Keynome is a weird word; not even a word, if you go googling for it. Here’s a few things I’m munging together that make neurons in my brain sparkle.
Ten years ago, keynome was a phrase thrown about on rare occasions by programmers working on AI programs; it referred (in this layman’s understanding), to objects that function as distillations of a larger “mindfile.” As a term, it did not catch on.
A keynote is the leading note in a musical key or chord.
A genome is an organism’s complete set of DNA, containing all the information needed to build and maintain that organism. In humans, the genome is contained in any cell with a nucleus.
They’re mentioned in the Deck of Villains as “fabled artifacts rumored to awaken the Starminds when reunited,” which is something Concord would know (sans context.)
More prosaically, the Halcyon City Herald provides a custom move for fiddling with them that isn’t for the faint of heart; let’s just say the options on the list make it a good candidate for involvement in in whatever went down with the Quill/Chin “thing” a few years ago - I think it makes IC sense for Concord to draw that connection as more of the Sepiaverse “stuff” starts to come to light.
If you want to think of them as the Masks equivalent of Infinity Stones, that’s… close enough for cosmic math. Regardless of their real purpose, they can be _mis_used in similar ways.
These are a lot of the thoughts I had (though I don’t have the info from the villains deck). As for the name I figured they were the key stones to access the genome (or building blocks) of the universe, hence keynome.
Ten years ago, keynome was a phrase thrown about on rare occasions by programmers working on AI programs; it referred (to this layman’s understanding), to objects that function as distillations of a larger “mindfile.” As a term, it did not catch on.
Real-world examples here: http://www.be9.net/BJ/keynomes.htm It’s basically just a list of phrases, with regular expressions so you can (for example) let a bot compute the square root of some numbers, or answer “where is X”, without having to hard code every number or every value of X.
If you wanted to punch up the concept for a superhero world, a “cosmic keynome” could be collections of encoded memes - large notions like democracy or justice, smaller notions like sitting with friends at the same table during lunch, whatever. Leo would interpret prophetic scariness like “awakening the starminds” prosaically: if you put a bunch of containers for mental agents together, you naturally get a society of mind. Why would you make a mind that could be separated into smaller pieces? Accountability, maybe. Build a giant AI supercomputer that runs your society, but make it in a way that lets you pull the plug. But if those things also act as conduits for some other kind of power, then that’s still useful: even if you had a tiny Mother Box that only contained the meme “painting things green”, you could paint anything green you wanted.
Song of Eden, my mystical-space-opera setting, had an example of this, a memetic sword. It was an artifact that could apply the verb “cut” to anything, from physical matter to ideas to computer security programs.
If you wanted to punch up the concept for a superhero world, a “cosmic keynome” could be collections of encoded memes - large notions like democracy or justice, smaller notions like sitting with friends at the same table during lunch, whatever.
And weirdly echoes that memetic programming idea that’s surfaced here and there…
Also echos the “large notions” that the Concordance espouses (surprising exactly no one).
Leo would interpret prophetic scariness like “awakening the starminds” prosaically: if you put a bunch of containers for mental agents together, you naturally get a society of mind.
Doyce agrees with Leo.
Song of Eden, my mystical-space-opera setting, had an example of this, a memetic sword. It was an artifact that could apply the verb “cut” to anything, from physical matter to ideas to computer security programs.
Would fit into a Nobilis game beautifully/horribly.
These are a lot of the thoughts I had (though I don’t have the info from the villains deck). As for the name I figured they were the key stones to access the genome (or building blocks) of the universe, hence keynome.
Key stone! I knew I was forgetting something there.
This seems like a good place to talk about Leo’s experiment. It’s predicated on the assumption that anything that impacts memory and thought will be reflected in brain activity regardless of source. By analogy, even if Q snaps his fingers and appears on the Enterprise bridge by magic, you could hand him objects to hold, videotape him, or otherwise interact with him in conventional material fashion.
Procedure 1: short-term memory test. Read a prepared statement about Iceland. Successfully recall the prepared statement a few minutes later, after being exposed to other unrelated content. Read a prepared statement about some established fictional location (e.g. Narnia). Recall the statement a few minutes later after exposure to unrelated content. Read and recall a prepared statement about an established real location (e.g. New Zealand). Recall the statement later. Compare recall rates between contested, fictional, and real places. Record brain activity via neurochip.
Procedure 2: repeat procedure 1 with Pneuma and Otto. Record brain activity via diagnostic output.
Procedure 3: repeat procedure 1 with Quill AIs built on “traditional”/non-human architecture. Record activity.
Data analysis:
Were there measurable differences in brain activity during the procedure for contested, fictional, and real places?
If so, what do they suggest? For example, if there’s a pattern of anomalous brain activity, we can analyze that pattern.
Were there differences between organic humans, carbon-android people, and Quill AIs?
Leo can subject his recorded data to other kinds of analysis. For example, maybe there’s a measurable time lag between thinking about the subject and an interference pattern. If that lag changes predictably based on where you do the experiment, you can triangulate to a location. If there’s a force carrier (e.g. electromagnetic waves on a given band), the possibility of location and shielding both open up.
Where Adam comes into this: if he participates and uses his Concordance powers to monitor Leo and his bots, he may be able to recognize a foreign mental pattern (if one exists) as being associated with a keynome. If he can use his powers to do some or all of the same analysis, tracing, or shielding, that would be great too.
Edit: there’s no reason to delve into the specifics of what was found, if this can be summed up as a single unleash your powers or assess the situation move, with this post explaining why Leo’s and/or Adam’s powers are relevant.
Though the method wasn’t scientific, Jason has inadvertently confirmed that the Iceland/Vyortovia memory/content swapping is a thing that continues to happen, and which is - at the least - affecting both normal brains and Quill AIs.
(Though one might question whether Jason’s brain counts as purely normal human right now, or some kind of Human/Quill AI hybrid - if you look into the Abyss, the Abyss looks into you; if you transfer bits of yourself to the Cloud, then…)
A lot of what this focuses down on (intentionally or not) is “is this being actively done to the world, or is it a ‘natural’ effect - some kind of universal paradox correction?” And if the latter, what’s the paradox? On the face of it, it doesn’t seem as though “there’s an island that is gone, and it’s been replaced by this other island from an alternate Earth” is actually something that would create a paradox - it’s probably panic-inducing, but aside from that, it’s not THAT different from the changes in Aleppo from 2010 to 2016, aside from scale.
Yeah. The intent of the experiment is to drive a course of action, so if it’s just “the universe is actively screwing with you”, that’s hard to deal with. An alternate list of “assess the situation” questions might be something like: When you assess a phenomenon, roll etc. and ask:
Jason has inadvertently confirmed that the Iceland/Vyortovia memory/content swapping is a thing that continues to happen, and which is - at the least - affecting both normal brains and Quill AIs.
Qualified by Doyce as to “Does Jason have a normal brain?”
Also qualified by:
“Was a Quill AI actually involved here?”
“Was the Travelycia in the bathroom a reliable narrator?”
An alternate list of “assess the situation” questions might be something like: When you assess a phenomenon, roll etc. and ask: