Something happened to David Braben when he was in Jesus College, Cambridge. By revealing this, I might be putting his life in grave danger, and I deeply regret it, but the people need to know. David, please forgive me, but it's been too long you've been carrying this burden alone.
You see, back in the early '80s, summer of 1982 actually, before David even started working on Fighter, and around the time he met Bell (who wasn't involved, see below), something else was going on nearby. Students in the natural sciences department were doing experiments on sending information faster than light. I don't know exactly what they were doing, but it seems that their equipment was perfect for what was about to happen.
Skip ahead now to the year 3268, Antonia Madison, president of the Federation at the time gets handed a Top Secret dossier: "Project Equinox". After remarking that she thought Project Equinox was shut down nearly 100 years ago, she is informed that Dr. Cassandra Lockhart's work continued long after Galcop were disbanded, in the hopes of preventing a very real threat of Thargoid invasion. The project initially went underground, but thanks to the ties of many involved, it was eventually brought to the attention of Ministry of Defense of the Federation, and taken on in secret, with a very large budget.
This is what I've been told anyway, and I am sorry I don't have more details. The story continues that the Project had recently reached a milestone in their research. A black hole with very specific properties had finally been located and the next step is now ready. There was (I really am not sure which tense to use for this account, bear with me!) one big problem though - spies in the Empire had followed them, and urgent diplomatic remedial work was needed to prevent them from, well you know, the usual Empire stuff. Going public, demanding a cut, destabilising the black hole.
Antonia Madison, after being briefed, did her duty and started negotiations with the Empire.
Back to '82, David gets a call from Dr C. Rodenburg at the Cavendish Physics department. His professor recommended him to helping them with some advanced theoretical electrical equations they were struggling with and he happily acquiesced. I don't know exactly how things worked, but after a couple of weeks David had helped them solve the issues, and a day later, David was present when they began the first live tests of their quantum information experiment. This was when they noticed an eerily regular modulating signal and David's life changed forever.
Back again in 3268, negotiations with the Empire were rough and to be honest, never really neatly solved with lots of openings for further negotiation and blackmail, but either way, the diplomacy was sorted and the Project was able to go ahead. I will note here that in the decades that followed, the Alliance was also brought into the fold, because this was a Project aimed at defending from a common enemy to all humanity - the Thargoids.
Ok I think I've kept the suspense up long enough. What was Project Equinox asking? Well part of the Project was focussed on solving a problem of recruiting pilots, in large quantities, who are skilled and able to fight the Thargoids without being at risk themselves. With the ability to simply "rebuy" after being shot down and continue the fight. With the enthusiasm to fight, in a day and age when getting good combat pilots is hard enough as it is. The technology had been theorised and proven nearly 100 years ago - it is possible to recruit pilots...from the past!
It had been established that the only known time in the target century that the correct equipment to send a communication was in use was that fateful summer in Cavendish, '82. As David and Dr. Rodenburg's team switched on the device, they immediately received a communication. David was to begin work on a "game", while Dr. Rodenburg was to follow the instructions given to improve the link between the past and future. Their reward was a steady feed of winning lottery numbers, and as far as I know, a fair bit of blackmail from the Empire.
David and Dr. Rodenburg actually agreed to do it because they believed it was the right thing to do. They declined the incentive, but I do believe that there are others involved who are keeping them in check, and those people didn't decline the incentive. At the end of the day, I am certain David's life is on the line here.
Anyway, the rest is history. David started working on Fighter, then Elite with Bell, but he didn't tell him the real purpose because he didn't want to share the burden with him. Everything was calculated (with the bonus help of hindsight, thanks to Project Equinox), the original Elite was simply a technology test, as well as the preparation of a "fanbase" for the future, when the real "game" would come out. David, to his credit, didn't receive any help in making that initial game. It was certainly deemed that the technology at the time was insufficient, but the "lore" was set.
Over the decades, David improved the game, and kept the brand alive, the fanbase in the meantime could grow, improve, and most importantly, Dr. Rodenburg could perfect the technology for inter-temporal telepresence.
It wasn't until good VR was around the corner, and computers were up to spec, that they could proceed with Elite: Dangerous (and recruit Michael, who is fully in on it and David's closest confidant in this whole matter, thanks to his brilliant mind). The timing couldn't be better - the Thargoids were very close to invading.
So this is the truth, this is what I am trying to tell you: Elite: Dangerous isn't a game. You are controlling a real ship, in the future. Everything you see in the game is a representation, using data sent across time, rendered to you in real time by the game engine. This is why the game has always had dedicated VR support. This is why they are still based in Cambridge. This is why Frontier have focussed, from day one, heavily on combat over every other mechanic.
I am revealing this because I think you have a right to know. When you kill in Elite, you are really killing. You should know that the Thargoids aren't AI, and you should decide, ethically, if you really want to be contributing to a war with another species at the behest of future politicians. You need to make an informed decision on something this important.
I'm sorry David but now that we've engaged them in combat, I am starting to question the whole project. Are we really defending humanity? Do we really trust the Federation, Empire and Alliance to be handling the situation properly? Are we ok with how they are handling it? Shouldn't we make our own decisions on a future that hasn't even happened yet?
