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Author Topic: Not enough sci-fi tech in RP  (Read 5014 times)

Seriphyn

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Not enough sci-fi tech in RP
« on: 30 Jul 2012, 16:58 »

A bit of a blanket statement, and I go in aware that I might miss horribly, but I've been watching a bit of Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex recently and been thinking. We get a lot of the "high technology", such as capsule, pod, implants, so forth. But what I would like to see more of is living and domestic technology, stuff our characters talk about IC. It might be something Gallente/Caldari are used to (in terms of social distribution), but as capsuleers, we all have homogenized standards.

In this episode, a company takes genes from clients and splices them into pigs, growing them organs via this 'natural' method. If the client has an organ failure, it's taken from the pig. There's also stuff with androids (something mysteriously absent from RP), entire prosthetic bodies, cyberbrains, and so forth. In fact, the main method of how the characters communicate remotely in Ghost in the Shell is almost via a telepathy, but is actually just implant plugged into a neural network; sort of how I imagine capsuleers communicating when they go out and about.

I might be looking in the wrong areas of RP, and it might be that syndrome where since there's no "avatar play" in EVE, we're not given enough scope to imagine such things (outside of ship tech). There was an interesting discussion I drummed up in the Summit (at least I felt it was interesting), about android/gynoid maids in a hotel Seriphyn was staying at, and clients attempting to sexually harass/assault said droids would find themselves in an armlock and subdued for "unbecoming behaviour towards hotel property". I think we associate 'drones' immediately with the space kind, so that might be why we don't see them imagined in RP.

It's right in articles like caretaker drones...

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Caretaker drones are, at their core, relatively simple devices. Most take a vaguely humanoid shape, with two arms, a torso, and a head with a “face”. Some have legs for locomotion, but many use treads or antigravity lifts for more efficient movement. Earlier drones were decidedly non-human and possessed a variety of forms; typically this meant several spider-like appendages and clusters of probes. However, these drones were found to be highly distressing, especially to children and patients with dementia, and were replaced with the more-familiar humanoid drones common today. These older drones still see some use as assistants to human nurses and in poverty-stricken areas where newer models cannot be afforded.

And AI...

Quote
Entertainment
AI performers, similar in construction to the Aura AI, have gained popularity in recent years, particularly in the Federation. AI musicians create inoffensive songs for mass consumption, with appearances designed to appeal to specific demographics, particularly teenagers. Virtual actors and actresses have starred in blockbuster holovids, with a certain subsection of the populace preferring them to flesh-and-blood performers.

Sort of tangentialized there, but rather than me assuming such ideas aren't used, what sort of domestic/lifestyle technology do you use in your roleplaying, or are apart of your character?
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Katrina Oniseki

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Re: Not enough sci-fi tech in RP
« Reply #1 on: 30 Jul 2012, 17:06 »

Simca and Kat uses a robotic dog that emulates behaviors of real dogs, sorta. Kat uses a lot of futuretech in her kitchen. I make up vague and odd appliances that she cooks with all the time. Like that weird thing Beru Lars was putting cabbage inside in Star Wars: A New Hope.

Vieve

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Re: Not enough sci-fi tech in RP
« Reply #2 on: 30 Jul 2012, 18:05 »

  • Programmable/voice-responsive sticky notes (Post-ItsTM)
  • Personal security drones (think floating balls of blasters).
  • Injectable micro-cleaner bombs.
  • Micro EMP Burst generators (Vieve's wedding ring is both beautiful and practical).
  • Passive locator "dots".  Stick one on someone's skin, and the microscopic grapples connected to it hook into the skin cells, essentially fusing them with the target's body.  The dot is permeated with a marking chemical that makes it turn up on a handheld scanner, or to tracking drones.
  • Automated police drones (their limited AIs allow them to parse potential criminal behavior from the holo monitoring/human voice stress level/biochemical sniffing they do). 
  • Automatic plant watering/fertilizing boxes.
  • Automated snow/ice removal system.
  • Eyedrops that temporarily change the color of one's eyes.  ("Duvolle Blue Eleventy-Two").
  • Manicure/pedicure colors that automatically change to a shade that complements one's outfit ("Artenails").
  • Holoprint fabric that cycles through different patterns or designs.
I'm sure there are others.  Those are the only ones I could think of right now.
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Makkal

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Re: Not enough sci-fi tech in RP
« Reply #3 on: 30 Jul 2012, 18:13 »

The thing about technology is that once humans integrate it into our life, we tend not to talk about it unless it's broken or we're a technophile. I use a computer every day, but have gotten into one 'computer discussion' in the last couple of months when a wire slipped and was tapping against one of the fans.

And people discuss or describe relevant matters.  If I tell you that I made toast and eggs for breakfast, I assume you know that I have an oven with burners and a toaster. I won't sit there and describe this wonderful technology that lets me stick slices of bread into slots and toast them individually.

I occasionally have Makkal plug in her earjack; it's a device that pumps audio signals to the brain and also stimulates the amygdala, so the music will make you feel a certain way. She treats it the same way I treat headphone, which mean she assumes everyone knows what it is and how it works.

Likewise, when Seryph brought up the robot maid, Makkal reacted the same way she would if it were the modern day and a dude at a party decided to start a conversation about vacuum cleaners and how some people are sexually attracted to them.
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Jev North

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Re: Not enough sci-fi tech in RP
« Reply #4 on: 30 Jul 2012, 18:22 »

"The door dilated."
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Ulphus

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Re: Not enough sci-fi tech in RP
« Reply #5 on: 30 Jul 2012, 18:42 »

Quotes from Hardwired...

