Greybox

[Kerr ●]

The year is 2127 and transhumanity has spread across and colonized the solar system. All sorts technologies exist, chief among them being the digitization and copying of consciousness or Egos and creation of Artificial General Intelligences (AGI.) It has been 14 years since "The Collapse" of 2113 when a United States military Seed AI known as ISAAC achieved superintelligence during a global conflict, the ensuing chaos claimed the lives of over 90% of transhumanity and resulted in the loss of Earth and collapse of existing power structures. However transhumanity survived and in the aftermath new groups have been establishing themselves as the dominant powers of the solar system. Feeling are mixed, there are fears of conflict between transhuman factions or of a resurgence in ISAAC activity and the possibility of another collapse or even the extinction of transhumanity itself. However there is also hope, and a belief that a better future is possible.

On Monday 3rd March 2127 you went to a meeting with a wealthy popular socialite and scientist named Constance DuClair in Elysium the capital city of the United Republic of Mars. Constance is an Astrobiologist (study of alien life) and Xenobiologist (study of artificially created life) she has written numerous studies and produced various documentaries about life in the seas of Europa. Her documentary series "Life Among the Stars" is extremely popular. She put a call out on the net that she was looking to hire mercenaries for a dangerous scientific expedition mentioning that she'd be paying handsomely and that equipment, shells and skillsoft would be provided if necessary. You sent an application and were perhaps surprised when you heard back with an invitation to her home. Maybe you lived in Elysium or maybe you were just visiting. Maybe you were desperate and needed the money for a new shell, maybe you wanted to experience adventure, maybe the idea of a scientific expedition or befriending a popular socialite interested you or maybe you just have a lot of experience working as a mercenary and this is just one more job under the belt. Whatever the reason, you decided to go. However after arriving at her home and just before the briefing where you'd actually meet Constance, you agreed to have your consciousness backed up in case you died on mission and your greybox couldn't be recovered. It's now Monday 24th March 2127, three weeks have passed and you are that backup being sleeved into a new shell by an agent of Lifeboat in one of their safehouses. Lifeboat are a secretive organization dedicated to protecting transhumanity from existential risks. Constance and the mercenaries she hired have gone missing and Lifeboat needs to track them down. Your new job is going involve you finding yourself, literally.

This OP is large, serving as an encyclopedia of sorts for the setting. To be clear I don't expect you to read all of this right now. Instead it's a resource for you to skim, picking out the really important stuff and refer back to as we go on. I feel the drawbacks of having a possibly daunting OP and made up for by the value this resource adds. Feel free to ask me any questions you want, character creation information can be found at the bottom of the OP.

Transhumanity - Humans and AGIs

Pre-Collapse:

The Collapse of 2113 and Aftermath:



Egos, Greyboxes, Forks & Psychosurgery:

AI, AGI and SEED AI:

Jeeves & The Mesh/The Net:

Shells, Cyberware and Bioware:

Skillsoft, XP & VR:

Nanofabrication:

Agriculture, Power & Medicine:

Habitats:

Transportation & Interplanetary Communications:

Weaponry:

[Kerr ●]

Core System:

The MJ Belt:

The Rim:

Population Estimates:


Political Powers of the 22nd Century:

Lifeboat:

Crime & Punishment and Criminal Organisations:

Other Groups:

Currencies:



Are we alone in the universe?:

Religion:

Gender, Sexuality, Reproduction & Immortality:

Entertainment & Socialites:

Clothing & Armor:

[Kerr ●]

[BetaB17 ●]

YES! YES! YES! YES! *Topples over the age old status quo and laughs maniacally*

[Aarah ●]

I have a shell question:
If someone dies, they don't automatically get a new shell provided, is that right?
And if the person has no known family/friends, etc, where will their greybox go?
Are shells expensive? Depends what shell you get, I'd imagine.

[Kerr ●]

[Velvet LeChance ●]

[Kerr ●]

Everything looks fine to me. Accepted.

[BetaB17 ●]

So I take with our, presumed rogue or unrecovered 'original', our backup is more or less barred from previous finances or resources i.e like spare shells?

Also why the price difference between splicers bores, and androids? I would of assumed worker Blorgs to be the cheapest :/ followed by Matons or default Splicers

[Kerr ●]

Do you want the in-universe reason or the actual reason?

In-Universe you all changed your bank accounts passwords after you were backed up, so getting access is hard. Property rights always defer to an original, not a fork (so, you guys) and your original hasn't been missing long enough and no event that's known about has happened to them (like, a ship they were on exploded) for them to be declared legally dead. Generally speaking you'd need to be missing 6 months or have something happen to be declared dead, you haven't been declared dead. Legally (for now) you're a fork, not an original.

It'll take time and paperwork to get access to your financial assets again, if the original you is dead (or just never shows up again) you'll get access back, regardless of passwords scanning your ego can prove it's you. And if you aren't dead well, hopefully you like yourself/decide to merge. But that's going to take time you don't really have and Lifeboat probably wants to act under the radar to an extent anyway, screwing around with banks would be a massive paper trail.

