The Memory without Record

Jason Zhen Li
Nov 2 · 3 min read

Based on ‘The Tragedy of GJ237b’ https://medium.com/@balehman/the-tragedy-of-gj237b-928cfeae460b

A role-playing game for no players

Originally formed with system design by Caitlynn Belle, setting design by Ben Lehman

Hack by Jason Li

The History of the Future

The invention of the Data Distribution Slate, or DDS, was innocuous enough. A handheld, electronic device that interfaced with the collection of all of one’s human data. DDSes could surface relevant data to its owner at any time, and it could do many things its predecessors could. It had 3D cameras, biometric tracking from microgram blood samples, it could perform basic magnetic scanning to monitor mental status, translational tools, and of course, the basic tools of productivity needed for the user, be it visual or audio. But where the old smartphones connected to the internet to find data and store information, the DDS used other DDSes. A simple move toward distributed networks.

Using machine learning and quantum computing, DDSes interfaced with other DDSes to provide requested information that wasn’t a part of that set. The quantum computer within DDS can determine when a piece of data about the world could be considered Free, neither Personal nor Private. The DDS had connected its users as a mind.

DDSes were simultaneously both one’s key to their own Akashic record and collectively formed the Akashic Record itself.

The Akashic Record: a compendium of all Human thought, behavior, events, and emotions throughout past, present, and future. By asking the DDS for references of a particular year, a user can get a picture comprised of the human behaviors of the time, as long as the data has been determined Free.

The DDS network has one primary directive: Help your user. To accomplish this, it has one function: Collect Data.

It changed everything. The world was now incentivized to make their actions part of the observable DDS network. If you weren’t helping the DDS network, you were actively holding back humanity. Humanity lives as part of the DDS network, as its workers, as part of connected humanity.

It is now hard to imagine the immediate past beyond the DDS. Although the DDS has the older,paper-based and now digitized records attached, it did not collect every human that existed at the time. There were a few who could not bear the idea of living with the DDS, and rejected it. They removed the chance of forming a history within or linking with the DDS.

They chose to live free of the DDS’s senses and directives. They established a series of their own counter-directives:

  1. Impermanence is the way of things
  2. We share our knowledge with one another as we need
  3. We respect the memory of our forebears through our lives
  4. We allow the world to undo our works

It’s unknown what became of them since. It is said they erected great statues of work. Those in the DDS network know of them only by name: Atlanteans, the people of the Atlantis.

This game is about practicing the evasive histories of Atlantis, the civilization without record.

Preparation

Pick a secluded, public place away from surveillance technology that you take effort to come to. This will be a place was of Atlantean culture once. They were here memorializing a great moment in their history.

Playing the game

Observe the space, look for the irregularities, ask, and write down:

What happened here that the Atlaneans memorialize?

What did they do to the land and space to memorialize it?

How did they leave a mark in a way that evades capture?

When ready, pay your respects in the manner fitting an Atlantean.

Leave the space. Do not return for some time.

Ending play

When you serendipitously return to the location, search for traces of the Atlantean monument. If you notice it, Atlantean culture has been added to the DDS.

When you discover something on your return, record the finding on a digital document. The Atlantean culture is one step closer to being collected by the network.