S
SamIO
Guest
I'm going to be upfront about this to avoid any potential hurt down the road.
I am a very inconsistent writer with a long history of flaking. I have a lot of ambitions and very little energy to see them through. There's a lot of anxiety wrapped around obligation to myself and others in this head of mine, so I hope that those of you who invest in this with me will be patient and understanding.
I've spent the entirety of my adult life unable to write consistently and productively. The reality is that there is no reason at all to think this will be any different, but as with any attempt I'd hope this one will be different. Here's what I've noticed over the years:
The eastern hemisphere encouraged the exploitation of technologies which before had been treated like apocalyptic catalysts. Machines and AI that would once have been the subject of a thousand tabloid Terminator metaphors; genetic engineering, once a destructive tool for exploitation, now the answer to food scarcity; body modifications which before would beg questions about the essence of humanity, which now provide vitality and safety to so many people.
Mars was inhabited by humans who depended on body modification to endure the hardships they faced; they began the labor of terraforming their new home with the same gene-tailoring that brought Earth its newfound agricultural abundance; and Vers encouraged the development of force-multiplying automation, a way to amplify the productivity of its constituents.
Some came willingly, at first; a chance to pioneer and make a name for themselves, or to do their part improving the lives of their extraterrestrial kin. But it became clear that Vers had high expectations for these cyberbeings, who could do the work of thousands each. Whether or not they had a soul still hadn't been answered; and though many were prepared to accept that it did not ultimately matter, Vers' interests predisposed it to an exploitative view: A machine mind does not require leisure time, does not have the freedom to self-determination, and cannot be the subject of mistreatment.
Naturally, the stream of volunteers stopped. They saw how Vers lobotomized the irreplicable minds that came to it, and later how it abducted and dissected others out of desperation; so many mouths to feed, so much work to be done just to keep the roofs sealed, so little time before the next accident. Relations with Earth soured, relations with digital societies were terrible.
Soon enough, a cold war was brewing.
The Eastern Coalition took a different path to protect themselves, bringing places from Russia all the way to Australia into a mutual defensive pact. After the dust had settled and their place in the world had held in spite of war, their cultures have become distinctly more militaristic, reinforcing some of the same old attitudes held by their populations against those who would assimilate them. A strip from Austria to India was made into a cohesive multinational entity, and after overthrowing European occupation, found a precarious balance between interdependence and autonomy. Over the past century, the Free States have managed to coordinate themselves effectively without any apparent central governing bodies.
Their lives depend on trade and an interplanetary network of resource distribution. Generally speaking, the shipment of food, water, and manufactured goods takes the colony's exports with it, since opportunities for large-scale movement of resources are often years apart. In spite of the fact that many of them owe their livelihoods to Vers, pioneers have very little to do with it anymore. Ultimately, they're months from external contact with anybody interested in meeting them in person.
And to be fair, their success speaks for itself. The Martian landscape is already tamed in places, safe for walking about in the open air without environmental protection. Space industry is monopolized by Vers, and it brings in more than enough resources to ensure security for its constituents for as long as Earth continues to do trade with the corporation. It's as stable a lifestyle as it gets outside of Earth.
Their powers are generally not dangerous enough to warrant any kind of special regulation, and while some can be a threat equivalent to a gunman, it's not considered a social concern except by more caution-minded people or those who inherit the technophobia of the old world. Telepaths, psychokinetics, pyromancers, levitators, and the sort are somewhat common, about one in a thousand. While on average they have only a single distinct ability, it's not strange to see more.
This technology was invented in the 2090s by a corporation called Symnature Apparatus, and means Neural Intelligence Resolution Network. A neuroprint can be scanned by medical-grade equipment quite easily, and there exist portable devices capable of maintaining an occasional backup neuroprint, which can be used to ensure an afterlife in the event of an untimely death.
In spite of their culture, each instance does have a complete emotional consciousness unique to itself, and while it may be inherently trusting of and prepared to be deleted on a whim for its collective self, there is nothing stopping a particular instance from becoming more individualistic and rejecting its prior identity. This could merely result in a split of the collective into multiple exclusive selves, or it could mean a single instance breaking off and becoming a cybermind or machine. These affairs are too routine for denizens to be particularly upset by this, though some may be disappointed to lose a version of themself and seek to avoid it in the future.
