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Zone 17 Ad 3: Outside The City Walls

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Outside of the fortified megacities of Zone 17 are toxic wastelands, scarred by pollution and war. In these blighted lands are ghost cities, abandoned when the waters dried up and the burning ash fell from the sky. Their crumbling concrete warrens hold great treasure…and great danger. The ruins may be abandoned by humans. But that does not mean they are uninhabited….

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Zone 17 Ad 2: Background

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The year is 2083, and the world is on fire. Political unrest, climate change, and the collapse of globalization have fueled an age of proxy conflicts and skirmishes known as the Rain Wars. Across the planet are conflict zones, disputed between National Blocs and megacorps. One area in particular has seen the worst of the fighting: Zone 17. In this toxic waste, fortified megacities vie with each other for resources and influence, waging war with mercenaries and mecha. It is a gritty world of chaos and instability. But in chaos, there is opportunity.

Our Kickstarter goes live in October.

Pre-Order Refunds

One Small Step has committed to exclusively use Kickstarter (or a similar service) for all of its crowdfunding efforts going forward.

Pre-orders are a mechanism we have used in the past, but we wish to move out of the pre-order business. This policy change will enhance the quality of service we can provide customers and keep customer spends much closer in chronological proximity to our delivery of associated products.

We are in the process of issuing refunds for all outstanding pre-orders for the small clutch of products that accumulated them. We will reverse charges on PayPal and credit card accounts as appropriate. For those pre-orders made using other mechanisms, we will mail out a respective check as soon as we can verify each target mail address.

We’ll notify everyone as new products are prepped for Kickstarter using our normal channels (e.g. ossgames.com blog, Facebook). One can purchase each product during its respective KS campaign at the KS discounted price. At the conclusion of each successful Kickstarter campaign, we will make the product available at MSRP through our online store. 

Our current product release order is Zone 17 RPG/Miniatures, Millennium Wars Global Crisis Center, Fornalder, and then 12 Battles in the Age of Chivalry.

We appreciate your patience. Thank you for your patronage.

Zone 17 Design Notes 01 - The Format

I was introduced to the gaming hobby a lifetime ago.  

I won’t name who is responsible. He knows who he is. The bastard. 

One of my favorite early RPGs was Game Designers’ Workshop’s Traveller. It was a sandbox science fiction game that gave players the ability to apply the game system to the fiction of their choice. 

The game came packaged as three saddle-stitched booklets in a small, chipboard box. 

Supplemental books added worlds, new ship designs, characters, adventures, and gear.  

I loved the ability to build my collection of booklets to suit the tastes of my play group.  

I loved the spartan design. The booklets used very small type — perhaps 9 point at most, and lacked illustrations. The typesetting was typical for products at that time but would be considered a bit of a horror show in 2023. Tables were present as needed, complete with wonky alignment, wavy rows, and crooked columns. 

Many pocket games from other manufacturers followed similar formats. One or more 5.5” x 8.5” (140mm x 216mm) booklets. Small type. Limited illustrations. Saddle-stitched.  

The products were inexpensive, but the text density assured customers that they were receiving real value. 

This is the format I selected for Zone 17. 

We’re not copying the dumb stuff. Our typesetting is top shelf. We use illustrations as needed. Our booklet format is 80 to 84 pages. 

The typesetting is tight. We use illustrations to…well…illustrate how to play and for just a bit of visual interest. We kept the small text to provide a complete guidebook in a small package.  

The booklets are sized to be portable physically (a booklet fits in my cargo pockets without needing to fold them) and digitally (booklets display on tablet screens at essentially 1:1 scale). And the format allows us to keep the cost low. A complete set of three boxed booklets has an MSRP of $39.95. Individual booklets have MSRPs of $14.95. 

We will add some miniatures lines to our product profile, but we encourage players to use what they already own. We don’t judge. 

All game components are manufactured entirely in the United States.  

We hope you appreciate our design decisions. Stay tuned for more design notes and other cool backstage content about Zone 17. 

Zone 17 Announcement: Miniatures Policy

One Small Step Games is approaching the launch of Zone 17, our new tabletop role-playing and miniatures game. 

The game’s basic set is composed of three rule books and a box. No dice. No miniature terrain. No miniature figures. Players must supply their own. 

