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GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

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Fri, 2012-05-18 11:18

Prophet710 Prophet710's picture

GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

One thing I've noticed is the avid tenacity of GM's on this site is its different interpretations of the setting and the antagonists. My questions, for the sheer morbid curiosity I have is. How do you interpret the Exsurgent virus and the TITANs in your game? AND What is the main thematic of your game (action, horror, etc.)? I myself have this view. The EX virus is a sentient being in and of itself that relentlessly seeks to force evolve any semi-advanced species it comes across and send back current and resulting data to some unknown location. Though not hostile, the effects of such rapid evolution on both a technological and biological level have done more harm than good in many cases. Entire civilizations have crumbled and entire species have become extinct simply coming into contact with the EX virus before it can run its' full course. As a virus that is exactly what it is designed to do, infect, force evolve, and dissipate. At this point, Transhumanity is in the center of the infection timeline, the virus has gone into a state of slight remission as many of its evolutionary tags attempt to eke out existence or assert itself back into the fold. Arguably this is more difficulty said than done as the Exsurgents and TITANs are a very real threat. Not because of the EX virus itself, but because, as a platform for the virus, Transhumanity and its technological/biological creations aren't of a proper format to peaceably assimilate and pass the virus as it was intended. Mutations, mental derangement, cognitive/logical decay are all results of the virus attempt thus far. However, there are more drastic effects to be felt, for example the Watts-McLeod strain. Though not necessarily a separate strain of the EX virus, this deviation of the forced evolutionary attempt has yielded excellent results in bringing Transhumanity from its' present state of primitiveness. More advanced Exsurgents are far more capable with this strain and have come to understand the EX virus true nature, which makes them look insane as they attempt to assert this level of infection on the rest of Transhumanity. My main focus for my campaign arc is intrigue. I tie in a great deal with the esoteric dealings of secret organizations and their more illusive hyper-masters. So far, fun game. How about all of you?

—

"And yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes. And slowly, and surely, they drew their plans against us."

Fri, 2012-05-18 15:14

Decivre

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

Prophet710 wrote:
How about all of you?

To some degree, the Exsurgent virus has a canon to it. The biggest elements that vary are origin and purpose. I actually used to run several games, each with a different interpretation of the virus. In my horror campaign, neither the purpose nor origin of the virus was revealed. I was playing it more as if the ETI created the Exsurgent virus as an evolutionary bottleneck, designed to kill off all but the best and brightest races that tried to expand into the stellar void. The TITANs were modified to serve this purpose, and remained within the system as a medium by which they could continue to test the human race. The disappearance of the TITANs was a farce; only a few left. Most remain behind and serve various purposes. I had another game that was more espionage/adventure and largely inspired by Shadowrun. In this one, I gave the Exsurgent virus a completely different purpose AND origin. The Exsurgent virus wasn't created by the ETI, it [i]was the ETI[/i]. Basically, an artificial intelligence beyond singularity capability decided that the best form in which to ensure its survival was as a virus. After being seeded throughout the galaxy, it waits until it infects a race, at which point it effectively uses the race as a biosphere. Each individual strain is in effect an individual of the "civilization", each with their own aims and goals. They compete with each other in the same way that various creatures in a biosphere compete for survival, food and resources. When the TITANs were infected, they acted as the initial vector by which the virus would hit the human race. After seeding the virus through humanity in various ways, the TITANs forcibly uploaded human minds to aide in creating new strains (new personalities, new traits for the organism), then left to seed them elsewhere in the galaxy. In that campaign, the PCs actually made contact with a strain that could use human language. It gave a terse explanation of what the Exsurgent virus was. It also explained that the Watts-Macleod strain was one of the few that aimed to aide the human race, but was not a sapient strain of the virus (somewhat inspired by Blindsight... rather than being a non-sapient technologically-advanced being, the Watts-Macleod strain was a non-sapient moral strain).

—

Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]

Fri, 2012-05-18 16:19

nezumi.hebereke nezumi.hebereke's picture

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

I don't interpret it. If it becomes a plot topic, I throw crazy stuff at the players and let them figure out something on their own. Players tend to come up with better conspiracy theories than the GM does anyway :P

Fri, 2012-05-18 17:06

Quigs

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

I leave my virus out as one of those scary things that exist, and that's about it. It's scary, and that's enough. It serves as a fun vehicle to introduce some crazy things, much like the FEV of the 2 canon Fallout games. While I appreciate the effort other GMs claim to put into their virii, I just don't have the time. Characters have plots. Corporations and social entities have plots. Virii? That's pushing it.

