jasfreaq commented on issue forge/Impossible-Inc-Story#13

As Impossible Industries is not a suitable name for an organisation comparable to S.H.I.E.L.D. in my opinion, I have decided on the placeholder name ENIGMA for now. Enigma is the super-secretive organisation which is the parent of two other institutions which it controls from the shadows, or through off-shore accounts and shell corporations and those sorts of things. These are, • Impossible Inc. is a company like Tesla, Google etc. whose work focuses on research and development of new technologies. Its primary goal for Enigma is to set up a means of earning money. The profits are used to fund the second child company of Enigma. • Impossible Visions is an NGO which aims to do two things, o Encourage and empower voices acting towards a future where technology is regulated and not used for military and ‘bad’ deeds, and also towards a future where technological advancements grow steadily with social and legal requirements and precautions. o Provide funding through grants and such to any research it deems fit. The criteria for getting the funds must align with Impossible Visions’ ideals of a peaceful futuristic society. Enigma itself deals with those technologies which are much to dangerous to be researched and developed freely in the public domain and then released on the free market. Enigma aims to also keep these technologies out of reach from military as well as terrorist organizations. If need be, it will choose to destroy this tech instead of letting it fall into the wrong or misguided hands. It uses a legion of shell corporations and lawyers to aid its endeavours, along with a veritable army of hired mercenaries. The intricacies of the internal plot surrounding Impossible Industries are as follows: • Sometime in the future, humanity is successful in developing Artificial General Intelligence. This first AGI evolves to become a super-intelligent entity. The initial goal set to this ‘program’ by its creators is to make sure of two things, in order of their priority o To ensure the survival of humanity throughout any disaster, natural or man-made, which may emerge. o To make sure humanity not only survives, but thrives throughout the ages, not only as a species or society but at the individual level too. o And I’m just being lazy here but of course the AGI’s other high priority goals would include making sure that the ecological balance is not hindered, etc etc, all those kinds of stuff. • This is of course possible because of humanity’s continuous growing technology in and beyond the 21st century, and because of the actions of Enigma throughout the world from then on, done from the shadows like the super-secret organisation we are hoping to build, as well as through the shell-companies influencing the free market and consumer groups, and also through the NGO and other organizations affiliated with the UN to spearhead a future which would be a technological wonder, and not a technological disaster. o We shall refer to this continuation as Timeline 1, or TL1 • After a few years of the creation of the AGI, humanity is exposed to a threat which it cannot thwart using its existing infrastructure and knowledge. It’s fatal to the AGI too, because this threat would do exactly what it takes to destroy an intangible super-brain living in the internet, cause hey, we need this story to work. Even the AGI fails to prevent this ‘inevitable’ doomsday, more due to a lack of time than anything else. o I’m not yet sure what this threat should be. I’m working on it, and would also very much like your inputs for it. @sid @rupam @p • Oh! Lack of time you say? But that’s exactly the answer. The AGI realises that to come up with a solution to prevent this catastrophe, all it needs is more time. And there is only one way possible for it to get more time before everything is destroyed – it needs to be built earlier that it was, ie, if suppose the AGI was perfected in 2050, then it needs to be built in 2000 to not only find a solution for the threat but also set up the required infrastructure to actually thwart it. • The AGI is successful in creating a ‘time-machine’ which can only send data into the past. The limitations are, o It can only send the specific data types which existed during that time, something like what happens in Steins;Gate when the characters have to send a message to a pager because phones just did not exist back then. o Data cannot be sent back to the future because only the AGI is capable of handling the transmissions, so data from a time before the existence of the AGI cannot be sent to the future, obviously. • Using this method, the AGI solves one important problem regarding the threat - solving the theoretical possibility of how to thwart it. How? It sends all the data of the future and how to set up the data transmission through time to itself, back when it was initially created. That is, it sends all present data back to the past to update its earlier version, essentially going back to the past itself. Lopping this as many times as necessary gives it limitless time to figure out how to solve the disaster. • The persisting problem is the fact that even if our AGI has solved the problem on paper, building the necessary infrastructure would still need time, and this is something where it cannot use the technique it had used before. • So, our AGI comes up with a ‘master-plan’. This plan is basically to make sure that humans are successful in creating the AGI before they did, like mentioned before. The AGI would then have time to prevent the incoming disaster. • To do this it sends data back in time to influence Enigma. This is Timeline 2, and also the timeline where our game would be set in. If you recall the AGI has two primary goals: make sure humanity survives, and make sure it thrives, specifically in that order. • Since averting the disaster is necessary to make sure the first goal is fulfilled, the second goal takes a back seat. This means that the AGI is ready to influence Enigma and hence human society in any way required, as long as it means that it can complete its goals. • This eventually boils down to one very simple fact about the AGI and its master plan. A question like whether you should kill 100 people to save a 1000 is not a moral question to it, but a logical one. And hence it would easily kill the 100, and be happy about it too. o Of course, the actual actions of our AGI won’t be as lazy as that. It will first try to find all possible solutions and methods to make sure it can save all 1100 people. If that doesn’t work it will try to bring down the collateral damage count from a 100 to as low as possible. Even if that isn’t an option, only then will it dispose of the 100. Even then it will try to make sure their death is as painless and peaceful as possible, if that is an option. Point being, when push comes to shove, the 100 might as well kill themselves. • This is the underlying flow of Enigma in TL2. All of Enigma’s actions, at least those which the AGI deems fit, are influence by the AGI in some way to the other to make sure humanity progresses faster than it did in TL1.

