'What is your name?' 'Emlyn, onetel.' 'Do you deny having written the
following?':
> Given the central idea that we are all really in a computer simulation
> without our knowledge, the whole show run by some external force, how
> do you fix the plot to not be so dumb? You've got to scrap all the
> "outside the matrix; real world" stuff, which was crap (the duracell
> theory). It's not allowed to become Terminator. It must be consistent.
> Ideas?
My favorite strategy for plots is to steal one wholesale, ideally from
Shakespeare. Tried and true, that's why they work. Here's a few
examples:
* Some hacker discovers that the world is a simulation, and uses this fact
to determine facts about his own future. It predicts him murdering a
powerful business executive (and taking his place), and killing others to
prevent his secret from getting out; he finally gets himself killed as the
computer gives him technically true but misleading information. Emphasis
on the determinacy of the simulation.
* Some people are running a simulation, complete with sim people, into
which they upload?/download? for recreation. They decide to edit the
lives of the people within, by altering code in such a way as to cause a
certian pair of couples to fall in love. Mistakes are made, comedy
ensues. Emphasis on the unpredictability of coding in arbitrary
directives.
* Within a simulation, a weak-minded military officer receives a message
from someone outside the simulation, informing him that his superior, who
has recently been promoted under mysterious circumstances, is actually a
deadly criminal, who has uploaded into this simulation to avoid the death
penalty. The man receives orders to "kill" his superior, ejecting the
criminal from the program, allowing him to be tried. He hesitates doing
so, and [at least appears to] go insane. Fending off a number of attacks
on his life, he ultimately "kills" his superior, though dying in the
attempt. Emphasis on epistemology of "knowing" you're in the simulation.
[It'd be good to get the women in here somehow, but in thinking about it a
little while, I'm not sure how one would do it. <shrug>]
Anyway, just a few thoughts.
-Dan
-unless you love someone-
-nothing else makes any sense-
e.e. cummings
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