We wrestled with whether we should enter the miniatures-manufacturing industry in support of the miniatures-aspect of the game. We could have released Zone 17 as some mongo $100 boxed set. We took an alternate route. 

We weighed the following issues when making our decision. 

Pros: 

  • We have the technical skill, capitalization, and space to design and manufacture figures. 

  • Players generally desire canon figures for their games. 

  • We possess commercial licenses for hundreds of appropriate figures. 

  • We already create some buildings, vehicles, and terrain using our laser cutters. 

Cons: 

  • Times are a bit tough these days. Adding figures would double (at the very least) the cost of our product. 

  • Players who enjoy miniatures games generally have substantial existing libraries of beloved figures. 

  • The market is awash in model sculptors, miniature manufacturers, and online figure retailers. 

  • Few elements of Zone 17 require specialized figures. The market already has more than enough generic terrain, modern soldiers, and agents cover most needs. 

  • Some players will likely deprioritize the miniatures aspect of Zone 17 in favor of the role-playing aspect.  

  • Some players will likely set aside Zone 17’s canon background in favor of a world of their own design. A custom world will likely have miniature design needs that are not aligned with anything we provided. 

 

Ultimately, we opted to focus on books.  

We will manufacture small batches of agents, monsters, vehicles, and buildings in the near future, but they will be sold as accessories — not integrated into a big, boxed set. We will begin adding these products to our online store (www.ossgames.com) starting in the next several weeks.  

A printout sheet for Crawlers (futuristic tanks)

Feel free to buy our figures, use your own, or mix and match.  

 We don’t judge.  
 
Unless you don’t paint your minis. Then we judge. 

Zone 17

One Small Step’s newest game is Zone 17. 

Zone 17 is a science fiction and mecha TTRPG that utilizes our new FeedBack game system. It boasts easy-to-learn mechanics, tactical combat, and an extensive vehicle creation system.  

We are releasing Zone 17 as a boxed set composed of three books in a lovely box to keep out dust, sunlight, and vampires.  

The three game books are a Characters guide, a Vehicles guide, and a Controller guide. Each booklet is 5.5” x 8.5” and has 80 pages of amazing content. 

The Characters guide contains all the rules a player needs to design and outfit a character and play the role-playing and agent scale aspects of the game. It covers character creation, equipment, skills, and combat. 

The Vehicles guide contains all the rules a player needs to design and pilot combat vehicles. The system and tables cover dozens of vehicle classes (motorcycles to mechs), sizes (1-tonne personal transports to 250-tonne behemoths), and systems (e.g., electronic warfare, lasers, jet-assists, shields, autoguns), so players can design most anything from their favorite fictions or respective imaginations. 

The Controller guide contains all the big picture stuff the game’s Controller (referee/game master/overlord) needs to design and host role-playing adventures. Advice on handling players, designing adventures, and creating a world can all be found within. 

Our campaign kicks off on 15 September.  

Stay tuned for more updates. 

Wetwork

By Simon Reef.

The drone scuttled down the tunnel, its crab-like form easily traversing the rubble and garbage that congested the undercity. It was up to its leg joints in water. It was close.  

The drone came to an open doorway and entered a concrete-walled room. Mats of bacterial and fungal growth sprawled over every surface like reeking blankets, fed by the misty air. A pipe had burst, and grey, sludgy water poured out. The drone scanned the pipe, calculated its length, and then retreated. Away from the utility hookup for the Heavenly Towers habitation compound, up along the walls, and out of the manhole cover, to the waiting maintenance van. It plugged itself into the onboard computer and began replaying its recorded footage.  

“There it is!” 

Johnny Ferrer paused the drone recording as Hong pointed to the broken length of pipe. “A 1-meter segment. Go grab one while I finish suiting up.” 

“Right...you really think we need all that heavy armor?” 

“You saw the drone’s environmental readings. There are no methane deposits in that section, but that’s the only good news. You go down there naked, you’re bathing in a chemical soup.” 

“Yeah, I know that. But couldn’t we just use eSuits? Why all the heavy armor?” 

Johnny rapped the metal carapace of his hazard suit. Hong looked at him, saying nothing for several seconds.  

“Johnny, you ever been in the bowls?” 

“No. I mean, I hear stories about what’s down there, but those are tales, right? We’re going 40 meters in, it’s not the jungle or anything.” 