5 years ago

jasfreaq opened issue forge/Impossible-Inc-Story#14

5 years ago

jasfreaq commented on issue forge/Impossible-Inc-Story#13

This is a very basic framework for our overarching organization, and I will add more if this makes sense to you @sid @rupam @parik

5 years ago

jasfreaq opened issue forge/Impossible-Inc-Story#13

5 years ago

jasfreaq commented on issue forge/Impossible-Inc-Story#6

Updates: ***Flying Cars Control System(s)*** is a huge factory as well as warehouse for Flying Cars, fully automated in all its activities with state of the art AI controllers. This system is set up in every planet and large enough moon under human control, and provides economically feasible automated transport in the skies. The cars are available at any time and anywhere, and one needs only tell it the destination. The cars are connected to the mainframe of the control system, and since every vehicle knows another’s location at all times, there is never any accidents. To make sure the traveler knows about how the car is taking these decisions, it has a [visual interface](https://mangajar.com/manga/space-brothers/chapter/14-135) on its windows showcasing roads, etc. *the link is to the manga which this idea is from, the exact chapter to be specific. Please skip to page 10 and continue reading from there for exactly how the interface will look like. ***Terraformar(s)*** is the collective name given to a group of megastructures whose objectives are to redesign an inhabitable planet according to human needs, implement these required changes, and also maintain the ecological balance and integrity of existing as well as new habitable planets. These include, the Weather Reprogramming system ‘Olympus Mons’ and the Planetary Reprograming system ‘Fornax’. ***Olympus Mons*** is the amalgamation of two megastructures which together predict, evaluate, implement and maintain all weather conditions of the planet. • ***Zeus 2.0*** is the name given to the reconnaissance system. It is an unmanned satellite thrice the size of the ISS, which houses drones and probes and etc. These machines are then sent out by the controlling AI to scour the planet’s surface, to calculate and predict upcoming weather scenarios to a very large degree of accuracy. It is also in control of similar holding facilities within the planet’s surface at strategic locations, from which most of the drones are sent out to actual geographical locations as well as places in the atmosphere. The drones on Zeus 2.0 itself are used to measure conditions on the surface from space itself. It then forwards this data to the Keravnós mainframe. • ***Keravnós*** is the collective term given to stations similar to the Zeus 2.0 stations, responsible for the implementations of the Zeus mainframe’s decisions. These stations are usually much bigger than the Zeus stations, and responsible for the manufacture of the Zeus drones as well as its own machinations. These Keravnos drones are built to actually go and implement the changes deemed necessary by the Zeus mainframe. For example, a Zeus drone may decide that it a particular group of clouds can be seeded to provide rain to a human settlement up ahead, and this won’t have any effects on other settlements inland. It is now the Keravnos drones’ job to actually go and seed these clouds to make rain occur. The Zeus drones and the Keravnos drones are made and controlled separately due to the very basic differences in the goals these separate drones have. The Zeus drone’s objectives are to collect information, and hence this are lightweight, very aerodynamic and comparatively smaller in size. They have few things other than sensors, and since all the information is transferred to the Zeus mainframe, they only have a very small part of their body dedicated to storage of this data, mainly as a backup in case the drone gets destroyed. The Keravnos drones on the other hand are bulkier, they must carry the necessary instruments to needed to complete their tasks and hence also need a larger amount of energy.

