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Hobbies for a swarmanoid?

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Wed, 2013-01-16 21:38
#1
Monican Monican's picture
Hobbies for a swarmanoid?
My group is starting back up with a new campaign, and I'm playing an AI-uplift in a swarmanoid morph. I'm trying to think up good hobbies and interests. So far I've heard some good ideas elsewhere, like an interesting in wargaming with miniatures, using my own swarm bugs as pieces in tabletop games. That goes with my character who was created by the military originally and gained sentience after the fall- a residual interest in military strategy makes sense. Can anyone else think up good past-times, hobbies, or interests? I'm having writer's block trying to put myself into this character's head.
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Thu, 2013-01-17 08:57
Revinor Revinor's picture
In order of perversity.
In order of perversity. 1) Self-sculputure/theater - performing very serious and overemotional silent 'puppet shows' using yourself as entire cast 2) Collecting huge array of ant-related educational videos, especially ones showing battles between ant colonies. 3) Visiting 'amuzement parks' containing modified NMRI machines, where you can get a good 'whirl' giving closest thing to rollecoaster ride for smarmoids. 4) as 2 with hidden folder containing few other 'educational' videos showing ant queens laying eggs... 5) Hiring biomorph prostitutes, covering their skin with very thin layer of yourself and having them go on normal job routines.
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Thu, 2013-01-17 09:16
fafromnice fafromnice's picture
collecting paper clip ;)
collecting paper clip ;)
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What do you mean a butterfly cause this ? How a butterfly can cause an enviromental system overload on the other side of a 10 000 egos habitat ?
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Thu, 2013-01-17 11:51
Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture
Knitting/braiding/macramé -
Knitting/braiding/macramé - each swarmbot takes one thread, and performs a complicated aerial ballet to make something.
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Extropian
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Sun, 2013-01-20 17:24
OneTrikPony OneTrikPony's picture
Swarmanoids are interesting
Swarmanoids are interesting as a precursor to a post human existence where the whole world is composed of catoms or utility fog and people take whatever physical form they desire whenever a physical form is required. As written, with little ability to effect the physical world, I don't see a great deal of utility in sleeving a swarmanoid. Possibly that's a limitation of my imagination so if anyone would like to expound on what makes a swarmanoid cool I'd enjoy that. Rather, I see a swarmanoid as a morph that an infomorph would jam from time to time and so I think a swarmanoid's hobbies would be primarily mental. Basically anything you could do as an infomorph you can do as a swarmanoid and vice versa. Probably, your hobbies are mostly going to be voyeuristic. If you could be a Protean Swarmanoid, or an Engineer Swarmanoid... that would be cool. In that case, my hobbies would mostly be evil practical jokes :D
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Mea Culpa: My mode of speech can make others feel uninvited to argue or participate. This is the EXACT opposite of what I intend when I post.

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Sun, 2013-03-10 05:53
patchwork patchwork's picture
While I'm unaware of any
While I'm unaware of any rules mechanics that support this, the logical utility of a swarmanoid is the ability to perform large scale precision work fast. Need to pop and replace 200 circuits? No problem, a swarm can do that in seconds. Rewire 40,000 discrete pathways? On it. Fertilize an entire field of plants? You get the idea. It would be a very strange individual that chose to spend a majority of their time in a swarmanoid, but the ends of the bell curve do exist somewhere. In keeping with that idea, someone who voluntarily spent the majority of their time in a swarmanoid would likely enjoy that sort of activity. Speedcubing, speed chess, speed painting...
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Sun, 2013-03-10 09:18
Smokeskin Smokeskin's picture
OneTrikPony wrote:
OneTrikPony wrote:
As written, with little ability to effect the physical world, I don't see a great deal of utility in sleeving a swarmanoid. Possibly that's a limitation of my imagination so if anyone would like to expound on what makes a swarmanoid cool I'd enjoy that. Rather, I see a swarmanoid as a morph that an infomorph would jam from time to time and so I think a swarmanoid's hobbies would be primarily mental. Basically anything you could do as an infomorph you can do as a swarmanoid and vice versa. Probably, your hobbies are mostly going to be voyeuristic. If you could be a Protean Swarmanoid, or an Engineer Swarmanoid... that would be cool. In that case, my hobbies would mostly be evil practical jokes :D
Nanoswarms can move with the swarmanoid, so they're effectively part of the swarm and you get engineer swarmanoids. An infomorph with mesh access or local processing power and a few nanoswarms can do pretty much what a swarmanoid can. The main advantage of a swarmanoid is that it doesn't need mesh access and brings its own processing power, so it can go in with the swarms and direct them and whatever else it wants to do without worrying about data traffic detection or getting shut out. In a purely civilian and peaceful setting, swarmanoids don't seem to offer much. Compared to other morphs, swarmanoids don't offer anything those morphs couldn't get with nanoswarms. So the stealth, mobility and dispersion options and extreme resilience towards most types of damage is what they offer. I also don't think guardians should affect swarmanoids, as the units are insect-sized, much larger than nanoswarms.
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Sun, 2013-03-10 21:37
GreyBrother GreyBrother's picture
Oh, do not discount the
Oh, do not discount the civilian/peaceful setting. I had a stroke of genius right now (at least i hope it is): What about maintenance work in an enviroment, where you need the internal processing power, direction of a transhuman and smallness of bodies? Like maintenance work? Remeber Star Trek Jeffries tubes? Those were awkward to navigate in. Now disregard those in construction, because hey, you can send in a swarm. In a place where you simply don't have access to the mesh (either because the machines around you radiate so much, that you simply can't use Wifi), they are a real boon. Salvage ops come to mind.
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Wed, 2013-05-08 21:24
The Green Slime The Green Slime's picture
Given the unique abilities of
Given the unique abilities of swarmanoids I can imagine some unique cultural forms arising amongst them - micro-scale feats of sculpture, horticulture, engineering, etc. that maybe only other swarmanoids are able to appreciate. What is the transhuman equivalent of today's model train enthusiast, city simulation video gamer, lego/mekano fan, bonsai master, etc. All of these pursuits are fundamentally similar: people love to replicate systems in miniature, the more painstaking and meticulous the better. Given the choice I'm sure [url=http://www.ted.com/talks/willard_wigan_hold_your_breath_for_micro_sculpt... guy[/url] wouldn't mind resleeving into a gaseous cloud of bots - maybe one of his swarmanoid-sleeved future adherents will craft an exact replica of Edo-period Kyoto on the inside of an eggshell, complete with mycelium trees and working plumbing. Another, more active pursuit could be some hybrid of dance, sport and/or performance art - say many dedicated swarmanoids attach an almost religious awe to the act of emergent group movement, merging together to flock like birds or school like fish. The discipline is to merge absolutely with the swarm, maybe even in hostile situations (something like those amazing fish-tornadoes avoiding feeding sharks and whales). There could be a vast nebula-like cloud of them constantly performing somewhere out in space, a half-billion intermingled souls whirling in concert for reasons nobody with a solid body could possibly understand.
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