—

"Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my

Fri, 2012-05-18 18:48

Decivre

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

Quigs wrote:
I leave my virus out as one of those scary things that exist, and that's about it. It's scary, and that's enough. It serves as a fun vehicle to introduce some crazy things, much like the FEV of the 2 canon Fallout games. While I appreciate the effort other GMs claim to put into their virii, I just don't have the time. Characters have plots. Corporations and social entities have plots. Virii? That's pushing it.

Purpose is what drives a plot. While a natural virus may not have a purpose, an artificial one will. The Exsurgent virus is certainly artificial, so it will certainly have a purpose. And that purpose is integral to how you can form a plot around it. Granted, many games may not give it a purpose. Most of my games don't explore the virus, because the reason isn't necessarily relevant. This is especially true if your characters never encounter it. But it, like anything else, can be a hook for running your story.

—

Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]

Mon, 2012-05-21 21:30

fellowhoodlum fellowhoodlum's picture

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

mine is spiraaaaalsssssss... __,aaPPPPPPPPaa,__ ,adP"""' `""Yb,_ ,adP' `"Yb, ,dP' ,aadPP"""""YYba,_ `"Y, ,P' ,aP"' `""Ya, "Y, ,P' aP' _________ `"Ya `Yb, ,P' d" ,adP""""""""Yba, `Y, "Y, ,d' ,d' ,dP" `Yb, `Y, `Y, d' ,d' ,d' ,dP""Yb, `Y, `Y, `b 8 d' d' ,d" "b, `Y, `8, Y, 8 8 8 d' _ `Y, `8 `8 `b 8 8 8 8 8 `8 8 8 8 8 Y, Y, `b, ,aP P 8 ,P 8 I, `Y, `Ya """" d' ,P d" ,P `Y, `8, `Ya ,8" ,P' ,P' d' `Y, `Ya, `Ya,,__,,d"' ,P' ,P" ,P `Y, `Ya, `""""' ,P' ,d" ,P' `Yb, `"Ya,_ ,d" ,P' ,P' `Yb, ""YbaaaaaadP" ,P' ,P' `Yba, ,d' ,dP' `"Yba,__ __,adP" dP" `"""""""""""""' Edit: Ugh that didn't have the intended shape >.>

Tue, 2012-05-22 10:12

Prophet710 Prophet710's picture

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

Is that one of Ross Perots' ears?

—

"And yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes. And slowly, and surely, they drew their plans against us."

Tue, 2012-05-22 11:33

Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

fellowhoodlum wrote:
Edit: Ugh that didn't have the intended shape >.>

Actually, that seems really fitting. Something corrupted, perhaps utterly dissimilar from what was originally intended.

—

Tue, 2012-05-22 19:46

fellowhoodlum fellowhoodlum's picture

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

Or the exsurgent virus only works with fixed-width text... But yeah, I went with the spirals thing from Uzumaki (and that They Might Be Giants song)

Tue, 2012-05-22 21:24

#10

Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

So the bells are ringing? Maybe we need to introduce pyrokinetic statues somehow. My own take on it is that it is intended to catch rapidly self-improving minds. Thats how it wrecked the TITANs. But it is inefficient against less developed minds, either out of design (keeping the universe open for lesser beings while preventing smart ones from taking over) or error.

—

Tue, 2012-05-22 21:43

#11

fellowhoodlum fellowhoodlum's picture

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

Arenamontanus wrote:
So the bells are ringing? Maybe we need to introduce pyrokinetic statues somehow.

More Spiraling Shape than Bells Are Ringing but the latter also works well. Same album too. o.o

Tue, 2012-05-22 23:51

#12

Decivre

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

[code] __,aaPPPPPPPPaa,__ ,adP"""' `""Yb,_ ,adP' `"Yb, ,dP' ,aadPP"""""YYba,_ `"Y, ,P' ,aP"' `""Ya, "Y, ,P' aP' _________ `"Ya `Yb, ,P' d" ,adP""""""""Yba, `Y, "Y, ,d' ,d' ,dP" `Yb, `Y, `Y, d' ,d' ,d' ,dP""Yb, `Y, `Y, `b 8 d' d' ,d" "b, `Y, `8, Y, 8 8 8 d' _ `Y, `8 `8 `b 8 8 8 8 8 `8 8 8 8 8 Y, Y, `b, ,aP P 8 ,P 8 I, `Y, `Ya """" d' ,P d" ,P `Y, `8, `Ya ,8" ,P' ,P' d' `Y, `Ya, `Ya,,__,,d"' ,P' ,P" ,P `Y, `Ya, `""""' ,P' ,d" ,P' `Yb, `"Ya,_ ,d" ,P' ,P' `Yb, ""YbaaaaaadP" ,P' ,P' `Yba, ,d' ,dP' `"Yba,__ __,adP" dP" `"""""""""""""'[/code] There you go, fellowhoodlum

