Black Box is an archive in progress that will one day serve as a collection of documents and narratives, meant to catalogue a series of extraordinary events, and extraordinary beings, across a series of extraordinary worlds. Seven total files will be included, some set before, during, or after, the Great Extinction. Some of the themes explored: apocalyptic events, artificial intelligence, free will, the decay of civilization, entropy, and the unintended consequences of technology.
The Seven Files will be these:
1. Terra:
A robotic child with a broken speech simulator crash lands on early earth and witnesses the entire history of life on Earth. This story is inspired by a short from the TV series Fargo, and is also inspired by the work of Arthur C. Clark.
2. Wasteland:
In a future in which major world governments developed sentient defense networks which established a complicated system of mock warfare. Delicate peace/war balance was shattered by a rogue party which led to the detonation of most of the worlds WMDs. Having planned for this eventuality, the sentient defense networks survived the fallout and continue to engage each other in drone warefare, hunting the dwindling portion of human survivors, or helping them, according to their various protocols. An android named Chrome is hired to recover a stolen warhead from a human outpost, containing a religious cult who believes the missile silo to be their source of salvation.
3. Dreamland:
A computer programmer is sent to Miami South Beach on work. A man immersed in internet chat rooms, virtual reality, and forums, he discovers an underground cyber network based in Miami that combines electronic correspondence with real life rendenvous. Much of this network is devoted to the manufacture and distribution of a new type of euphoric, psychotropic drug named "Mellow." The programmer is sent on a misadventure set to the glitz of Miami's underworld, in a neo-noir caper that blurs the line between whats illusion and whats real.
4. Redwoods:
Set in the rural mountains between the California and Oregon border, a small town is ravaged by a series of grisly murders involving competing lumber families involved in the manufacture of crystal meth. A sheriff department hunts the culprit, a ruthless anarchist survivalist named Drek who plans to set opposing forces against each other and escape with a small fortune.
5. As Seen on TV:
A satirical dark comedy that explores the consequences that follow when a marketing firm accidentally cracks the black box of human cognition and unlocks rudimentary mind control.
6. Labyrinthe:
An ode to the 90's; a student of neuroscience who is severely sleep deprived visits a carnival by the pier, in which after winning a game, gets a prize. It's an early release copy of a cutting edge video game, released by a reclusive, anonymous programmer. The game; "Labyrinthe," is a riddle/escape room style game in which players make their way through increasingly surreal virtual landscapes. Many of the rooms represent natural concepts such as time, space, or famous thought experiments.
Set on the eve of Y2K, in San Francisco, this is meant to be a snapshot of the peak of the human race, still riding the tail end of the tech bubble, in an optimistic, pre 9/11 world.
7. Event Horizon:
A wormhole is discovered in a world in which intergalactic travel is common place. Scientist speculate about the nature of the other side, though the flow of information goes strictly in one direction. Nothing that enters the black hole is capable of submitting any kind of communication with the other side. A tavern named the Event Horizon is built near the point of no return, where wayward cosmic travelers meet to have a last drink before entering.
Lastly, I would like to add that miscellaneous files will also be added in instances in which isolated snippets were found, absent of grander narratives. Any file marked "Misc." is standalone.
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