The real reason is I don't want someone to play the child of a Venusian billionaire who can just throw money at all their problems. "A triad you say? Well, I'll hire a Black Sun mercenary team to sort them out right quick!" It could break the game.
---
Bioshells (and Borgs are partly biological, so them too) need to be grown in exowombs, that takes 6-9 months. It takes time and that's just how it is, the old adage of "9 women can't make a baby in a month." It's easier and faster to produce Androids than Worker Borgs and it's quicker to produce Worker Borgs than Splicers, simple as. Obviously like a Reaper is more expensive than a Splicer and a Matron is cheaper than an Android, but I'm sure you get that.

[BetaB17 ●]

Ah, so I take it then, excluding outliers like high tier or armament shells, that general go-to is Maton < Android < Semi-Biological < Biological, at least in regards to pricing. Quality and general demand may differ, I would assume

[Kerr ●]

Yes.

Like you said there are outliers and higher tiers of synth/borg (so say, a Reaper is a lot more efficient and more expensive than a Splicer) and getting a shell custom made to your specifications is going to cost more than one that isn't. And naturally there's different tiers of Bioshells too, so the ProtoGen Olympus line (the ones named after Greek Gods) is great but also, more expensive. Also supply and demand differs between habitats, that will impact what you can get and what it will cost.

[Rook ●]

I think I did this right, but I'm never completely sure lol.

Last edited by Rook on Sun Jul 09, 2017 1:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Baloth-Kul ●]

QUIRK CAPACITY REACHED

I'm planning on feeling this character out as I go. They're not going to be utterly insane, but I do expect to RP some peculiar behavior and mannerisms every now and then, and not to an obnoxious degree. Lemme know if anything needs tweakin'.

[BetaB17 ●]

Baloth, I'm gonna say this once, but for the love of ZALGO, when you use that text.. Toggle off Up & Down. You can keep it as [&@%!] up as you want, but it becomes more of a pain when the lines just.. Meld together . Your making my brain hurt more than it needs to

<3

[Kerr ●]

[Rook ●]

All right, fixed everything. Thanks!

[Aarah ●]

Wee, here's another character to chuck in the mix!



Let me know if anything is wrong. Cheers.

[BetaB17 ●]

Did I do this right? Pls tell me I did this right I didn't go overboard with this, now did I? I just gotta go with the smart guy/tech angle here *Points gun to head* I just gotta

[Kerr ●]

I'm adding you both now, but I also want you to adjust some really minor things. Which I'll talk about now.

@Aarah: The RP starts in March so your character would be 23 not 24. And that's it, everything else is golden.

@Beta: Biting your fingertip off? Ugh, gross. Will be useful to identify other versions of yourself though. It's basically fine just a few things.

-Jovian is Jupiter, Titan is a moon of Saturn, that isn't Jovian. "The Rim" is the term used to describe the Solar System on the far side of the MJ Belt, that may have been the term you were looking for. Also if you were grown in an exowomb you'd probably be a Splicer not a Flat. If you were a livebirth then yeah, Flat is more likely.
-"Plasma Cutters" don't exist, laser cutters do. So change that. Although don't get me wrong, everything was like 50% more Dead Space when I started making the RP.
-The Collapse happened 2113, 14 years ago, so you wouldn't be in your 20s. Unless he left Titan to work in Russia as a child which, he didn't. You can keep the exact age a secret if you really want but at least say 30s.
-Not a thing to change just a note, actual insurance companies are less likely to accept you if you make a habit of killing yourself. Imagine what car insurance would be like if you kept destroying your own car on purpose. Or at least it would be a real high premium rate, the kind they charge mercenaries. Now paying AcidSec contacts to do it and keep you on backup, that's probably easier.
-Somebody needs to give this child a hug and tell them everything's going to be okay.

[BetaB17 ●]

[Aarah ●]

Changed his age. Ta.

Can a biological brain only be sleeved into a bio or borg shell?
Like, a human scale of intelligence couldn't be put into something like a batou spider tank synthshell or an AI shell? (Seeing as they have different levels of working consciousness.)

[Kerr ●]

[Aarah ●]

Righto.
Wouldn't that be like torture for a human ego to go into a less 'cognitive' shell?
Like with the tank, I presume it can't speak and has limited functionality based on its useage.

[Kerr ●]

No. A Spider Tank isn't any less cognitive than any other Borg or Synthshell, they can talk with people just fine. People often find not being humanoid kind of distressing though. Cyberbrains aren't less cognitive than biological brains (barring augmentations and stuff) they work perfectly fine. Cyberbrains are basically just a robotic version of biological brains. Any Ego can be downloaded or uploaded from either.

Now you could put somebody in a really crappy shell as a kind of torture, like some full on "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" stuff, but that's not what typically happens.