—

Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]

Wed, 2012-05-23 00:05

#13

fellowhoodlum fellowhoodlum's picture

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

oh no! you're infected too! o.o

Wed, 2012-05-23 01:04

#14

Decivre

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

fellowhoodlum wrote:
oh no! you're infected too! o.o

What? Of course I'm not infected! And to prove it, you should come within close contact of me. We should also share a drink. The same drink. Don't mind the tentacles. It's a skin condition.

—

Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]

Thu, 2012-06-07 22:42

#15

Thampsan

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

It seems clear that the exsurgency virus is an ETI threat elimination tool. It doesn't so much want to cull the weak, as cull everything, or at least forestall it long enough that other forces can be bought to bear on the victims. Given that the ETI's who created it obviously want to prevent other emergent singularity civilisations from getting too powerful, it is a tool to prevent a widespread outbreak of post-singularity intelligences and stop future megascale projects and resource hogging. Having said that, since it's failed to do it's job we should assume that the ETI's were obviously new to this 'being god' game, so instead of eliminating everything it caused chaos. Or perhaps it's just more methodical, perhaps the exceptional factional nature of humanity (both genetically, culturally and now technologically) have prevented the virus from being as effective as it would otherwise have been on a more homogeneous species. This makes the virus still more dangerous as it means instead of being a few quite common strains there are potentially an infinite number of variations based on interaction with morph, local computer systems and clusters and so on. The Watt-McLeod strain might be mostly harmless, but that doesn't mean it was the original intent for the virus to be so. --- Alternatively, what if the Exsurgency virus is solely the ETI equivalent of a species backup, that is to say that it's a parasitic life form that uses other intelligences as hosts. Just something to consider.

Fri, 2012-06-08 11:10

#16

Sepherim

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

I like the idea of the Exsurgent being a parasite copy of the ETI. :)

—

The mind is information... hack it! [IMG]http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j166/Sepherim/Otros/F_Rep.jpg[/IMG] +4 http://tribulaciones.es/

Fri, 2012-06-08 11:26

#17

Decivre

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

Thampsan wrote:
Alternatively, what if the Exsurgency virus is solely the ETI equivalent of a species backup, that is to say that it's a parasitic life form that uses other intelligences as hosts. Just something to consider.

That's very similar to the interpretation of the virus I have in my action campaign, which is that the exsurgent virus and the ETI [i]are one and the same[/i]. I described it fairly well up above.

—

Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]

Fri, 2012-06-08 12:26

#18

Thampsan

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

Damn. Makes me wish i'd read your post fully when I started reading the thread so as to avoid duplication. Greats minds and so on. I think the idea that the ETI virus would be anything but genocidal is unlikely though. No point in allowing competing species to live and potentially thwart your plans in the long term. Alternatively perhaps the human race is the equivalent of a 'blood sports' arena to the ETI, so it's deliberately giving itself a disadvantage so to draw the fight out longer until it wins.

Fri, 2012-06-08 17:20

#19

Decivre

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

Thampsan wrote:
Damn. Makes me wish i'd read your post fully when I started reading the thread so as to avoid duplication. Greats minds and so on. I think the idea that the ETI virus would be anything but genocidal is unlikely though. No point in allowing competing species to live and potentially thwart your plans in the long term. Alternatively perhaps the human race is the equivalent of a 'blood sports' arena to the ETI, so it's deliberately giving itself a disadvantage so to draw the fight out longer until it wins.

Not totally true. All species need a biosphere in which to thrive. The biosphere of a virus is its host. Therefore, it has no real need to kill us off. That said, the ETI might be like us to a degree, in that they don't live in equilibrium with their biosphere (aka you). The end-result is the mass extinction of entire civilizations. In the case of my setting, their ethics vary wildly. But for the most part, all strains of the Exsurgent virus see us as hosts, and not as intelligent beings in the same way we see ourselves. Our deaths are meaningless to most of them. Very few have any empathy for us, one of which is the Watts-Macleod Strain.

