Hi,
I saw this too, and must admit it got me thinking - however, in
the ST universe, it seems as if every person is very intelligent and
imaginative from the very start. What a great presumption for a
storyteller! If assume your audience has some intelligence, you can leave
all kinds of avenues open. Unfortunately, most of what passes for
entertainment these days assumes I have the IQ of a pork chop.
Other thoughts - my God, what an insane amount of algorithm you'd
have to build in - AI for the characters to react "in character" to any
new situation, physics models that take into account EVERY law of physics,
from Gravity to subatomic interaction, Plus - Cartoon physics - if
stories can be assumed to have any sort of fantasy level to them (one of
the character's finger/branches burned with a bright flame, yet all he did
was whimper, not cry out in pain).
If we can deal with the monumental task of creating such a thing,
how very cool it would be - Touchrealistic (as opposed to photorealistic)
Avatars with unlimited high-level AI who reacted in unanticipated manners,
yet within the parameters of expected personality. Star Trek seems so very
unmaterialistic, but imagine the market for such a "virtual friend" or
slave or partner, what have you.
I wonder what moral distinction would be drawn by Star Trek crew
members between their holographic doctor and one of the holographic
characters from that story. Hey - there's an interesting storyline
right there! I'll be sending off my script to UPN any day now.
Nice to get a discussion going.
-Alan
On Wed, 18 Nov 1998, John D. DeCuir wrote:
> Since I love this list and no one has posted anything in a while,
> here's a random topic thrown out. Did anyone catch last week's
> Star Trek: Voyager? The storyline involved a little girl who,
> among other things, likes to hang out in a holodeck. The story
> is a child-like story involving two characters, one symbolizing
> water and the other trees. There's also a Fire-demon as well.
> (Sorry, I forget all names).
>
> The interesting thing is that almost all of the crew reminisced
> about the same story in THEIR childhoods. The kicker is that everyone
> had different memories, because everyone encouraged the same story
> to go in a slightly different direction. (Janeway: When I did that
> story, so-and-so happened... Another crewmember: Really? Not for
> me...) etc...
>
> This seems to me like the ultimate goal of nonlinear storytelling.
> What I still grapple with is how to ensure that all possible
> outcomes lead up to an equally satisfying story-telling experience...
>
> Comments?
> -John
>
