In the distant future, a museum was constructed, dedicated to a bygone era of human history. This museum had a single purpose. This purpose would be hidden, only accessible to those who were willing to discern its message.
Welcome to the Morning Artifice museum!
CURATOR
CURATOR
My name is Curator Velvet, and you've entered the Museum of Morning Artifice - a construct dedicated to preserving the legacy of an ancient world.
The Museum is more than a collection of trinkets and artifacts, curated by yours truly. It is designed to communicate a story about humanity, and will hopefully cause you to critically examine the human condition, especially with regards to its relationship with information technology.
Perhaps it will even make you proud to be human.
No flash photography.
Now, please scroll down to the first exhibit...
Oh, just one more thing! Please don't touch the working terminal in the workshop. It's a part of the Restored Devices exhibit that I've been working on for, well, ages... feel free to look at it, though. That's what it's there for!
pROs.TXT - PROSTHETIC SOUL
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In the distant future, during one of many nameless conflicts among the interstellar descendants of Earth, a technology was perfected that could replace a person's morality with programmable ethics. It was called the prosthetic soul.
everyware.TXT - everyware
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As cybertechnology became smaller and more widespread, computers took their ultimate role in the form of everyware. Microchips reached true ubiquity in everything from knives to doors to roads. Code was no longer was a specialization - it became a second language, and a requirement for living in the new age.
kaizen_ai.TXT - kaizen AI
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Artificial intelligence advanced far beyond expectations. Cloud-based services deployed by corporations and governments eventually replaced the white-collar, leaving behind niche professions and a growing grey-collar workforce. These hyper-intelligent expert systems, called kaizen, would eventually integrate with everyware to become much more than what they were originally designed for.
slipstrim_ftl.TXT - slipstream
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After centuries of interstellar rocketry, a laboratory accident turned the fantasy of faster-than-light transfer into a part of everyday life. Superluminal Interstellar Projection Stream, or SLIPSTREAM, was supposed to bring the world closer together.
CURATOR
CURATOR
I'm supposed to say something here to break this long list of dialogs, but I couldn't figure out what to say. Just keep scrolling, I guess?
re.TXT - reset
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With the emergence of a globalized, post-scarcity society, a doomed world order rooted in materialistic imperialism collapsed during the Reset, giving way to a new system in which war was obsolete, ethics were a mere suggestion, and information became more relevant than commodities and products.
pravos.TXT - pravo powers
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From the chaos, four nations rose to power, taking advantage of new technologies and doctrines to place themselves and their ideologies ahead of each other on the interstellar stage. These self-aware regimes became known as the Pravo powers.
trrition.TXT - attrition
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Armed with the ability to program their troops, spies, and officials using the prosthetic soul; to destabilize their rivals using black operations; and to engineer their own societies en masse using kaizen; these nations would end up locked in spiteful rivalry, manifesting itself as a clandestine conflict known as the Attrition.
As the tension between the Pravo powers escalated, the ideals that they once stood for were slowly abandoned in favor of improving the effectiveness of their society. Free will and privacy eroded in favor of state security and brutal efficiency.
rf-.TXT - Rift
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Meanwhile, bizarre anomalies discovered on the expanding frontiers - starships from the future, derelict human civilizations, supernatural timeloops - began to bring everything about humanity's place among the stars into question.
Nothing was the way it seemed.
CURATOR
CURATOR
I'm sure you're enthralled by this fantastic museum. Information technology and space boogeymen, what more could one ask for?
To continue, you'll have to choose one of the following two options.
The Collection is a tour touching upon many elements in the world of Morning Artifice, akin to a blog. Each Exhibition within the Collection is a uniquely crafted experience.
The Experience is a placeholder link to a subsection which provides insight into the Morning Artifice board game.
