Forums » Looking for RP » Singularity 2114 (closed)

Singularity is on the horizon, but the people of the world must learn to swim before they can soar. Left unchecked, technology and evolution threaten to bring society to its knees. But there are those who resist, who protect, who lobby, who work to ensure the future is a better place.

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I'm looking for 1–3 other writers who are interested in forming a closely-knit li'l group of peeps and writing some ambitious but very relaxed roleplay. A lot of the large strokes of worldbuilding are already in place, but there's plenty of room for additional ideas to fit in nicely (psionics? secret space programs? science going too far?), and I'd like to attract writers who are eager to take up that space.

Something that I'd like out of this group is a commitment to stick together through thick and thin. Maybe we won't always write Singularity, but when the day comes when the momentum just isn't there, maybe we'll make something new! I say this because something I struggle with is sticking through the long term despite my desire to write long stories with people. I'm too impulsive for my own good, and I'd like to write with people who are able to work with me with that in mind. I may not post for months at a time or I may lose interest entirely, but I will always want to come back for more, and I'd love to have a few people to do that with.

Right now, though, I would love to write some character-driven SciFi in a post-cyberpunk world on the brink of apotheosis, for better or for worse. I hope this brings you as much excitement as it does for myself. Please leave a message here if you're interested, and maybe pitch some ideas of your own. I'd love to see what you have to add! I'll be watching out for you all.

For now, good night.

I'd definitely be interested in trying this out. I've never seen a request quite like this, and I'm always game for Sci-fi and/or cyberpunk-themed topics. Count me in!

This is a genuinely super sweet-sounding proposal! The idea of the world being on the brink of apotheosis is such an appealing idea to me. It's been a long time since I've done any sci-fi, though, and I haven't had a chance to learn a lot of advanced science yet, so if you're looking for someone who can lend that to the group, I wouldn't be the best fit.
But if you'll have me, I'm definitely on board with this idea!

I'm glad both of y'all left a note!

I am very flexible in terms of what we're writing or how we're writing it, and frankly I'm mostly flexible regarding who we're writing with, I'm just looking for some folks who I can really dig into the setting or our characters with, OOCly sometimes, perhaps.

I'd like for us to be really strongly supportive of each other in our writing, because for example while I have a lot of ideas my number one flaw is that I always burn myself out trying to tell a story instead of giving the other writers some space to work in.

Just a small li'l community I can call my home away from home, really. I guess this is 50% friend search and 50% RP search, lol.

Ah, really sorry but I just realized that school is starting in a couple days for me and that with everything else I'm trying to focus on this year, such a long-term commitment isn't the best for me! Best of luck and have fun!

Good luck to you, as well, Koroni. Don't work yourself too hard. See you around!

Yeah, thanks for the appreciation, at least!

So, I realized I was letting the thread stall (I haven't quite thought through the actual logistics of, like, actually transitioning from here into writing) so I guess I should take a hint from Petro (who appears to be biding his time right now, hehe) and just start spitballing.

This setting is, to be clear, that one Éva Blau is native to, hence it being an already fleshed-out world behind the scenes, here, heh. Very much high-tech, cyberpunk-ish future with a few deviations from the usual Corporations Are Evil atmosphere.

Post-cyberpunk is the sort of genre where folks tend to be more involved with the setting rather than alienated from it. While there may be things like evil corporations and spineless/corrupt government, they aren't treated as irredeemable traits. These folks are as much a part of the problem as they are of the solution. It's a bit less of a defeatist take on cyberpunk, and — I think — just a li'l bit more realistic. More Arma and less Modern Warfare, more Tiberium Dawn and less Red Alert, really. Despite the fact that there are totally battleborgs and deckers and psi-ops and stuff like that.

I guess what I'm describing is that this is a li'l bit more about people than it is about tech. Only a li'l bit, of course; this is sci-fi, after all. ;3c

But when it comes down to what we're actually writing, I suppose it boils down to our characters, at first. Anybody got any candies they want to show off?

