If you can't beat them... (part 4)

Infrared vision has already been experimented with and researched for humans. Microchips originally implanted in test animals to study mental deterioration and to prevent diseases like Alzheimer's have been found to enhance actual intelligence as well. A day looms in the not-so-distant future when technology originally designed to help people will become a thing of fashion, convenience, or even competition—those who can pay may decide to enhance themselves for a variety of reasons. Superhuman soldiers, bionic athletes, and fast-thinking operators of various machines may become commonplace in our future. Perhaps it may one day be a job requirement to be implanted with a brain-enhancing chip that allows the employee to better interface with coworkers, computers, and robots. Military service may involve mandatory physical enhancement, strength boosting, and heightened reflexes (and of course, those infrared eyes I mentioned earlier). People that are integrated with “cyberware” (cyborgs—man and machine) will be commonplace.

If you can't beat them... (part 3)

Consider that we are already replacing body parts with machines. Retinal microchips, though not on the market yet, are proving that vision can be restored. Bionic prostheses for legs, arms, and hands are becoming increasingly sophisticated, operated by neural control. Even neuroprosthetics, which can provide a motor, sensory, or cognitive ability that might be lacking or damaged are already in full use—tens of thousands of people already have cochlear implants for hearing loss. These implants are surgically installed with a direct neural connection that is run by tiny computers. Soon, advanced genetic and neural therapies will be available to enhance our senses and our strength. Biological engineering and neurobiology are already making huge advances that have replicated the functions of many of our biological systems electronically and mechanically. Elon Musk was not far off with his prediction that neural lacing might be the next step for human enhancement.

If you can't beat them... (part 2)

The term neural lace was first coined by novelist Iain M. Banks, and it was intended to describe a mesh that conforms to the brain in order to allow the programming of neurons. Even though this concept was originally science fiction, there is a basis in actual science. In 2015, a paper published in Nature Nanotechnology detailed how a flexible circuit was injected into the brains of living mice—the circuit is actually capable of interacting with neurons. Technology also exists to allow users of robotic prosthetics to activate and manipulate their artificial limbs with their minds. We are not far from extending these technologies to the common public someday, where making a cell phone call might be as simple as a thought and turning the volume up or down little more than momentary intent. Yet how tapped in do we really want our brains to be with technology? What doors will this open, and once open, can they ever be closed again?

If you can't beat them... (part 1)

Elon Musk has long been an opponent of the direction Artificial Intelligence is taking, and has made frequent warnings that measures should be made to stop the singularity—an event where robot intelligence will exceed all collective human intelligence. Yet recently, Musk has taken a new direction with his comments, describing the problem humans face when competing with computers. While human mental processing is extremely fast, output is incredibly slow when compared with machines. We cannot physically output information as fast as machines because of physical limitations—we cannot speak, write, or type at a rate even close to the speed at which we think. If this could be solved, Musk insists, we wouldn't have to compete with AI, we would be on the same level and therefore not face an AI/robot apocalypse. How would this be possible? Elon Musk asserts that “neural lacing” the human mind is the answer...

Balticon 50 (part 5)

There are so many other highlights of this weekend, it's hard to choose from among the 6 or 7 games that I ran, but I remember one classic moment quite well. One of the players had to leave the table briefly, telling the other players to use his character to make a cybertech check to hack into the malfunctioning mall robot they had just nearly destroyed. The mall robots were all rampaging because of an unknown problem in their programming (which the team had learned was by design), and the team was supposed to try to shut them down. To do so, they had to severely damage a robot, but not destroy it, enough so that they could get in close and hack into its CPU. This was no easy task, and they failed a few times because some of the players over-did things with the damage, destroying the robot beyond repair. They had finally damaged a robot just enough for them to hack it, but unknown to them, the robot had sent out a distress signal to other robots in the mall. You should have seen the surprised face of the player who had left the table—when he returned, he saw what you see pictured below: a variety of twisted, malfunctioning robots converging on the players as they huddled over the damaged robot. It was up to him—could he make the necessary cybertech check to hack the robot's system and disable the distress signal? ...and...yes, he made it, the robots disengaged and the team survived!

Balticon 50 (part 4)

I've seen some really interesting tactics in this game, and this weekend was no exception. One particular team was playing the “Gun Runners” mission found in the Starter Kit, and they breached a warehouse where gun smugglers were finishing their deal. While one of the team, an Omul, got everyone's attention by entering through the side door of the warehouse and immediately took cover, the Erwani on the team outside hacked open the electronic garage door so one of the team's Krissethi could rush in. At the same time, the team's other Krissethi moved through the air-ducts above it all, athletically dropping onto a nearby crate while the team's Reln did the same on the other side of the warehouse, dropping onto a crate just above a smuggler that was busy attacking their Omul--the Reln used her height advantage from atop the crate to finish him off. The smugglers were spread out and were attacked from all directions, so one of them decided to jump in a car and speed away. Another one exchanged gunfire with the first Krissethi, shooting through the windows of the parked car between them. The Krissethi dove for cover and crawled under the car, slashing with his katana at the smuggler's ankles. The crippled smuggler fell to the ground and tried to shoot the Krissethi under the car, narrowly missing him just as the Krissethi finished him off with a quick stab from his katana. The entire warehouse was cleared in only a few rounds!

Balticon 50 (part 3)

During the “Heist Stratagem” mission I ran at Balticon this past weekend, the players managed to circumvent having to deal with the bank robbers quite well. Though they failed one of their mission parameters by doing so (which was to make sure the robbers didn't harm the civilians—they left the civilians with the robbers!), they did manage to get what they came for during the heist distraction, and rescued the undercover operative that had staged the heist and was posing as a bank robber. However, when they took two cars and tried to escape the scene, an armored mafia vehicle (the mafia owned the bank) was soon in pursuit, and soon, the police were in pursuit as well. The team decided to split up, and the mafia vehicle and two police followed one to the right while a single police car stayed with the other to the left. The team on the left managed to shake the police car by dropping magnetic caltrops, escaping with the undercover operative, but the other half of the team made a tactical error—the driver decided to slam on his breaks to cause the following police cars to crash into him. While he and his team were dazed and trying to recover from the painful crash, the armored mafia car pulled in front of them and finished them all off with a mounted point-defense cannon. I guess we can say the positive side is that half the team survived and completed the mission...?