14 science fiction stories in under 6 minutes

[@TomScottGo]

I know sci-fi isn't just "Black Mirror"-esque ideas, but apparently that's what my head mostly comes up with! Also, this feels like a good time to plug the other channel I run, Tom Scott plus, where so far I've tried parkour, been remixed into hyperpop, flown a plane while blindfolded, and learned to ride a bike: kzbin.info

[@attckDog]

Great ideas, I liked the video please keep my sim running THANKS !

[@kakyoindonut3213]

In the year 2100 poeple will live in simulation

[@hoppend]

Good that you mentioned here that these Ideas all follow along a common technology… I was just thinking the same thing.

[@WalkerTrips]

Have you seen Red Dwarf's last few series, Tom? A couple of these ideas were touched on- M Corp for instance has Lister's entire reality hijacked by a corporation and held to ad ransom. Also amazon's "upload" is all about rich people owning digital afterlife and screwing the poor with it. Few for you when you put your feet up, fella. 😁

[@szymonsieklucki2931]

How's your bike riding going Tom? :) Keep it up, it is a lot of fun :D

[@davidwolfberg8453]

"we regret that your afterlife will not continue" is such a fantastic and ominous line

[@Dubanx]

Right? Absolutely terrifying. That said, I can't see it happening simply because the people in the afterlife will make profitable enough slaves to keep funding said afterlife, and it's not like they can say no.

[@fatemadman9688]

Bullcrap

[@MrDuckAlmighty]

I'm definitely using that for a table top rpg story

[@vincevvn]

This is similar to vanilla sky

[@Tjalve70]

"This is a story from a future. Not THE future. Just A future." That's how the best Tom Scott videos start.

[@koxukoshu]

i havent heard that in a while wow

[@Daleymop]

Tom really has the best way to introduce a hypothetical

[@safe-keeper1042]

I've watched the Welcome to Life episode so many times now.

[@Tjalve70]

@@safe-keeper1042 That one is downright scary. I know there are people walking around with cards saying "Do not resuscitate". In the future, there might be people walking around with cards saying "No Second Life", or something like that. And quite likely, I will be one of them.

[@pw.70]

"A long, long video ago, in a future far, far behind....."

[@AabhasLall]

"It seems like a bad idea to potentially induce that much existential angst", says Tom Scott, after casually inducing too much existential angst.

[@57thorns]

That is the kind of existential angst that is the bread and butter of science fiction novellas.

[@Stlwartheart14]

who says we all aren't casually experiencing existential angst all the time? Add it to the pile!

[@patpierce4854]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@k.r.99]

I feel so lost but here we go: Why are you guys using a german word (Angst = anxiety)?

[@DasGanon]

@@k.r.99 Angst is also an English word, but there's a bit more nuance on it vs just "anxiety" Angst is more along the lines of horror, anger or fear, whereas anxiety is just a base descriptor. You can be both positively and negatively anxious, you can't be positively angsty.

[@ClonedGamer001]

"I would be filming in the quarry but they're quarrying" I don't know why that sentence made me laugh as much as it did.

[@ObadiahtheSlim]

I kinda missed your "this is not the future, just a future" type videos. A little quick speculative fiction for the near future. They are always fun to watch to see what you got right and what you got wrong after we've move closer to it being less speculative and instead just fiction.

[@AmunRa1]

Tom: "I'm not great at writing fiction." Meanwhile, at Disney: "Somehow, Palpatine has returned."

[@MisterDutch93]

To be fair, Star Wars isn’t really science fiction. It’s a (space) opera which only uses sci-fi as a backdrop, it doesn’t really explore fictitious scientific concepts or anything like that. I would even argue that it fits more into the fantasy genre instead of sci-fi, with things such as the Force, Jedi, Sith, Mandalorian ‘knights’ and a Palpatine ‘Satan allegory’. But you’re absolutely right about the horrible writing that plagued Disney’s sequel trilogy.

[@lappansommer546]

@@MisterDutch93 You're quite right that plenty of great sci-fi/fantasy has laughed at the detailed clockwork (e.g. Bradbury's Martian Chronicles, where the Martian science was closer to poetic magic than engineering), but my objection to Palpatine-returns-with-a-secret-Sith-army-that's-better-equipped-than-the-whole-Empire-ever-was-yet-never-got-mentioned-before-but-that-doesn't-matter-because-they-all-dead-in-5-minutes was simply that such dumb laziness eliminates suspense or even interest in the story. It's like listening to a dope-head recount the dream they had: disconnected and fundamentally dull, especially once you realise that it won't make any sense and is best simply forgotten.

[@idot3331]

​@@MisterDutch93 Star wars is science fiction. It spans multiple genres, like most media does, but science fiction is definitely one of them. It's just become so monumentally huge and has had so much influence on modern culture that its concepts of galaxy-spanning space empires and huge starship battles no longer _seem_ like science fiction, even though they are. They just seem normal and uninteresting now because of how universally present they are.

[@alpheusmadsen8485]

@@lappansommer546 I agree with Tolkien that a story that turns out to be just a dream isn't true fantasy, but really, that's only true if the person dreaming is a real-life person. The next Disney trilogy of movies needs to start out with Ben Solo waking up, turning to his mentor Luke, and saying "I just had the most *bizarre* dream!", spend a few moments showing flashbacks from the previous trilogy, and move on to a *real* story.

[@shahaffiq5860]

Sequels were bad in my opinion.

