Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Fniff]

Well, if the majority population is happy in their technologically-caused wonderland, wouldn't it be much worse for them to be cut off from it? Rather than killing people, making them unable to interface with technology by whatever means?

As terrorism goes, it'd probably be a lot more effective in spreading fear than mere death - the victims are reduced.

That might not suit the gangsters (they mainly murder each other) but that definitely suits one faction in play. I would be curious how people would cope with that - if you were cut off from heaven, and stuck in purgatory, what do you do?

[Amperzand]

Maybe connection to the holodeckmatrix is accomplished via a physical socket, which can be broken and is extremely difficult to repair?

It would be sorta like gelding was to medieval folks.

In other news, I did have the thought that of replicators are everywhere and free to use, the usual argument against things like the MG-42, namely ammunition, is irrelevant. Plus gangstas' love dat dakka. Basically have crudely designed, absurdly fast firing ballistic weapons become ubiquitous as glocks are now. Maybe something like a disposable G11? High rate of fire, mostly made of plastic, large magazine of small rounds. Disposable because there's no reason to keep it around after one mag.

[wierd]

Here's something rather specific:

In a universe I'm working on, technology is advanced. We're talking Star Trek, holodecks and replicators included. Due to a complicated situation, however, there is a deprived underclass of people* who adapt this technology for murdering people.

What sort of weapons would make sense for tech-savvy ghetto-rats living in a close-to-singularity world? Creativity is appreciated - the weapons are designed towards destroying morale rather than people.
_{*How do they exist in a Star Trek-style utopia? As I said, complicated situation.}

Look at second life's issue with "griefers".

One noteworthy story involved a "bomb", that conjured a 50ft aparition of a "god", denouncing the sexual roleplay antics of the landowner, then proceeded to make it rain dildos.

I imagine that with replicator tech and abundant energy, the limiting factor will be raw material.  That is probably where the new economy lies, which gives rise to the underclass, and where the above noteworthy story may find analog.

In second life  each area has a "prim limit", to keep from killing the server under computational load. This is analogous to resource scarcity.  Part of the greif of the attack was to consume the whole prim limit by spawning that many dildos.

In your futureistic setting, a similar "replicator bomb" placed in the wealthy person's material warehouse, programmed to consume all the available raw material, and produce a comically useless set of items from it would be an effective economic terror weapon that does not endanger human lives.

This would be especially useful if orchestrated when said wealthy person was attempting financial transactions that require rarified raw materials transfer to other wealthy people-- the act would tie up all those materials until they can be reprocessed back again, making the deal fall through.  Continued and repeated harassment of this nature could financially ruin the wealthy person through denying them access to the exchange market, and tarnishing thier transaction record with defaulted transactions.

[Tack]

You could just pump electricity into their holodecks.
Is it mostly gangster on gangster violence?
Or is it more like bloody revolution?

[wierd]

Reprogrammed holodeck is much more amusing.  A hacked up tablet, an interface cable, and some hacker savvy is all you need.

second life greifing just got a whole lot more applicable. It is impossible for the holoresidents to retaliate in kind. the material universe simply isnt that plastic.

[Amperzand]

If there are omnireplicators everywhere, it might very well be.

[wierd]

Unlikely to exist in sufficient density in "underserved" areas, due to their being "underserved."

All holosuite residents will have fully plastic reality though. You could put them in an MC Escher horror scape of ladders and stairs with no way out, for instance.

Conversely, the netrats would have already adapted to life with limited to no access to replicators, and so could just shut any they find off.

It's a very asymmetrical relationship.

[Parsely]

Maybe in holodeck-land, "civilized" warfare is conducted in balanced simulations. Everyone plays CS:GO to decide who owns Poland.

[Fniff]

For a more accurate picture of the situation (and to keep this going, it's really neat), the holodeckers have the support of an AI similar in power to GLaDOS in Portal 2. That is, her control over the Aperture Facility.

Thank you all for your contributions, especially Sheb, Amperzand and Wierd.

[Tack]

But then you have to ask why we're playing war games for this in the first place.

"If we were to go to war, people would die. So let's just wage game-war and figure out who'd win if we were to have an actual war and then we can all surrender to them."

[Parsely]

But then you have to ask why we're playing war games for this in the first place.

For holographic internet points.

[MonkeyHead]

But then you have to ask why we're playing war games for this in the first place.

"If we were to go to war, people would die. So let's just wage game-war and figure out who'd win if we were to have an actual war and then we can all surrender to them."

There is actually a Star Trek episode with this plot.

[wierd]

Yup. it was a TOS episode.

The wargame simulation projected that the enterprise was hit unaware by a tricobalt explosive, destroying it completely.  Both factions demanded that the enterprise crew submit for euthanization in accordance with their laws.

Naturally, that didnt happen, and the federation instead did a huge prime directive violation. (the planets were being approached for membership but were not members yet.)

[iceball3]

Wouldn't emulating war simulations be kind of useless, in basis, for resolving conflicts, especially when life is being held at stake?
Particularly, considering how such a simulation can be easily stacked to odds of the preferred party of those who host it.

Then again, i hadn't really cared all too much about the societal background of post singularity fabricators and living light in star trek, or rather I'm mildly irked by it and deliberately ignore it in favor of the cool other components of a space opera, character interaction, space vessel management and crew, etc. So perhaps I'm just kind of poorly opined to the technological setting in of itself.

[Kot]

Everyone plays CS:GO to decide who owns Poland.

IEM doesn't work that way, if any of you is wondering.