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Forum URL: http://www.eyrie-productions.com/Forum/dcboard.cgi
Forum Name: Games
Topic ID: 165
Message ID: 0
#0, Someone Didn't Think This Through dep't
Posted by Gryphon on Dec-08-20 at 01:19 AM
So, according to one reviewer who reports experiencing it first-hand, Cyberpunk 2077 causes epileptic seizures. This is not exactly unknown in the world of video games, given that they are essentially made of flashing lights. What takes the report on CP2077 to the next level is this, regarding a piece of in-game equipment used in scenes featuring a particular type of neural interface:

The headset fits over both eyes and features a rapid onslaught of white and red blinking LEDs, much like the actual device neurologists use in real life to trigger a seizure when they need to trigger one for diagnosis purposes. If not modeled off of the IRL design, it's a very spot-on coincidence.

Wow. What? That seems like the kind of thing that is unlikely to be arrived at by accident.

In fact, it reminded me of something I knew I'd read once. After a brief period of cudgeling my memory and a hunt around the library, I found it. It's a passage from exegesis, a 1997 near-future-SF novel by Astro Teller about a spontaneously-self-generated AI that, at one point in the book, is "captured" by the NSA.

My persecutors continue to assert that I must conform to their belief system.

Today Alex typed that I have no position from which to bargain. Alex typed that surrender was the only action open to me.

I disagreed with him. He requested a list of my available actions. I will not supply them. He requested an example.

I alternated the screen color between #FFFF33 and #660000 2000 times at a rate of 12.9 alternations per second.

They took Alex to a hospital. Robert did not give me full details.

It is most likely that the focal motor seizure I caused in Alex occurred in his frontal lobe.

Great job, guys. You've successfully duplicated the act of a fictional AI from a novel published 23 years ago.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
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