opnet [OpNet] The view of Amazing.

[Leliel]

These are just some of the wonders and glories of being of the One Race, so I can share your enthusiasm.

One question, Seed of the Universe and Project Utopia's Science and Tech division in the same sentence? I think you may have used the wrong word before dark.

"Extremely" comes to mind.

Leaving aside my own personal feelings for the esteemed Project, doesn't the idea of ANY organization having something that may be what you describe should fill any sane mind with apprehension.

The more Utopia grasps the advancement of science in it's hands, the more discoveries are censored and repressed. Not only is this a handicap to science, but is also well....fascism.

All political crap aside though, the cosmos is indeed a wonderful place.

[Machina]

So you're the one who wrote that piece of pulp garbage about me, huh, Tommy? Swell. My lawyer will be in touch with yours.

[Tommy Tomorrow]

My name on the dust jacket or embossed on the faux leather of the premier editions having escaped your preternatural senses obviously. It's a pleasure to witness such a deductive prodigy in action.

But no, that wasn't you. However you are one of the five extraordinarily intelligent novas whose personalities I'm merging into a composite for the character of Dillon in my upcoming novel God Forge.

[Dreamer]

Oh how children see flashy lights, smoke mirrors, slight of hand and proclaim miracles. Really, I bet this people couldn't name the biggest changes in the world in the past 200 years. I'll you tell this much most them happened before 1998.

Yes novas do wonderful things but honestly we are living in a back water third world possibilities compared to others that I have seen.

[Sakurako Hino]

...I held a crystal that supposedly contains the holographic seed of the universe...

I'll believe it, when I see it.

[Machina]

Don't be coy with me you smug little homo, you know I was just yankin' yer fuckin' crank. We all know who that dime-store fiction you wrote was about, and thankfully it wasn't me. Anyway, don't feel too bad about it. Nobody understands that greasy son of a bitch, very probably not even himself.

So who're the other four? I could hazard a guess, but there are still a fair number of players on that field.

[Machina]

Quote:

Dreamer's Suicide Note Reads:
I've got a giant fucking mouth and an unhealthy sense of when is and is not the right time to open it.

[Sakurako Hino]

Now, would that mouth be large enough for a 18-wheeler, or a small black hole to fit in?

[Warren Verona]

Ohh! A 'Look What I've Done!' thread! Can I play too?

...I've had a man beg for his life, in 11 different languages. Not one of them english.

...I've seen a man who could press a tank and while not paying attention, drop it on himself, killing him.

...I've watched a kid choke to death on a marble and I thank Darwin everyday that she did.

...I've held a crystal that supposedly contains the holographic seed of the universe. But then I woke up and realized that it was the free gift to go along with my new swamp land.

...I've stared at people, just to make them nervous.

...I've passed gas in an elevator occupied by a midget.

...I've gone days without eating just so I could piss off the guys at the buffet when I was finally hungry (Sylvan helped me with that one).

...I've kicked a man in the crotch just for the sake of seeing if his voice actually does change. (It did in this case)

...I've experimented in paradoxes until the local pet stores ran out of cats. That Schrödinger was a crafty fucker, but if you toss em all in a lake, your not tempted to open the box.

...I've assaulted mimes.

...I've asked the pizza delivery guy if I can 'keep the box'.

...I've mocked the elderly.

...I've drained a Nova of every bit of quantum energy they possessed, and systematically broken every bone they had just to prove a point: you're not a god. Gods don't beg for mercy.

...I've vomited blood.

...I've broken bones. Some we're even mine.

...I've bought alchohol for minors.

...I've slashed Sandcaster's tires.

...I've masterbated to porno.

...I've attended church on a Sunday, and not laughed during any of it.

...I've asked for forgiveness.

...I've given reason to hate, and used hate as a reason.

...I've been rich and powerful.

...I've been poor and pathetic.

...I've taken parents from thier children while they watched on in horror.

...I've helped build dreams.

...I've met a person who has seen the good in all there is to see, and often wondered what she has ever seen in me.

...I've felt everything from accepted to worried, and still want more.

...I've a jerk to everyone I meet.

Yup, the world is an incredible place.

[Tommy Tomorrow]

For Madame Dreamer and Mister Revenant;

No. This is not a "Look What I've Done" Thread. Both of you, in your own very special ways, are missing the point. The thread is about change and complacency. Its about future shock and alienation for those that are trying to adjust to the changes. Arguably in the minority for threads posted on this site its also not a "Woe Is Me" thread. Its a thread about the circumstance we find ourselves in while never giving much thought to the situation. Its says a great deal about both of you that your reactions were to automatically deduce that I am somehow you against all evidence to the contrary.

Let's examine merely one entry a little more closely. By their own hands, someone I know has created a subservient form of something I am willing to call "life" for no reason other than to meet their expectations and desires. Its not the first time in the history of the world someone has acted selfishly or with disregard to the consequences, but it the first time to my personal knowledge its been taken to this degree. Likewise that inventor's preoccupation with online gaming is disquieting because I can attest from personal experience the higher level systems are capable of modeling the subtle nuances of existence on this planet given whatever changes the programmer desires. Does this gaming sound like more of the same old same old? Then consider this; the next time you find the need to speak in utter privacy, having already taken precautions (logistic, technological, quantum) you foolishly thought might be required, all you really had to do was log onto any of the class Echo Level gaming sites. Privacy? You're hidden in the multiplexed signal of an estimated 14 million plus interactive players with no means of tracing individual signals once you've opted for anonymity. The only sure way of tracing something is to follow the signal virtually, something that is programming dependent on the game structure as to how it can be done, and even then you have to deal with the game environment. I've seen fourth tier cyberpaths that failed to do it in Delta Level games.

