Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Secret Project: The Virtual World

[godkingRoss]

It seems i totally misunderstood what he was saying in this video for.... 13 years?

wow. I thought he meant you must take the fucker out who's causing you pain but he actually means just ignore the pain entirely?

[MarciCow]

"Take control of the input, and you shall become master of the output" = Whoever controls the media, controls the masses.

[Xazamas]

People who master this, can do lots of awesome stuff with it, including but not limited to piercing their bodies with spikes, walking on razor-sharp blades, burning embers and lots of more. I personally most likely lack the necessary willpower to achieve anything like that.

[standardrifle]

A lot of times when I take out a slice of bread from my lunchbox, for 3 seconds I think that it's Peanut butter while it's infact something entirely different.

Simply because I thought it was a slice o' bread with peanut butter!

[McSqueaky]

This is fully inspired by the Yogis and tantric meditation. Control the inner and become master of the outer.

[DestructoMonkey]

This quote made sense to me until i realize that your brain uses bioelectric impulses AND is bathed in a sea of hormones. You can't just get rid of a shot of epinephrin when you get shot in the gut just through ignoriing it.

[TheCORE87]

@DestructoMonkey

Actually it is possible, but for that type of pain you must be very very skilled at doing it.

The next time you eat a really spicy food, try and convince you're mind into thinking that it's not hot at all, it takes practice but their are some very skilled people (such as bhuddists) that can do it. (but with pain and suffering as meantioned).

If you manage to take full control of your mind, then you shall become "master of both the input and output".

[jmitterii2]

@TheCORE87 No you've just convinced your self something that is happening isn't even though it is. Stupidity on an open fire.If it were true, mad houses would have a bunch of magical beings in it, like crazy people able to walk through walls, etc. The most you can do with your mind is change your body temp and metabolism because those items actually controlled by the mind in the first place. Everything else outside, the inputs, are beyond the mind's direct control. Otherwise we'd have wizards

[GlobstersMessenger]

@jmitterii2

Holy shit you clearly aren't reading what people are doing.

No, NOTHING outside the mind is affected, nobody said that. What people can do is influence the information they receive, the 'input'. This can change the sensation you experience, the 'output'.

Get some reading comprehension of what people are saying.

[TeshnosFire]

University of Planet: Free Network Node

Virtual World: Network Node = Hologram Theatre

Love it XD

[DecoySCV]

I played an MMO like this once.

Then I got a call from the FBI.

[Kemonokami]

"Yang's only half right. While pain is indeed simple signals to ensure the body's survival and well-being and nothing more, true pain is agony: when it is not the body that is harmed, but the soul."

--Headmaster Kemonokami, Datalinks.

[Vildasnaga]

@Kemonokami Yang being a dictator promoting a big brother and atheistic society, I fear the Headmaster will soon have a rather fatal "accident"

[Kemonokami]

@Vildasnaga

I beg your pardon?

[Vildasnaga]

@Kemonokami Yang wishes to create an atheistic police state no? I doubt he appreciates his lead researchers carrying around such ridiculous (to him) notions such as a soul.

[justicetrooper]

My comfort zone centers around the hive. his weakness was not having a good economy, which I always fixed by using my main base as the economic center with supply convoys, so that the inefficiency was lifted. At the same time I'd become a huge industrial giant and pump out enough troops kept well armed by one or two allies that happily traded research. Secret projects were easy to get, and I could simply outnumber superior units.

[shade270]

I personally think its someone being Nerve Stappled, and he takes Yang advice and masters the input in order to master the output.

Pain goes in, but only serenity goes out.

[WatchRyder]

Looks like he's wearing the VR Gimp Mask Edition!

[MrHenryFogg]

That looks like the most painful virtual world ever.

[Dooby143]

Much as I love the arguement because it shows a sense of intelligence on both sides (rare for Youtube :P) Let's go back to the quote. It's very powerful, an interesting way of twisting a feel of pain.

[Glopdemon]

My favorite early project (if you play University you absolutely need this one). Also one of my favorite quotes. Philosophically Yang is the worst (except for Miriam maybe), but he consistently has the greatest quotes.

[jasezer]

@Glopdemon On the scale of evil to good it goes Miriam,

Yang,

Santiago,

Morgan,

Zakharov,

Deirdre, Lai.

[uv46jb]

@jasezer I'd mostly agree, but I'd place Santiago above Morgan and Zakharov (he has an extra drone for every 4 citizens for a reason). Sure she can be overly agressive and paranoid (but then this is kind of justified) against other factions, but she seems to treat her own citizens kind of alright.

