Any thoughts or criticism on the following description of my setting and story basis would be much appreciated. I am particularly keen for feedback on the following points: Is my world interesting/thought provoking/cool? Have I included any clichés or accidental plagiarisms? Are my pseudo-scientific explanations interesting and clear, or are they boring or over explained? Initial setting: The game world is set in the near future. Computational power has become the most valuable commodity. Whoever has access to the most computational power can perform the most advanced research, deliver the best entertainment, and have the most rapid, intricate military response. Previously, computational power was purchased on demand from CPU farms, enormous banks of computers deep underground. However, recent technological breakthroughs in the field of "offloading" have drastically changed the global economy. Offloading involves using the computational power of the human cerebellum to perform calculations. If a person dons a special cap, their cerebellum can be utilised to perform useful calculations. The cap delivers electrical impulses into certain neurons, and monitors other neurons for output. Evolving control systems learn to interpret these outputs to perform calculations, the results of which can be transmitted by the cap to other "capped" cerebellums for further processing. The more people who are wearing these caps, the more computational power is available. Computational Power wholesalers quickly caught on to the idea, paying the general populace to wear caps while going about their day to day activities. The wholesalers compete with each other to offer the most attractive offers to their "computers", while still remain competitive from selling the computing power they acquire. The developing countries, with their massive, tightly packed populations, have become the new superpowers. Their huge population base, and hence computing reserve, flipped the global economy on it's head. Their exports are dwarfing anything the developed world has to offer, and their military planning and information processing abilities are overwhelming. The game takes place in a developed world city heading into a depression. The player works in the lab that developed Offloading. The player is a researcher who's entire post graduate career has been devoted to looking into the "pattern" phenomenon: Life is a pattern that catalyses it's own repetition. Any system where a self catalysing pattern can arise is a viable environment for evolution, with the patterns that undergo random variation to promote their own spread becoming prolific. A pattern that does the best would be one that alters it's hosts neuro-chemical environment to the state which it flourishes best in. The player is noticing certain numerical patterns starting to arise in the calculations performed by the population. A massive explosion perforates a parade occuring in the city centre. Soon after, without explanation, the Wholesalers who fund the player's research shuts down his lab, just as he is making progress into understanding the patterns. Story progression (Things that happen/are revealed as the story unfolds): Initially, the player is trying to figure out why the lab was shut down, while keeping enough revenue flowing to try and complete his own research. This will see the player renting out his unique skills, and also utilising them to his own ends. As a member of a lab specialising on research relating to patterns and offloading, he has access to tools that allow him to leach computing power off the internerual networks without paying for it. This gives him an edge in subterfuge through his hacking abilities, and combat: With enough processing power almost anything is possible. Electrons in the brain exert a tiny gravitational force on every other atom in the universe. With massive amounts of computing power, it is possible to figure out the exact combination of neurons to trigger to achieve almost any effect through this incredibly subtle interaction. Knocking enemies over through Brownian motion, interpreting sound as sonar, coalescing and igniting atmospheric gases, animating inanimate objects, anything. The more complicated the task, the more processing power is required. An alliance of Computing Wholesalers, Mass Media networks, and Corporations are aggressively marketing their entertainment and products. The Wholesalers are trying to get everyone thinking the same way at the same time to achieve a homogenous population to maximise the efficiency of their computer networks. The Mass Media want the advertising revenue they will receive from having everyone watch their shows, and the Corporations want an easy population to market to with an advertising suffused media. Some of the populace are starting to feel the pinch from the depression. What they see on the TV and hear from their parents contrasts wildly with the situation they now find themselves in. Both the saturation media and the widespread dissent are proving fertile grounds for the emergence and evolution of patterns. Both patterns are gaining intelligence and attempting to expand the populace they can breed in. The Media Pattern is encouraging sameness, hero worship, and discouraging independent thought. The Dissenting pattern is trying to spread crime, chaos, misery and suffering. The Wholesalers are attempting to suppress any inkling of the existence of the Media Pattern. The Developing countries are starting to cast a greedy eye over the newly crippled Developed world. The main story will occur in the city and tell the progression of the player and the conflict between the player and the Wholesalers, Mass Media, and Corporations. The player can either side with or fight the Dissenting Pattern. A number of side quests will explore other scientific possibilities, moral choices, stories, and characters. These will either be set in the main city or in less central cities or villages. This should allow me to use the city to tell a traditional, chapter based story such as Neverwinter Nights or Planescape Torment featured, while still having free roaming exploration elements like Fallout and Arcanum had. If you managed to get to this point, thanks for reading! I know it's a fairly dense block of text. In the game world it would be delivered through conversations, rumours, newspapers, history books, game play, etc.