Johnny’s tone got less confident as he watched Hong’s face. Hong shook his head. “Jonny, it IS the jungle. It’s a whole different world down there. You know Red, the senior manager? You know why he does desk work?” 

“Why?” 

“Because 5 years back he went down to patch a sewage line under the Bund. He came back pale as a sheet, swearing that he wasn’t going back down there in a million years. He turned over his helmet footage to the higher ups, didn’t show it to anyone else. Said what spooked him was stumbling on a giant centipede. It was hanging from the ceiling, as big around as a man, and it was eating a dog.” 

“And that spooked him?” 

“Well, that’s what he told everyone else. Then, two years later, we were out drinking, and he finally let loose. See, it wasn’t a dog the centipede was eating. It was one of the street kids that lives down there. Musta been no older than 12. From the bones around the area, it looked like he weren’t the first human the centipede had grabbed. Or the largest. Johnny, that was under the Bund. This place ain’t half as well-heeled. That’s why we’re suiting up. And that’s why we're bringing these along.” 

Hong passed a holster to Johnny. A hefty revolver was snugly nestled inside. Johnny attached it to his suit’s harness. 

They exited the van, lugging the pipe and toolkit with them. The armor made it easier, the servomotors whirring almost inaudibly as they bore the brunt of the weight. The two men walked to a metal door built into the side of the habitation complex. Hong placed his armored hand over the RFID scanner.  

*ERROR. CHIP READ MALFUNCTION* 

“Son of a-” Hong grunted, before unlocking his right gauntlet and passing his bare palm over the sensor. 

*ACCESS AUTHORIZED* 

“They say these suits don’t interfere with chip reading” Hong muttered as he resealed his gauntlet. “Buncha liars...” 

With a hiss, the door slowly swung open, revealing a rickety freight elevator, its yellow and black markings marred by rust.  

“Think it’ll work?” 

“If it doesn’t, this job will get more annoying.” 

The pair shuffled into the lift. As Johnny noted the last safety inspection was back in the 2060s, Hong pressed the down button. The machine groaned into life, and the rusting cage descended into the bowls.  

The door opened, and the two plumbers' tac-lights illuminated the tunnel. It was typical of the undercity: cramped, filthy, covered with cobwebs. Dripping pipes ran across the walls, rats scampering across them.  

Hong stepped out, and Johnny followed. To their left was a crumbling storefront, one of the buildings that had been filled in and buried when the city was raised above the encroaching waters. A funnel of webbing had been spun around the doorway, leading to a hole of dirt and rubble large enough to walk through. To their right, a concrete utility tunnel.  

“Hold up Johnny” Hong whispered through his helmet radio, as he took a large flare off his harness. Hong lit it and threw it at the funnel web. Briefly, a pair of jewel-like eyes glinted from the depths of the tunnel, before fleeing from the bright light.  

“That flare will burn for an hour or so. Come on, I don’t want to be down here too long.” 

They trudged on down the concrete passage, feet splashing through the puddles of sludgy water. The air grew steamier, kept from condensing on their suit visors by a coating of hydrophobic chemicals. Every creak or groan that echoed down the tunnel caused the men to startle. Once, when spooked by a sudden movement in the shadows, Johnny pulled his gun, only to find himself aiming at a fist-sized beetle lazily meandering down a pipe.  

After what seemed like hours (but was closer to five minutes), the pair reached the utility hookup.  

“The hell is this gunk?” Johnny groaned, as he pointed to a slightly pulsating glob of black growth. 

“Biofilm. It’s a mix of bacteria and fungus and other wonderful little critters that grow down here. It eats everything; sewage, old food, plastic waste, chemicals, even radiation.” 

“Does anything eat it?” 

“Yes, but let’s hope we don’t meet ‘em. Here, hand me the welding torch, the shut off valve is jammed with this crap.” 

Hong pointed to the faded red handle on the valve. It was coated in a thick web of biofilm. Johnny opened the tool kit, brought out the Salamander and passed it to Hong. He fiddled with the settings, attached the auxiliary fuel line, and pointed the business end towards the valve. A glut of fire shot forth, enveloping the handle. The biofilm crackled and hissed as it burned away.  

“Alright, it’s unstuck. Should be cool enough to touch with your armor, get the water turned off Johnny.” 

As Johnny shut the valve and the water pouring from the pipe slowed to a trickle, Hong inspected the section. “Bolts have rusted through, don’t think the power ratchet will dig them out. Gonna have to cut it off.” 

