./FSCK-US - The World

./FSCK-US, say: Local Command F-Sick Dash US or for short: F US is a game in the no-so-far-future where you play agents who are totally not part of an FBI secret group to protect the world from the paranormal. At least, you aren't officially part of the FBI. Are you working for the FBI at all? Now that you mention it your training and instructions were all out-sourced to others and you only have this strange black badge you aren't supposed to show anyone…

Culture & Technology

While in the not-so-far future, the culture of the people that inhabit the world hasn't changed drastically. Instead it has been a subtle shift towards social isolationism. People keep more and more to themselves. This shows in the numbers, today about 30% of the US are single and nearly 50% of the world of tomorrow. Families still exist and prosper, but are fewer and far between.

Jabber, a kind of heavily coded internet speak has become a full blown and very real subset dialog of English. ASI Avatars are a lot of the cause, and are net sensations. Casually the internet has been reduced to just net, and it is everywhere. WiFi has truly blanketed the world. A smartphone (just phone now) with no special power or features is almost free. Phone service and cable tv have all fallen to the net. The net is the primary source of entertainment and shows and music thrive on it.

A large portion of the populace have taken more than a slight interest in the Occult, since the world has gotten stranger and stranger over the years. It is no longer considered a weird outlier interest. In fact, the imagery both mythic and fantasy occult has become somewhat of a craze with the young adults. It isn't uncommon to see shirt and stickers with emblems of the old ones and Greek gods for instance.

Technology has made several leaps:

Quantum State Reactors: QSR chips (Q chips) power everything from phones to computers. They don't need charged, but burn out over time and need replaced. Most are rated in months lifetime, but some are rated in years. The agency phone your agents get has a 3 year Q chip. QSR can be scaled up for motor use or power stations, and in the scaled up versions only heat is an issue. Forced water cooling through highly optimized heat sinks is the most common cooling method.

Water Purification: With the advancement of power, water was next. Clean water everywhere, even filtration in a thermocup from your pocket.

Immortality and Regeneration: Using nanotech, both regeneration and immortality can be achieved. It ain't cheap though.

Net AI Services: Net AI services running under the various ASIs as subprograms are rampant. This is amazingly powerful but has made people quite lazy. Agents being the exception, but for the common masses most people rely on this AI, called Navi (nah-V) for way too much. Imagine the utility of GPS but for almost everything. Going to cook something? Fire up Navi-Chef. Going to build something call on Navi-Forge. This has turned most of the jobs of the world into Corp Salaryman positions.

Countries & Corporations

Only three countries remain: The United States of America, The Russian Federation, and The People's Republic of China. Of these, both Russia and the US are dwarfed by the massive size and power of China. All the other countries of the world have been absorbed by the big three, or taken over by one of the three big corps:

AMD: After merging with Intel and ARM, AMD is the sole provider of current-gen computing hardware. Allied with the X ASI.

Johnson and Johnson: The pharmaceutical and household company. Allied with the Bunny ASI.

Toyota: Reactors, motors, and heavy machinery. Allied with the Hobbes ASI.

There are still many scores of smaller Corps, but almost all of them are owned subsidiaries of the big three above.

Lifestyle & The Paranormal

The average lifestyle has improved under the auspices of the new ASI led world. Poverty is down, Homelessness is down, and suicide is on the rise. This is to say, while lifestyle has improved happiness hasn't and perhaps has even taken a hit. In a world more and more dominated by technology and AI, people often feel more and more useless. The job situation doesn't help, as most Corp jobs are now office salary positions doing people management and clerical work.

A growing movement has begun online and now spills over into all aspects of life, and that is the interest in the occult - both of myth and fantasy. People find themselves aligning into gangs and secret societies centered around the imagery of the occult. Likely this just provides a way for them to satiate their wandering minds which are no longer engaged in work and what we might consider “normal play”.

The Three ASI

Simulations & Projections