The Works

[jducoeur]

So I was reading an entry in chaiya's journal today, in which she does The Meme of Threes. It's a cute little meme, and I might do it myself. But one question in it struck me particularly: "Name three things you want to do before you die".

I've always been a man of Too Damned Many Ideas. Indeed, in recent years I've started to cultivate some skill for talking other people into projects, specifically so that I don't feel like I have to do them myself. But I do have a shortlist list of the projects that I really, deep down, expect to do. They've been building over the years -- four projects that are really of greater scope than the minor projects I take on altogether too readily. I tend to think of them as my Great Works -- the masterpieces that are going to really challenge me in different ways, and which are going to take years to fully realize.

In order from Least Important (and easiest to do) to Most Important (and hardest), they are:

• Tabula Rasa III -- Alpha and Omega: the conclusion of the Tabula Rasa trilogy, a LARP that has been slowly torturing me for years now.


• The Players: a full-length Elizabethan comedy that is entirely designed at this point, and now just needs the hard work of filling in two hours of dialogue.


• The Braid: my vision of a Gibsonian cyberspace -- infinitely scalable and mutable, flexibly social and interactive.
And of course,

• The Mysteries: the creation of the organization I really want to belong to, reworking the best ideas from Masonry into something that stands a chance at better vitality today.

I've talked about the Mysteries a fair amount before, but really haven't talked about the others that I recall. In preparation for getting off my ass and really starting to work on these, I think it's time to rectify that. Over the next few days, I'll describe the other three projects in a little more detail...

Comments

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

The Braid: my vision of a Gibsonian cyberspace -- infinitely scalable and mutable, flexibly social and interactive.

This one I am not familiar with. I know you'll get to explaining this if I just wait, but broadly what are you planning to do here? Do you want to fully realize the theory, or create a working implementation, of make it the dominant global communication paradigm? And, if it's more on the latter end of the spectrum, is it really only second hardest?

Also, if your design is not yet fully-formed, metahacker might be a helpful source of information on human-computer interaction.

[jducoeur]

Do you want to fully realize the theory

Well, when I say "Gibsonian cyberspace", it's in the loose sense. My vision is fairly distinctive, and more than a little controversial. (Unfortunately, only one company ever picked up on it so far, and went out of business before they could actually get to market with the idea.)

of make it the dominant global communication paradigm?

I've kind of got an artist's view of the thing. More than anything, I want to see it tried. If a sincere attempt ever happens (whether I initiate it or someone else does), and fails because people are genuinely uninterested, that doesn't actually bother me too much.

I've been down the dominant-paradigm path before. No, really -- Trenza's original code-name for its product was "TWD", standing for, no shit, "Total World Domination". The company didn't lack for ambition. But that experience demonstrated rather vividly just how hollow that sort of overweening ambition can be. It's much more satisfying to concentrate on creating something really cool, and not worrying too much about whether it takes over the world.

And, if it's more on the latter end of the spectrum, is it really only second hardest?

Compared to the Mysteries project? Yeah, it is. The Braid is about technology, and will either succeed or fail fairly quickly -- it's the kind of thing that will either achieve network effects or not. (Assuming I ever get it off the ground.)

The Mysteries, though, is a life's work. The whole point of it is that it's open-ended. Even getting it truly started is likely to take ten years, since I really would prefer that it not take off completely like lightning. (A large part of Masonry's current woes can be attributed to its turning into a fad.)

The Braid is a neat project that I might spend a few years on at some point. The Mysteries is a club that I can only hope proves to be worth spending the rest of my life working on...

if your design is not yet fully-formed

Yes and no. Certain key elements are very clearly designed; in some cases, they have been for a decade or more. The rest is an amalgam of observations and ideas drawn from ten years spent in the Internet and games businesses, some of which will work and some of which won't. If (and I'll be honest, the Braid is both the project I've had in my head longest, yet the one I care about least) it happens, I'll be drawing on a lot of opinions about those ideas...

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

I look forward to hearing more about all of these. It's even possible I could be talked into participating in some of them :-)

Of course, I've still got to get around to my own Big Projects some day, such as The Game of Power, or Orlando Betrayed...

[jducoeur]

Ah, yes -- Power is still in the back of my mind. I still think that it would be a wonderful use for one of the newer functional languages, which have the expressive power to implement the engine without going through complete hell. Unfortunately, my own project plate has long since overflowed...

And Orlando Betrayed sounds like a fascinating idea...

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

Over the next few days, I'll describe the other three projects in a little more detail...

Consider yourself gently nudged to do so.