[jasezer]

@uv46jb Maybe, I think I would consider her more of a neutral faction now. She just wants to survive, and it's methods of doing that which are questionable.

[lipovan87]

@jasezer

I'd put it switch Deidre and Morgan. Morgan just wanted to make money but Deidre, despite being democratic) had no qualms unleashing mindworms on people.

[ThatIsNotDeadWhich]

@jbecker8082 Capitalism equals freedom?

You might want to take a chat with a 19th century coal miner from the Ruhrgebiet about that. Or talk to a dissident from Pinochet's Chile. Or a resident of British India. Or Belgian Congo. Or an Australian aboriginal. Or a Native American.

Capitalism, by and large, means freedom for rich people.

Morgan Industries captures that particular aspect perfectly...

[woodwyrm]

@ThatIsNotDeadWhich Capitalism, by and large, means freedom for rich people.

i think Capitalism in essence means that freedom will be available to anyone with enough money(not just the rich^^)

[ThatIsNotDeadWhich]

@woodwyrm Absent countervailing pressure from the sovereign or from civil society, capitalism decays into simple feudalism, except that feudal privileges under capitalism is vested in financial instruments rather than land.

"Capitalism" is actually a misnomer, since power follows financial assets rather than capital in a "capitalist" society. Capital had only a relatively brief stint as the limiting factor of production, ending with the development of Fordist mass production.

[lipovan87]

@ThatIsNotDeadWhich

The free market means that people are free not to trade. I can quit my job. In socialism, I couldn't quit my job, buy what I wanted, and had to contend with the politically connected getting everything why the hard or smart workers got zilch. Try comparing their lot to people under Communism.

Companies are mini-societies that rise or fall based on production. They also try to become monopolies which kind of wipes out their system they were operating in.

[ThatIsNotDeadWhich]

@lipovan87 With unemployment in the double digits, *can* you really quit your job? After all, your employer can afford to have you quit longer than you can afford to not eat...

Politically connected fatcats getting ahead based on nepotism rather than competence is a constant in all political systems - if you're not seeing it under capitalism, it just means that they're hiding it better.

[lipovan87]

@ThatIsNotDeadWhich

I can if I am willing to find another job. I just don't get arrested for deciding to quit. I also don't get ordered to immediately move to another region under threat of imprisonment for refusing to.

The difference is that under socialism, all resources are under government control and can therefor be doled out to the politically well connected whereas a more limited government can't do so.

[ThatIsNotDeadWhich]

@lipovan87 You seem to be confusing "socialism" and "police states." Police states have no monopoly on socialism, and socialism has no monopoly on police states. For capitalist police states, see Israel, South Africa during Apartheid, Chile under Pinochet or contemporary Egypt. For socialist democracies, see Iran under Mossadeq, Scandinavia or Chile under Allende.

[ThatIsNotDeadWhich]

And no, you cannot simply find another job when you quit if there is unemployment. If your country's economic policy is stupid and irresponsible enough to create mass unemployment, finding a job becomes a game of musical chairs. If you can find a job reliably in that environment, it means you're relying on political patronage, because on a level playing field, there'd be an [unemployment percentage] probability that you wouldn't find one no matter hard you looked.

[lipovan87]

@ThatIsNotDeadWhich

You really have no idea what life is like when the government controls the economy. You also sound like a spoiled westerner who has not idea what life in a police state was like. What freedom is is the ability to quit or to act without the government forcing you to. That does not guarantee you a job or anything, just that the government won't interfere. Some people don't want to be farmers or want to farm their own land. They couldn't even quit and starve.

[ThatIsNotDeadWhich]

@lipovan87 I don't dispute that police states are horrible things. But you said that under capitalism, you can quit if you are willing to find another job. This is untrue: Being willing and able to work does not suffice to secure a job. The state has to make sure that there are enough jobs available, through appropriate fiscal, monetary and industrial policies. All modern economies are planned economies - either by publicly elected and accountable governments or by private, unaccountable ones.

[Magni56]

@lipovan87

Protip: A completely unrestricted market is not a single bit better. It results in the formation of monopolies and de facto corporate doctatorships. Pullman towns would be the perhaps best example for what completely unregulated capitalism causes. Government intrusion is necessary to ensure a level playing field and prevent markets from stagnating into monopolies and oligopolies.

[JaceMorley]

@jbecker8082 Every character in the game is intended to be a complete deconstruction of the ideas they represent. It's possibly my favourite thing about this game ^.^

[woodwyrm]

@jbecker8082 Morgan was never about free, unrestrained capitalism; he was only about using it as a tool to establish his own monopoly ;p

[Selinja]

This is one of my favorite quotes in the entire game! I admire the transcendent ambitions of Shen-ji Yang.