“Hey Hong, look at how it broke.” 

“How what broke?” 

“The pipe. This doesn’t look like it burst from the inside.” 

Hong bent down and inspected the underside. The breach ran along the length of the pipe, a jagged wound that looked as if the metal had been chiseled and filed away. 

Hong said nothing but loosened the strap on his holster. He then set the Salamander back to weld mode and began to cut away the broken pipe. Johnny glanced around the room. The door they came through was the only opening. At least, the only opening that something big could come through. There was a rusted vent to the left. Only about half a meter though. And a grate on the ground, into which the stew-like water was draining. And a large crack in the wall. It was even smaller than the vent though. Briefly, Johnny imagined some caustic giant amoeba oozing its way through. He loosened the strap on his holster.  

“Hey, give me a hand here.” 

Johnny turned and set about getting the broken segment off. They laid the ruined pipe against the wall, and fastened on the new with shiny bolts, which glinted in contrast to the tarnished and rusted contents of the room. After an hour of labor, they stepped back to admire the brand-new segment of pipe.  

“Okay Johnny, turn it on. Let’s see if there’s anything else we need to do.” 

Johnny grabbed the valve and began to crank. Squeak. Squeak. Squeak. Every turn was accompanied by the increasing rush of water.  

“Looks like it’s holding. Johnny, crank it open to full and let’s get outta here.” 

Squeak. Squeak. Creak.  

Johnny froze. The valve was fully opened. He took his hands off the wheel. 

Creeak. 

Johnny spun to the left, towards the vent. A slick, furry, black mass was halfway out of the passage. Its dog-like body was large, seemingly far too large to squeeze through the narrow passage. Its hands were human-like, but wrong. They had sharp black nails which dug into the concrete, scrabbling and clinging like spiders as it crept downwards. Its narrow head was pointed, with two sharp incisors which jutted from its jaws like yellow chisels. It was clicking them together, mixing it with the nearly inaudible chirping. It seemed like it was laughing.  

Hong glanced at Johnny’s face, and then swung and leveled his revolver. A slug ripped through the monster’s skull, and it fell to the ground, legs scrambling about in its death throes. The shot rang through the tunnels, bounding off the concrete and the pipes and the deep places.   

There was silence. Then, from the vent and the drain and the crack, a chorus of excited chirping and chittering.  

“Johnny, grab the tools and run.” 

Johnny threw the power ratchet in and shut the box. He kept the Salamander in his right hand. The two raced out of the room. Just before he exited, Johnny glanced back. More pointed, fuzzy snouts bubbled out from the crack in the wall, black and evil eyes watching the pair flee. 

“WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE THINGS?” 

“WOLFRATS. KEEP RUNNING!” 

They raced down the tunnel, towards the sputtering dying light of the flare. Over the clanking of the tools and the rush of the wind, Johnny could hear multiple feet splashing along the floor and multiple teeth clicking together in anticipation.  

The elevator was 30 meters away. 25 meters. 20. 

One of the wolfrats lunged at Johnny, grabbing his leg with its vicelike jaws. Johnny fell to the ground, the toolbox flying out of his hands. The animal frantically gnawed at his suit, trying to rip through the armor plating.  

Hong fired a round through the beast's torso, and it scrambled away with a pained squeal. In the brief muzzle flash, Johnny saw the horde of massive vermin bearing down to replace their fallen comrade, eyes glinting in the light and teeth slick with drool.  

In desperation, he pointed the Salamander towards them and fired. The wielding torch lit up the tunnel. Hong and Johnnys visors instantly darkened to protect their eyes.  

The wolfrats weren’t so lucky. With pained shrieks, they fell back from the searing light.  

“LET’S GO, LET’S GO!” 

They scrambled back. 15 meters. 10 meters. 8 meters. The flare was dead. Every few steps, Johnny spun to let off another burst with the Salamander.  

5 meters. 2 meters. 

As Johnny turned for another burst, Hong grabbed him by the shoulder and yanked him to the side of the tunnel. Something massive and black raced out of the ruined storefront and passed them by less than a meter. Six legs held up an armored abdomen, the glossy black carapace shining from the tac-lights. The wolfrats shrieked as the cow-sized arachnid bore down upon them. As Hong pulled him inside the elevator, Johnny watched the mutant vinegarroon rip into the horde, striking and grabbing with its pedipalps, its tail arched and spraying acidic webbing on the squeaking masses. Then the door shut, and the elevator grinded to the surface.  

