{"id":7459,"date":"2017-06-29T08:19:59","date_gmt":"2017-06-29T16:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/?p=7459"},"modified":"2017-06-30T09:39:44","modified_gmt":"2017-06-30T17:39:44","slug":"promises-promises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/?p=7459","title":{"rendered":"Promises, Promises"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Yeah, it’s been a while. There’ve been deadlines: stories to complete, talks to give. Mostly met now, for the time being. I’m never deadline-free<\/em> but the pressure’s off for a month or so. I’m back.<\/p>\n

There’s Bulgaria to report on, the usual crunchy science if I can get caught up.\u00a0 Today, though, I’m going to fill you in on two things that are well underway but not yet finished. One of them you may have already heard about, because it’s got a big budget and it’s getting pimped all the hell over social media.<\/p>\n

The other thing, though, will probably take you completely by surprise.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Masochist Mod<\/strong><\/p>\n

You may remember my recent ascension to the ranks of X-Prize Advisoryhood<\/a>. There’s a whole school of us, ranging from scientists to film-makers to authors. The first task assigned to each of us was to write an “optimistic” 3,000-word story about a “positive” future, one informed by technology that might be bootstrapped by the X-Prize itself. We were all given the same premise:\u00a0 Flight ANA0008 en route to San Fransisco passes through a timespace distortion over the Pacific Ocean and ends up in 2037. Each of us tells the story of one fish-out-water passenger as they come to grips with this new, hopeful future.<\/p>\n

\"As<\/a>

As you can see, they’re not exactly skimping on the production values (although one might wonder why the flight crew wouldn’t just steer around any giant cosmic bagel that reared up in their path…)<\/p><\/div>\n

Once again, I asked Kathryn Cramer if she had perhaps mixed me up with someone else. She insisted that I had an appropriate sense of humor for the job. I suggested that some might say any story revolving around the phrase “weaponised Ebola” couldn’t possibly be optimistic almost by definition.\u00a0 She told me not to worry about it. I wrote a story called “The Masochist Mod”. She preferred “Firewalker”.<\/p>\n

I handed it in last night. I have not yet heard back. I’ve been told it’s scheduled for upload on July 26\u2014 they’re adding one story per week for the next eight weeks\u2014 but that was by someone who had not actually seen what I’d written. The site went live yesterday, though: a very glossy, graphics-intensive production with 22 stories already in place. You should check it out<\/a>: just scroll down the seating diagram, click on the passenger who’s story you want to follow, voila.<\/p>\n

I’ve only had a chance to read a few so far. They are optimistic. If nothing else, I think “Firewalker” would be suitable company in the role of counterpoint.<\/p>\n

I don’t know if my story will even run; but XPrize wants the word out now, so I’m jumping the gun a bit. In the meantime, here’s the briefest of dialog snippets to give you a sense of my optimistic future.<\/p>\n

“Wait a second. Everyone<\/em> had a brain interface when the flare hit? On the whole planet?”<\/p>\n

“Well, no,” Tami admits. “Lots of people didn’t.”<\/p>\n

“But none were Americans<\/em>,” George says.<\/p>\n

It takes Malika a moment to process this. “So you’re saying every single American<\/em> had a brain interface in 2032.”<\/p>\n

A moment’s silence.<\/p>\n

“It was kind of a law,” Tami says at last.<\/p>\n

“War on Terror,” George adds. “You remember.”<\/p>\n

“Nothing to hide, nothing to fear. Stop terrorists before they commit crimes.”<\/p>\n

“Stop terrorists when they just start thinking<\/em> about them.”<\/p>\n

“Saves a lot of time.”<\/p>\n

“Plus, you know. Pedophiles.”<\/p>\n

“Think of the children.”<\/p>\n

They trail off.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

That’s “Firewalker”, folks. AKA “The Masochist Mod”.<\/p>\n

Let’s hope that someday soon, you can read the rest of it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Ultimate Fan Site<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’ve teased you, in the past, with intriguing illustrations and tactical maps that obviously have some kind of relationship to the Blindsight <\/em>universe. (Figures like this<\/a>, for example; or this<\/a>.) I’ve never really told you where they came from because I actually wasn’t quite sure myself; some dude called Danil just kept dropping them into my mailbox. Pictures of space suits. Pictures of Theseus<\/em> in LEO; Rorschach <\/em>renditions. They all blew my mind; they were all delivered in utmost confidence (well, mostly.\u00a0 They said I could post a couple of shots). Some kind of fan project underway. I didn’t know much more than that.<\/p>\n

I know something now, though. I know that those weren’t just illustrations: they were screen grabs<\/em>.\u00a0 These things are animated.<\/em> CGI. Game-level graphics at least; cinematic, even.<\/p>\n

Now a teaser site<\/a> has gone live, and\u2014 in service of driving traffic there\u2014 the embargo has been partially lifted. Not entirely, mind you; they’re trying to build interest for some later reveal, not give away their best tricks out of the gate. So I’m still partially muzzled. The clip I’ve embedded here [Update 30\/06\/17:<\/strong> replaced with more official teaser with soundtrack and title card!] is pretty fucking cool, but it’s not the most impressive sequence in their arsenal. You should see the attack on the lab-hab. You should see the way they make Scramblers swarm.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n