6/3/2014 Update: We’re live with our first in-character scene!
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Our near-future setting begins on the cusp of the Singularity - or something like it. Brain/machine interfaces are increasingly common in San Francisco. The technology, sold under the brand name “neuronetics”, is billed as a high-end consumer productivity tool. Neuronetic products are pill-sized dosages of nanomachines that supply brains and muscles with thousands of hours of memories. Learn a new programming language overnight! Memorize millions of lines of code! Or recover a backup of your past self from before this grind of a tech job, or look into the mind of a Hawaiian adrenaline junkie for a quick vacation. All these are tantalizingly possible within the technocratic bubble of the Bay Area. Like caffeine on caffeine, neuronetics help the fast-thinking engineers at Google and Amazon think even faster than ever.
Neuronetic Labs knows this is only the beginning. Business is booming, the product is getting mainstream international attention, and it’s time to invest. The owners face a crossroads. With this amazing technology they have a handle on the future - so where do they steer? They have enough money to massively produce neuronetic pills to teach self-reliance and practical job skills to millions of Americans, revolutionizing the economy overnight. Or, says one board member, they could sponsor free “bot farms” around the world and help machine-assisted learning become a global phenomenon. Or, says a third, the technology could fall into the wrong hands, and a mislabeled product could be used to infect and condition its consumers into devoted disciples of the pill’s creator - willing to do anything they are instructed to - organized crime, fanaticism, or even devoted, spineless complacency.
The idealistic potential of neuronetics are chilled by the reality they have the power to combat - a real world of greed and corruption, of insurrection and control. As our players take on roles in this new world - as Neuronetic Labs researchers, or as agents of technocratic power, revolutionaries, or even ordinary people in an ominous “pilot program” - what future will they create? Whatever they do, they’ll have to act fast - technology is accelerating faster than ever before, and you don’t want to be on the losing side when the Singularity hits.
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“A Neuronetic Future” is a game of possibilities. Players will be asked to contribute creatively to the setting world as it evolves with rapidly changing technology. Whether selling new tech, pushing an agenda, or inciting unrest, players should feel the setting world is theirs to mess with. Rest assured it will mess with them right back.
Hosted and narrated by:
Ross Smith (BearShoes)
Started 06/02/14.
Scenes played: 4
License: Community License