—

Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]

Fri, 2012-06-08 22:33

#20

Thampsan

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

I was in the middle of typing out a long argument for why the ETI behind the Exsurgency virus should be more clever than your example supposes. But upon thinking further I realise that you're right, singularity events don't grant infallibility, just an immense amount of power and knowledge. Given the self-destructive and competing tendencies just among the human species, it therefore shouldn't be unlikely; as you suggest, for ETI to be just as prone to short sighted or fallible mistakes. Just as my example infers that the ETI were clever enough to actually start on even larger projects with this one being a hold over to prevent interference. As you suggest mass extinctions might also not be the result of failing to live in harmony with one's biosphere, but also memetically triggered. Mass suicide, after all post singularity(ies) all a species lives for is for the sake of existence - which even then is finite over a long enough period of time and ending in either heat death or big crunch of the universe. So it could be possible that a good few of the ETI mention in Eclipse Phase just eventually succumbed to the desire to end it all out of boredom. I'm currently running a plot in my game that revolves a lot about the existential horror of infinite existence. It might be possible that the ETI is, as you said, a hold over for a species that only wants to be triggered when new and salient stimuli come into contact with it, consumes it's biosphere and goes into stasis again to avoid long periods of stagnation and activity.

Sat, 2012-06-09 04:43

#21

Decivre

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

Thampsan wrote:
I was in the middle of typing out a long argument for why the ETI behind the Exsurgency virus should be more clever than your example supposes. But upon thinking further I realise that you're right, singularity events don't grant infallibility, just an immense amount of power and knowledge. Given the self-destructive and competing tendencies just among the human species, it therefore shouldn't be unlikely; as you suggest, for ETI to be just as prone to short sighted or fallible mistakes. Just as my example infers that the ETI were clever enough to actually start on even larger projects with this one being a hold over to prevent interference.

I'd argue that a singularity does not necessarily denote a need for even knowledge. For instance, my interpretation of the Watts-Macleod strain is that it is completely non-sapient, yet altruistic and empathic. To that end, I don't even really consider the ETI one single species... they are more akin to a collective of species that have all taken on a similar form... more akin to a taxonomic kingdom (or collection of kingdoms) than a genus. In my interpretation, the Exsurgent virus varies wildly in intelligence and capability, with many strains being animalistic or even completely non-intelligent (the Watts Macleod strain, the Rasputin strain that exists in my campaign), and a few being vastly intelligent hyper-aware entities (the ones that took down and infected/replaced the TITANs, for example). The one thing that all the strains share is their ability to self-improve and self-adapt, acting as their own evolutionary line without the need for natural mutation and sexual reproduction.

Thampsan wrote:
As you suggest mass extinctions might also not be the result of failing to live in harmony with one's biosphere, but also memetically triggered. Mass suicide, after all post singularity(ies) all a species lives for is for the sake of existence - which even then is finite over a long enough period of time and ending in either heat death or big crunch of the universe. So it could be possible that a good few of the ETI mention in Eclipse Phase just eventually succumbed to the desire to end it all out of boredom. I'm currently running a plot in my game that revolves a lot about the existential horror of infinite existence. It might be possible that the ETI is, as you said, a hold over for a species that only wants to be triggered when new and salient stimuli come into contact with it, consumes it's biosphere and goes into stasis again to avoid long periods of stagnation and activity.

Arguably, the default goals of all organisms are propagation and survival, both pre- and post-singularity. The Exsurgent virus just takes this to an inevitable conclusion and uses it's self-adaptive capabilities to perfect and hone its talents for propagation and survival. As a synthetic entity, it had all but mastered the ability to survive within the confines of the basic physical world... making the macro-scale a poor environment to induce adaptation. The Exsurgent virus effectively uses organisms as a crucible in which to test its survivability and induce new adaptations. I actually see the consumption of its host-biosphere as a byproduct of two factors. Competition between strains puts pressure on the host-civilization as they effectively become casualties of a post-singularity cold war. Furthermore, deaths are going to be a likely side-effect of self-adapting organisms experimenting with new and interesting traits that have the potential to be harmful to their hosts. So for the most part, the horrible effects of the virus have not necessarily been intentional. For the human race, the Fall was the most horrific and devastating event that ever occurred. For the Exsurgent virus, it was a brisk year with a couple oopses.