[@jvdb5509]

Another idea: Thoughts can be copyrighted. If someone thinks of a science fiction story, they now have the rights to it and will chase after any initiative to create it. The creative industry grinds to a halt as only the most ridiculous plots and ideas are able to pass legal scrutiny.

[@tiagogarcia4900]

It's supposed to be fiction!

[@Magpie_Media]

That is a world I'm truly scared of, and weirdly excited for 'o.O

[@thursoberwick1948]

You'd be surprised what is and isn't copyrighted in most legal systems. It's easier to copyright character names than plots, for example.

[@ejajafrozarb]

Literally 1894

[@astramancer]

Don't get that you need to license your memories if you want to remember watching a show, or any other copyrighted consumption.

[@TotoDG]

“I’m not great at writing fiction.” Trust me, Tom, a lot of successful authors and scriptwriters aren’t good at writing fiction.

[@thursoberwick1948]

Yes, like whoever wrote Fifty Shades of Grey - ?EL James.

[@vedaryan334]

Ready player one guy

[@archvaldor]

"I’m not great at writing fiction" Not actually true obviously, but if it were then Tom would still have a chance at a great career at Blizzard entertainment.

[@jonasrl6530]

“Somehow, Palpatine returned”

[@jonny__b]

@@vedaryan334 Ernest Cline. Has to be one of the worst books I've ever had the misfortune of reading

[@ConnorEllisMusic]

The ending was even more creepy for me, walking home at night. The video ended and there was no more sound. Just eerie quiet. I thought the simulation WAS ending.

[@cupriferouscatalyst3708]

Just out of curiosity, why were you watching KZbin while out walking?

[@justinhageman1379]

@@cupriferouscatalyst3708I do this. It’s being addicted to being chronically online at every waking moment

[@sjorswijnhoven7114]

I really like the 'afterlife server' ending thingy. Obviously the servers would be held up by alive people, so it creates an ethical dilemma about what being alive means and if you can just decide to stop 'dead' people from existing. I hope that sentence made any sense😅

[@MartinWastlund]

Don't worry, you made perfect sense ;)

[@abstract5249]

Is it unethical to make evil choices in a video game? What if npc's are sentient? What if civilians in GTA really experience emotion and pain?

[@shawn4116]

@@abstract5249 Modern day npcs are not sentient so I'd say you're in the clear with them. If in the future npcs in games are able to be sentient, I'd argue that including such sentient beings in games at all would be extremely unethical, nevermind actually harming them in such games. As at that point you've effectively created a living world not that different from our own. Harming them would be akin to an evil diety harming us here on Earth just for the fun of it. And who knows, if we ever reach a point where we can just simulate a world like that, who's to say that we ourselves are not simulated too? If so then we certainly wouldn't want our creator to harm us in such ways.

[@HelloFutureMe]

If anyone wants to read more about brain uploads and digital consciousness, and the very weird things it can do to what a 'person' is, then Greg Egan's Diaspora and Permutation City are fantastic!

[@Larweigan]

A big deep dive both into the economical, ethical and existential angles in this (as well as a lot of adventure) is Tad Williams' Otherland series

[@quietflint1]

Tom Scott is getting older :(((

[@fadran11]

Dear gosh. HFM is everywhere.

[@DarkValorWolf]

also Altered Carbon on Netflix!

[@themeapster5974]

Omg I love all you amazing work!

[@themandownstairs4765]

I can imagine for the "influencer but literally" storyline some streamer having to desperately avoid having intrusive thoughts to keep their audience safe. these stories definitely have some potential!

[@davidmartin8089]

influencer becomes schizophrenic and accidentally drags down millions of fans

[@watchm4ker]

Amusingly enough, the idea predates 'influencer' culture: 80s and 90s Cyberpunk RPG settings such as Shadowrun describe the lengths actors or performers rigged for full sensory recordings go through for their programs, where "method acting" is taken to a disturbing level, routinely using drugs or mental stimulation to create the proper emotional affect.

[@jansvanda]

You would probably start to see Instagram-like "filters", that would literally filter out unwanted emotions so you wouldn't flood your followers with random bouts of anxiety or embarrassment.

[@SingAboutSwayze]

​@@watchm4ker I mean you can go back to Brave New World for a similar idea with Huxley's invention of Feelies.

[@kenzoo21]

like an eye tracker

[@Nahnono]

I know how embarrassing it can feel to put stuff like this out there so good on you Tom, respect.

[@themovieaminecraft6853]

How is this embarrassing?

[@Jake28]

How is this embarrassing?

[@comradegarrett1202]

Imagine how personality development would go in the "influencer"/streamer situation. I can imagine people who just binge their favorite streamers all the time throughout their childhood and adolescents and their own psychological makeup starts to develop in tandem to the streamer - but only in the ways the streamer feels and behaves on screen. Taking parasocial to a whole new level. Knowing someone's stans would be almost like knowing a warped version of the person themself.

[@Cerise4697]

Tom: "I'm not very good at writing fiction." See, that's already a fictional statement. Ought to go in the count, that.

[@DannySullivanMusic]

i know! _100%_ perfect

[@kensmith5694]

Maybe that isn't the real Tom.

[@Infinite_Archive]

*(ding!)*

[@potatopotatow]

On idea 7, this premise is used in Kate Wilhelm’s short story “Baby, You Were Great”. An audience can feel the actresses emotions, so they need to be authentic.

