Singularity, the Card Game

Alpha Test Rules

Below are the preliminary rules for a certain card game. Everything, including the game's title, is open to change. The purpose of this page is to gather comments on the game, such that it might eventually be published as a PR piece (mostly, an easy introduction to the concept of "Singularity"). As such, this is also a deliberate experiment in memetic engineering.

Non-rule comments in other sections are in italics. Please send any suggestions to wingcat@pacbell.net, but please read the rules completely first (I've already received several suggestions for features that are already in here), and consider the target audience (specifically, this game is supposed to be kept simple; it's probably pushing the limit of how complex it can be and still be enjoyable to the target audience).

Legal disclaimer: initial draft copyright 2002 Adrian Tymes. Any suggestions that are used in future versions will also copyright Adrian Tymes. You are free to use this draft for any noncommercial purpose, although no warranty can be provided. (Whoever publishes this will probably demand exclusive commercial rights to whatever set of rules and cards I end up with, though you're certainly welcome to and legally able to roll your own from the same concepts if you prefer.)

Introduction

This card game is an abstract representation of one possible future of the human race: events leading to the Singularity, a hypothetical moment beyond which the grand total of human knowledge, and its application to the daily lives of most people, change so fast that predicting the future beyond a very short time (say, a day or so) becomes pointless. Some say that this would be the effective end of human history, others say it would merely mark the dawning of a new era.

Many people debate whether the Singularity is even possible, pointing out that the future becomes more predictable as we ourselves move into the future. For example, even in 1990, life beyond 2000 was significantly different in most industrialized nations than their citizens could have predicted, and yet the year 2000 is now history to us. Others point out that the length with which we can predict the future has been shrinking - for instance, while we can predict several years into the future, a medeval peasant could safely predict what life would be like over the peasant's entire lifespan.

This game takes the latter point of view. Each player is the leader of some group of corporations, non-commercial research labs, politicians, and others who have obtained a significant role in directing the course of world events. All of these groups stand to benefit from the Singularity in different ways, though their relative power over the world will be eroded - and some greedy souls would sooner destroy the world than allow that to happen. If the Singularity can be brought about, history will note who had the "last word", so those of honest intent compete to see who can invoke the Singularity.

This was specifically inspired as a parody of Bill Joy's predictions, thus the choice of the bio/nano/robo categories below. Much of the game (including choosing only those three categories) is intended to keep the game as simple as possible.

Concepts

Knowledge points - these represent human knowledge in the three key areas needed to trigger the Singularity. These belong to the world as a whole, and can be raised or lowered by playing the right cards. The three types are:
1. Bio points - representing knowledge of biology, especially human biology and genetics. All types of medicine are aspects of this, as are less benevolent aspects like biological weapons.
2. Nano points - representing knowledge of nanotechnology and very tiny natural processes. Generic miniaturization is blended in, if only because these natural processes start to affect devices as their sizes become smaller, but the ultimate applications are at the atomic scale...and smaller.
3. Robo points - representing knowledge of effective robotics and automation. This includes artificial intelligence in every sense of the term, as well as more mundane things like telepresence, unmanned vehicles and tools, sensors to detect and act upon any stimulus imaginable, and even simple artificial pets.
Technologies - cards that represent the application to daily life of various types of knowledge. This goes beyond mere discovery, to the point where it becomes "real" as far as the average person is concerned. For example, in 2002 most people have access to the Internet, but despite all the media hype and experiments, most people can not have themselves cloned - thus, the Internet card has been "played" but Cloning has not. Each technology, when played, adds a certain number of knowledge points (displayed on the card) to the world's pool. A technology card belongs to one or more of the three types - bio, nano, or robo - depending on how many of each type of point it has: the type with the most points is the card's type. In case of a tie, the card belongs to both (or all three) types. For instance, Cloning (2 bio, 0 nano, 0 robo) is a bio-type technology, while Desktop Fabrication (0 bio, 3 nano, 3 robo) is both a nano-type and a robo-type technology.
Events - cards that represent certain milestone events in history, which no one will ever forget. Like technologies, these cards add knowledge points to the world's pool. They act identically to technologies, except that they can never be banned (see below), and so effectively have no type. Some Event cards slightly alter the rules of the game, as printed on the cards. Some prevent Catastrophes (see below), some prevent certain types of Bans (see below), and so forth. Open question - do we want to allow Technology cards to have these conditions? It would be a bit more complex, if the condition cards later suffered Bans.
Ban - cards that represent legislation to prevent the deployment of certain technologies. This does not make the technology go away completely, but merely removes it from the lives of most people - but, once implemented, a technology can be easily reimplemented should the Ban go away. Bans come in three types: bio, nano, and robo. A Ban must be played against a specific, previously played Technology card, and that Technology card must be of the same type as the Ban. A Ban will remove the knowledge points of the Technology card from the world's pool. Also, some Events and Technologies require other Events and Technologies to have been played first; for this purpose, banned Technology cards have not been played. However, if a Technology or Event has already been played when a prerequisite Technology becomes banned, the non-banned card remains in play.
Unban - like a Ban, but must be played against a specific, previously played Ban that has not alread been a target of an Unban. When played, the effects of the Ban are reversed: the knowledge points are added back in, and any Events or Technologies that require the unbanned Technology may be played (subject to normal turn limitations). Remove both the Ban and Unban to represent this.
Catastrophe - if there are at least as many of one type of knowledge point as the other two types combined, the game ends and everybody loses. There are many dangers along the path to the Singularity; this is an abstraction of most of the known ones. For instance, if the world has 18 bio points, 8 nano points, and 12 robo points, then someone plays (or Unbans) Cloning (2 bio, 0 nano, 0 robo), that triggers the bio Catastrophe: Eco-collapse, where the world's ecologies have been so extensively tampered with that the Earth is soon no longer able to support multicellular life; any space colonies mankind has established are still dependant on resupply from Earth, and without those supplies, they die too. Too many nano points triggers Grey Goo: tiny, mindless machines are released that do nothing but consume all matter to make copies of themselves, and the entire Earth's crust - as far down as the machines can go without melting - is soon converted entirely into a swarm of these machines. Excessive robo points trigger perhaps the most familiar catastrophe, if only because science fiction has been portraying it the longest: Robots Exterminate Humanity, the classic tale of inhuman machines commiting genocide against the free human race...which robots could, for example, be metallic/ceramic/plastic creations that view organic creatures as wastes of resources, or human-like biological shells slaved to a beauraucracy driven by AI that believes free will is against the interests of humanity.

