Talk:Shriekyware

From doktorsleepless

I think this will be the key entry in the Wiki. The answer to Doktor Sleepless is Shriekyware. My theory so far is that John Reinhardt is the man in the padded room. He's also been to the jungle, and never left Heavenside. This is because he's shriekied into maybe a half-dozen people around Heavenside, maybe the world. It would have to be super-shrieky, since it would likely include audtio/visual in addition to tactile functions. Therefore, he's subject to continuous feedback from the rest of his plants. (This would be enough to cause a mental breakdown. Talk about information overload.) So, for example, he hasn't slept in the year because his mind has been receiving continuous input from people all the time. Additionally, when he's in the rain forest seeking the ability to "expand his mind" he's actually looking for a way to handle the constant information flow. Since his plants are operating throughout Heavenside, that's why its as if John Reinhardt never left the city. IM and Clatter also become key themes, since in a way, their ability to network a group of friends is really a lower-powered version of the Doktor Sleepless network. --Grim 12:35, 7 September 2007 (PDT)

Oh, that's very good. --Warren Ellis 12:44, 7 September 2007 (PDT)

I really like the "evolution of IM" part. It feels very in sync with how I see IM changing the way my friends interact. --Murphix 18:41, 7 September 2007 (PDT)

Grim, you may really be on to something. I've been thinking about the H-Plates. They haunt me. What if the 'H" in "H-plate" stands for haptic? As in the touch sense-recreating "haptic" technology that makes Shriekyware possible. In small, crude transmitters, they're capable of recreating a handshake, but big, powerful transmitters, behind those H-plates located all over the city, could theoretically recreate a physical presence at any place, at any time, with even enough force to say, shatter a bathroom mirror in a crowded club.

More to back up our growing little hypothesis... See John Reinhardt's book, Spymeworld, which references "spime"[1]. Putting it simply, spime is a collection of six technologies that could theoretically give birth to a virtual object. Each of the six technologies represents a different facet of the process. One is for global positioning, another for designing and constructing computer-generated objects, and another to 3D render said objects, like a "three-dimensional printer"[2]. This spime system that the Doktor is so intimately aware of could then combine with the haptic technology to create a virtual Sleepless with physical form anywhere in the city.

We may need to create a page just to contain this hypothesis.

And also, I made the Internet Jesus laugh, albeit under a misspelled User Name. I win at life. --ViolentVirtue 00:23, 8 September 2007 (PDT)

I thought I'd chip in here to bring the following to everyone's attention, after seeing the hug shirt: http://www.ruthkikin.com/thesis1.html "Buddy Beads" for teenage girls that communicate messages in an exclusive network through lights and vibrations.--Patrick bg 16:40, 5 March 2008

Very interesting, about the shriekyware. One thing that struck me as I was reading was how similar all of the shriekygirls looked. To me this seemed to imply that they would lose some of their individuality as a result of being connected all the time. What this leads me to think is what would happen if the connection were very strong and just one-way? How much could you take, feeling what someone else feels, before you started to lose a grip on your identity? What if you started to hear (artificial) voices in you head? Once you had totally lost your identity, even if you were disconnected, would you be able to reassert yourself, or would you be stuck as someone else (John Reinhardt). --Tom 18:15, 8 March 2008 (PST)

At a less extreme level: Shriekyware enables experiences in common > numbers of users increases, experiences in common increases:: identity is shaped by experience, common experiences shape a 'consensus' identity = similarity of shriekygirls' appearances? --Aodh Rua 03:28, 21 April 2008 (PDT)

Excellent point. The question then would be that, since the human mind is excellent at filtering (and depends upon it) how much input (shared/local experience) would it take before it started to all look like static? Perhaps this might have something to do with DS mentioning that he needed to expand his mind. --Tom 16:43, 22 April 2008 (PDT)

Perhaps the Doktor has learned to use all of his mind. We humans use hardly any of our brains - maybe this is what he has learned in the jungle. --Spiraltwist 19:09, 24 April 2008 (PDT)

Say Spiral, are you referring to that whole humans only use ten percent of their minds thing? 'Cause if ya' are, well, it's pretty much a myth. --444 00:11, 25 April 2008 (PDT)

@444 Heh. Yes and no. See what happens when I post on too little sleep? --Spiraltwist 13:47, 25 April 2008 (PDT)

Example of the coming use of haptics in phones to transmit touch -- M1k3y 01:46, 21 May 2008 (PDT)