[@eggsalad7091]

Whiskey and potatoes are round all around, if you put them upside down they go round and round and round. The dissolution grows more, and the world is now whole.

[@DeeSnow97]

It's also a massive part of Cyberpunk 2077's interpretation of braindance, although that one is not realtime and they usually edit out thoughts unrelated to the experience. Sadly, it's mostly unexplored, but the ideas presented there are awesome.

[@JB-pp7oe]

The movie "Strange Days" (1995) is based around a recording device that allows playback of memories and corresponding emotions in other people. Old movie and a lot darker and immersive than the plot summary suggests.

[@aixle3590]

Isaac Asimov played with this idea to an extent aswell

[@willythemailboy2]

Niven as well, if I remember correctly. Something about extreme exotic vacations and selling the memories from them.

[@tylerloconte8974]

"we've decided to no longer support the afterlife" is too gosh darn real

[@jan_harald]

plays well with his "afterlife ruined by lawyers" or such video, too "we're sorry to inform you that the free plan has been discontinued, please upgrade your life plan or cease existance"

[@bloody_albatross]

We need an open source afterlife. It will have graphical glitches but it will be under our control.

[@DannySullivanMusic]

this is totally, totally spot on.

[@markgnorthcott]

One of the more dramatic plot point of the Amazon show “Upload” actually!

[@zorktxandnand3774]

Or, your afterlife will continue, but no world will be simulated around you. just you in a void forever. no objects, no interaction no reference of time, just you. unless you (or more likely your children) pay up.

[@username4294967296]

Love that you mentioned Greg Egan. My favorite book of his 'Permutation city' goes deeper than any other sci-fi I've read into what it means to be an uploaded consciousness.

[@Raykkie]

4:07 Already the case with high-tech implants. There's (real) horror stories of people just unsure when their eyes will just shutdown due to a lack of update and/or repair. And just plain unable to have a surgery to remove them. It's horrible.

[@jannikheidemann3805]

When right to repair and own and human rights become the same issue. We can not allow cyborgs' synthetic organs to be either owned or, for worse, traded by other people or corporations. You can't own people, not one part of them, that'd be slavery! Human rights are unalienable, meaning they can also not be alienated by becoming transhuman. Digital restrictions on the body parts of human beings are to be outlawed by ammending international human rights and anti-slavery conventions!

[@SenshiSunPower]

The company here is Second Sight, which shut down in 2020.

[@BryceHomier17]

They lost it once, they can deal with it again.

[@areadenial2343]

@@BryceHomier17 They paid for eye implants once, they can pay for it again. And again... and again...

[@willwarburton]

@@BryceHomier17 this is enormously callous and unfeeling wtf

[@c182SkylaneRG]

To be perfectly honest, I've thought quite highly of your sci-fi stories in the past, right after I stop being mortally terrified by the thought of how close they are to reality and just how easy it would be for most of them to actually happen.

[@astro_gabe]

I've had this idea in my head for a while but I'm not good enough of a writer to make it work: You know how CPUs have tick rates? Imagine you're the first human implanted with a brain-machine-interface, but the computer's tick rate is so much faster than the brain that you suddenly start experiencing millions of "simulated" years in a matter of IRL-seconds. Stuck in your own brain-prison for an eternity.

[@Djuncle]

Spoiler for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Reminds me of Diavolos fate in JoJo. Or Kars. Eventually you just stop thinking.

[@LightbulbTedbear2]

It makes you experience time much slower, since you're processing the world much faster. As soon as the engineers turn your chip on, you start seeing the world in super slow mo. They realise what's happened, but by the time they fix the issue, you've already experienced millions of years from your slow mo perspective. Once it's fixed and you're back to "real" speed, it's already too late - you're completely insane after having spent millions of years in a chair unable to move, with the engineers frozen in front of you.

[@nade7242]

don't worry they're going to kill a bunch of monkeys and figure this out before they put it in humans

[@lunamoo1067]

so kinda like the jaunt?,

[@kenzoo21]

even worse, it's multithreaded

[@XaleManix]

I remember Tom doing a talk about the idea of blocking people in real life and a digital afterlife video, both of which were pitched with the 'this could actually be real and you didn't notice yet' conceits. Both gave me week-without-sleep existential angst. Brilliant ideas from Tom Scott on the dystopian future we are headed for trying desperately to miss.

[@JohnSmithShields]

There was an almost series of future videos from Tom which were fascinating and scarey in the same measure.

[@batlrar]

The best defense (not my idea, although I'm not sure who thought it up originally) against that type of angst is merely that "it doesn't matter". That's not to say that nothing matters, but rather the opposite - no matter if we're real or not, we exist in some form, and therefore everything that could possibly interact with us physically or mentally matters to us. I mean, just think about how much that thought affected you at the time - you think, therefore you exist in some definition, therefore things impact you and you impact things. Besides, if you're not real, then you're part of one *heck* of a simulation and you should feel proud about that!

[@wertacus]

Yup, had all of my online friends prove they existed after that one but it was less than satisfactory

[@phineas81707]

We're *trying* to miss it?

[@XaleManix]

@@phineas81707 that's the hope, right?

[@adamdapatsfan]

Imagine learning that your entire existence was a theoretical focus group that will end in a minute or so and feeling anything other than immense relief that this isn't what _actual_ existence is like.

[@yeoldpepsi]

Tom Scott has finally lied to us "I'm not good at writing fiction" Haha no I'd read a book series from you

[@DoesNotComphoot]

I suppose it's not necessarily a lie; They did say they're bad at writing, not brainstorming.