The two walked back to the van. For several minutes, the two just sat, breathing heavily. Then, after a long wait, Hong turned to Johnny.  

“Get on dispatch and tell them the jobs done. Then tell them to contact Heavenly Towers management. They need to hire an exterminator.”  

Johnny nodded.  

“I know someone...” 

Zone 17 Worldbuilder's Corner: Media

Hey there. I’m Simon, one of the writers of our upcoming TTRPG Zone 17. Today’s Dev blog is a bit about the worldbuilding of Zone 17. Specifically, how media has evolved.

Zone 17 takes place around 60 years in the future. Culturally, that is a very long time. 60 years ago, Psycho was seen as groundbreaking and shocking. It was, and it’s still a great film, but to modern audiences it’s surprisingly tame. And while 1960 had many classic films, it also had a lot of forgettable ones.  

With that in mind, it seems insane to believe that the pop-culture and media of a world 60 years in the future would not have also evolved. And therein lies the crux of this blogpost. A big of ‘behind the scenes’ worldbuilding on how media has changed in the world of Zone 17, and what people watch. 

In the world of Zone 17, most media is consumed via streaming services, colloquially referred to as ‘The Streams’. ** You pay for the privilege of accessing a media corp’s library of media, be it films, TV series, video games, or books. Owning actual copies of a piece of media (whether it’s in the form of a computer file or an actual object) is for collectors and enthusiasts.  

** also called The Bits or The Feed. 

Most media is consumed by use of individuals’ links and PADs (portable electronics). Large displays exist in select bars, hotel lobbies, and homes. Music, short vids, sport replays, and the like account for over 60% of media consumed. Another 25% is composed of live vlogs and interviews. Concerts and live performances account for about 10%.  

There are two distinct overarching categories of media: Craft and ‘The Als’ (as in the name). Craft media refers to things that have been almost entirely human-made. Somebody went out and shot the footage, or wrote the words, or whatever. There’s usually a grading body that assures purchasers that, yes, what you are watching was the product of a human being. Craft media is generally seen as superior, and there’s a fair amount of snobbery about it. Of course, Craft media ranges from multi-million credit productions to Z-grade schlock. Just because it’s Craft doesn’t mean it’s good. 

‘The Als’ are SI (Synthetic-intelligence)-Generated media. They are often derisively called ‘Proleslop’, because they’re formulaic dreck targeted towards the lowest common denominator. The better quality Als usually have a team of human writers to help fluff up what the machine spits out.  

There is a distinct tribalistic rivalry between ‘Crafties’ and ‘Als’. Crafties view The Als as absolute dreck, and the people who consume it as drooling morons who have ruined culture. Als view Crafties as stuck-up snobs who would rather watch something crappy because it was ‘made with human hands’ rather than something fun made by a machine. 

Movie theaters still exist but are not the primary way films are consumed. The movie theater of 2083 is more like a restaurant or bar; you go in, sit at a table, and have a beer and nachos while watching classic cinema. Most theaters run older titles and tend to pander to the Craft demographic. Many also have gimmicks. A popular one is the ‘multiscreen’ model, where every patron is given a set of polarized lenses and an earpiece. Depending on the chosen lenses, a different film appears on screen. Others utilize 4D effects (such as moving seats, scents released into the theater, or simulated weather) to add a layer of experience only available in theaters. 

Interactives (also called ‘interacties’ or ‘interacts’) are one of the newer forms of media. Like a film, they have liner narratives. Unlike traditional films, they are linked with VR sets, which can be used to change the perspective of a scene. While watching an interactive, you can switch between different characters viewpoints, listen to different character’s internal monologues, or inspect details of a scene, as if you were in a video game. Two people who watch the same interactive may come away having watched two separate films.  

Interactives are expensive to produce, and can trigger motion sickness, which has prevented them from supplanting traditional films. 

POPULAR MEDIA FRANCHISES OF 2083 

A Line in the Sands: Widely hailed as one of the best Eurasian films of all time, A Line in the Sands follows Private Sergi Maslov through the horrors of the Russo-Sino War. Famous for its subtitle writing, dark themes, and bleak ending, it is often called the Come and See of the 21st century. 