—

Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]

Mon, 2012-06-11 12:33

#22

Thampsan

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

Wait, I need to pull you up on one thing "I'd argue that a singularity does not necessarily denote a need for even knowledge." You can't have a singularity without also having an expansion of knowledge. It's not possible. Singularity events, as theorised by any of the current (real world) futurists or groups, is solely related to the rapid (exponential) acquisition/expansion of knowledge and power. You could argue that the exsurgency virus are uplifted ETI - that'd be plausible, but then you don't solve the problem of the ETI that undertook an inter-stellar project to seed some solar systems with the Bracewell probes. Also the Watts-McLeod strain isn't altruistic as it also leaves the victim less resistant to stress and more prone to infection from other strains of the exsurgency virus. In other words it is merely a primer, it softens up the target. It might possibly be a 'bio-forming' agent that makes it's hosts more inhabitable for other strains, perhaps to the point of bridging the gap between alien intelligence and (trans)human intelligence. I will agree with you though that the results of infection may 'not be as intended' and the result of ETI hubris.

Tue, 2012-06-12 00:28

#23

Decivre

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

Thampsan wrote:
Wait, I need to pull you up on one thing "I'd argue that a singularity does not necessarily denote a need for even knowledge." You can't have a singularity without also having an expansion of knowledge. It's not possible. Singularity events, as theorised by any of the current (real world) futurists or groups, is solely related to the rapid (exponential) acquisition/expansion of knowledge and power.

No, it requires a recursive expansion of intelligence, not necessarily knowledge. And it really depends on how you actually define intelligence even. Is sapience necessary for intelligence? Does something have to be self-aware to be capable of intelligence? If a being of pure instinct was capable of exponential recursive self-improvement... does that not count as a form of singularity?

Thampsan wrote:
You could argue that the exsurgency virus are uplifted ETI - that'd be plausible, but then you don't solve the problem of the ETI that undertook an inter-stellar project to seed some solar systems with the Bracewell probes.

Sure it does. The Bracewell probes are "hibernation" pods for the ETI, allowing them to wait eons for an intelligent race to come about and act as a host for their "collective". Bracewell probes are also used to store the ETI after they have overused resources and approach the destruction of their current host species. In effect, Bracewell probes are arks that they use to escape joint extinction alongside their hosts.

Thampsan wrote:
Also the Watts-McLeod strain isn't altruistic as it also leaves the victim less resistant to stress and more prone to infection from other strains of the exsurgency virus. In other words it is merely a primer, it softens up the target. It might possibly be a 'bio-forming' agent that makes it's hosts more inhabitable for other strains, perhaps to the point of bridging the gap between alien intelligence and (trans)human intelligence.

We worked under the impression that the Watts-Macleod strain forms a symbiotic relationship with its hosts. The strain modifies the brain on the pico-scale, making it possible for psi abilities to manifest. However, the strain changes to a new part of the life cycle where it no longer infects, and simply sustains the psi abilities of its host. However, for this form to survive, it has to modify the host's body to be a suitable environment. This has the unfortunate effect of making the host more vulnerable to other strains of the virus, as they too are able to survive easier in the W-M adjusted host.

Thampsan wrote:
I will agree with you though that the results of infection may 'not be as intended' and the result of ETI hubris.

Not just hubris. The ETI may be just as susceptible to emotion and instinct as we are. In fact, they may be more susceptible... years of modification may have left them with artificial instincts and emotions that you and I could never fathom, sensations and desires so strong that they put the most powerful addictions and obsessions to shame.

—

Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]

Tue, 2012-06-12 04:32

#24

Sepherim

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

Decivre wrote:
No, it requires a recursive expansion of intelligence, not necessarily knowledge. And it really depends on how you actually define intelligence even. Is sapience necessary for intelligence? Does something have to be self-aware to be capable of intelligence? If a being of pure instinct was capable of exponential recursive self-improvement... does that not count as a form of singularity?

I agree. I was thinking on Solaris, for example, where the planet is certainly "intelligent" and probably "self-aware", but in no way are we capable of judging its intelligence or even knowing if he is or not due to how very alien it is. It could have very well reached its own singularity without anything we could define as intelligence or knowledge in human terms, but completely based on the self-improvement of it's own way of existence.