[@ButWhyWasTaken]

As someone with a million ideas I gotta say having a good idea is only like 5% of writing a story. A story with a mediocre idea but good writing, plot and characters is a lot more enjoyable than a story with a good idea but mediocre writing, plot and characters.

[@zappababe8577]

I always enjoyed your short Science Fiction videos immensely. You have a very inventive and imaginative mind. Those were some great writing prompts, especially the last one. I do hope that a talented author writes it (or any of your ideas) into a story in a way that does justice to your vision.

[@johannayaffe2647]

And pays you so it's not plagiarism

[@ShotzInTheLight]

@@johannayaffe2647 it's not plagiarism, since ideas can't be copyrighted, only actual works

[@DannySullivanMusic]

for real dude. _100%_ accurate

[@youtubehandleorsomething]

those are some of my favourite work of his

[@sweetsandcharades8383]

Me too!

[@larshoeksema]

The idea about an afterlife company shutting down/being bought out is kindly like one of the plot points in a book series called 'the bobiverse' by Dennis E Taylor. About a guy who pays for an afterlife package, but wakes up to being some test subject for creating controllers for computers and being shot into space for looking for colonization targets. Worth a read if you're into sci fi literature.

[@5c0ttyd]

Came here to say this too. The Bobiverse is a fantastic series, Dennis E Taylor has rapidly ascended to being one of my favourite authors. Regarding the "experiencing a streamer's feelings" kind of ideas, there's a lot of this in Peter F Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga. It also features memory storage so that people can be "re-lifed" from a backup, and an alien junkie who is addicted to experiencing entire human backed-up lifespans on fast-forward. Cool stuff

[@VonKraut]

I was thinking this too, love those books!

[@MoonshineMetalworks]

Came here to say this! GREAT series! Eagerly awaiting book 5..

[@owenkegg5608]

Damnit. Commented something very very similar, scrolled down, saw this. Great Bobs think alike.

[@bassemb]

oh hey, almost forgot about this series. Good read. I especially liked the Bob that helped a primitive species.

[@AgentMaayan]

"the upload company gets acquired along with all their data, and by data I mean people" is a sensational sentence to hear as an analyst

[@thewiseturtle]

This is why the future is distributed and non-profit. Competitive, profiteering corporate approaches are simply way too fragile for doing anything important with.

[@RusselCS]

I actually really, really liked when you did sci-fi stuff. It's been good inspiration for worldbuilding and scenarios for roleplay. Shame to see it go away completely.

[@TheLazyBot]

That last idea's twist was hype, I could definitely see that taking off

[@rupert7565]

I honestly think that your "Welcome to Life: the singularity, ruined by lawyers" is the best video you ever made. That is one of your fictional ones.

[@moldboy2]

I'd not seen that. I like it... and I hate it

[@ARK613]

"Do you wish to continue?" ;)

[@akrinornoname2769]

It's incredible. I also think I've watched it a total of about two times because it's honestly terrifying

[@SageArdor]

Just for the record, Tom, I would pay good money as a consumer to watch a cyberpunk film where the protagonist's brain chip gets ransomware and they have to find out how to decrypt their memories and restore their speech center. That is not only a commentary about the dangers of going "too far" with technology, but also fascinating from a communications standpoint with how they would figure out a way to articulate their goals to others.

[@KyurekiHana]

That's already happening somewhat. For many teens and young adults, all their friends are online, reachable through chat programs. If someone's account gets hacked and their password changed, that could very much shut down the only means they have to "speak", along with many of their memories in the form of chat logs. I would go so far as to say we are already there, and that society might already be doomed.

[@mackandelius]

Seems like a kinda obvious background story for your character in a game, surprised to not know any game that has done it.

[@ekki1993]

@@KyurekiHana Thing is, the fear of someone targetting you on a super ellaborate plot is pure fantasy (or paranoia depending on how you take it) unless you're famous/rich/powerful... which, by definition, most people aren't. Society will never be doomed by the sort of boring individualist nonsense perpetuated by most mainstream media.

[@thewiseturtle]

Isn't that a thing in the classic Matrix-before-the-Matrix movie Johnny Mnemonic?

[@shaddura]

in terms of "how to communicate ones goals," the game Cross Code features a literal 'silent protaginist' who's physically incapable of speaking more than a few pre-programmed lines. It also plays into some other, perhaps vaguely similar concepts as the ones mentioned in this video, though to say which it is would be a bit of a spoiler!

[@loganl3746]

Okay, but that last one **actually** got me. Heart-clenching. I'd love/hate to watch a video like that!

[@akrinornoname2769]

I've always liked your science fiction. Granted, I can't watch them a lot (especially "Singularity, ruined by lawyers") but that's because many of them seem plausible.

[@huhneat1076]

I love how even if you didn't make these, you still went with that last one just to give us a funny

[@TomLumPerson]

"Legacy" intelligence neural implants inherited down from parents fits the education inequality theme quite well! Maybe they're made of a rare metal and scarce like GPUs these days.

[@enchantedplays7860]

ur the youtube shorts guy

[@nrsair]

A Memory Called Empire uses something similar to this. Great read.

[@jimbobbyrnes]

the same silicone used in GPU's would be used in neurolink therefor the price would be insanely high especially in America where the surgery alone would cost over 200,000$. you can have a spin off where a American goes to Africa to get the surgery cheaper but the "doctor" has other plans with your mind instead.