Hmmm, interesting. The only part I don't like is the idea that the player has to side with one of these two patterns. If he's a pattern theorist, shouldn't he be able to start his own competing better patterns, or locate the seeds of them in other people and encourage them to blossom? It seems like hiding/running from enemies, maybe trying to distract the two groups of enemies by turning them against each other, while trying to figure out a pattern which can defeat these two bad ones and create an environment humans could live happily in, would make for an exciting and philosophically interesting game. [smile]

Sorry, I didn't word that very clearly. The player will be unable to side with the Media Pattern, but is given the oportunity to side with or fight the Dissenting Pattern.
Something that I'm very much against is mob mentality and cookie cutter media, so that's reflected in the player not being given the choice to join the Wholesalers. Homogeny and stasis are the enemies of this story.

However, a moral dilema that I do face is whether I should do things that will primarily benefit myself, or benefit others. Siding with the Dissenting Pattern will give the player instant rewards at the expense of others, in the form of things he's stolen, people he's inslaved, etc. The players ultimate goal would be to use his research to become the avatar of the Dissenting Pattern and crushing the status quo. Plus it gives me the opportunity to include funny evil dialogue, without just being a thug or bully with no real motivation to act that way (as in KOTOR).

Going against the Dissenting Pattern gives the player the opportunity to use the research for more altruistic purposes (and the oportunity to dazzle the world with his discoveries, fame, and fortune of couse). NPC's who would be enslaved under the Dissenting Pattern become allies (not necissarily party members) once helped.
The idea here would be to find an oxymoronic pattern, one that decreed "The only thing everyone must agree on is to think for themselves" (aka, the only rule is there is no rules).

I hadn't thought of playing the patterns off against each other, thanks for the idea.

Overall, I find the concept and your fictional world intriguing, but I'm having a difficult time believing that even with massive neuro-computational power that someone would be able to wield super-natural powers without also having a power source to exucute the desired effects. I don't think neuro-electric reactions in the brain are a substantial power source to make this plausible.

I actually have something similar in one of my fictional stories (a story that I've been working on for almost 11 years), but the seemingly super-natural abilties aren't powered by the mind alone, but through remote communication with scalar electromagnetic interferometers, which actually are the vehicle for power delivery of the desired effect. I know this is a rather technical and finicky critique, but it popped into my head right away. This can probably be attributed to the fact that I've given a LOT of thought to remotely controlling natural phenomena, so the average player may not expect or even want a more in-depth explanation for the technology. For a game I wouldn't expect any more explanation then what you already have, but I would expect more for a book.

As far as the other aspects of the story/premise are concerned, I like the idea of having the main character play as a researcher, but I have to agree with Sun and Shadow that given his/her area of study that another approach to harmonizing the division between the emerging pattern classes is for him to propose or develop his own pattern, or possibly shatter the idea that collective human thought can be categorized into patterns at all as you have suggested. I also think you should definetely build upon the concept of the media as a visibly hidden (an oximoron I know, but there's rationale to the statement) malevolent force. As far as execution goes, I would like to see a game that presents this view on a realistic subtle level as opposed to an in-your-face you'd-have-to-be-stupid-not-to-notice level.

Let me know if you want me to elaborate on anything.
So far though, it seems to have potential.
Good luck.

Quote: Original post by WorldPlanterI actually have something similar in one of my fictional stories (a story that I've been working on for almost 11 years), but the seemingly super-natural abilties aren't powered by the mind alone, but through remote communication with scalar electromagnetic interferometers, which actually are the vehicle for power delivery of the desired effect.

How's that work?

Quote: Original post by Beige
How's that work?

Well I'll break it down to the simplest concepts, because I don't really want to give away the details since I've dedicated a great deal of effort researching and developing this fictional technology (based on known and theoretical concepts).

Basically though, you would have the biological user (the human), the communication device, the effect focusing device, and the actual effect delivery device. The delivery device in specific regards to my technological system is a scalar electromagnetic interferometer, which essentially is a highly advanced electromagnetic broadcasting tower powered by a generator that has the ability to remotely release and manipulate longitudinal electromagnetic energy at specified points in space-time. The broadcasting tower/station does not actually have to send large quantities of energy anywhere, but rather modulates and creates an electromagnetic frequency to utilize energy where it already exists. The way this energy is released and used determines the resulting synthesized phenomena.