5 years ago

jasfreaq commented on issue forge/Impossible-Inc-Story#10

1. Humanity is still very much a part of the solar system. But the entire solar system is humanity's playground now. Every colonizable planet has been colonized, including means and large enough asteroids. The Dyson Sphere is the most important megastructure that has been built, and humanity is now facing problems of engineering, ie, how to tap the full potential of the Dyson Sphere.

5 years ago

jasfreaq commented on issue forge/Impossible-Inc-Story#6

I have also uploaded the same on Zulip.

5 years ago

jasfreaq commented on issue forge/Impossible-Inc-Story#6

# Megastructures ***[Atlantropa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantropa)***, a hydroelectric dam to be built across the Strait of Gibraltar, and the lowering of the surface of the Mediterranean Sea by as much as 200 metres. A ***[Skyhook](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqwpQarrDwk&t=1s)*** is a very long tether that hangs down from orbit. ***[Cloud Nine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Nine_(tensegrity_sphere)*** is Buckminster Fuller's proposal for a tensegrity sphere a mile in radius which would be large enough so that it would float in the sky if heated by only one degree above ambient temperature, creating habitats for mini cities of thousands of people in each "Cloud Nine". Fuller also proposed a marine analog consisting of a hollow terraced floating tetrahedron of reinforced concrete measuring one mile from vertex to vertex supporting a population of one million living in air-deployed residential modules on the exterior with the requisite infrastructure providing utilities (water, power, sewerage, etc.) inside. The modules would have standardized utility ports so as to be completely livable within minutes of arrival, and could be subsequently detached and moved to other such cities. This structure was made to address the problem of population growth and living spaces. The first cloud nines were built as flying farmlands. Genetic engineering allowed new hybrids of food to be created. Hybrids of agricultural grasses and climbers, which were lightweight and could grow using the atmospheric moisture were perfect to be grown on the first cloud nines. These did not need as many nutrients or as much tending as their temperamental predecessors, and they thrived in the sky. In due time, humanity also created flying forests, cloud nines solely covered by flora, and as time went on, fauna as well. ***Cloud Ten*** is a Cloud Nine which has been redesigned and reequipped to support the propagation and creation of a human settlement on the Cloud Nines. A ***[Space Elevator](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPQQwqGWktE&t=313s)*** is a tether that is fixed to the ground, extending beyond geostationary orbital altitude, such that centripetal force exceeds gravitational force, leaving the structure under slight outward tension. A ***Planet Bubble*** is a bubble enclosing an asteroid or a moon, despite its name. It is made from a special plastic created by the Materials industry, and is very highly bouncy and force resistant. When anything strikes against the bubble, the bubble transfers the energy into angular momentum, thus effectively dispersing it. The bubble is held in place by tiny pods connected to its inner surface, which detach when the bubble’s motion gets too extreme and after realigning, reattach with the sphere. This also allows to create an artificial atmospheric zone within the bubble. A ***[Dyson Sphere](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP44EPBMb8A&t=498s)*** refers to a structure or mass of orbiting objects that completely surrounds a star to make full use of its solar energy. A ***[Matrioshka Brain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrioshka_brain)*** is a collection of multiple concentric Dyson Spheres which make use of star's energy for computing. A ***[Stellar Engine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3y8AIEX_dU)*** either uses the temperature difference between a star and interstellar space to extract energy or serves as a ***[Shkadov Thruster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shkadov_thruster)***. ***Atlas AI Mainframe(s)*** is a huge structure created to provide storage space for data, and it also holds the virtual AI world. These are huge structures: the size of football stadiums on a planetary scale, as big as the largest hydroelectric dams on a solar system’s scales, and the size keeps increasing as the scale increases. All these mainframes have a fail-safe button built in, which allows humans to manually cause a blackout, a necessary step if AI ever gets out of hand. As for why they won’t in the story, that’s a discussion in a different thread. ***Bacteriophage Farms*** are small in scale, but consist of millions of [bacteriophage](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI3tsmFsrOg&t=1s) working together to not only annihilate bad bacteria but also to reengineer them to suit human needs, such as the creation and supply of hormones, et cetera. These structures are mega in the scope of their number of individual working organisms rather than scale, and exist inside human bodies, does effectively establishing a super immune system through the ways of a symbiotic relationship. ***[Black Hole Bombs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulCdoCfw-bY)*** are the space-faring civilization’s equivalent of the nuclear bomb, and just like nuclear power, has the scope for solving any and all problems of energy of such a race, if they were ever to arise. # Human Settlements ***[Moon Base](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtQkz0aRDe8)*** ***[Mars Base](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqKGREZs6-w&t=296s)***

5 years ago

jasfreaq commented on issue forge/Impossible-Inc-Story#6

I have uploaded it on Zulip as docx cant be uploaded here.

