10.29.02
ENG205 Writing Prose Fiction
Short Story Outline


"DATABASE PHANTASMS"

~ synopsis:
Decades in the future, computers are advanced enough to host a project simply called "The Database."
Researchers write an algorithm that digitally renders every possible image that a 1600 x 1200 24-bit computer monitor can display.

{
~ the math:
1600 pixels across, 1200 pixels vertical. = 1,920,000 total pixels.
each pixel is 24 bit. meaning 24 digits of binary assign the color.
the total amount of possible colors is 2^24 = 16,777,216 colors per pixel.
therefore the total number of color combinations for all pixels = 16,777,216 ^ 1,920,000 = a massive number
}

This Database is archived and posted on the internet for the general public.
As years go by, specially designed image-based search engines are written exclusively for the Database.
No one fully realizes the potentially dangerous possibilities
Until one computer scientist begins making some minor breakthroughs...... (more on this later)

~ more on the content of the database:
The vast VAST majority of the rendered images will be meaningless noise.
BUT... since every possible pixel combination was rendered,
then a small percentage of the Database will include recognizable/meaningful images.
for example :
- every photograph ever taken
- photographs that were never taken
- every human from every angle in every pose
- every location on earth
- earthly locations that do not exist
- locations that are not of earth
- every frame of every movie.. merged together with other frames of every movie in every possible combination on all possible levels of layer opacity under every combination of hue shift. (this includes frames of movies that were never made)
- images portraying every possible combination of digits that can fit into the image.. including undiscovered strings of pi.
- scientific equations that were not yet derived.

All of this is only a small percentage amidst meaningless noise.
And all of this is still (amazingly) FINITE
Only now does one begin to appreciate the immense size of the Database
This rendering algorithm is extremely easy to write.
The problem is that it would take millenia to render every last image.
That is until computers are fast enough.

~ This is where the plot begins:
A computer scientist is able to extract not only the precise images he desires, but sequences of images that are related.
For example, he is able to render a video of an extremely fast trip around the world.
WHAT DETERMINES IMAGE VALIDITY? - meaning how do you know the image you extracted is a real landscape that exists?
The solution to this in IN THE DATABASE
and the methods for obtaining this solution are in the database.. etc
This extracted video sequencing becomes fully explored and commonplace, and EVENTUALLY PUBLIC ON THE INTERNET.
All of a sudden, everyone has lost all privacy,
because anyone could just extract from the Database a valid video of you taking a shower, etc.
The government finally steps in with some sort of regulation project. (it seems like "finally" because technology moves so fast)
They hire a team to develop a "detection" service. So people would be able to detect if anyone is watching them.
These detected Database users are the "Phantasms." (they have no mass, because they are not really there)
Further government regulation: validity lockouts, (to protect classified information etc.)
Rebels/hackers arise.
Control of information is a circus.
Societal downfall?
does this so-called "Downfall" mean nothing more than Change/Evolution?
. . .


***NOTE***
I fear this is too much.. more applicable to a novel.
Also, i haven't even established significant characters (let alone character relations)