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Old 01-19-2019, 01:55 PM   #1
hal
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Buffalo, New York
Default Today's facts tomorrow

Hi Folks,
What I'm proposing here with this thread, is a sort of resource in which people can look at today's events, and presume that at TL 8, a budding technology or trend will become firm reality in the next say, 20 to 40 years.

For example - in a campaign I'm running via FG, we have a Villain who started a process that could potentially result in the death of millions, but because the vaccine production is solely the property of one corporation, the premise of drumming up business by deliberately spreading that plague is a beast of conspiracy nightmares. What I incorporated however, was one premise where one of the henchmen of this villain - has learned to hack into Telecoms and infiltrate the cellphone technological support system.

With that, the hacker can read text messages between phones. He can determine where a person's phone is at any given time (by something as simple as signal triangulation between towers receiving the cell's attempt to determine the nearest cell tower). He can tap into the emergency broadcast system that the Cellphone is wired into. He can determine associations by what other cell phones connect (ie caller history) as well as cell phones that repeatedly come into close proximity to each other. In the year 2048, this hacker has access to metadata that stretches back for the entire lifetime of various phones - and due to access to the Telecom computer systems - can query which accounts were tied to which phones.

In short, a SUPER hacker whose skills are something that are difficult to fight.

Today, I read an article about an unsolved murder in England, where the killer was a hitman whose health habits ultimately caused him to be nailed.

"The health-conscious assassin was picked up for another murder, then investigators found his Garmin."

Later in the article it mentions the following:

"While detectives were investigating Fellows, they came across a photo of the suspect wearing his Garmin Forerunner during 2015’s Great Manchester 10K"

Think about that for a second. Once the Police determined that a suspect was wearing the device, they were able to get the device, check all of the preceding data, and ultimately, crack not only two murders, but found data that led to an unsolved murder by the suspect.

Imagine tomorrow's world with today's technology. For example - imagine a plot where the GM sets up a player character using the premise that someone with access to the data above (locations via GPS and a fitness watch) in which the villain frames the player character. The player character's GPS device places him at the scene NEAR a murder victim. The murderer then steals the GPS from the player character's home - wears it while committing a murder, then returns it back to the player character's home.

So - as you come across articles like that mentioned above - find ways to create an adventure seed for any one's campaign. The garmin fitness watch doesn't have to be used against a player character. It could be used against an NPC in which the player characters have to prove is innocent. Maybe use this against a player character's favorite ally or NPC they have reason to enjoy a good relationship with.

Just a thought. :)
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Old 01-19-2019, 03:07 PM   #2
Harbinjer
 
Join Date: Sep 2018
Default Re: Today's facts tomorrow

I don't recall details, but I read a story about a operations base in the middle east where a marine's fitbit posted online, by itself, the route he had taken while jogging one morning, in an area where the locals don't wear fitbits. It was very clear from the route where he was exiting and re-entering this base that was supposed to be, maybe not top secret, but also not marked with a big red X. There was a slight uproar for a day or two with the end result that everyone's fitbits were collected and everyone got to go to How-To GPS class.
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Old 01-19-2019, 03:57 PM   #3
hal
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Buffalo, New York
Default Re: Today's facts tomorrow

Here is a specific instance of "Today's technology tomorrow" kind of thing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk1NkWl_W2Y

For those who don't blindly click on links (always a good thing!), search you tube under the phrase...

"The Robot-Arm Prosthetic Controlled by Thought"

Note the research cost was 120 million dollars as of 2016 (assuming the video was made in 2016). As the main focus is on the man who received the device for testing purposes notes -

I am the Wright brothers of airplanes
I am the beginning...
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