New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

(SNIP)

In the USA the Northeast, the West Coast, and the Rust Belt, all become more important. The Southeast and the Rocky Moutain west fade in importance.

(SNIP)

We'd be okay, in the Denver-Boulder metropolitan area, because we have a diverse, information-based economy. If military spending remained important, Colorado Springs might do okay, as well. The ski resort towns prosper any time the economy does well.

Santa Fe, down in New Mexico, wouldn't lose out, either. It's a significant and unique hearth for arts and culture. As a biotech research center, Fort Collins would probably grow in significance, as well.

That said, I think you're mostly right about a lot of the region. Those locations sometimes remind me of islands of sanity and progress, in a sea of reactionary rural communities and increasingly empty territory.

Your scenario would likely accelerate already existing patterns of change.

[Paulon]

It was a plot point in Babylon 5 too.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

Your scenario would likely accelerate already existing patterns of change.

Agreed! And to dangerous levels. It is one of the main reasons the setting works. It is our world in a dangerous fever. A delirium that could kill.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Paulon

It was a plot point in Babylon 5 too.

I hadn't known that.

[Astromancer]

Candyland


A technology I'd allow in this nanotech revolution world (because it would bring in big troubles) would be the use of nanotech as a Proteus Virus. Basically, they can rewrite your DNA here. If you'd like to be a parahuman, there's an app for that. The process takes several weeks in a clinic, a few hundred thousand dollars, and you'll need to get follow ups and meds for about a year and a half until your genetic stabilize (the alternatives start at massive cancers and get worse quickly). But, if you follow the basic safety guidelines, you're safe.

If this world is connected to anything in the Infinite Worlds setting, this feature would pull in all sorts of trouble. In a stand-alone setting, this feature means the rich are immortal. Having the rich be immortal would guarantee big trouble of some kind or other.

[Apollonian]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Candyland


A technology I'd allow in this nanotech revolution world (because it would bring in big troubles) would be the use of nanotech as a Proteus Virus. Basically, they can rewrite your DNA here. If you'd like to be a parahuman, there's an app for that. The process takes several weeks in a clinic, a few hundred thousand dollars, and you'll need to get follow for about a year and a half until your genetic stabilize (the alternatives start at massive cancers and get worse quickly). But, if you follow the basic safety guidelines, you're safe.

If this world is connected to anything in the Infinite Worlds setting, this feature would pull in all sorts of trouble. In a stand-alone setting this feature means the rich are immortal. Having the rich be immortal would guarantee big trouble of some kind or other.

Follow-on effect: Someone (or several someones) release modified Proteus viruses into the wild. Effect: well, it could be the end of the world and the rise of a nanotech mutant apocalypse, but for a more stable setting say that fairly robust "vaccines"/"nano-boosted immune systems" are implemented quickly. Nonetheless, many people find themselves mutating in ways they didn't ask for - sometimes several times over the course of their life. Different Proteus Viruses combine in unexpected ways, often fatally, but sometimes beneficially. And if one of the viruses is the immortality one (because really, someone's going to get snippy about an immortal gerontocracy running things forever), then things get interesting. Or you could just use it for something like Shadowrun's Goblinization.

Also, what if someone releases a Proteus Virus to uplift, say, common household pets to sapience? Or something approaching it.

Pretty sure IW would treat this world as a big no-go zone.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Apollonian

Follow-on effect: Someone (or several someones) release modified Proteus viruses into the wild. Effect: well, it could be the end of the world and the rise of a nanotech mutant apocalypse, but for a more stable setting say that fairly robust "vaccines"/"nano-boosted immune systems" are implemented quickly. Nonetheless, many people find themselves mutating in ways they didn't ask for - sometimes several times over the course of their life. Different Proteus Viruses combine in unexpected ways, often fatally, but sometimes beneficially. And if one of the viruses is the immortality one (because really, someone's going to get snippy about an immortal gerontocracy running things forever), then things get interesting. Or you could just use it for something like Shadowrun's Goblinization.

Also, what if someone releases a Proteus Virus to uplift, say, common household pets to sapience? Or something approaching it.

Pretty sure IW would treat this world as a big no-go zone.

Random rewrites of animal genetics could lead to survival horror at high speed.

[Flyndaran]

Good pseudoscience explanation for those one off monsters.
The Tremors tv show was going that way with just such a bacteriological proteus "thing" affecting local wildlife, before cancellation.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Apollonian

Follow-on effect: Someone (or several someones) release modified Proteus viruses into the wild. Effect: well, it could be the end of the world and the rise of a nanotech mutant apocalypse, but for a more stable setting say that fairly robust "vaccines"/"nano-boosted immune systems" are implemented quickly. Nonetheless, many people find themselves mutating in ways they didn't ask for - sometimes several times over the course of their life. Different Proteus Viruses combine in unexpected ways, often fatally, but sometimes beneficially. And if one of the viruses is the immortality one (because really, someone's going to get snippy about an immortal gerontocracy running things forever), then things get interesting. Or you could just use it for something like Shadowrun's Goblinization.

Also, what if someone releases a Proteus Virus to uplift, say, common household pets to sapience? Or something approaching it.

Pretty sure IW would treat this world as a big no-go zone.

Now, suppose that someone on this world develops sub-quantum conveyors before any of the other parachonic powers find this worldline. The first hint they have is when other worlds start showing evidence of nanotech infections.

Might do a New Reality Seeds post on this, if the idea gels in my head enough, but it could also fit in the thread for Alternate Crosstime Organizations that I'm not sure the name of (unless that was it). Maybe someone else will get inspired before I do.

Could a Proteus Virus give someone's body the ability to manufacture personal utility fog?

[Astromancer]

An interesting campaign world could be based on the introduction of a single technology and its rapid dissemination. Choose the right technology and you can rapidly rewrite power relationships. Radical shifts in power relationships normally lead to wars until the new power relationships have rewritten the world community in their image.

Try this idea. In 2020 a researcher comes up with viable cold fusion that cheap and easy to build. Assume that it is basically a polywell fusor and amazingly easy to plug into existing systems. As the fusors spread out oil plunges in value. Electrical systems become decentralized and easier to build. Africa and India will really benefit there. Oil will only be valued as a raw material and coal would vanish from the market.

Israel would get ready to talk land for peace or drop its US alliance completely. The Arab lands would go nuts seeing their status evaporate. China, once the coal mines close, would have big internal displacement issues. North Korea's only significant export is coal so whichever Kim is running that monarchy will go ballistic.

Western nations will go up or down according to whether or not they'll take care of themselves. The fusors would move the needle towards social democracy. If the financial interests win the power struggles in a nation, then that nation will decline. As the Maastricht treaty enshrines certain ideas about economics that favor hard right economic assumptions, the USA is more likely to successfully embrace social democracy. That may seem wildly counterintuitive but, as vital as the EU is to Europe's future, they've painted themselves into a corner.

This idea needs more development but I think it's sound.

Note: Given the basic idea and low radiation output of a polywell fusor, airplanes, airships, and other mobile applications make good sense. Space travel would also gain a great deal, polywell fusors would be grand for ion drives.