GRANT REQUEST FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF DEVICES TO REGULATE THE HUME COEFFICIENT OF LOCALISED REALITY / Discussion

This is the discussion related to the wiki page GRANT REQUEST FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF DEVICES TO REGULATE THE HUME COEFFICIENT OF LOCALISED REALITY.

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psul 14 Dec 2016 14:04

This is a re-write (in PL GoI-format) of a previous mainlist article - it has changed substantially (albeit not fundamentally) since its earlier incarnation.

Many thanks to the many people who looked this over and offered their thoughts:

• sirpudding, who still doesn't believe in this type of SRA, but was always ready to share thoughts and lore about how an SRA should really work
• Dr Reach, for an amazing interlude on Nornirian Cluster Bombs
• dankaar, for coming up with a punchline to end this on
• MrWrong and Scorpion451, for finding ways to de-power the anchors, and reminding me to *actually read* what SCP-2000 says, instead of making it up
• A Random Day, for useful thoughts about worldbuilding

Apologies to those who I've forgotten to credit. Thanks ophite too for providing a reason to rush this prototype to market!

Last edited on 15 Dec 2016 18:50 by psul Show more

C-Dives 26 Mar 2019 15:37

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sectioned_theodolite.jpg
Author: Andy Dingley
License: CC BY-SA 3.0

Petrograd 14 Dec 2016 17:16

Hmmmm….

This is a pretty vast improvement over the original post as an SCP article. I think it's a pretty solid exploration, and I was going to complain about your neurological description early on but you got more into detail later, so the science checks out.

You told this story very well, but I can't quite suspend my disbelief about the idea that there are a significant number of reality benders walking around with the same powers and casual mechanism. It just clashes hard with my ideas about the Foundation-verse, and I don't see the problem with heterogeneity addressed here. That's unfortunate, since I like just about everything else.

No vote for now, but I might flip up on reflection.

psul 15 Dec 2016 08:58

I can't quite suspend my disbelief about the idea that there are a significant number of reality benders walking around with the same powers and casual mechanism … and I don't see the problem with heterogeneity addressed here

The reason for which is that I genuinely never considered that reality-benders might have a causal mechanism that doesn't involve their brains! That is interesting to consider.

Petrograd 16 Dec 2016 13:33

There's a few options there, but…

+ show block

For the purposes of this article, I'd be willing to buy that the source of their power is their brains, but that wouldn't address things like differences in their strength of their abilities, aptitude with/control of said abilities, or differences in the abilities themselves.

This seems to be positing "Catch 1x Bixby, insert into machine" as if they're all more or less interchangeable, and the idea that there's a relatively non-limited supply of people out there with generic reality-bending powers at a standard level of power just isn't narratively interesting.

I'm pretty sure none of the reality benders in Foundation custody follow a perfectly identical pattern (i guess the witch is pretty similar to the superhero kid and that one guy who's a pile of organs, before he died anyway…), and people only tend to mention standard generic evil reality benders when they're giving somebody's tragic backstory.

As for other origins for powers… on the wiki we've got young deities, humans who seem to naturally emanate alternate theories of magic, extradimensional fae with a literal Hume-storing magic organ, and a man who may or may not be God, all of whom are probably classed as reality benders.

You've also got two children who are developing into Bixbys with different levels and types of power and control (One in a coma, one who should be), and two deceased ones (One whose powers came out with dementia, one who cursed themselves to be a pile of organs). None of them exactly alike.

Last edited on 16 Dec 2016 13:43 by Petrograd Show more

Decibelles 14 Dec 2016 17:31

I liked this before as an SCP, I like it now. It may even be more suitable now.

ghostpage 14 Dec 2016 17:49

I liked this! I liked it a lot.

My only nitpick is how does PL avoid scarring of the brain, as happens very often in invasive brain-computer interfaces?¹ I can't find any good sources on how long until brain scarring ruins the whole situation - I'd assume it depends on the specific equipment installed and the immune system/etc of the one with the brain shenanigans going on - but the efficiency of the ORI would deteriorate over time with potentially extremely varying times where they dip below an acceptable threshold.
_{It wouldnt be me if I didn't find some kind of scientific writing lacking some obscure detail}

Footnotes

1. "Because they lie in the grey matter, invasive devices produce the highest quality signals of BCI devices but are prone to scar-tissue build-up, causing the signal to become weaker, or even non-existent, as the body reacts to a foreign object in the brain."

psul 15 Dec 2016 09:00

Ooh - I like the idea of adding a bit more real-world science to a PL format. Particularly if it keeps the body-horror up - perhaps something along the lines of "operators must have regular surgery to cut out scar tissue in the brain and keep the interface fresh"? I'll try to find a spot where that can be worked in without disrupting the flow.

ghostpage 15 Dec 2016 13:26

Brains generally process dead tissue via direct necrosis¹ whereas scarring is abnormal - cutting it out might make it happen more. Maybe they could be manipulated into them projecting their brains into an unaltered² state?

