Is Infinity All There Is?

A Tale from the Time of New Worlds for 5 players

Every culture that continues to advance its technology eventually reaches the point of no return. The Technological Singularity is the point at which technological growth is unable to be controlled and unpredictably alters the culture to something entirely alien to what was before. This manifests differently depending on how technology developed and what that society was aiming towards. The planet Ephostea was once a barren world with a noxious atmosphere that advanced its technology to rival that of the Fleet itself, and then blew past it towards a Technological Singularity. For Ephostea, they think this Technological Singularity will breach the Abstract of the Universe, something that is not comprehensible by any artificial or organic mind. They believe the Abstract stretches across the Universe, but is not reachable by anything corporeal or digital. They reason that it encompasses something so different to life as it is known that the common way of existence cannot enter or understand it.

And yet, Ephostea believes they've figured out how to cross the gap. Ephostea focused all their efforts on the Abstract in a determined effort to know the unknowable, and found what they think is a way to ascend to Abstract Existence. For hundreds of years now, they have pushed their technology in pursuit of it and are now moments away from reaching their goal. Most Ephosteans are waiting to ascend, to begin an existence unlike anything ever experienced. This is not something to be taken lightly; it is giving up all notions of consciousness, thought, feeling, and perception, as they are understood. It is entirely unknown what Abstract Existence "feels" like, if it feels like anything at all. To embrace it is to give up everything. There is no going back.

The Fleet has sent many teams of Observers to Ephostea to study this Technological Singularity. One of the teams is this group of five, disenfranchised youths, bound together in friendship and their mutual dissatisfaction with the Fleet. All of them are seeking satisfaction with life that they cannot find. These five are each in their own Environmental Pod, to protect them from the Ephostean atmosphere. They are video calling each other to discuss the event about to take place. While they have yet to mention it, the question of whether or not to ascend is hanging in each of their minds ‐ if there is nothing for you among the infinite possibilities of the Universe as we know it, is the only option not to leave it entirely? What if one is something so Other, all notions of physical or virtual existence are not satisfactory? Then, is it worth giving up everything, to become something so different it cannot be comprehended?

The Tale ends when all characters have decided whether or not to ascend to Abstract Existence or the Technological Singularity occurs in fifteen minutes. To ascend, one must simply be willing when the time comes.