Quote from: Hardwired, by Walter Jon Williams
I LOVE MY KIKUYU EYES, SEZ PRIMO PORNOSTAR ROD MCLEISH, AND WITH THE INFRARED OPTION, I CAN TELL IF MY PARTNER’S REALLY EXCITED OR IF I’M JUST ON A SILICON RIDE . . . KIKUYU OPTICS I.G., A DIVISION OF MIKOYAN-GUREVICH

Quote
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LOSES PATERNITY SUIT “MY LITTLE ANDROID HAS A NAME,” SOBS GRATEFUL MOTHER
KOROLEV I.G. OFFERS NO COMMENT

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IS YOUR LOVER LOOKING FOR SOMEONE YOUNGER?
YOU CAN BE THAT SOMEONE!
« Last Edit: 30 Jul 2012, 18:47 by Ulphus »
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Reyd Karris

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Re: Not enough sci-fi tech in RP
« Reply #6 on: 30 Jul 2012, 21:57 »

Gloves.

No, seriously; gloves. Think about it...

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You're a rich capsuleer, in a cloned body. You know all the latest advances in biological weapons. You've transported viral agents, infections drone nanobots, and Lord knows how many impure, unwashed masses. How can you be absolutely certain that the next hand you shake doesn't contain any number of lethal pathogens (or unholy fluids)?

Why, gloves, that's how! Microsensors, specifically designed to recognize over 14,000 known pathogens, can be certain (within an error margin of 0.001%) that the next hand you shake, the next drink you take, the next neck you break, will be thoroughly scanned with out SCC patented heuristic algorithms!
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Yoshito Sanders

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Re: Not enough sci-fi tech in RP
« Reply #7 on: 30 Jul 2012, 23:00 »

I wrote a story about the downsides of getting a perception implant. Istvaan (I think) has some old stories about a guy who has extensive implants to help him work the black markets.
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Esna Pitoojee

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Re: Not enough sci-fi tech in RP
« Reply #8 on: 30 Jul 2012, 23:53 »

I've tried to do this before.

I often get told it's 'godmoding'.  :s
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Lyn Farel

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Re: Not enough sci-fi tech in RP
« Reply #9 on: 31 Jul 2012, 05:57 »

I should try to RP a little more scify gimmicks. But otherwise I already have tried to create several bigger tech projects like VRs, etc.

thumbs up
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Tiberious Thessalonia

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Re: Not enough sci-fi tech in RP
« Reply #10 on: 31 Jul 2012, 07:15 »

I agree.   More Sci-fi stuff please!
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orange

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Re: Not enough sci-fi tech in RP
« Reply #11 on: 31 Jul 2012, 09:26 »

Is it sci-fi tech if it is essentially an iteration on tech we use everyday?

20 years ago, the data pad, communicator, Tricorder, etc were effectively science fiction (& ubiquitous in Star Trek).  Now they are ubiquitous in many modern technological societies (iPad/Tablets, Bluetooth Headset, Smart Phone).   The "little" details of our lives are filled with what 20 years ago was science fiction and short of describing the keyboard/interface as being a holographic projection instead of a physical item (you can have that too!) there isn't much we can do with the details of our capsuleers lives other than making items we use everyday more compact and smaller.

As I read through Vieve's list, I can think through the iterations of modern technology to make those things happen.  The ones I have the hardest time thinking through are the eye drops & nails - but readily available nano-bots should make that possible.

I say all of the above to come back to an important point.

The items that really make Eve (& other current Sci-Fi) Science Fiction is not the little items they use everyday - those are being built and sold within years of the idea being presented.   It is the big things we have yet to create - FTL Communications, FTL Travel, Abundant Energy (Fusion or more exotic), vast space stations, planetary colonies, & interstellar empires - that are the strongest science fiction elements.
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Casiella

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Re: Not enough sci-fi tech in RP
« Reply #12 on: 31 Jul 2012, 11:46 »

I'd personally like to see more RP and discussion around the implications of the big ticket items just mentioned. FTL doesn't just mean "really fast versions of what we have", and the cultural implications of (say) people who live their entire lives in space doesn't get much play in public.
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Makkal

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Re: Not enough sci-fi tech in RP
« Reply #13 on: 31 Jul 2012, 11:48 »

Is it sci-fi tech if it is essentially an iteration on tech we use everyday?
Yes.
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Vieve

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Re: Not enough sci-fi tech in RP
« Reply #14 on: 31 Jul 2012, 12:23 »

The ones I have the hardest time thinking through are the eye drops & nails - but readily available nano-bots should make that possible.


The ArteNails were inspired by the original Total Recall, which I watched when I was a k... er, in college.  The receptionist at Rekall, Inc., had a board on her desk attached to a stylus.  The board had different colored buttons.  Whenever she pushed a button and touched the stylus to one of her manicured fingernails, the fingernail turned that color.  The fingernails appeared artificial (that technology's readily available today), so I suspected they were manufactured with a plastic that changes color in response to an electronic signal.

The tech in my head about the artificial fingernails involves onboard microscopic light sensors that process color and change to duplicate it.  The ArteNails themselves take two forms:  one's a cheap thin film that can be pressed onto natural or artificial fingernails (just like modern-day nail polish stickers).  It doesn't have much in the way of processing power, so it doesn't do as efficient or as subtle a job of changing itself to suit its wearer's attire.  The other form is an expensive natural nail replacement.

Not sure nano-bots would be needed for the optical dye.  Just very fine particle dye that attaches to the iris.  If I could remember my blasted biochemistry (the textbooks are still boxed up in the basement, else I'd go check), I'd speculate that there were some unique proteins there that made for something the dye could hook to without spilling out onto the schlera.  But I can't, so I won't.
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