
Memes
The Sensory Database
Both technological sensors and enhanced biological
senses come equipped with databases of scanned
“signatures” that make it easier to identify whatever
the user is sensing (in the case of bioware, these databases
are stored and accessed via the character’s
mesh inserts). For example, infrared sensors feature
databases listing the heat signatures of different
animals and items, making it easier to identify such
things. In relevant situations, apply a 20 modifier
for identifying targets ...SF idea that cyber-implants would be linked to a database of identifiers. Similar to how the nose is a library of molecules, with dogs having longer noses and therefore a larger library of molecules they can identify in their database.
Neem: Cognitive Drug
Neem is a mnemonic drug that works by
“tagging” experiences and mental input with a set of
unique sensations that contribute to the formation
of state-based memories. Neem gummy chews come
in a variety of fruit avors shaped like extinct old
Earth animals. Neem gives characters a 20 bonus
on COG Tests to recall information they learned
while on Neem (see Memorizing and Remembering,
p. 176). The drawback to Neem is that memories they
accumulate while under the drug’s in uence have no
em...A drug that "tags" experiences and ideas with a set of unique sensations to link to a memory. One could then take another dose of Neem to recall the memory.
Language Requires a Common Frame of Experience
The greatest is obsolescence, the
meaning of something evocative changing because
the players’ reality has changed since the inspiration
entered it. William Gibson’s ground-breaking cyberpunk
novel Neuromancer begins, “The sky above the
port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
Supporting details make it clear that this is an
industrial port at night, the sky gray from pollution
and flecked with ash and other debris. But that was
an image published in 1984. A decade...William Gibson compares a sky to the static on a dead television channel, but Neil Gaiman notes that children today get a blue nothing on a dead channel.
The Human Cognome Project
The Human Cognome Project was an
academic research venture to reverse
engineer the human brain, paralleling
in many ways the Human Genome
Project and its success in deciphering
the human genome. The HCP was a
multidisciplinary undertaking, relevant
to biology, neuroscience, psychology,
cognitive science, artificial intelligence,
and philosophy of mind.
Funded and supported by scientific
and corporate entrepreneurs and early
transhumanist groups, the HCP developed
the fundamentals of digitizi...A science fiction idea of modeling the human mind.
What is Transhumanism
Transhumanism is a term used synonymously to
mean “human enhancement.” It is an international
cultural and intellectual movement that endorses
the use of science and technology to enhance the
human condition, both mentally and physically.
In support of this, transhumanism also embraces
using emerging technologies to eliminate the
undesirable elements of the human condition
such as aging, disabilities, diseases, and involuntary
death. Many transhumanists believe these
technologies will be ...
Eclipse Phase References List
FICTION
Ian Banks: The “Culture” Series, Consider Phlebas, The Use of Weapons, The Player of Games, The State of the Art, Inversions, Excession, Look to Windward, Matter
Greg Bear: Moving Mars, Queen of Angels, Slant
David Brin: Earth, The “Earthclan” series, Startide Rising, The Uplift War, Sundiver
Paul Di Filippo: Ribofunk
Cory Doctorow: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Eastern Standard Tribe
Greg Egan: Axiomatic, Diaspora, Distress, Permutation City, Quarantine
Warren Ellis: Cro...A fantastic collection ficition, non-fiction, comics, and movies for anyone looking to learn about transhumanism and futurist thought.
RPG as Group Exercise
A roleplaying game (or RPG, for short) is part noémprovisational theater, part storytelling, and part game. A single person (the gamemaster) runs the game for a group of players that pretend to be characters in a fictitious world. The world could be a mystery game set in the 1920s that takes you adventuring around the globe, a fantasy realm inhabited by dragons and trolls and sword-wielding barbarians, or a science fiction setting with aliens and spaceships and world-crushing weaponry. The p...
The Argonauts
You are part of a scientifc techno-progressive movement
that seeks to solve transhumanity’s injustices and
inequalities with technology. You support universal
access to technology and healthcare, open source
models of production, morphological freedom, and
democratization. You try to avoid factionalism and
divisive politics, seeing transhumanity’s splintering as
a hindrance to its perpetuation.
Fictional organization in the Eclipse Phase universe that is pro-science and technology as a means to justice.