[Tony2826]

@Selinja But, as has been said, when you start forcing them on other people without any consideration for their thoughts and values...

[uv46jb]

basically, his ideas are quite beautifull and admirable as a personal philosophy, but expecting everyone else to live like that results in a totalitarian nightmare

[Kizor]

So, his abilities are things that everyone should offer, but no one must demand?

[uv46jb]

Yang isn't insane, his society would be perfect if just everyone else was a nihilistic buddha just like him

[Solenor92]

Yang is insane. That's why he's awesome

[Ander01SE]

@Solenor92

Well, Miriam is insane too, but she's not awesome, just annoying. Pretty much a gamble which one of those two I have to wipe out first. And if they both get shitty starts I'll probably take out Brother Lal just so he won't feck up my endgame. O_o

[woodwyrm]

I can haz upgraded network nodes?

[grathapilot]

Yang is my hero and role model!

All hail Yang! ;-)

[Skinnyoompalumpa]

will gibson would be proud

[drsaten]

this music is c00lz

[MrDialup]

virtual world was great to get if you played as university of planet. every base gets the effect of having a hologram theatre.

[S1aytactic]

Chairman Shiy Yang is a little obsessed in depositioning people in resisting "Crass" demands of Flesh and Bones. He is also a control freak! I beaten my first game using the Hive.

[ChuutRiit]

Yang wraps his despotist worldview in beautiful quotes and speeches, yet that cannot hide the fact that he is a vile tyrant.

[Foxlover666]

and Miriam is a crazy fundamentalist but oddly she is the voice of reason.

[ChuutRiit]

Yeah. Quite cunning, I say.

[woodwyrm]

Wonderful!

I cant believe someone actually took the time to record and upload the movies for the secret projects! 8D

[janusword]

this quote is one of my favourites ever. truth!

[crystalbloodflash]

What a brilliant statement. This game is just unbelievable.

[hutlurscuck]

Excellent.

[RobertDV]

I believe that this is the nerve staple.

[welshspud]

I don't think so. I think that this is some of 'matrix-like' system that lets people enter a virtual world.

[carrotmaritova]

The entire "creepy" factor is there at the beginning, so I think it's supposed to be a nerve staple.

[Crimmond]

It's likely a Punishment Sphere. The Drone is just controlling the pain and blocking it out.

[animerox1341]

I think that's half right crim, the Drone's body is being tortured while the mind is preserved in a virtual world.

[Alignn]

@animerox1341

Not much of a punishment, then?

[janusword]

just found this: the audio when you build a Punishment Sphere mentions a nerve stapler being strapped into place. so this video, i think, is showing a nerve staple in a Sphere.

[woodwyrm]

I think it's a citizen that's enjoying one of the hologram theatres.

[gyrobotZ]

Its more of TV in prison. Malcontents who are put in smaller punishment spheres will be connected to a hologram theater via the Network Nodes. This makes them more willing to comply with the ruler. Hence the Virtual World's effect. By improving malcontents in captivity's comfort, Re-educating them will be easier

[asaqe3]

@woodwyrm

Punishment Sphere Prisoner is getting his usual dose of torture, inside he is enjoying the hologram theatre

Aka Prison Entertainment.

[woodwyrm]

Also, the blurb for the Punishment Sphere claims that its in front of the public, and i dont see no crowds in that stream ;)

[knifeofspaghetti]

Plus, the sphere's surface is semi-transparent. You can see them in there. You can hear them. It is a thing of terrible beauty.

[PshemoCoB]

@knifeofspaghetti I love the quote for the Punishment Sphere.

[prufenful]

I don't think you would need goggles for nerve stapling/punishment sphere

[prufenful]

I think that this is the virtual world project itself, read the description of it in the Dragon Sun book in the first chapter available on the internet (plain text format at barnesandnoble).

[Meltingfaces]

One of the best of its genre.

[neomegadyn]

"Take control of the input and you shall become master of the output" > very interesting...

[D4rr3ll01]

Yeah yeah, I noticed that... (._.*)

[D4rr3ll01]

"What do I care for your suffering? Pain, even agony is no more than information before the senses; data fed to the computer of the mind. The lesson is simple. You have received the information. Now act on it. Taae control of the input and you shall become master of the output."

--Chairman Shen-ji Yang

"Edssays on Mind and Matter"

[matsku84]

The quote is already in the video description... and without typos, lol!

[ogopolo]

@matsku84 as D4rr3ll01 would say "shuu up1!"