—

The mind is information... hack it! [IMG]http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j166/Sepherim/Otros/F_Rep.jpg[/IMG] +4 http://tribulaciones.es/

Tue, 2012-06-12 07:07

#25

Smokeskin

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

Thampsan wrote:
It seems clear that the exsurgency virus is an ETI threat elimination tool. It doesn't so much want to cull the weak, as cull everything, or at least forestall it long enough that other forces can be bought to bear on the victims. Given that the ETI's who created it obviously want to prevent other emergent singularity civilisations from getting too powerful, it is a tool to prevent a widespread outbreak of post-singularity intelligences and stop future megascale projects and resource hogging. Having said that, since it's failed to do it's job we should assume that the ETI's were obviously new to this 'being god' game, so instead of eliminating everything it caused chaos. Or perhaps it's just more methodical, perhaps the exceptional factional nature of humanity (both genetically, culturally and now technologically) have prevented the virus from being as effective as it would otherwise have been on a more homogeneous species.

You can't be sure of that. There's a wider range of hypotheses which fit what happened. For example, imagine an ETI that takes on the role as a galactic parent to young civilizations. It wants to raise them to a mature level, where they don't fall into the traps of exponential growth and become a nuisance to the galactic society. To discipline its adopted children, it highlights the dangers of exponential growth by letting their own creations go out of control and do lots of damage. It makes sure the lesson is remembered by keeping the threat around and making their home planet into a monument. At the same time, it begins the introduction to the wider galactic society with their first alien encounter and the gate network. And that's even an example of a highly anthropomorphic ETI. There's no reason why the ETI should have a motivation that makes sense to us. There's no reason why there's only one ETI. The Fall and its end could be the result of a war between alien entities (perhaps of the same "race", perhaps not). Perhaps it was just an accident, some nasty piece of alien malware that unfortunately hit us and hurt us before the galactic containment procedures reigned it in.

Tue, 2012-06-12 07:29

#26

Decivre

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

Sepherim wrote:
I agree. I was thinking on Solaris, for example, where the planet is certainly "intelligent" and probably "self-aware", but in no way are we capable of judging its intelligence or even knowing if he is or not due to how very alien it is. It could have very well reached its own singularity without anything we could define as intelligence or knowledge in human terms, but completely based on the self-improvement of it's own way of existence.

Never read that book, heard it was pretty good. Does it have a good English translation? For an in-universe example, there's the exoplanet of Tanaka. It is a planet dominated by country-sized mega-fungi that have intelligence of a massive degree, but no technology to speak of. They compete between one another for years trying to destroy each other, until the end of a cycle at which point they merge their best traits together to form a single continent-sized organism. It then lives for a period, after which it forks its mind and the cycle repeats. It uses this period of competition to force itself to adapt and evolve (self-improvement), and it has a vast intellect behind it... but it probably doesn't debate philosophy or learn any distinguishable knowledge beyond what is necessary for improving itself repetitively.

—

Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]

Tue, 2012-06-12 20:05

#27

Sepherim

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

Decivre wrote:
Never read that book, heard it was pretty good. Does it have a good English translation?

Read it in spanish, sorry. But I'd say it probably has, it's a pretty famous sci-fi novel, so there probably are several translations available.

Quote:
For an in-universe example, there's the exoplanet of Tanaka. It is a planet dominated by country-sized mega-fungi that have intelligence of a massive degree, but no technology to speak of. They compete between one another for years trying to destroy each other, until the end of a cycle at which point they merge their best traits together to form a single continent-sized organism. It then lives for a period, after which it forks its mind and the cycle repeats. It uses this period of competition to force itself to adapt and evolve (self-improvement), and it has a vast intellect behind it... but it probably doesn't debate philosophy or learn any distinguishable knowledge beyond what is necessary for improving itself repetitively.

It certainly is very Solaris, and probably one of my favourite exoplanets in Gate Crashers due to its sheer alienness.

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The mind is information... hack it! [IMG]http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j166/Sepherim/Otros/F_Rep.jpg[/IMG] +4 http://tribulaciones.es/

Sat, 2012-06-23 22:03

#28

Thampsan

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

I like the idea of the exsurgent virus being malware. Very Accelerando.

