story idea...

[Voltairina]

I have an idea for a setting for a writing project (or, possibly a comic) and was wondering what people thought of it.

The setting is in the far future, but the rise of superintelligent ai, friendliness uncertain, has resulted in everyone living within a gameified version of the world, with technology strictly bounded by an ever-present nanotechnological fog that dissassembles anything beyond a certain level of apparent technical development—we’re strictly limited from developing further AI- for purposes unknown to the protagonist. On death, people are “resurrected” (possessions are lost, but a fresh body is printed, and monitoring nanites at the cellular level constantly update a buffered version of “you” that is then printed when your vital signs are lost) at locations that look like gates. There are ‘monsters’, various “magic” items, ‘npcs’ /​ autonomous agents of the AI, quests and puzzles to solve. It is unknown to the protagonist whether the world is some kind of a test or not, although very rarely, some people are not resurrected. In other respects, though, it is simply a somewhat-in-the-future version of our Earth. Cities were, prior to the ‘event’, largely 3d printed, so there are city-scapes resembling different eras. Their ability to self repair autonomously has been left on, although some of them have grown ‘cancerous’, sprouting bits of mixed architecture in places. They have also been integrated into a reengineered ecosystem with the spawning of a bunch of synthetic organisms that can tear apart and consume cities or break down waste emissions.

Sometimes, on ‘resurrection’, people get minor details adjusted—such as having abilities or skills they never had before, or subtly altered memories.

The main character is a transgender woman who was cryogenically frozen, who wakes up to find herself in a more ideal body, in the future, with super powers. Kind of a Mary Sue for me I guess, although I’m planning to give her flaws to balance her out, although I haven’t decided on which ones.

I’m not a terribly experienced writer and can’t promise it won’t suck, but I like playing with these ideas and thinking about them… thoughts? Suggestions? Similar stuff I should read? I’ve read Diaspora and The Rapture of the Nerds already, and really enjoyed those...

[solipsist]

From an excellent comment by Trevor Blake:

...you can either write, or you can talk about writing. You need to decide which one you’re going to do and not confuse them. When you talk about writing, your brain thinks you’ve written and stops working. Only writing is writing.

Don’t tell us about your story—show us!

[Risto_Saarelma]

This sounds a great deal like Linda Nagata’s Memory. Also somewhat like Karl Schroeder’s Ventus.

[Lumifer]

Have you read Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise? There is a powerful entity there who prevents humans from passing a certain technological threshold:

I am the Eschaton; I am not your God.
I am descended from you, and exist in your future.
Thou shalt not violate causality within my historic light cone. Or else.

[Voltairina]

I have not! I will definitely check it out.

[Adele_L]

I think it sounds pretty interesting, I would read the finished product at least.

The premise where technological power is limited reminds me of the telluric field in this story (which I recommend reading).

I think the only way to become a good writer is to write stuff, and since it seems like something you want to do, I say give it a shot!

[Voltairina]

Thanks!