[@tomfeng5645]

Or, of course, it could just be trained networks (hardware or software) that are impossible/undesireable to transfer to more than one person.

[@GambitsEnd]

For a larger impact in the message, the material could be artificially scarce, like diamonds. Where everyone could have the same technology, but a highly controlled supply in combination with marketing makes it a very exclusive, highly expensive product only the high wealth class can obtain.

[@fossposs6408]

i can imagine people watching "feel-good" streamers who stream happy thoughts to an audience that can't have happy thoughts for whatever reason

[@missieb851]

I had this idea a few years ago, like imagine broadcasting the feeling of contentment on a walk and everyone is looking through your eyes

[@tiagogarcia4900]

Those are just normal streamers.

[@KyurekiHana]

"an audience that can't have happy thoughts for whatever reason" This is called depression, and it would likely tax the dopamine and seratonin in the brain. In the worst case, it could cause people to become addicted to the streams, unable to feel happiness outside of them because the brain no longer releases these chemicals without this stimulus. As someone with depression, this is a rather scary thought. ._.

[@ExiusCorp]

@@KyurekiHana This exactly. Both of the movies 'Inception' and 'Upgrade' have shown this to be a very likely scenario for people who have very little means of achieving happiness. They become highly addicted and effectively live at dedicated 'vr parlours' or shady alternatives. You could argue that Bruce Willis' 'Surrogates' took the idea (of dependency) further, though it remained physical rather than purely digital. As much as I can relate and see the appeal, it's still really freaking scary to think about

[@TacticalTypos]

Oh yikes, you could set it in a world like the film Equilibrium, where emotions aren't trusted, but the government provides only "trusted"/"sponsored" streamers of emotion.

[@saturniidev]

that last one is a banger, love techno-existentialism, definitely not just saying that so my mind doesn't get erased

[@ano_nym]

It's also quite illogical. Not the concept, but the deletion if not liking the video, since that would obviously be a huge bias towards the "system" liking everything. In reality both would likely be deleted after making their judgment.

[@StickmanHatena]

@@ano_nym pft. As if you believe we’re in a simulation. I’m just gonna ignore that like and subscribe and see? Nothing ha-

[@yogesha4727]

Same. I am not typing this to not get deleted

[@bzboy21]

Not gonna lie, that would make a amazing short film, which can be both sci-fi & horror if you look at it, so seeing a short film around that will probably be really cool.

[@bzboy21]

@@StickmanHatena did anyone hear that strange sound? *...probably just **_the wind._*

[@LiamBrazier]

I love Jeff Noon’s writing for these sorts of eye-opening idea stories - especially his short story collection ‘Pixel Juice’ that rattles along quite like this video in the ideas-per-minute ratio.

[@markrichards7111]

Agreed, Vurt and Pixel Juice were awesome reads for me

[@JISJ1964]

Tom, in these dark days we need a film like yours today, thank you so much.

[@felixmoses4686]

"The Tunnel under the world" is a fantastic short story about people who've had there mind uploaded to robots and replay the day over and over again as part of various marketing simulations

[@DrewTheDreugh]

Thank you! I knew I'd read that exact thing, but wasn't sure where.

[@vara202]

That is horrifying! Thank you :) I would go and read it right now if the whole world didn't feel so much like that already

[@automationtechnologyclub]

I was about to say the same....

[@luiskerscher5047]

Thank you!

[@StaK_1980]

"It seems like a bad idea to potentially induce that much existential angst" Tom apparently has never seen a Kurzgesagt video 🙂

[@SilvioAnkermann]

@Evi1 M4chine Do you have an example? I'm curious

[@KuK137]

@Evi1 M4chine They do ask experts, though? Mind giving some examples and potential solutions they ignored?

[@mrShift_0044]

@Evi1 M4chine Well sure, how would you made the videos on topics they usually touch? Some examples? Lmao

[@the-next-holmes]

@Evi1 M4chine Haha, do you even watch Kurzgesagt? After each video they put up a pages and pages full of sources, extra reading and the experts they referred to. They even ask Brian Cox, for goodness sake! Professional in existentialism? Quote me Nietzche, Kierkegaard and Sartre without opening your eyes. Unless you're talking about their inexperienced videos from 8 years ago, do not badmouth the glory of the hardworking Kurzgesagt birds anywhere. And I do believe that this discussion would come to an end once you provide proper evidence of this so-called fallacy.

[@Hadrian1616]

Exurb1a has entered the chat

[@perigin3]

There was a little bit of that final idea in the game SOMA, the idea of a simulation of someones brain very quickly realising its a simulation, and that the test being run on it is about to end, all in the span of a couple of minutes

[@reloveative]

amazing game

[@jan_harald]

it took about the whole game before that realization though, didn't it? ;P

[@ClaudiuTudoras]

Isn’t No Man’s Sky’s plot almost the same?

[@PrincessTidge]

SOMA was an amazing commentary on transhumanism

[@WnuckVader]

Yes, a great philosophical horror game. And the choices! So cruel, so thought-provoking!

[@heidilarson5109]

Props to whoever made the digital mock-up visuals for this video!

[@madpew]

I can't tell anyone just how much I would love to have those stories made in any shape, way or form.

[@nessle420]

The rich-only superintelligence was a theme featured in the ‘The Territory’ book series, particularly the ability for the wealthier children to just download all necessary information to pass examinations, rather than hard studying which the non-wealthy had to do. Really interesting book series.