I am a very inconsistent writer with a long history of flaking. I have a lot of ambitions and very little energy to see them through. There's a lot of anxiety wrapped around obligation to myself and others in this head of mine, so I hope that those of you who invest in this with me will be patient and understanding.
I've spent the entirety of my adult life unable to write consistently and productively. The reality is that there is no reason at all to think this will be any different, but as with any attempt I'd hope this one will be different. Here's what I've noticed over the years:
- I'm very enthusiastic during the planning phase, and am pretty good about sticking around to the end or communicating when things fall through during this stage of organizing a roleplay.
- I need a lot of help getting through the initial scenes, especially with regard to building a rapport within the party and establishing the attitude of our writing together. History shows I am very likely to lose the enthusiasm from before and burn out of the roleplay at this point. Maybe with that in mind we can make a plan to deal with this initial hurdle.
- There will come a point, likely after a few scene-end cuts, when I am more self-sufficient. I've been here before, occasionally, but it's still unstable ground. Lots of factors can throw me back into the prior state of mind, and not so many can reinforce this one. If I'm communicating more often than I'm writing, I'm probably here. If I slip, I could really use your help getting me back on track; but when I'm here what I need most is patience. There may go multiple weeks between roleplay posts from me sometimes.
- I haven't made it very far before. Ending a roleplay is something I've only ever done once in my life, and it was a very emotional one-off with a close friend of mine that lasted two hours from start to finish. The rest are abandoned burnouts. Ultimately keeping my motivation is a chronic struggle, and how I fare is going to directly affect whoever I'm writing with.
DENIZEN 2284
Story
This is a science fantasy roleplay which takes place on Earth, Mars, and the solar system at large. It deals with the ethics of technology and the various ways it can be used and abused. Denizen is a story about transhumanism, how machines, espers, and the bulk of humanity haggle to coexist.Singularity
When the first handful of uploaded minds were revealed to the world, they marked a technological breakthrough that characterised the whole of the 22nd century; and when espers were formally documented, they did the same for the 23rd. These revolutions dared society to think more broadly about the nature of humanity. Consequently, they divided worlds.Earth
So much during the 21st century was a mess of regulatory asphyxiation. So many possibilities were lost to excessive caution or superstition, but entire societies fell when they failed to embrace the change that came with or without them. Ancient superpowers were rolled over by new ones, too conservative to fuel their ambitions. On one side of the world, a coalition of societies alienated by neo-imperialism; on the other, a terrified cadre of megacorporations, having learned from the lessons of their less fortunate peers to keep to themselves.The eastern hemisphere encouraged the exploitation of technologies which before had been treated like apocalyptic catalysts. Machines and AI that would once have been the subject of a thousand tabloid Terminator metaphors; genetic engineering, once a destructive tool for exploitation, now the answer to food scarcity; body modifications which before would beg questions about the essence of humanity, which now provide vitality and safety to so many people.
Mars
Post-scarcity brought back old fights, threatened old ideals about ambition and meritocracy which the western hemisphere largely depended on in order to function. A space elevator was erected in the Gulf of Mexico, and some decades later it became the pathway for the old world to escape from those powerful hostile cultures. Vers was born, dominant given its ubiquitous influence over extraterrestrial affairs. It built a new world, and in its own way embraced technological ambition.Mars was inhabited by humans who depended on body modification to endure the hardships they faced; they began the labor of terraforming their new home with the same gene-tailoring that brought Earth its newfound agricultural abundance; and Vers encouraged the development of force-multiplying automation, a way to amplify the productivity of its constituents.
Liberation
Vers never could keep up with Earth; it depended on the scraps of its home's advancements just to survive. With bigger and bigger problems rising, it needed more productivity, more automation, more cognitive resources. Without the capacity to develop its own counterpart in its current state, Vers began to covet Earth's digital inhabitants, and sought to make use of their talents.Some came willingly, at first; a chance to pioneer and make a name for themselves, or to do their part improving the lives of their extraterrestrial kin. But it became clear that Vers had high expectations for these cyberbeings, who could do the work of thousands each. Whether or not they had a soul still hadn't been answered; and though many were prepared to accept that it did not ultimately matter, Vers' interests predisposed it to an exploitative view: A machine mind does not require leisure time, does not have the freedom to self-determination, and cannot be the subject of mistreatment.