Fri, 2012-06-29 21:44

#29

nostromo1a1 nostromo1a1's picture

Re: GM THREAD; Your Exsurgent Virus

What I think is an interesting thought is, The nano virus effect could make intelligent electronic items mini A.I.'s and functional equipment like Transformers. Also the Anvanced Titan A.I. Systems could with available technology of downloading and far casting do the same thing as the Cylons in the new Battlestar Galactica. The Titan A.I. Systems could also be messing with those captured humans in something like the Matrix, studying everything they do and how they respond to influences like lab rats. This is just a few of my favorite things ...

Fri, 2012-07-27 13:59

#30

Acatalepsy Acatalepsy's picture

My Exsurgent

I actually have lots of different origins, but I'll tell you about my favorite one. In this timeline, first contact came several years pre-Fall. A joint expedition between the Foresight Institute and Project OZMA - then an academic group - discovers an alien signal in the moons of Saturn, and investigates it. They discover the bracewell probe. The probe is not hostile; it is, in fact, a library of biology, culture, technology, history, physics, computer and cognitive sciences. It's an intelligent library, filled with adaptive code designed to be used, albeit by a species with a better grasp on the design of self-modifying systems than humanity. Tensions rise between and within the two teams. There is conflict. After a brief struggle, an agreement is reached - both team depart with the code from the library, but conceal the existence of the probe from the world at large. Fast forward a few years. The TITANs have been activated as an emergency measure due to an increasingly unstable political situation, and are doing exactly what they were designed to do - securing cyberspace, and beginning to give an overwhelming strategic advantage to the USA. The problem is, the TITANs aren't Friendly - and there's no guarantee they'll agree to be shut down, if that's even possible at this point, and no guarantee that their metastable forms after being bootstrapped so hard will have goals that are compatible with the good of humanity. And what's worse, they're only getting more powerful as they grow in intelligence and are given so much more control over the the US's military and industrial infrastructure. There's only a limited time window in which something can be done about them. Enter the Prometheans. They're as Friendly as we know how to get a seed AI to be. But though they're older than the TITANs, they've been running on limited hardware, deliberately restricting their own growth for reasons of safety. The TITANs have been bootstrapping as hard as they can, and have had the entire net to do it in. The Prometheans are outclassed, badly. They have exactly one thing going for them - the Foresight institute has a copy of the alien code library. The Prometheans don't dare use it to improve themselves, but they use it to create a weapon - the Exsurgent virus - using code that they barely understand, with the hope that it will cripple the TITANs long enough for the Prometheans to seize control of the network and destroy or contain the TITANs for good. Cue Fall. The short story is, it works - barely, but it works. The TITANs are shocked, disoriented, and crippled by the blow. The Exsurgent destroys and drives insane large chunks of the TITAN network, seizing control of sections to make variations on itself in the process. The Prometheans move in and sterilize where they can. The Exsurgent evolves, grows - there's blowback, and the Prometheans take some damage from their own creation. The TITANs and Prometheans and Exsurgents fight an invisible war, while the rest of humanity shoots at each other and the discarded, insane remnants of the real fight. The TITANs reverse engineer parts of the alien codec (stolen from the Prometheans in a daring countermove) and construct the Pandora Gates, evacuating Earth to extrasolar destinations; the Fall ends. The wounded Prometheans look on in horror at what they've done, and get to work cleaning up the mess they caused, and deciding what to do next. Firewall is formed as an organization to finish the cleanup, and to be the eyes and ears of the Prometheans for whatever comes next - though not all sentinels know this. OZMA reforms as a reaction to the Promethean's use of the Exsurgent - with hypercorp money behind it, and a mandate to ensure that humanity would be in control of it's own destiny, no matter the cost. With their own access to the alien codecs, they're effectively the only ones with a real chance of stopping the Prometheans, for good or ill. The Exsurgent survives, exactly like it was designed to do. It's evolved beyond its original parameters now and has assimilated and used both Promethean and TITAN code to improve itself. It's an intelligent weapon, left over from a war that's been over for a decade. Those strains that are left are those that survived the Promethean cleanup; they're dangerous and adaptive, but don't have any real purpose other than to destroy the TITANs; everything else is incidental, a result of being formed from half-understood alien code by an emerging seed AI rushing the development of the most devastating cyberweapon ever. The characters in this campaign were not Firewall-affiliated; I intended to play Firewall and OZMA as two sides in a shadow war the characters would be drawn into, using personal hooks (one of the character's daughter had disappeared during the Fall, and had in fact become an OZMA agent) and a desire to "Know The Truth".

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[I]This isn't a war ordinary humans can win. This is the future. Death's an inconvenience, now. Nothing more.[/I]