Ashes of the Singularity is an up-coming real-time strategy game that takes place in the year 2178 when humans have evolved to the point in which we interact with the physical world through constructs (think of a modern day Drone as a very primitive construct). A single human (or “Post-Human”) is handling millions of these constructs across many light years simultaneously just as we are “handling” 100,000 billion cells in our physical bodies right now.
The object of the game is to take control of Turinium generators that have been placed on suitable worlds in order to convert the entire planet into Turinium (or at least as much of it as we can.
Turinium is our take on Computronium. It’s actually not as new a concept as you might think. Douglas Adams in the Hitchhiker’s Guide of the Galaxy series revealed that the entire Earth is a giant computer. In essence, the Earth was actually Computronium.
Computronium is programmable matter. The ultimate programmable matter. While theorized, it is inevitable.
This week Intel announced SkyLake. It’s a new CPU based on a 14nm fabrication technique. Each year or two, the fabrication size gets smaller and smaller. In 2005, it was 65nm. The 8088 was 3 microns (3,000 nm).
At some point we will reach the smallest possible size that processing can occur at. It will almost certainly be at the sub-atomic level but you will reach that point. That ultimate smallness is called Turinium.
Once you reach that ultimate smallness, the only way to get more processing power is to have more of it. Mass starts to matter.
It would be incorrect to assume that Turinium has to look like some sort of gray goo type material. Since it’s at the sub-atomic level, it could look like anything you want depending on the level of efficiency you want out of the mass. A tree could be made of Turinium for instance. To reference Douglas Adams again, the Earth and even Arthur Dent were all made of what was effectively Turinium (trying to find out the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything).
As the name of the game implies, Ashes of the Singularity is about what happens after the technological singularity. It’s just too good of a subject matter not to use as the basis for a Sci-Fi game.
In this future, humans have, for over a century, been augmenting their capability through computing power that we can’t even really imagine today. The best analogy we have is that we’re already doing this: How much of your knowledge do you keep in your brain versus via your mobile device? Compare that to 10 years ago. Now imagine where things will be in 50 years. 100 years.
Once you have Turinium , the “faster” computing paradigm is over. It’s how much Turinium you have. And feats that we mere humans can’t even imagine start to become grasped by these Post-Humans who have access to so much more capability.
Thus, Turinium becomes the ultimate resource. More valuable than anything. Unlike the Space of the Dune series, Turinium can be created on most other planets, it’s just a matter of reaching out and taking them.
Interesting Lore, i like it so far, how will the story mode will be? i guess its all based on Turinium,
The story may start When the Humans start evolving to post-humans, after evolving using Turinium generators they want more and more, but Turinium in Earth is so limited that they cannot have enough, So they start expanding to outer space using bots, searching for planets that can Generate Turinium, for each Post-Human, but there's millions of Post-Humans out there looking for the same thing, that's where we start seeing war happening in random planets, when 2 or more Post-Humans meet and that's when the fight for that Turinium begins, and the one that is more powerful and intelligent get the planet and keep expanding and expanding for more Turinium never stropping, to be the only GOD. (all mighty powerful)
I just invented this Story, and I hope there is much more than that.
Tat, I don't think you could have misunderstood the lore more. These aren't factories. There are no people, cities, etc. the turinium conversion is taking place under ground.
There are no computer chips. Even in TA lore there are no people or cities.
SPICE...not space
It seems to me you are reprogramming the Turinium generators/converters so the Turinium they generate couples to your "mind". Why they start out as neutral is still unclear though, lore-wise. Also your logic breaks down in favor of gameplay. Planet terrain is also not symmetric, but it needs to be if you want balanced maps.
In response to the OP:
I disagree a tiny bit with 'Once you have Turinium, the "faster" computing paradigm is over'. In distributed systems (what could be more distributed than computers all over the Galaxy), the interconnections between compute nodes is just as important as the nodes themselves. While in the lore information can travel infinite distances instantaneously, the nodes have to communicate with one another to make complex computations happens. In current multiprocessing systems nodes are often connected in a mesh configuration, which puts spacial limits on what the system can accomplish. Brains have similar limitations, as neurons are connected to only those neurons near it. Such systems are difficult to scale up, and with Turinium we're talking about trillions of trillions of trillions of nodes (10^36) , at least. The lore may have to address this, perhaps with a "complete graph" idea.
Thanks for re-posting the lore of turinium, Frogboy. In the campaign, will turning the planet(s) into turinium give the player more strategic options to use?
Ever been to north Texas? The oil derricks are pumping oil from large oil fields. They have an area of effect, with diminishing returns as you get further away. So they are spread out. Not sure if this is even close to a logical answer for your concern.
Here's a bit more of a background on this:
Status as of 2178
The Post Human Coalition is the "government" in which all Post-Humans are supposed to live under. But there are lots of renegades now which is what is causing the war in this game to start.
The PHC finds a suitable planet and using their Quantum Teleportation technology are able to manipulate atoms on distant worlds (there are no space ships in this universe because why bother?). What they create are called Nanobots (Nans) which they can then control. The nanobots first go out and much like bacterial on Earth that creates gold veins, harvest and concentrate metal and radioactives.
There is no such thing, in the real world, as giant metal deposits or giant radioactive deposits In fact, the radioactive deposits are technically "Californium" (you see why we have to rename things? Real science has ridiculous names). The nans actually create this stuff as this element doesn't naturally exist.
Next, the Nans create power generators around the world. These generators, when connected to a Fusion reactor, can power everything within that region of the world.
Next up, the Nans then place Turinium generators. These are deep injections into the mantle and are spread out (ideally equally but there as a practical matter, they're wherever the PHC was able to most inexpensively make an atomic connection from vast distances). The Turinium generators create a special type of Nanobot that transforms matter under the surface to Turnium. The surface of the planet is relatively unimportant. It is the matter within the planet that is most valuable because the mass is much denser.
At that point, the planet is assigned to an individual post-human who is then allowed to create their hub (the seed) somewhere on the planet. The seed contains a fusion reactor and requires an immense investment by the individual in question.
IF the PHC determines that the planet is being fought for, it instructs the power generators to construct guardians who provide token resistance to anyone casually trying to claim that region (the creeps).
99% of the time, a planet is uncontested and the individual simply constructs engineers to go out and connect the power generators and turninium generators to their seed. That's why the seed only builds engineers. It's not supposed to have to deal with any real conflict.
The laws:
There are some laws set up on what planets the PHC will allow to be colonized. Some of which are just due to the limits of their technology:
Low gravity planets tend to have no surface water (or very little).
Low gravity is needed because the fabrication technology of the PHC using quantum teleportation can't construct complex mechanics...yet. With gravity channeling, hover units can be used and aircraft can be constructed.
But as we'll see in the future (i.e. expansion packs) things will get more desperate and the most powerful Post-Humans and their Substrate opponents will start to make exceptions...But that's in the future.
Yes.
In the Missions, you will slowly gain access to more and more capability as accumulate more Turnium from other worlds.
Hrm Hrm.... you're not realising what you're saying is going my way :
Is it? A map of the Earth showing concentrations of matter that can be converted to Turinium would be completely red. All matter can be converted. If a converter can cover a cubic mile, then you net more Turinium by not overlapping, and you reduce overlap by spreading out.
Awesome! Thanks for the lore update and response, Frogboy!
Pretty much the only thing I am looking forward to about Turinium is the ability to turn it off.
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