[@themune2541]

I got up from my bed a bit too fast and my head gone numb right when you say something about ending the simulation and that's freaking me out like I never before.

[@dylanwilliams5801]

Tom, there’s no such thing as “too much existential angst.” All these ideas are awesome and terrifying

[@finchhawthorne1302]

“I’m not great at writing science fiction” declares creator of perhaps the best series of science fiction videos on KZbin.

[@jamesflameson]

I love existential angst and I'd love to see idea 14 realized into a full video based just around that idea

[@NoFantasy]

Here is an idea stemming from yours of "people tuning into the feelings and experiences of influencers": People tuning into the feelings and experiences of people who are drunk/high so they can experience the rush yet not face any repercussions from it. Imagine getting to feel drunk yet not having to be hung over!

[@Falcodrin]

That would still have repercussions. Sure you would get rid of chemical and physical withdrawal of something like meth but your brain can still very much become addicted to sensations.

[@a4d9]

Look at "Brainstorm", a movie from 1983.

[@thewiseturtle]

What was that 1990's movie where you could have a full brain experience copied from someone else? There was a murder that got copied and the hero of the movie had to get it to the police or something. (Looks it up...) Strange Days.

[@1pcfred]

If you don't want to be hung over just drink a couple glasses of water before you pass out. That works because alcohol is a desiccant and what it does is dehydrate your brain. That's what ends up hurting. So if you water your brain you're OK. The trouble is when you're drunk you never remember to do it. Or you get the it'll never happen to me thought.

[@jamieashworth_]

Tom been pumping out videos filming in random british locations😂

[@notthatcreativewithnames]

I wonder if Tom has already filmed in every single county of England.

[@wojtek4p4]

What do you mean? it's clearly Xun-thul 7, the 57th colony of Il-xan empire.

[@DannySullivanMusic]

could not agree more. precisely correct dude

[@serenkeating7672]

"It seems like a bad idea to potentially induce that much existential angst" Honey, both "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" and "There Will Come Soft Rains" are stories that exist, and are good, and have something meaningful to tell. There is no need beyond a potential author's own mental health, I think, to shy away from such a story for a reason like that.

[@franny5156]

Uhhh I love the there will come soft rains story and especially the poem... we read it in our english course in our last year... the poem just feels so peaceful even without the humans

[@vcprado]

The Martian Chronicles in general are great existential stories, I remember reading The Third Expedition and being paranoid for a week in my sleep thinking all my family were martians

[@bardeenios251]

wow the condescending is strong in this one

[@kashiichan]

@@bardeenios251 It's the "honey" at the start. We're so used to seeing it used condescendingly that even if it's meant as a term of endearment, it doesn't land that way.

[@BigShaggger828]

Tom's warning humans is one of the best videos on KZbin

[@Snoopyzell]

Loved these. You are creative and talented. I didn't think that my respect for your KZbin persona could get higher, but it has increased. Love your work!

[@zhtjrxjhethgvh]

Tom’s story: Ransomeware: give us £12k or we’re gonna delete all knowledge you have Me: jokes on you. I don’t have any knowlege

[@vincentmuyo]

On the one hand: You wouldn't know until you paid the ransomware. On the other: Oh I guess the joke is that already happened once. :D

[@antonycharnock2993]

Or Tom needs to download all the information in his brain before it literally explodes. You could make a film out of that starring Keanu Reeves...oh hang on.

[@TheOriginalTraz64]

I think a cool extension on that would be a society where rampant malware repeatedly wipes out the memories of the poor who can't afford an antivirus package.

[@slyseal2091]

these stories always need to pay attention to just how much threat their criminals are generating. If terrorists nowadays were lobotomizing people randomly, you bet Obama would have gotten that nobel peace price _for_ the drone program, not in ignorance of it. It's like stealing nukes.

[@KainYusanagi]

@@TheOriginalTraz64 And the virus is made by the antivirus company, just to keep profits coming in.

[@DanS044]

“What a horrifying way to get more likes” **likes anyway just to be safe**

[@talos_the_automaton2329]

0:17-0:19 No, Tom is great at writing fiction. In my opinion that “ear worm” video is an existentially terrifying Sci-fi story , and it still serves as a perfect allegory for the issues of our current copyright system.

[@admiralfluffy42]

3:18 If that happens, my entire recommended feed is just going to be Tom Scott videos

[@stevehudson1111]

That was definitely what they refer to as a "strong ending"! Thanks for the good laugh Tom.

[@sllorep]

Tom and everyone: You need to read or listen to the audio book series: "We Are Legion (We Are Bob)" by Dennis E. Taylor . It's amazing and touches on at least one but maybe many of your topics!

[@Shadow__X]

I've listened to many of them on audible, they're incredible

[@Heimda1l]

Yes!

[@krzykat28856]

I thought of this series for some of those ideas.

[@jasonrubik]

Heaven's River was such a nice detour from the main plot, I can't wait to see what is in the next book !

[@Vexcenot]

Bob army!

[@zidanez21]

Honestly some of these I would love to see as a full story or at least a short 5 chapter story because they sound interesting

[@italianbistro26]

I always loved these types of half baked sci-fi ideas that Vonnegut casually threw into his books such as synopses of Kilgore Trout books in Slaughterhouse 5

[@matthewshiers9038]

Bloody hell, I watched this right after watching the Daft Punk music video "Technologic"! I'm legitimately creeped out now - Well done Mr Scott!