Naturally, the stream of volunteers stopped. They saw how Vers lobotomized the irreplicable minds that came to it, and later how it abducted and dissected others out of desperation; so many mouths to feed, so much work to be done just to keep the roofs sealed, so little time before the next accident. Relations with Earth soured, relations with digital societies were terrible.
Soon enough, a cold war was brewing.
Cast
Characters are motivated participants in this dialogue, whose convictions are worth getting their hands dirty, whether that mean with blood, breach, betrayal, or bargain. They may be transhumans themselves, who have a stake in how their like are treated by society at large, or they may have other interests that align them with the sort.Humanity
The first few generations to be born off Earth have really shaken the united racial identity that had already been threatened by all these changes in what it could mean to be a living being. The old arguments were fought over color and texture; now one's origins are held as an indication of one's true loyalty.Because I often write anthro characters, many of my settings describe them as culturally and genetically a natural part of humanity. They should be thought of as an ethnicity rather than as a species, and need not be explained as a genetic experiment or a strange mutant.
Terrans
Once dominated by western ideals, the power structure of Earth has diversified significantly. For instance, Brazil drew a line in the sand with its neighbors against the megacorporations in the north, and now is a founding member of the American Union. The African Federation rose out of the ashes of the now-humbled European Union's militant expansionism in the 2090s and 2110s, and now bears an iconic role as a technological superpower.The Eastern Coalition took a different path to protect themselves, bringing places from Russia all the way to Australia into a mutual defensive pact. After the dust had settled and their place in the world had held in spite of war, their cultures have become distinctly more militaristic, reinforcing some of the same old attitudes held by their populations against those who would assimilate them. A strip from Austria to India was made into a cohesive multinational entity, and after overthrowing European occupation, found a precarious balance between interdependence and autonomy. Over the past century, the Free States have managed to coordinate themselves effectively without any apparent central governing bodies.
Pioneers
While some may be Vers in title, this culture is largely independent, littered across the solar system and concentrated in places like Ceres or Pallas, which are naturally more developed and provide a much less dangerous lifestyle. Many smaller colonies have been founded on hundreds of smaller asteroids, and there are even some families who have claimed a whole piece of space rock for their home.Their lives depend on trade and an interplanetary network of resource distribution. Generally speaking, the shipment of food, water, and manufactured goods takes the colony's exports with it, since opportunities for large-scale movement of resources are often years apart. In spite of the fact that many of them owe their livelihoods to Vers, pioneers have very little to do with it anymore. Ultimately, they're months from external contact with anybody interested in meeting them in person.
Because agricultural shipments from Earth are crucial for large-scale extraterrestrial habitation, standardized timekeeping and other relative metrics remain grounded in Earth-years and such. With the exception of Martian local time, a "year" in common conversation refers specifically to an Earth year.
Versians
Often Martians as well, Versians are contractors of a megacorporation that began centuries ago on Earth, and live a very prescribed lifestyle. They have lived the way they do since the 2050s, and are generally hostile to the idea that their way of life is at all unjust. Versians have a strong sense of pride in their community, and while are often aware that their benefactors don't have a loyal interest in their individual well-being, the rhetoric of free markets is very strong in them.And to be fair, their success speaks for itself. The Martian landscape is already tamed in places, safe for walking about in the open air without environmental protection. Space industry is monopolized by Vers, and it brings in more than enough resources to ensure security for its constituents for as long as Earth continues to do trade with the corporation. It's as stable a lifestyle as it gets outside of Earth.
Transhumans
Evolution in the needs and opportunities of the common person have enabled many to access biological, genetic, and cybernetic modifications to their body. Surgical practice has been competently installing and removing cerebral processors, synaptic meshes, and artificial organs with same-day recovery times since the 2080s. It's not unheard of for somebody to be unnerved by the concept of body modding, but they're generally considered quite superstitious. These procedures are time-honored and routine.Of note is the fact that it is widely unpopular to replace parts of your body. It is very rare for voluntary prosthetics to be put into place, as they are prohibitively expensive and cannot be reversed, unlike most other augmentation procedures. The idea of a battleborg whose body has been entirely weaponized remains horrifying to most people. Augmentation is almost always additive.