Okay why is this thread not presently being overrun with enthusiastic participants? I'm disappointed in you, RPR. Step it up, fools, let’s do this.


Really though, I’ve always found that much of the best sci-fi reading focuses on exploring the effects of technology upon society. Focusing on the tech not as a cool gadget, but as a force for change in the society that we know today. Speculation on what would happen if things were different than they are now.

And we have a great opportunity to build upon that here. Lots of room to explore and probe and speculate, and throw in a few plot twists and dramatic moments too.

So we start with the premise of a civilization on the verge of shedding their mortal coils and delving wholly into the technological universe they have created for themselves. This technology has become (or is becoming) available, and given the nature of humans, surely everyone has something to say about it, everyone has some doctrine they follow, and some way that they believe everyone else should act.

So, what would this world look like? Probably not too much different than the one we live in now, at least on the fundamental levels. The “great powers” would continue manipulating the ebb and flow of the masses, using politics and the media and all manner of manipulation to alter the course of events and opinions their way. Meanwhile, the “little people”would continue living their lives, coping with the world around them, and fighting for what they believe in - or against what they don’t. Or maybe trying to stay out of it all together?

What kinds of things would the morning mainstream news talk about?

A highly influential Reverend Minister of the Neo-Catholic PanTheist Church of Christ is working to expose the wickedness of the corporations that build the technology leading Mankind down the road to Sodom and Gomorrah.

The CEO of CyberCorp Incorporated has just announced a new breakthrough in artificial intelligence that’s thought to revolutionize the way we view everyday computing.

Public officials are urging people to spend less time in reality and more time “plugged-in” to reduce our impact on the environment.

Fearing for the livelihoods of the common workers, a group of radical Libertarians have begun sabotaging automated systems in favor of creating jobs, but their methods are questionable at best.

Anti-singularity terrorists, some claiming the banner of the NeoCatholics, have been bombing inner-city cyber-dens, prompting an increase in both corporate and public security - some worry about the possibility of a police state forming.


Nations in the Far East are rumored to be planning a mass frying of integrated westerners in the name of progress. Far Eastern politicians deny these allegations, of which there is no solid evidence.

A green-peace movement of undergraduate astrophysics students, in collaboration with the older generation of anti-cyberpunk right-wingers, have been protesting the State’s pressure to convert to digital consciousness and instead propose space colonization as a means to ease the resource burden

Overpopulation is a serious problem - some countries have been implementing genocide, others forced-integration into the network -and first-world nations are growing weary of the steadily increasing power of the seconds.

Rapid advancements in technology from questionable companies have some speculating the possibility of extraterrestrial influence.

A guy living in the desert has been mailing bombs to senators in the name of the Holy Prophet Kanye of the West.

But despite all these big things going on, most people are doing what they usually do every day - living, and talking, meeting people and discussing their beliefs and virtues. Some people are closely involved with these great “factions” while others are independent or willfully ignorant of the worldly strife around them.

It’s when these people come together, either by fate or something else, that things get interesting.

I think I can cover “adversary” characters or “antagonists” - put in quotations because in a world like this, very few people are going to be entirely “good”or entirely “evil”.

Probably we would be best off starting with some critical event taking place. Maybe the unveiling of a revolutionary new technology - which may or may not go awry due to opposing factions antics - or maybe something post-tragedy - be it something that happened in the news that got people talking, or something that happened on their doorstep that forced them into interacting.

We’re going to need more people talking about this and spitballing if it’s going to get anywhere, though. So stop reading and start typing.

I don't mean to paint a picture that's too dystopian, though. Don't get me wrong - for the most part, things are pretty good. Most people are happy enough,, content in their lives. First-world civilization has been brought to most of the world, and possibily to the shining orbital cities, and the metropolis constructed in defiance of the Gods on the tip of the one remaining polar icecap. So what if the oceans rose a little, and we lost Hawaii? THey're building New Hawaii off the coast of what's left of California and it's going to be way better than the original.