[@clockworkkirlia7475]

Awesome stuff! I will miss your old "A Future" videos, but I totally understand why you might not want to keep them going with your current vibe. Shoutout to the algorithm, keep on keeping on.

[@nyella]

Cool ideas! Just one question: When did science fiction become synonymous with dystopian fiction? I'd love for once a more optimistic view on the possibilities of science ... just once ... please ...

[@UnknowinglyDerpy]

Same I'd like to read or watch something along the lines of a sitcom set in the Star Trek universe. Not on the final frontier spacecraft at the edge of human knowledge, but the humble office worker at back at Star Fleet Command just trying to get through their day navigating through the occasional self-entitled space Karen as they try to make sure that the paperwork gets sent on time

[@maverickREAL]

We are far past the age of optimism. That was for the uninformed.

[@wearethefollowed]

Hmmm i like that

[@Game_Hero]

Solarpunk

[@Detson404]

@@maverickREAL Cynical doesn’t always equal deep. We’re in a regressive time right now but progress has occurred in the past and will occur again.

[@DocBlob]

It's a shame you're going to stop writing sci-fi, I always find myself going back and rewatching those talks of yours. Do you have any recommendations for books/TV/films that inspired you to make them? Or just any recommendations of fiction in a similar vein?

[@reharm_reality]

There are recommendations in the description!!

[@Bacopa68]

"Earworm" was one of the best sci-fi stories ever.

[@Zahlenteufel1]

Honestly, at this point I'm tired of the techno-dystopias. When are we gonna enter the stage where people start imagining utopias again? Don't get me wrong, the cautionary tales have their place but at some point we're gonna have to start being constructive.

[@Levi_Skardsen]

Even Star Trek has cast aside its utopian vision of humanity in favour of attempted edgy drama and loud noises.

[@jakerockznoodles]

I've never been a huge fan of either, but I love sci-fi for wholly different reasons. I love exploring what new ideas or discoveries could be made and how they may be used for good and for ill (I guess techno-dystopias/utopias do include these somewhat, but they tend to focus on tech that extrapolates from existing stuff). I love the venturing into the unknown, and the fear and excitement that accompanies it. And I love spooky stories more than the depressing ones in my sci-fi horror.

[@HuffGLaDTem]

exactly, i’m trying to imagine a fun prompt that is just that, fun!

[@miss_bec]

Please remember the etymology for "utopia" means a place that cannot exist.

[@JeffManseau]

"I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through suffering and misery."

[@ShadowofManda]

OK, that last idea was awesome! I would love to see a series of videos with that format.

[@brosephmyth]

Just listening to these ideas makes me anxious for the future

[@parameshnat]

2:26 is somewhat reminiscent of the game of "Damage" in the Culture Novels by Iain Banks. Spectators can hook their conscious up to the gambler's conscious and experience what they're feeling. Also within the same game, all players have cards which can directly alter the emotional state of another player e.g. increasing their confidence, making them pessimistic, and even making them feel suicidal.

[@engineer_cat]

and 4:50 (creation and simulation of conscious beings from scratch) is reminiscent of the Simming Problem discussed in the Hydrogen Sonata

[@JarrodBaniqued]

I’m fairly certain that some of those are ideas, or at least spiritual successors, to the core ideas in Johnny Mnemonic and Strange Days. Also, a story with the idea of a superintelligent upper class replacing the current one could take some of the ideas of the 1958 satire “The Rise of the Meritocracy” further, although the idea has been explored critically in earlier books such as “Brave New World” which used embryonic conditioning. And perhaps the simulated beings who are wiped away after being test subjects could be called “golems”, an interesting twist on the word.

[@sweetsandcharades8383]

I just want to put out there that your “So you’ve learned to teleport” video is still my favorite video of yours 😎

[@antivanti]

I love existential angst and meta stories ending up involving the viewer so I kinda love that last idea

[@motherreaper7287]

This was really fun, thanks Tom!

[@rhiannanh5009]

Number 6 is a similar story to the show ‘Upload’ on Prime. It’s set in the near future where when you die your consciousness is uploaded to a ‘world’ (it kinda looks like a fancy holiday resort/gold club?) but of course only the super rich go to the nice places. It’s an interesting concept.

[@lambj]

I too was reminded of Upload on Amazon Prime Video. It's well done, considering it has to appeal to a broad audience. I especially appreciated things like the freeway having an authentic combination of futuristic cars and current cars. You may have a 22 Prius, but I have a 20-year old car. Touches like that make a show set in the near future believable.

[@slartybartfarst55]

A great selection of ideas Tom!Touches of the Bobbyverse in some of the later ones.

[@huggleton]

Thought that said Blobbyverse for a second and began imagining a cinematic universe centred on Mr Blobby...

[@muadeeb]

We are legion. We are Bob

[@lancewhite1477]

We are Edmonds, we are Blob…

[@daxdadog]

Upload company's assets are acquired...yup that's Bob. One of my favorite series in a long time.

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

@@huggleton Now, _that_ would be a horror story.

[@labboc]

"Artificial Influencer" is such a cursed phrase

[@DarthBiomech]

On a flip side: "Sort of like KZbinr, but for AIs"

[@yadsewnde]

Last idea scared me but the idea about the hackers intrigued me would love to see that play out in a show we may be in contact one day.