The Rules

To start, shuffle all the cards and deal 5 to each player. The game starts with 5 bio points, 5 nano points, and 5 robo points, reflecting human progress thus far. At least X points of each type will trigger the Singularity, so decide what X is - 20 makes for a nice, short game. Finally, decide who goes first.

On each player's turn, the player first draws a card from the deck. Then, the player either:

Plays a card.
Puts all cards in hand into the deck, shuffles the deck, and draws 5 cards.

Play then passes to the next player, unless the point totals are high enough to trigger Singularity or Catastrophe, in which case the game ends.

When each player has played, draw a card from the deck and play it if possible (if Ban, play against the most recently played Technology of the corresponding type; if Unban, play against the least recently played Ban that is still in effect); this represents random events in the world beyond anyone's control. This may trigger Catastrophe or Singularity.

If you wish to keep track over multiple games (say, in a tournament), Catastrophe is worth -1 point to each player, while Singularity is worth 1 point to each player except the one who triggered it, and 2 points to the triggering player. If the world causes Singularity, that is worth 1 point to each player.

If a player wishes to leave in the middle of a game, shuffle that player's hand into the deck and skip the player's turn from then on.

Card List

This is where I really need help. Send in ideas for cards, along with suggested point levels and any special instructions, and maybe a brief blurb describing what's on the card.

Card Name	Type	Bio Points	Nano Points	Robo Points	Special Instructions
Reliable Cloning	Tech	2	0	0	Requires at least one First X Cloned
First Pet Cloned	Event	1	0	0
First Livestock Cloned	Event	1	0	0
First Endangered Species Cloned	Event	1	0	0
First Human Cloned	Event	3	0	0	Requires Reliable Cloning
Desktop Fabrication or 3D Printing or CAM?	Tech	0	3	3
Drexlerian Nanotech	Tech	0	10	5	Requires Nano-manipulators
Nano-manipulators	Tech	0	5	3
Many People Uploaded	Event	2	0	4	Requires Uploading; robo Catastrophe now impossible - ignore it if it would happen
Internet	Tech	0	0	2
International Fiberoptic Backbone	Tech	1	1	2	Requires Internet
Gigaflop Desktops	Tech	0	0	1
Surveillance Chips	Tech	2	0	0	Robo catastrophe, if possible, only needs robo points = 3/4ths the total of bio and nano points from now on, starting immediately
Distributed Personal Processing	Tech	0	0	1	Requires Internet
Friendly AI	Tech	0	0	4	Requires Cognitive Engineering
Uploading	Tech	4	0	4	Requires Friendly AI and Direct Neural Interface
Direct Neural Interface	Tech	4	0	4	Requires at least 10 bio and 10 robo points immediately before this card is played
Memetics	Tech	0	0	4	Requires Cognitive Engineering
Cognitive Engineering	Tech	1	0	3
Free Replicators	Tech	0	10	0	Requires Drexlerian Nanotech
Cheap Space Access	Technology	0	1	1	Whoever plays this (even the world) immediately gets another turn
Hermetic Life Support	4	0	0
Earth Orbit Colonized	Event	0	0	0	Requires Cheap Space Access and Hermetic Life Support; nano Catasrophe now impossible - ignore if it would happen
Nanoimmune Systems	Tech	3	3	0	Requires Nanomedicine and Distributed Personal Processing
Nanomedicine	Tech	3	1	0	Requires Nano-manipulators
High Tech Terrorism	Event	5	5	0	If the Bio or Nano Catastrophe is within 5 points of happening when this card is played, before the points on this card are added, it happens.

Technology and Event cards are quantity 1 each. There are 5 of each type of Ban, and 10 Unbans. Or more or less, depending on how many Tech and Event cards there are.

Unban: Sunset Clause Expires
Unban: Treaty Defection
Unban: Freedom of Speech Lawsuit
Unban: Law Rendered Unenforceable
Unban: Media Frenzy Fades
Unban: Unions Demand Better Working Conditions
Unban: Celebrity Life Saved
Bio Ban: Oversight Committee
Bio Ban: Patented Organism
Bio Ban: Tool Used As Weapon
Nano Ban: Monopoly
Nano Ban: Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt
Nano Ban: Manufacturer Shortage
Robo Ban: National (In)security
Robo Ban: Luddite Strike
Robo Ban: Misleading Definitions Circulated

Variants

Solo Guardian - solitaire. You play a card (or pass and draw a new hand), then the world plays a card. Your object: keep the world from destroying itself.

Villains Three - three player, be the bad guys. For whatever reason, you want the world destroyed...but on your own terms. Each player takes one of the three types (bio, nano, or robo), and tries to make that Catastrophe happen first. Of course, for malcontents like this, the Singularity means all players lose.