Originally Posted by ItsDeckard
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Some time ago, I believe around twelve years ago when I was new to the company, we were conducting exploration through various thin spots we could physically walk to within a day's time. The closeness of them was a factor due to how easy it was to move into and out of those spots. Normally, it takes quite a bit of equipment to be moved from place to place, so being able to simply walk somewhere and utilize the bridge was big. The only problem with this program was that shockingly often, you would find a reality where certain things had transpired in such a way that showed you were not from that established reality. I'll tell you about one, just to give an example.
There was one in particular that I used often to prepare newer technicians with, I don't remember the coordinates but it wouldn't help even if I did, we collapsed the thin spot leading to it after a few visits because of how dangerous the technology they used appeared to us. This particular reality was closer to the sun somehow, the orbit was askew from our own and because of this, the year was more like 2200 than the 80's on this planet even though they were occurring simultaneously. In this place, technology had become so rampant that it seemed to govern people's lives. It started initially as a benefit based program, where society was told, 'Well if we do this, it'll ..' cure cancer, stop violence or stop a war, take your pick. The price of computerization dropped so drastically and they were able to completely skip the base eight style thirty-two bit IP system this reality uses. Imagine a world where every grain of sand could have a unique IP address. Every bottle, every pen, every sandwich wrapper had a unique IP and a sort of psuedo-webpage explaining it's journey from the plastic factory to your trash can. Sounds neat huh? As everything became computerized, the chair you sat in, the table you sat at, the principle direction you faced and who you sat with all became meta-data for big businesses to use. Ikea could tell how much height played a factor in who sat at what table for how long. Burger King could tell how much you liked the extra one-fourth of a pickle on your hamburger. CNN could tell how angry seeing whales being beached would make you by networking with your glasses which can tell how tense you are. This data is so much further down the spectrum than anything you can possibly imagine, think Orwell's 1984 on steroids.
Anyway, there was a cult that formed that believed essentially every decision they made was completely predictable within a +99% accuracy range, so by the time they turned 16, this computer with it's meta-data could very specifically predict your life, the movies you'd see, the political movement you'd follow, everything. People would pay for a preview and at first they'd laugh about it and show their friends but then the cult began to convince people that there was basically no reason to live the life that had been predicted. It was, I'll simply say, a really big hit and when we arrived in that place, there were actually very few human beings left. The few of us that went were given documents of the people we were on that place and it served as a cool novelty that we knew what different versions of ourselves had done someplace else. I was a tradesman carpenter who build traditional temples. Well, I guess I would've been. Towards the end of this place, after a massive die off, people decided it'd be a good move to spare people the exhaustion of life and being born, your life being predicted and your demise all occurred within less than an hour. So that's why I use that trip as an example to people. Before we start inventing machines to answer questions we had no idea ever existed, maybe we should try to keep our feet on the ground and try to avoid destroying our population with a hyper advanced version of Facebook and Twitter.
Anyway, it's just something to consider, this place is nowhere near that threshold but the lesson that place taught me is still valuable.
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03-29-2018, 12:47 PM
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