For example, an exothermic release of electromagnetic energy could be executed in a precise spatial relationship to an endothermic energy effect, essentially creating a hot-cold atmospheric condition that could be continually amplified by the same repeated procedures to produce an artificial tornado or hurricane. Weather control. Knowing the where, the when, the power, and frequency required to cause these exothermic and endothermic reactions to cause the desired result is where the computational power and effect focusing device come into play.

Typically this effect could be controlled and directed from the broadcasting station itself through user controlled software, but it could also be controlled by a remote user that has a communication device linked to the broadcasting tower's information/processing system. This could be a small implanted chip connected to the brain or it could be integrated into the cerebellum caps that were described.

The communication device could also be detached from the user and integrated with the actual focusing device. The focusing device would be something that is sensitive to the environment that could detect atmospheric pressure, chemical composition, temperature, humidity, gravity/acceleration force, etc. It would then be the medium that directs, initiates, and receive feedback from the effect that is being generated by the broadcasting tower/station. If this device was attached or integrated into the user then it's possible that a human could control the necessary parameters with enough computational power as CIJolly suggests.

As another line of interaction, I guess you could look into aspects of string theory. Maybe technology is advanced enough in the future to allow humans to control the natural resonant vibrations of strings, hence controlling manifested force and matter. How anyone could control something less than the Planck Length is beyond me, but it is science fiction after all. It still seems though that this technology would require a manipulation device seperate of the biological user. Anyway, there are a few good books out there on String Theory if you're interested in pursuing alternate explanations for the technology.

Like I said earlier though, most players won't be as critical of your explanations and technology so it may not be worth pursuing the matter any further than you already have.

It's true that the electromagnetic or gravitational forces exerted by ions moving in the brain wouldn't be enough to enact change, but it wouldn't be the electrons themselves that provided the energy for the change. They would simply be the first input of energy into the system, providing a tiny amount of activation energy to begin a snowballing effect, each reaction serving as the activation energy for another reaction to gain even more energy.
Just like you supply a tiny amount of energy in the form of a match to start a fire, but the net energy you get from a forest fire is enourmous. The final energy of the system would be reduced, of course.
It takes a few joules to push a boulder off a cliff, but if it hits someone on the ground they're going to be feeling a few thousand.
Another analogy is the butterfly flapping it's wings in New Zealand causing hurricanes two months later in Australia.
There are all manner of energy sources that could be utilised. Increasing entropy, igniting gases, fusing molecules/atoms, exploiting pressure differences, gravitiational energy, etc.

It would be possible, but would require an astronomical amount of processing power, and also exact knowledge about the starting state of the system.
The processing power isn't a problem, because I can make my fictional interneural network as powerful as I want.
Given astronomical processing power, it would be possible to deduce the starting state of the system by monitoring the actions of only a few atoms.

You're probably right that most players wont want to know about the nitty gritty of it though. I will probably just explain the fundamentals of it to the player through conversations and simple analogies, and then put the more detailed explainations in datafiles, books and the like.

As far as the patterns go, I wasn't actually trying to convey that human thought could be catatogrised into patterns. Pattern was just a name I came up with; virus, "digital" lifeform, propagating consciousness, god...none of them really seemed to roll off the tongue as well.
The Dissenting Pattern is a pretty simple idea revolving around the cycle of violence. Do unto others as they will do unto their children.
The Media Pattern will be used to demonstrate the dangers of stagnation, lack of independant thought, and homogeny. I can see that that wouldn't come through well in what I have written so far, as I have not covered the downfall of the patterns.

Thanks for pointing out any elements that aren't clear or seem implausable. If I don't succeed in convincing people on forums about the validity of these ideas/theories, then players wont be convinced either. I will probably use the explainations from this thread to further clarify things to the player.

[Edited by - CIJolly on July 13, 2006 2:27:11 PM]

I really like where this can go. I took me 2 reads but it finally settled in.

I think I can see this idea really developing some special and interesting characters.

Are you shooting for a Gibson inspired cyberpunk theme?

I wont worry to much about how or why things happen. All you have to do is say that xyz happens and readers can naturally accept most things.

Yeah, I like this. It really sounds like something William Gibson would write about in his latest novels. Not so much his earlier stuff (nuromancer/count zero)