NFTs for SciFi: A Proposal For Collective Ownership

Allowing readers to adopt stories by owning NFTs. Story ownerships are NFTs. NFT owners can be patrons of stories, events, technologies, and protagonists. Patrons can participate in the creative process: select names and propose story details

04.01.2024 von Heiner Wolf #2024 #Project #Idea

tldr: This is a Science Fiction, Hard SF, a series of essays about future events on a common timeline based on real science. Think Game of Thrones in interplanetary and interstellar space, over thousands of years. Readers can become patrons of individual stories by owning NFTs. Patrons will have influence over story details that are not essential but nevertheless clearly visible, say names of protagonists. Using NFTs provides a new way to make the creative process more interactive between artist and reader. In addition, NFTs make creators independent of publishers in the field of literature and other art beyond graphics. Galactic Developments is a timeline of future events over the next 1000+ years. It is based in real science. Some people called it Speculative Science. For others it is just good Science Fiction. For some it is Futurology, a realistic forecast of what will happen, of technologies that will be developed, of politics that will play out one way or another. We live in a time where unthinkable things happen. This future history contains the unthinkable and - maybe less dramatic but still interesting - the un-thought of consequences of politics and new technology. This project not only discusses the next steps, but also the step after the next step. Galactic Developments tells what's on the horizon and what lies beyond. There are already hundreds of events on a common timeline. Many are in English, even more in German. All are about to be translated to English. They are also appearing as podcast. And more stories are being written all over the timeline. There are hundreds of stories up to the year 3400. Some describe technologies, politics, the live of normal people, human or otherwise. Examples: - 2091 Tree of Life. Shackleton Crater on the Moon http://jmp1.de/e2091 - 2135 SCALE: a Large-Scale Program Against Global Warming http://jmp1.de/e2135 - 2544 The First Extraterrestrial Visit to the Sol System http://jmp1.de/e2544 - 2750 The Interactive VR-Drama Executive Decision http://jmp1.de/e2750 - 3308 Supernova http://jmp1.de/e3308 and many more at https://www.galactic-developments.de/. This is an open-source project. It is on https://github.com/wolfspelz/galdev. Pull requests welcome. Goals of this project: 1. More content. There are so many topics that need to be discussed. All content will be made available in English. New stories will be written to fill gaps in the timeline and to extend the timeline beyond 3400. … that's the obvious goal. But this project is doing more: 2. Allow readers to adopt stories by owning NFTs. Stories will be available as NFTs. NFT owners will be patrons of stories, events, technologies, and protagonists. Patrons can participate in the creative process. They will select names of protagonists and propose story details that can be adapted without changing the substance of a story. 3. Make the creative process more interactive. While creators are inspired by their experiences and interactions, they are used to create their works and then sell it, especially in the NFT world. We strive to make the process more interactive by giving patrons influence over details while preserving the creators' freedom of expression. Thus, making patrons not just sponsors, but participants in the creative process with a lasting influence. A contribution they can be proud of beyond sponsoring. 4. This project will also serve as model for authors to fund their works through NFTs. To become independent of publishers. 2021 was the year of the NFT image. Many artists who previously had no chance to access the global art market suddenly became visible. Many communities, big and small, arose around styles and artists. Artists who jumped on this train early now have a decent living while their fans have access to new sources. This project tries to show that the same can happen in indie literature, in Science Fiction, in fan fiction, and specifically in niches. 5. Rules will be necessary to guide the interaction between creator and patron. The patron of a piece will have influence, but the creator won't be overruled. Often there are details that can be adapted without changing the substance of a story. Of course, this sounds scary for many artists. They want to do their thing because they know it's right. However, things change over time. Much earlier in history there was no independent art. All art was commissioned, and the customer had a decisive influence. We want to show that a middle ground is possible where patrons not just feel good by sponsoring. Patrons should be able to have some say without hurting creativity. This project will define guiding rules. It will codify rights and obligations for artists and patrons. 6. The creative process will be more interactive and more dynamic. Traditionally art is static. First it is made. Then it is sold and shown. The digital age allows to make art dynamic. While a stone sculpture is literally set in stone and oil paintings are fixated, digital art and even digital literature is not. It can change. It does not have to be fixated. Details can be changed. For example, names of protagonists and technologies. Details that are not at the core of a story. Art will become fluid, adaptable. Like software there will be versions. And usually new versions will improve the work while still being considered to be the same piece, only better. In the digital age there is no need for a book to be set in stone. Of course, this is another scary paradigm shift. But it is possible in a digital age. It will happen. And this project will show that it works. It already does. Galactic Developments is continually improved, fixed, and expanded, not just at the end. New timeline entries are inserted everywhere. Technologies are adapted to new science. Typos and small details are fixed all the time. More Galactic Developments background: Galactic Developments describes realistic social, economic, and technical developments. The future will not be determined by a particular technology. No overpowering AI that force-uploads all people. No time travel that turns everything upside down. History will continue, as it has been for millennia. Still dramatic and exciting things happen. We had world wars, the Middle Ages, plagues, civilizations perished. But humanity is still there. There won't be a utopia. But the world is also not going to end by nuclear war or climate change. Humanity will manage, even if it gets tough sometimes. The future continues beyond the horizon. It always does. The question is not if, but how it will continue. Galactic Developments tries to answer the question what comes beyond the near future. Many authors project current developments into the future. 2D TV will be 3D, of course. But what is the next step after 3D? For sure it's not 4D. That's the challenge: imagining the future of the future. Another important aspect is that everything takes time. Suppose we invent a Star Trek like warp bubble. The principle is to move a piece of space which surrounds the spaceship. This is called an Alcubierre-Drive. Physicists tell us that this requires a lot of energy and on top of that a negative kind. We will improve on that. But moving a piece of space-time will still be difficult. If you can do that, you'll receive the Nobel Prize even for one micrometre per hour. That's how it starts. We don't just switch it on and zoom beyond light speed. We do research, test, and improve. It's complicated technology. Like a space station or a particle accelerator. Thousands of scientists and technicians are working on it for decades. At some point it will be possible to move the piece of space at 3000 kilometres per second. That's pretty fast for travel in the solar system. But it is only one percent of light speed. Another 100 years of research and you are at the speed of light. You won't get far with that either because it takes 4 years to reach Alpha-Centauri. For decent journeys you have to go 100 or 1000 times faster. That again takes time, during which history plays out. 500 years, as long as from Columbus to us today. A lot can happen in so much time. Humanity expands into the solar system. An interplanetary civilization develops with inventions and discoveries, politics, and intrigues. Interplanetary powers come and go. Then the stars. Initially, spaceships are much slower than the speed of light. There are bold missions into the unknown. Later, the dramatic development of the local sector directly affects the Sol system, and the new interstellar humanity must learn that stability is not a given. See more at https://www.galactic-developments.de/. We need your help to: - Translate the content. - Make more content in the interactive way described above. - Design and create the smart contract that governs the process. You get: - A realistic timeline of the future. - A role model for interactive content creation. - Lots of really cool SF stories with new ideas.