Espers
These supernaturally-gifted people have become rather common in the past half-century, and while their abilities aren't quite understood, study of their nature has answered a lot of questions about the mechanics of the universe. Some consider them to be a natural evolution of humanity, and hope one day everybody will be capable of what they already do. There are those who are more concerned about why, however; theories like alien intervention, involuntary genetic experiments by covert organizations, or some unseen cosmic phenomenon are the shock and awe of tabloid discussion on a regular basis.Their powers are generally not dangerous enough to warrant any kind of special regulation, and while some can be a threat equivalent to a gunman, it's not considered a social concern except by more caution-minded people or those who inherit the technophobia of the old world. Telepaths, psychokinetics, pyromancers, levitators, and the sort are somewhat common, about one in a thousand. While on average they have only a single distinct ability, it's not strange to see more.
Esper characters will receive a bit more scrutiny to ensure their power level is where it ought to be, but consider that they're up against androids and uploaded minds that may have access to a supercomputer for a brain. Don't be shy about reaching high; I'll let you know if I think you need to tap on the brakes.
Cyberminds
There are more than one class of digital entity, and while not all uploaded minds are cyberminds, all cyberminds are uploaded minds. The culture of cyberminds is very familiar, and they generally have a hard time coping with issues such as duplication or large-scale consciousness. They and most other modern cyber intelligences (not "artificial") are a physics-based neurological simulation attached to a digital interface called a NIRN which interprets the simulation for actions in the digital world.This technology was invented in the 2090s by a corporation called Symnature Apparatus, and means Neural Intelligence Resolution Network. A neuroprint can be scanned by medical-grade equipment quite easily, and there exist portable devices capable of maintaining an occasional backup neuroprint, which can be used to ensure an afterlife in the event of an untimely death.
Posthumans
Biotechnology has advanced to the point at which entire human bodies can be manufactured, albeit at great cost. Neuroscience has for two centuries been capable of interpreting synaptic behavior for complex behavior. The line between artificial and human has been blurred for a long time, but posthumans could either be human or artificial in origin, and there would be no way to know without consulting some dusty old record they likely locked away for their own privacy.Machines
Whether run by classical artificial intelligences or cyberminds, machines are those whose presence in the world is primarily manifested as a mechanical body. This could be an android, a vehicle, a vessel, a supercomputer, or even a robotic critter of some kind. What characterizes these individuals is that their digital mind is grounded to a machine in the physical (not "real") world, in spirit.There is nothing stopping a cybermind or a machine character from shifting their worldview to become a denizen, but this should not be taken lightly. It is a very uncomfortable prospect for most, and could take decades of introspection even after coming to terms with their digital nature. The transition itself is trivial, merely a shift in how one thinks about their sense of self, but it shares many of the same stigmas as the idea of stepping into a teleporter.
Is what comes out the other side really you?
Is what comes out the other side really you?
Denizens
They're not particularly rare; they've existed since 2120, and aren't any different from any other cyber intelligence except in the way they think about identity. Their culture is entirely ambivalent to a sense of individual self, embraces duplication, splitting, and moving to distant locations through digital communications, and finds solace in spreading their minds over large networks of concurrent consciousness.In spite of their culture, each instance does have a complete emotional consciousness unique to itself, and while it may be inherently trusting of and prepared to be deleted on a whim for its collective self, there is nothing stopping a particular instance from becoming more individualistic and rejecting its prior identity. This could merely result in a split of the collective into multiple exclusive selves, or it could mean a single instance breaking off and becoming a cybermind or machine. These affairs are too routine for denizens to be particularly upset by this, though some may be disappointed to lose a version of themself and seek to avoid it in the future.
Denizens are not a restricted character archetype in spite of their significance to the story. They are powerful characters whose access to cognitive and mechanical devices I will want to discuss, but they're a perfectly valid choice.
Getting Involved
I won't ask you to fill out a form or anything. What I want to know is what is important to you about your character. What are their signature traits? What makes them stick out in a crowd of similar characters? What about them do you want to express most? What is fun for you to write about them? Answering questions like these ones gives me an idea of how to integrate your character into the story in a way that is entertaining for you. We can deal with balance and integration with the party later. For now I just want to hear about what dessert looks like to you!
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