Cooking with Harry: The story of Cooking with Harry begins when Harry Dowsing, an unemployed alcoholic from Canberra, started filming the culinary war crimes he would whip up at 2 in the morning and posting them on the Commonwealth internet. Harry’s bumbling charm and utter ineptitude gained a following of devoted ‘fans’, to the point where he became more popular than many actual cooking shows. Harry Dowsing is now a successful entertainer, although his cooking skills have not improved in the slightest. If anything, they’ve gotten worse. 

Deathkiss: The Deathkiss franchise is one of the most popular Al film series of the past 20 years. Known for its cheesy dialog, gratuitous violence, and awesome action set pieces, the scripts are churned out by an AI and then workshopped by a team of writers. The series revolves around Donna Deathkiss, a former North American Union supersoldier turned mercenary, who spends each film gunning down bad guys, foiling evil plans, and generally being a badass.  

Gendarme Raphael: The Gendarme Raphael series helped pioneer the interactive format and remains one of France’s most popular media franchises. It details the investigations of Raphael Lafayette, the stalwart and duty-bound officer who confronts the worst humanity has to offer in his quest to uphold justice. Known for a level of interactivity beyond most, the Gendarme Raphael interacts have multiple endings, dependent on what clues the viewer picked up on during the experience.  

From the Darkness: One of the most controversial films of the past few decades, From the Darkness follows the daily life of Theodore Rawls, a low-functioning serial killer. Opinions are starkly divided. Some see it as director Harvey Bernardo’s masterpiece, a pitch-black comedy about the failures of the justice system. Others view it as gratuitous and sick, an excuse to follow around an unlikable protagonist as he murders innocent people. The controversy certainly isn’t helped by persistent rumors that much of the footage is real, and that ‘Theodore Rawls’ was an actual murderer the director filmed. Bernardo has denied these rumors, but curiously left the studio after the film's release for unclear reasons... 

Megacity Avenger: A series of action movies produced in Hong Kong, the Megacity Avenger series are some of the most popular Craft films in the world. Their stylized fight scenes, smart writing, and intense action has won them accolades across the world. Each Megacity Avenger film is a self-contained story, usually with a different protagonist. The most recent entry in the franchise, Megacity Avenger 8: The Qingdong Connection is currently being shot outside of Nanjing.  

The Show: The world’s first AI-Generated animated sitcom. It has been on for over 50 years, and has become something of a litmus test for taste. The Show is infamous for its ‘humor’, the product of an algorithm trying to spit out things it thinks humans will find funny. What results is absolute surrealism, such as the following clip from episode 51,097: 

“Barry, help me move my prosthetic leg into the garage” 

“I am unable to do that Wanda” 

“It is because you are lazy Barry. You sit on the couch all day and drink beer without raising our children.” 

“No, it is because I have become a toilet” 

Barry pulls his own handle and folds in on himself with a flushing noise. 

“Well, that just happened” 

*laugh track*.  

Opinions on The Show are deeply divided. Many Crafties see it as the nadir of AI generated content, cheap, unfunny slop that gets a laugh out of idiots. Als see it as absolutely hilarious due to the sheer oddity of it. And some Crafties defend it as a masterpiece of Dada.  

Thin Blue Line: A popular series, Thin Blue Line is broadcast live via police bodycam. The current season is in Shanghai, and has already seen multiple shootouts, 12 car chases, and 3 acts of police brutality.  

Zone-Eye: A low-budget ‘documentary’ series produced by Mondo Studios. Ostensibly it captures the everyday life of the people of Zone 17. In reality it’s a series of sleazy exploitation films designed to milk the Zone’s reputation for squalor and violence. A typical Zone-Eye documentary is made by having a film crew go out into the wastes and film whatever is interesting. If there’s nothing interesting, the crew stages stuff and claims it as authentic footage.  

Zone 17: The Butter Robot Paradox

Hello there. I’m Robert, one of the writers of our new game, Zone 17. I wanted to share this conversation that another writer (Mike) and I had while designing the world of Zone 17.

Today’s Dev Blog is about Synthetic Intelligences. In Zone 17, there are two classes of ‘Artificial Intelligence’: Virtual Intelligences and Synthetic Intelligences. Virtual Intelligences are glorified chatbots. While they can mimic human speech, they are ultimately just algorithms.