Footnotes

1. Mm, liquefied dead brain matter.

2. But still modified, of course.

dankaar 15 Dec 2016 15:09

Alternatively, maybe it's the reason ORI operators have an average lifespan of 12 years? It takes that long for the brain to get scarred to the point where it can no longer maintain basic body functions.

Last edited on 15 Dec 2016 15:09 by dankaar Show more

Genshed 14 Dec 2016 18:55

I read this through twice, and it was even more disturbing the second time. Not sure if it counts as body horror, but it's definitely horrific. Trying to picture a 'modified' ORI hooked up to the beryllium bronze whatsit - it's like Philip K. Dick meets the Mi-Go.

Trust Prometheus to solve a problem with maximum efficiency and minimal humanity. Turning a reality bender into a reality maintenance device…

psul 15 Dec 2016 09:02

I'm pleased you like it. For me, the real horror of this idea is in the question: "How much of this does the Foundation know?". There is no good answer to that question.

GreenWolf 15 Dec 2016 09:17

I remember seeing a draft of this a long time ago. Glad to finally see this on the mainsite.

dankaar 15 Dec 2016 15:24

Good to see my major objection with this setup has been addressed ("What if they suddenly 'wake up' and go on a tear?")

Also, this could be the thing that caused Promethus Labs to go belly-up. Can't imagine anything topping "angry reality bender" for that scenario. Hell, thinking a series of tales, maybe influenced by Akira…

Robert Voor 16 Dec 2016 19:21

Now that PL has gone bust, who is now maintaining (and recruiting) the ORIs? Did the Foundation subsume that part of the organization?

sirpudding 16 Dec 2016 19:24

Who is maintaining the (probably) thousands (or more) used as warheads aboard the Solidarity?

psul 19 Dec 2016 10:52

who is now maintaining (and recruiting) the ORIs?

Again, I like to think that this leaves open three answers to this question, all of which are rather unpleasant:

1) The Foundation knows exactly how SRAs work, and has taken over "employment" of the ORIs.

2) The provision of ORI-related services has been transitioned from PL to its external service providers, and the Foundation doesn't realise who is behind those front companies.

3) The eventual marketing materials for SRAs didn't reveal the existence of external services at all, and the Foundation hasn't realised yet that it is relying on a bunch of beryllium-bronze paperweights with no reality-maintaining effect.

That last option is probably the fate of the Nornirian cluster bombs that sirpudding refers to - that is (presuming that they work on similar principles to this proposal) the reality benders originally powering them have long-since died or are too far away, and thus the bombs are inactive.

Last edited on 19 Dec 2016 11:11 by psul Show more

sirpudding 19 Dec 2016 19:16

Option three also addresses the ineffectivenes of the dozen plus SRAs used in SCP-2343.

NatVoltaic 18 Dec 2016 23:23

While I did thoroughly enjoy the previous incarnation of this, I enjoy this equally. The horror involving what is done to reality benders is a wonderful freaky touch, and is what made me upvote. The way this is written also gave me a good clinical tone-boner.

+1

psul 19 Dec 2016 11:04

Interesting your thought about clinical tone. Changing this draft from SCP to PL format was an exercise in changing the tone - it retains a lot of the quasi-scientific language, but the PL format encourages the use of marketing-speak and corporate euphemisms. My personal favourite is "the terms of their employment has leaked to the market. As a result, future recruitment efforts are expected to be heavily contested…".

I know that PL isn't meant to be the "capitalism is evil" GOI, but I like the idea of their enthusiasm for the science leading them to take shortcuts on the ethics. This PL format article was definitely an influence on me in that respect.

seeprybyrun 29 Dec 2016 03:29

To be honest, the tone you used for PL sounds uncannily like something out of Silicon Valley.

MatthewtheLucky 19 Dec 2016 06:16

So the SRAs could suddenly turn into reality-bender bombs at any moment, and the Foundation might not know? That's some quality fridge horror.

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