[@TheEncouragementKid]

The ending was very very very cool

[@IanWatson]

I've actually got a couple of these ideas already in use in a game I'm developing! Fun to know we're on the same wavelength.

[@dielaughing73]

Welp, you gotta send money to Tom, now

[@LeeSmith-cf1vo]

Quite a lot of these ideas remind me of "Upload". It's worth checking out if you haven't seen it. Its on Amazon Prime, don't know about other platforms

[@amir-lp2mx]

The second season just dropped a few days ago.

[@stitchfinger7678]

Amazon carrying a show like that is at least a little but funny.

[@thewiseturtle]

@@stitchfinger7678 Bezos doesn't take himself too seriously, from what I can tell.

[@londonpunk]

Here's one, an unreliable historian built a time-machine to change the past to fit his inaccurate book.

[@MercenaryPen]

and kept failing with far reaching and occasionally hilarious/disturbing results?

[@applebane2000]

There's an SCP about that, but that's kinda the twist of the story. Should I post what it is anyway?

[@FirstnameLastname-he1ov]

I've only heard a single sentence of this concept but I would watch a whole movie of that

[@reharm_reality]

@@applebane2000 definitely!!

[@wlhamaty]

My time machine is full of eels!

[@blindknitter]

I want more of these! Fantastic.

[@Bella00011]

This is such an amazing work, wow

[@whoisswhoo]

Some of these would be very fitting for a quick 10 minutes Love Death Robot episode.

[@joshuacollins385]

I was expecting this to be a video about how so much pre-2000 sci-fi just no longer seems like sci-fi. We don't have cybernetic implants, but every other part of those stories seems to be coming true.

[@boobah5643]

Have you heard of artificial ears? Prosthetic limbs hooked to (and controlled via) your nerves? Chimps playing _Pong_ by a wire attached to their brains or quadriplegics typing similarly? The ear thing is notable for causing a ruckus because the deaf community... well, they regard themselves as a community and arguments abound over the ethics of choosing to not cure their child's deafness with an implant. Not because it's a challenging surgery or it might not work, but because it _will_ work and then the child won't be a member of the deaf community.

[@IndigoIndustrial]

"The Tunnel Under The World", by Frederick Pohl is a classic from 1955 which uses a miniaturised world in place of virtual reality that would be used today.

[@pcou715]

I love this video! Keep up the great work!

[@owiela]

So I liked the video before watching and was already subscribed prior to this video coming out. Confirmed the simulation still runs.

[@Aima952]

I swear you did one of these yourself with 'Earworm'. I really enjoyed that one and was hoping to get something more like that on Tom Scott two.

[@guillaumegeaymond503]

Damn, a scam called "pinnedby [somebody]" with the closest thing they found looking like a pin is a level of scumbaggery I didn't see before

[@taylormurphy2551]

Check out the book "We are Legion,, We are Bob" Great series involving mind uploads being turned into Von Neumann probes. It's a fun series the begins to explore more and more interesting topics/questions as the series goes on. Can't recommend highly enough!

[@sherryhappy1510]

These would be perfect for "love, death + robots" :short, interesting, sci-fi short films

[@meander112]

Thanks for calling out Charles Stross. He's amazing!

[@93DavidJ]

I have always loved your scifi videos, I hope you can find another outlet for those ideas you're comfortable with.

[@yeetyeet7070]

I don't think any of these ideas are copyrightable, unless Tom can PROVE that the big Hollywood studio watched his video and took the idea exactly from there. None of these are a big stretch

[@S_Roach]

I don't think ideas are copyrightable.

[@poochyenarulez]

Unless they steal a majority of the ideas for a single film or something, I agree.

[@VanessaMagick]

It's kind of weird that Tom made a whole documentary video on the state of copyright law but still said that any perspective filmmakers would need to option his very vague and somewhat generic ideas.

[@DarthBiomech]

Ideas are very explicitly NOT copyrightable.

[@dcarbs2979]

@@DarthBiomech Exactly. Only the *execution* of said ideas are copyrightable (i.e. the script, film, recording etc.)

[@Meoiswa]

If all these brain interface stories sound interesting to you, give The Quantum Thief trilogy of books a try. Its set in a post-humanist future where everything, even mater down to the sub-atomic scale, is directly liked to the infosphere. Sidenote, for a person who "can't write sci-fi anymore", you seem to be very good at writing sci-fi, they're just extremely concise stories ;)

[@IIAOPSW]

As the brain science gets more and more understood and the ability to engineer thought patterns becomes more and more exact, the fraction of deviation from the mean which is considered "a disorder" or "a disability" gets tighter and tighter. People whom we would today consider normal functioning adults are forced into procedures to "cure" them.

[@geli95us]

While interesting, I feel like it would be normal, no? like, the same has happened with medicine, we today consider "diseases" a lot of things that would have been very common in the past, think how most people will take medicine if they get a sore throat or anything. If the same would happen to mental health, I honestly think it would be very beneficial, people would be more happy in general

[@IIAOPSW]

@@geli95us in living memory, lobotomies were handed out to malcontent adolescent, gayness was a diagnosable disorder, and in some countries political dissidents were sent to insane asylums. Oh but don't worry, we can trust modern psychiatrist to tell the difference between a real disorder and a form of individuality that is being stamped out for someone else's benefit. This time will be different. Surely.

[@sagetmaster4]

Beautifully done.

[@crusadeagainsttomatoes2518]

These ideas are amazing, I would love to see them come to life!