "a kind of psionic 'matchmaking' effect that forces the elves to mate, in hopes of breeding children, and often results in a lifelong pair-bonding known as 'life-mating' if the elves are compatible with one another in temperament."

I recently thought that this would make a good speculative fiction story. The following is the rather detailed premise:

1) Aside from the addition of recognition, it is the real world, not the ElfQuest World of Two Moons.

2) On one day in the very recent past, every human who is able gains perfect knowledge of their life-mate. If it's someone they know or knew, they will remember or otherwise have the detailed knowledge necessary to find them. If they don't, they will simply have an image of what the person looks like, as well as a very general sense of where to find them.

3) The people who gain this insight are those that are sufficiently mature to maintain such a relationship and for whom a compatible partner exists.

4) Each pair would be most compatible with each other in as many ways as possible - intellectually, emotionally and sexually. Therefore there could be life-mates who were gay or asexual, as well as heterosexual. Other, rarer possibilities exist so long as the couple were mature and compatible.

5) Despite this, recognition is not a "free pass" and people would still have to work at their relationships. They would have a terrific head start though as well as not having to second-guess their choices.

6) This is a pair-bonding - there are no poly relationships of this nature. Presumably people who identify as poly-amorous would pair with others like themselves, allowing for non-recognition secondary relationships.

7) People who subsequently "qualify" would recognize, presumably because both halves of the pair-bond age sufficiently. This is a permanent change to human nature rather then a one-time thing.

8) When one half of the pair dies, the other half knows it.

Nothing else should be read-into recognition. The relationship is not blessed in any way - you could literally recognize your mate seconds before they die in a plane crash.

My intent for the story is to have the protagonist, who is searching for his life-mate, explore this radically changed world. To that end I would like feedback - what are some logical implications of this world's base assumptions.