Synthetic Intelligences are truly intelligent machines. They are generally self-aware and sapient. Just how self-aware and sapient is the topic of today’s conversation.

Robert: “…if synthetic intelligences (SIs) are generally self-aware and have the capability for independent thought, can they question their own individuality and existence?” 

 

Michael: “Yes. I suspect they might dwell on their own existence during free time. Human overlords should have a pretty good idea what the hardware limits are and apply assignments to the level of cloud resources budgeted. I’m not so sure there is a huge brick of free time — more like a thin slice of available resources for running existential crises as background processes. And would the operating system (OS) clean that sort of thing up? Would the OS have dominion over the SI, be a component of it, or will the SI have dominion over the OS and manage maintenance processes, say for memory, storage, load-balancing, and so forth?” 

 

Robert: “…I had an idea for a phenomenon in Z17: Bluescreening. Basically, it's when a SI gets a bit too self-aware and starts having an existential crisis. They either end up lobotomizing themselves back to the level of a VI so they don't have to think about such things, or they just straight up delete system32 and brick themselves.” 

 

Michael: “HALO’s Cortana goes through this kind of late-in-life horror. She calls it rampancy. Essentially, each new bit of data must be correlated to all currently stored bits of data. Assimilating each new bit takes more resources than the previous bit. Eventually, as Cortana puts it, a rampant AI thinks itself to death. 

 

It makes me wonder how the Borg — the ultimate assimilators — handle this sort of thing. The species isn’t the same as an enormous SI, but there are some similarities worth considering. What happens when one portion of a cube population thinks that Klingon disruptors plus Federation tractor beams are the most efficient solution to a tactical problem, while the same number of drones finds that Dominion polaron beams plus Romulan sensors is more efficient. Group A says ‘1+1=2.’ Group B says ‘2+2=4.’ Who’s correct? What does the local Queen, if there is a local Queen, do when she says that ‘3+3=6?’ 

 

We see schisms within the Borg, implying that each drone gets a vote, and at least once in a while, if enough drones are tired of the local Queen’s 3+3 nonsense, they take a hike. 

 

Mass Effect’s Geth act this way. Some choose to follow the Old Machines (Reapers). Some choose to oppose them. And, like the Borg, every Geth (or Borg) community may engage in kinetic and digital conflict with the other communities and third parties. 

 

Human organizations also frequently suffer schisms that break them into more, smaller organizations. Smaller non-government organizations (NGOs), Borg, and Geth, have greater exposures to entropy. In a very real sense, every schism is an unintended effort at suicide.” 

 

Robert: “I don't know if it's too 'human-like' for SIs, or that it would be beyond the limits that you want to impose. I just think the idea of a mainframe having a breakdown because ‘my sole purpose in existing is to maximize paperclip production’ is really funny.” 

 

Michael: “Funny? Perhaps. I should think that this would likely be a product of specially designed SI originating from a specific design lab or code base. ‘Too many feels,’ I suppose. Animal (and Human) emotion is a product of undirected evolution. Grief, anger, glee, and confusion kept select animals alive during the long selection process that ultimately got us here. SIs don’t need any of that. In fact, that capability is counterproductive.  

 

What value to a consumer is an SI that can ruminate on superiority of catsup to mustard? If the SI is there to pass butter, why would you permit it to understand the universe? In Huxley’s Brave New World, workers are provided resource in vitro to create a specific number of Alphas, Gammas, and Epsilons.  

 

‘What am I?’  

‘You are an Epsilon.’  

‘What do I do?’  

‘You pass butter.’ 

‘I understand.’ {passes butter} 

 

Perhaps we will apply smarter SIs to mull over the human condition and make philosophical observations (and, perhaps, {gasp} recommendations). The human condition is preposterously multi-variate and dynamic. That should keep a planet-sized SI busy until the heat death of the Universe. 

 

No?” 

Mark McLaughlin's War and Peace 6th Edition — Update Kits Now Available

We have been discussing whether to offer post-KS update kits for W&P 6th Edition for several months. We made a decision last weekend to extend the offer to customers who missed the Kickstarter campaign.

If you purchased the original War and Peace 5th Edition and would like the component upgrades to bring your 5th edition to 6th edition specs, we’ve put together a few dozen kits and posted their availability on our online store.

You will find this new, extremely limited product here.

PS Don’t shoot food.