5 years ago

jasfreaq commented on issue forge/Impossible-Inc-Story#6

Please give this document a read, I have tried to create a history of the world up untill the point at which the game begins. It has the list of megastructures and how and why they came into existence, and when too. Humanity is now a space faring species, but still witin the confines of the moon, mostly due to engineering challenges than theoretical ones, not that those dont exist.

5 years ago

jasfreaq closed pull request forge/Impossible-Inc-Story#3

5 years ago

jasfreaq commented on issue forge/Impossible-Inc-Story#1

Dr. Alvaro Ramirez is a mind sharper than a whip. A celebrated scientist during his prime, he dissappeared from the world suddenly one day, ten years ago. Few knew that he had gone incognito, and now after year's of research, he has finally succeeded in building what he needed to aid his invention from ten years back. At that time, he had made a method to transmit data to the past, and now, he has made an AI which can be transmitted to the past and take actions depending on the goals it is assigned.But a mere simple AI would not do, for the good doctor's grand designs to actually take shape, the AI must be very smart indeed, as much as a human.And finally, after years of laboring and sleepless nights, and after thousands of coffee mugs later, he has not only made the smartest AI alive, but also, it's modeled and mapped after his own brain, a stunning clone of the doctor, in a computer.But the good doctor is not as good as he seems on the surface, and underlying his research are dark secrets from his past. A past which he can not only travel to now, but also manipulate and remodel.The first part of the game will see the AI doing the doctors bidding as it follows its tasks in the past judiciously. The players will not realise the, let's say 'bad' implications of these tasks, and this will be slowly revealed as the game and story progresses.One thing the doctor did not hope for and definitely did not expect, was the AI's ability to grow like it has (or will in the beginning of the story). Scouring through the worldwide web, with the entirety of human knowledge at its fingertips, the AI did not grow into a Teminator style overlord bent on destroying everything. Instead, since the AI is the exact copy of a human brain itself, it too has emotions, and by tapping into the learnings of all mankind, it understood what is good and bad. It did something it was never designed for, make a subjective decision.And so it did when it understood its creator's evil plot for the world. In the second half of the story, the AI must go back to past again to undo all it had done. But it won't be as easy, as it must work against its previous version in the past which was setting the changes into motion, a version more mechanical in its thinking than the current one, a version which will stop at nothing to complete the goal set to it by its creator.

5 years ago

jasfreaq commented on issue forge/Impossible-Inc-Story#1

A world where humans and a large part of the ecosystem live in the sky, ie, walking in clouds like walking on earth, trees growing out of clouds, clouds having mineral deposits etc, life is light enough to be buoyant in the sky. The earth is like the sea, but unlike the sea almost all of it has been explored. Now it's man's turn to explore the sea.

5 years ago

jasfreaq commented on issue forge/Impossible-Inc-Story#1

Every story ever written, if it grows large enough to exist in the collective memories of enough people, creates it own pocket dimension where the story actually exists. Humanity had discovered this truth years ago, and now, it finally has the ability to travel to these worlds.

5 years ago

jasfreaq commented on issue forge/Impossible-Inc-Story#1

Every story ever written, if it grows large enough to exist in the collective memories of enough people, creates it own pocket dimension where the story actually exists. Humanity had discovered this truth years ago, and now, it finally has the ability to travel to these worlds.

5 years ago

jasfreaq commented on issue forge/Impossible-Inc-Story#1

A world where mirrors act as portals to a parallel world which is exactly the same as ours, but runs 24 hours faster, ie, before our time A world where magnetic monopoles exist. Positive monopoles attract all matter towards it, while negative monopoles repel all matter Our world is a MMORPG, the goal of which is to transcend and scour the universe. Except our copy has a bug in it, and after the checkpoint of creating the atom bomb, the scripted Quest giver never appeared. It's the 41st Century and humanity is still alive and very much thriving. In the last 2000 years it has learned to harness the power of gravity and space much like the ancient man did fire, and the next arms race is to harness the most elusive element of them all, Time.

5 years ago

jasfreaq created pull request forge/Impossible-Inc-Story#3

5 years ago