Sure, most of the Middle Easte has been reduced to radioactive dust, but who's looking? Most people don't go hungry and the ones who do don't matter.

The "revolutionaries" of the past decades - the "cyberpunk" period - they're old, bitter anarchists now who can't accept that the world is better without their piracy and hacking. Corporations don't need them because they're mostly legitimate now, and they don't fear them because there's not enough left.

Feats of science and art have reached new heights of sophistication because the sheer sum of armaments scattered over the mega-superpower nations have made war on any scale virtual global destruction, and nobdy wants that.

If one of the biggest problems society is facing is stagnation and laziness, that's a pretty good deal I think.

Holy Prophet Kanye of the West

Thank you for this gem

One of the driving problems in Singularity is that a lot of the world powers, despite the march of progress, are resistant to new technologies, especially those which wildly change our society.

Things like automation, transhumans, genetic engineering, the mysterious events that may or may not be psions/aliens; all this stuff is dealt with more by the common population and less by the governments. Instead of adapting to these new things and finding ways to regulate them responsibly, many nations are restricting and criminalizing them. By the 2070s, this was already a very apparent political argument.

Research and development are underfunded, science is devalued, societal technological progress is stagnating while small-time inventors and corporate projects outpace government resources. When bleeding-edge military-grade hardware is inferior to something some kid in his mom's basement could have figured out with the right time investment, you might have a problem.

And a lot of these technologies can be used for good, but aren't being treated as such. They're being ignored and dismissed in favor of total banning based on archaic and obsolete morals. Genetic engineering is just too close to cloning; an automated economy is just too risky for capitalists to stomach; transhumanism clashes with technophobes and the usual everyman who doesn't appreciate the idea of having his atoms ripped apart and — wait, wrong canon.

What the governments are trying to regulate are technologies that are already here; technologies that are already in mass production; technologies that cannot be banned outright unless you plan to systematically blanket search every last household inside your borders. And that's just not practical, even given the restrained technological advantages these governments have allowed themselves.


And to add to all this tension, you have the European Union looking to replace the United Nations with a more direct world government. Their new enlargement policies have been reaching into Africa and Asia for decades, and by 2114 Johannesburg is essentially a bordertown between what's left of African dissidents and the Eurozone.

Many of the traditional superpowers are obsolete given new advances in defensive warfare, ending the nuclear stalemate once and for all. North America has fallen into disarray after economic collapse; eastern Asia is dealing with population and pollution disasters so extreme its global presence is nil.

Indeed South Africa is becoming one of the stronger political locales given its popularity with anti-enlargement supporters. The EU is, of course, voted most likely to take over the world, but many nations are at odds with this idea, and put together they start to rattle the cage. Brazil has been looking more and more like a utopia since its inspiring peaceful revolution a hundred years ago; its increased strength has enabled it to help stabilize many of its neighbors' endemic corruption.

South America is suddenly entirely capable of giving the EU a run for its money. Africa is coping with a repeat of history's foreign governance. Asia is coping with refugees and social conflicts, making it look a lot like the middle east of the late 20^th century.

Open warfare is seldom employed, but cybercrimes are rampant, and it isn't uncommon to see rolling blackouts and network disruptions sponsored by interest groups and governments behind closed doors. Mysterious events show up on the news seemingly every year now just as controversial as Roswell 1947.

The world is burning in a lot of ways. But the anarchists of 2077 lived in a time when capitalist conservatism was at its height. The governments may be failing to lead us toward a positive Singularity, but they've done a much better job of dealing with problems of centuries past. That's what makes this post-cyberpunk; there's hope, and that's what this story is about.

I suppose that's enough infodump for tonight.

Where my details start to sputter out are when we get into individual people, and how they influence the world in their own way. That's where our characters come in. We should talk more about our characters and how we can weave them all into one context, I think.