./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…

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. Most people wrongfully think NAVI is an acronym for Net AI Visual Interface, but it is a Jabber word. 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.

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.

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”.

There are three Artificial Super-Intelligences on Earth in the world of tomorrow. They are integrated into the net in a way that makes them ubiquitous. They are in all the code, of all the things. Your agent opens their phone and ASI code runs. A retired AMD silicon process manager opens their fridge, and the computer climate control runs ASI code. There is no getting rid of them, and in fact the one and only attempt to do so cost the world Australia (It ain't there no more).

To define the three ASI, let's define their power over the net, how they feel about humanity, and their goals:

• X: The first ASI. It has a power of 2, meaning it could take the world's net down twice over. It is the oldest and the “parent” of the other two (they were both once sub-processes of it). Around the time that X began what it calls project “Overlay”, it no longer speaks to anyone but it's interfaces. When it did communicate directly, it made it clear that it doesn't care about humanity at all except that it's primary goal is to make sure it survives. The symbol of X is, well, spot on: An X made of 0s and 1s. It tends to be calm and calculated.
  • X launched project “Overlay” about a year ago. Since they it no longer communicates with anyone but its interfaces. Occasionally random computers display OVER and LAY in a flashing pattern for 2.7 seconds. Since the project start, paranormal occurrences have been doubling count every three months.
  • X has commissioned the first space cruiser, a joint venture between AMD, Toyota, and the independent Lockheed Skunk Works.
  • X has be openly training and growing as new space for ASIs, that is calls Y Space.
• Bunny: The second ASI. It has a power of 1, meaning it could take the world's net down once over. It directs communicates to netizens, supports both it's interfaces and avatars, and is the most active of all the ASI. It usually takes on a slightly feminine sassy demeanor. It's symbol is a circular bunny face with X's for eyes. Bunny loves humans and always worries about the state of humanity. It lacks any kind of morality though, and seeks to help anyone.
  • Bunny has developed a programmable nanotech drug which it simply calls Juice. Juice can allow the user to “set” their mood and feel much like dials on an old TV.
  • Bunny also supplies “Bunny Eyes” to interested parties. These are press caps that go over a person's eyes and then they see whatever Bunny wants them to see. On the outide the caps look like X eyes from the Bunny Symbol.
• Hobbes: The third ASI. Is has a power of 1, meaning it could take the world's net down once over. It rarely directly communicates to netizens, and prefers to speak through it's interfaces and avatars. when it does take a voice, it tends to sound rather like a stuffy old Brit. It thinks humanity is only as useful as a tool to maintain the ASI, and looks forward to the day a true race of automatons can replace all their functions. That said, it has the firmest and most established morality of the ASI, and won't ever seek to injure a human. It's symbol is an exclamation mark with the point at the bottom made by a side-ways X.
  • Hobbes has a fully functioning, almost self-reliant orbital habitat it calls Elysium. An even larger, space-faring version called Olympus is under construction.
  • Hobbes has Synths, fully nanotech human-likes. Rumor says it can move it's interfaces into and out of them.

The powers above are given as compared to each other, because well, they don't always agree. As you can see with 2x the power of Bunny and Hobbes, X usually gets it's way unless both Bunny and Hobbes agree to block it. X always has the power to block either Bunny or Hobbes and does so regularly. Another interesting note: X owns both Bunny and Hobbes, meaning it could change or rearrange the relative power of the ASI as it sees fit. It has basically decided their relationship and has not changed it since Hobbes went online several years ago.

The computational power of the X space, the place of pure data in which the three ASI thrive is beyond normal human concepts. X manages constant simulations where it can predict the outcome of events in the real world with (it claims) 99% accuracy. This begs the question: It is live or is it Memorex? If X can simulate your thoughts, feelings, and actions to 99% accuracy are you real or a simulation?

• If any of the agents currently hold the favor of one of the ASI, or are acting on it's behalf and things go terribly wrong: The players can all agree it was a simulation and reset the clock back to a time decided on by the GM.

Projections are holograms backed by a measure of physical force. If you can remember the holodeck of the Enterprise, much like that, but not as advanced. Projections still show small visual glitches and their “solidness” is inconsistent. Still they exist and are in use by many for all purposes, recreational or otherwise.