05-26-2018, 01:38 AM | #11 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: THS 2120!
Is Science Fiction the same now as in the late 1990s? If not, then new themes and ideas could give us a radically different setting.
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05-26-2018, 04:46 AM | #12 | |
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: THS 2120!
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E.g. the rebooted Star Treks feel like if the authors can't decide for what feel they're going; the attempts to rewrite Star Wars into the age of cynicism* resulted in Rogue One looking as if it wants to retroactively declare that the original trilogy was written by an unreliable narrator; the officially-not-rebooted prequel of Deus Ex feels like it's from some very different setting; Alien prequels produce the same effect with their EverythingIsAnIPodInTheFuture look. And when it comes to THS, I fear that the onset of the grimdark age of cynicism* will mean that any attempts to re-write THS will result in grave damage to the thing that made it special even back in the day: technological optimism. * == In the new sense of the word. |
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05-26-2018, 05:06 AM | #13 | |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: THS 2120!
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05-26-2018, 08:39 AM | #14 | |
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Re: THS 2120!
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05-26-2018, 09:49 AM | #15 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: THS 2120!
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After that I have to say that I had noticed no pushback against "purely optical computing" and am uncertain what effect it might have if included. I don't know what "actually TL9-10 memetics" might be either. Would it be the dull academic study of the creation and transmission of ideas without the "Voodoo mind control" aspects? I'd be in favor but that seems unlikely for you. Polykeratin is SillyTech and TS has too many silly elements already.
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05-26-2018, 10:06 AM | #16 | |||
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Re: THS 2120!
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Toxic Memes describes mechanics for memetics that are at least useful (though they seem to have a hard time competing with TL8 presidental elections with heavy TL8 propaganda); then a Pyramid article came out which made memetic campaigns barely able to make someone willing to make a modest monetary contribution to a cause. |
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05-26-2018, 12:29 PM | #17 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: THS 2120!
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Comparing memetics to Presidential campaigns unfavorably ignores that all but one challengers for a political office fail and the rules are set up so that one of them has to win in the end. I expect that what a truly scientific study of memes would show was that almost all advertising and propaganda doesn't work. The 3e version of Memetics Skill which boosted your ability will other Social Skills was maybe realistic and at least somewhat useful. The 4e version of a (apparently) learnable Talent is kind of kludge-like. If you really want rules for Voodoo Mind Control use any version of that you like. I've never had any use for any of them and that is probably why I've never noticed your issues.
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Fred Brackin |
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05-26-2018, 01:56 PM | #18 | |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: THS 2120!
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05-26-2018, 01:59 PM | #19 | ||
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Re: THS 2120!
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And yet we have tens of percent people rallying behind single candidates (the ones with the most successful propaganda campaign). As opposed to there being hundreds of candidates and an overwhelming majority of the vote split between those who have less than 1% each. So even at TL6-TL8 it seems to hold some decent effectiveness. Something 1-2 TLs higher should be better than TL8, particularly when the setting pays so much attention to how much of a breakthrough the invention is. Saying that something is very powerful and a big deal and then having the rules not match the setting is just wrong. (The removal of the skill bonus has more to do with purely system-design decisions; I agree it's clumsy but keeping it as-is wouldn't fit in the updated system either.) |
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05-26-2018, 05:49 PM | #20 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: THS 2120!
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As things stand at the current time in the Real World advertising, propaganda and electioneering are not part of any science at all. Creation of an actual Science that worked in these areas would have unimaginable results. Perhaps similar to a TL4 practitioner of humoral Esoteric Medicine looking at TL8 scientific medicine. Creation of functional and scientific social sciences is something that probably ought to be possible in theory but hasn't happened yet and i have no idea how to model it for rpg purposes.
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