Bending Expectations

Went through a small idea surge for Project N. But not the normal Project N, the followup.

Here's how it goes: it was around the time Futurama was announced to be returning, and for one reason or another, I thought "You know what would be neat? If they brought back the show, only with a completely new cast of characters. It would totally fuck with the audience!" Of course, no one working in Hollywood is as brilliant as me, so I don't suppose this idea where ever be used in any mainstream product. However, I figured that I definitely could use it for my stuff.

At first, the idea was just there, attached to Project N like a leech. It would retain the same writing style, and setting (location-wise); but, it would take place in that ever-giving chestnut, the FUTURE. That way, I can justify the new cast and a ton of new insanity. However, that's about where the development stopped. I just couldn't get a good idea of how the characters and situation would work. It would basically be a way to continue it after the events of the first part of Project N was completed (and the ending for it is pretty final, at least thematically).

Recently, I figured it out. Project N-2 could be a thematic expansion of the first part, and that led to further development. I also read a lot about 2000 AD (but haven't actually read it. May have to change that), and that inspired me to create a certain kind of crazy future. With these two combined, I was able to start making something that I felt was less ambiguous in its purpose and more satisfying.

If you wish to know (why would you?), the theme I am trying to use is that of intelligence, and how one uses it. The general atmosphere of the first one was that everyone was stupid but the main characters - and when you're a cynical nerd like I was/am, that's what the world seems like. Most of the recurring secondary characters represented different ways intelligence can be handled - bitterness about the world around you, trying desperately to make a difference despite social problems, or manipulating the masses for your own ends. I really like this concept, and I hope I can flesh it out and make it work, and not come off as some pompous preacher or Has-no-Subtlety man.

So, Project N-2 will go a step further; instead of the main characters feeling they're the only thinkers among a crowd of dopes, the main characters of really are the only intelligent ones left. Ah, the future opens so many doors.

Basically: sometime in the future, most of the world has had part of their mental functionality disabled, but not to the level of COMPLETE retardation, just to a cartoony kind a airheadedness that I'll have to hammer out. In the particular setting, there is pretty much one intelligent family left, and that's where the main character comes from.

At the same time, there is a subplot about AI, and a sort of reversal of the usual depictions of intelligent machines in the future. Basically, computers with human-level AI were created to take over the jobs that the now partially incapacitated humans can't do, like occupations in politics and education. However, all the computers are made to never turn against humans, and they are given a bit more reason to do so than Asimov's code (which includes an idea I like quite a bit - a genetically-altered group of thugs who police the computers, mostly by smashing them into bits). So, instead of machines repressing humans, the machines themselves are being repressed. Someone must have done this before, and much better.

The plots generally evolve from there, but also revolve around what happened to the rest of the world in THE FUTURE (which I figure right now will be about 80-100 years from now). Where is the weirdness I included in the Project N-1 seems more random (but I'll still try to develop some kind of internal logic for it all), the weirdness of Project N-2 will develop more around the condition of the world. Of course, that doesn't mean it will still totally make sense (the one idea I have right now is a cult of wet suit-wearing humans, based on Lovecraft's Deep Ones and living in the flooded US south).

Wow, I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've ever gone into the ideas and stories in-depth. Did I say I wasn't going to do this? I am boring you?