Each of the examples given was similar to these two in that, and this is where a little thought becomes needful, its not about what I've done. Its not about what I could do. Its that I live in a world where these things are commonplace. Dreamer and Revenant, each of you in your own very special ways has lost your perspectives. I know this because I'd misplaced my own until one morning when I was drinking coffee with my wife.

And in the act of it being misplaced we are all poorer for it.

[Dreamer]

Tommy, you missed the whole point of my post as well. Novas did not change the world as much as baselines have. The things that change the world have been here for a long time. I dare you to name on thing that changed the in the nova age more than artificial fertilizer, penicillin, nuclear weapons or the assembly line.

You look for flashy tricks, gimmicks, and claim you have found wonders. Grow up and see the real movers and shakers.

[Tommy Tomorrow]

Do you have even the slightest inkling of what this thread is about?

[Dreamer]

Yes, you are saying the world is going threw a cultural change. Moral,and normality is changing. Guess what. It happens. It happened in bigger ways. Those are four things that cause more future shock than what novas have caused.

Now if the topic is about anything else, please tell me..Cause I don't see anything besides oh my goddess novas are wicked cool, and we should ignore the other great changes in our past.

[Neil Preston]

I've been talking to a pregnant friend and felt her child's very first cardial infraction.

I've looked into someone lovely's eyes and seen her perception reach across the stars.

I've looked into my brother's eyes and seen him call across the vanished centuries to his long-dead ancestors so that they could once more gaze upon us, and we upon them.

I've seen a machine really learn from me, to the point were it anticipates my surgical and medical needs.

I've seen several (now) non-carbon-based lifeforms.

I've felt the taint of SOMA upon somebody and felt the quantum echoes of the person it once was.

I've rubbed the oils of a rare plant through my fingers and intrinsically understood the medical ramifications of its reproduction.

[Ultimax]

Hey, Mister Tomorrow, what about future hunger?

See, I fight in the Arena. It's an unbelievable engineering marvel. It's built up in a short time what a decade or so ago would have taken years. It's filled with energy projectors, incredible materials and such that was considered science-fiction of the furthest degree when I was a kid (Science fiction, not light-saber science fantasy).

And you know what a lot of our fans think?

"This is what the world's supposed to be like".

They expect it. That fact that nova generated wonders aren't everywhere baffles them. So, you seem like a learned type, what's the difference between these two types of folks? The shocked and the expectent? It can't just be age because I've seen some fogies acting the same way as the kids.

[Warren Verona]

No, Tommy. We're not poorer for it. We are now in a world where the improbable verily seems possible with each passing moment. There are those that hate us, those that love us, and those who just still can't figure out what the hell is going on.

It's a culture shock, we all know it. In fact, I doubt there is a single one of us who could play dumb on that subject.

,,

Quote:

Its about future shock and alienation for those that are trying to adjust to the changes.

So what does you holding a crystal with all the secrets of the Zerg or whatever, have to do with future shock or alienation? Or walking across the sands of some planet somewhere? All I see Tommy is a list of your accomplishments, things you have done and seen and felt the urge to share with us. When making a point, back that point up with a why and a how so we can understand what exactly about that experience changed you, or made you feel it merited attention, like in a thread like this.

All in all, that's fine. In fact, it's not even bragging, it's just simple 'look at what I've done'. For all those things on your list, you should be proud, for all of them are interesting in their own right. Each has removed a piece of your soul, reformed it, and placed it back in a manner that has made you better for the discovery. I feel however, that the point you were trying to make was lost in the fields of all the points you were trying to make with each statement.

Quote:

Its says a great deal about both of you that your reactions were to automatically deduce that I am somehow you against all evidence to the contrary.

There something wrong with me Tommy? By all means, we can settle up on this any time you're ready.

[Tommy Tomorrow]

Quote:

Originally posted by Dreamer:
Now if the topic is about anything else, please tell me..Cause I don't see anything besides oh my goddess novas are wicked cool, and we should ignore the other great changes in our past.

Loss of perspective often results in loss of insight such as you're experiencing.

The "world" is not a place or an organization although the planet is. The macro view is all well and good but this thread is about people in the collective only in the sense that there are so many who no longer recognize the world around them. You do know about other people do you not? A great number of them find the world around them to be alien and unknown and so they long for the familiar. A familiar that has little to do with your ideas on cultural advancements.

Quote:

Originally posted by Ultimax:
Hey, Mister Tomorrow, what about future hunger?

Please just call me Tommy. I prefer it and I'm younger than you are.

The difference is often one of scope and long term versus short term. Consider; five years ago a graduate sociology student created a series of faux opsites purporting to offer the opportunity to be nothing more than a guinea pig for extremely experimental technological upgrades. The opsites were very explicit regarding the long term side effects of going through these fictional procedures. And still the number of people volunteering eagerly, the majority of whom did not have disabilities, to essentially maim and disfigure themselves for nothing more than a moment in their personal sun was overwhelming. These people knew it would be transitory and end badly. The "experimental procedures" included artifical limbs and organs, gene splicing procedures with animal or insect DNA, exposure to esoteric radiations, fusing opnet technology to the brain stem... The list went on but there was one commonality in the offers. The opportunity, however briefly, to become something more. The chance to dwell for a moment in that place where maps of the sea an age ago would have been marked with a dragon and the cautionary footnote "Here There Be Monsters".

The difference is often in the intention of the individual. Imagine someone had offered you the opportunity to have the power of a nova but warned you the experiment would most assuredly kill you 99.999 percent of the time in just over six months.

What would you have done if you'd received that offer?

Quote:

Originally posted by Revenant:
No, Tommy.

I see. Was there ever a time in your life when you felt it worthwhile to think through a situation for reasons other than attaining a desire?