Eclipse Phase (I have it)

[Andor]

This is a brilliant idea. Immense potential of character variations right there.

Also a good episode of Futurama, only with Lucy Liu instead of Alyson Hannigan.

 

[Cadfan]

Also a good episode of Futurama, only with Lucy Liu instead of Alyson Hannigan.

Also a side issue in the book "Kiln People" by David Brin.

 

[Alikar]

Could you expand a little on the (presumably anti)-religious bias of the text you mentioned above?

As for the odd religious commentary, basically the author states that Judaism and Christianity are shadows of their former glory and that most people look down on them as pitiful fools. Yet, somehow, Islam is still a large religion because it was able to adapt through the singularity. I mean I can get the idea that with near immortality people might not be as religious, but that Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism are successful and yet Judaism and Christianity are not confuses the crap out of me. Not to mention that there is a large "new" religion that believes that God punished humanity by using the Titans. Has the author every even seen a Fire and Brimstone preacher? In real life every time people face great horror they become more religious not less, good examples of this is Dead Space or Dune.

Its not that I can't see there being less people who practice Judaism or Christianity. I'm just confused as too how they suffered large losses, being the more liberal religions, but some how Islam did not. Its just a very odd idea that doesn't make any sense. Not to mention the way the author wrote it felt oddly personal, but maybe that is just the way I was reading it. The other thing that is odd about it is that it is only 10 years after the fall. I highly doubt you'd see that much loss in the world's largest religion and its parent religion so quickly.

 

[Hjorimir]

As for the odd religious commentary, basically the author states that Judaism and Christianity are shadows of their former glory and that most people look down on them as pitiful fools. Yet, somehow, Islam is still a large religion because it was able to adapt through the singularity. I mean I can get the idea that with near immortality people might not be as religious, but that Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism are successful and yet Judaism and Christianity are not confuses the crap out of me. Not to mention that there is a large "new" religion that believes that God punished humanity by using the Titans. Has the author every seen a Fire and Brimstone preacher? In real life every time people face great horror they become more religious not less, good examples of this is Dead Space or Dune.

Its not that I can't see there being less people who practice Judaism or Christianity. I'm just confused as too how they suffered large losses, being the more liberal religions, but some how Islam did not. Its just a very odd idea that doesn't make any sense. Not to mention the way the author wrote it felt oddly personal, but maybe that is just the way I was reading it. The other thing that is odd about it is that it is only 10 years after the fall. I highly doubt you'd see that much loss in the world's largest religion and its parent religion so quickly.

That's disappointing to hear.

 

[Alikar]

That's disappointing to hear.

I had a long reply which the site ate. *sigh*

Basically if you read the fluff there is a large left lean to it which I'm going to have to correct. The Jovian Republic is the largest case of this, where most of the left's fears about Bush are true in some fantasy land space empire, not to mention that of course the Republic is filled with bigots, fundamentalists, and anti-technologists. I'm going to replace it with an actual American colony, which I think adds a lot more to the fluff then this strange hate piece that sits in the middle of the story.

Could you please expand a little on the "changing your body at will" part? How does it work mechanically? What are the limits? And how can it possibly not be broken?

Basically resleaving (changing bodies) is a difficult process. Your character rolls against your characters somatic x3. Somatic is your characters ability to control your body. Most characters have around a 15 to 20 SOM when they start which means a character has to roll under a 45 to 60 to successfully sleave. If they fail they suffer penalties until they succeed. Also once successful they need to make a continuity test, if they fail this they will acquire stress. If you acquire to much stress to quickly your character will suffer from trauma. If your character enters trauma they gain derangement. Do this too many times and your character will literally go insane.

Thus switching bodies should be done rather infrequently or with bodies that characters have no issues switching into too. There are traits that allow you to no suffer problems with resleaving and they are dirt cheap to pick up, only 10 points each out of the 1000 you have for character creation.

 

[heirodule]

What keeps a person from having multiple bodies, or copying an ego multiple times?

Why are there unique egos?

 

[Shemeska]

What keeps a person from having multiple bodies, or copying an ego multiple times?

Why are there unique egos?

I don't think there is anything preventing it.

Which raises the notion in the setting of does a person die with a cessation of continuous consciousness, with the next reboot simply being a new person with the memories of the dead one, thinking itself the same person? Does a copy of a person's memory and ego make the person? Or is there something unique on a fundamental level about a self-aware consciousness, ie some theories like Penrose's Orch-OR, etc?

I'd handwave some of that to be honest and assume each reboot is the same person having turned in their get out of death free card.

 

[Alikar]

What keeps a person from having multiple bodies, or copying an ego multiple times?

Why are there unique egos?

In the fluff you can backup your character and if your main character dies they become activated as the current version of that person. In fact if you go to the eclipse phase site, the fluff they have up there deals with exactly that. The backup thinks its you, but it also knows its not the original. Which means it has to adjust to that idea, which can really mess some people up.

Also some people purposely run around with multiple copies of themselves. Which would be an interesting idea for a party.

 

[Doodles]

I had a long reply which the site ate. *sigh*

Basically if you read the fluff there is a large left lean to it which I'm going to have to correct.

So it is possible to correct the left bent without too much trouble, then?

 

[I'm A Banana]

Also some people purposely run around with multiple copies of themselves. Which would be an interesting idea for a party.

"I wanted Ben to help me on this mission!"
"But sir...we ARE Ben!"
"What, all of you?"



Though politics and religion are taboo here, I will note that sci-fi by its nature involves itself in the muck of that more than a lot of fantasy does. I can buy Islam as a future monotheism, being currently the second-largest religion and also the fastest-growing (meaning that, if you draw it forward in time, it would become the largest religion in short order, assuming nothing else tinkers with the growth rates/numbers), and speculating on such a universe seems kind of a keen way to make it distinct without making it entirely alien, to me. I can't speak to the politics of the thing, but that's also kind of par for sci-fi stuff: the conflict-free Federation was basically an extension of some of the "we're all equal" Civil Rights '60's, no? It would be a bit disappointing to just turn a political figure into a villain, without some depth and distinctiveness,

That's speaking broadly about the genre, though. Totally possible that an EP author had a bit of an axe to grind; certainly they wouldn't be the first.