You see, back in the early '80s, summer of 1982 actually, before David even started working on Fighter, and around the time he met Bell (who wasn't involved, see below), something else was going on nearby. Students in the natural sciences department were doing experiments on sending information faster than light. I don't know exactly what they were doing, but it seems that their equipment was perfect for what was about to happen.
Skip ahead now to the year 3268, Antonia Madison, president of the Federation at the time gets handed a Top Secret dossier: "Project Equinox". After remarking that she thought Project Equinox was shut down nearly 100 years ago, she is informed that Dr. Cassandra Lockhart's work continued long after Galcop were disbanded, in the hopes of preventing a very real threat of Thargoid invasion. The project initially went underground, but thanks to the ties of many involved, it was eventually brought to the attention of Ministry of Defense of the Federation, and taken on in secret, with a very large budget.
This is what I've been told anyway, and I am sorry I don't have more details. The story continues that the Project had recently reached a milestone in their research. A black hole with very specific properties had finally been located and the next step is now ready. There was (I really am not sure which tense to use for this account, bear with me!) one big problem though - spies in the Empire had followed them, and urgent diplomatic remedial work was needed to prevent them from, well you know, the usual Empire stuff. Going public, demanding a cut, destabilising the black hole.
Antonia Madison, after being briefed, did her duty and started negotiations with the Empire.
Back to '82, David gets a call from Dr C. Rodenburg at the Cavendish Physics department. His professor recommended him to helping them with some advanced theoretical electrical equations they were struggling with and he happily acquiesced. I don't know exactly how things worked, but after a couple of weeks David had helped them solve the issues, and a day later, David was present when they began the first live tests of their quantum information experiment. This was when they noticed an eerily regular modulating signal and David's life changed forever.
Back again in 3268, negotiations with the Empire were rough and to be honest, never really neatly solved with lots of openings for further negotiation and blackmail, but either way, the diplomacy was sorted and the Project was able to go ahead. I will note here that in the decades that followed, the Alliance was also brought into the fold, because this was a Project aimed at defending from a common enemy to all humanity - the Thargoids.
Ok I think I've kept the suspense up long enough. What was Project Equinox asking? Well part of the Project was focussed on solving a problem of recruiting pilots, in large quantities, who are skilled and able to fight the Thargoids without being at risk themselves. With the ability to simply "rebuy" after being shot down and continue the fight. With the enthusiasm to fight, in a day and age when getting good combat pilots is hard enough as it is. The technology had been theorised and proven nearly 100 years ago - it is possible to recruit pilots...from the past!
It had been established that the only known time in the target century that the correct equipment to send a communication was in use was that fateful summer in Cavendish, '82. As David and Dr. Rodenburg's team switched on the device, they immediately received a communication. David was to begin work on a "game", while Dr. Rodenburg was to follow the instructions given to improve the link between the past and future. Their reward was a steady feed of winning lottery numbers, and as far as I know, a fair bit of blackmail from the Empire.
David and Dr. Rodenburg actually agreed to do it because they believed it was the right thing to do. They declined the incentive, but I do believe that there are others involved who are keeping them in check, and those people didn't decline the incentive. At the end of the day, I am certain David's life is on the line here.
Anyway, the rest is history. David started working on Fighter, then Elite with Bell, but he didn't tell him the real purpose because he didn't want to share the burden with him. Everything was calculated (with the bonus help of hindsight, thanks to Project Equinox), the original Elite was simply a technology test, as well as the preparation of a "fanbase" for the future, when the real "game" would come out. David, to his credit, didn't receive any help in making that initial game. It was certainly deemed that the technology at the time was insufficient, but the "lore" was set.
Over the decades, David improved the game, and kept the brand alive, the fanbase in the meantime could grow, improve, and most importantly, Dr. Rodenburg could perfect the technology for inter-temporal telepresence.
It wasn't until good VR was around the corner, and computers were up to spec, that they could proceed with Elite: Dangerous (and recruit Michael, who is fully in on it and David's closest confidant in this whole matter, thanks to his brilliant mind). The timing couldn't be better - the Thargoids were very close to invading.
So this is the truth, this is what I am trying to tell you: Elite: Dangerous isn't a game. You are controlling a real ship, in the future. Everything you see in the game is a representation, using data sent across time, rendered to you in real time by the game engine. This is why the game has always had dedicated VR support. This is why they are still based in Cambridge. This is why Frontier have focussed, from day one, heavily on combat over every other mechanic.
I am revealing this because I think you have a right to know. When you kill in Elite, you are really killing. You should know that the Thargoids aren't AI, and you should decide, ethically, if you really want to be contributing to a war with another species at the behest of future politicians. You need to make an informed decision on something this important.
I'm sorry David but now that we've engaged them in combat, I am starting to question the whole project. Are we really defending humanity? Do we really trust the Federation, Empire and Alliance to be handling the situation properly? Are we ok with how they are handling it? Shouldn't we make our own decisions on a future that hasn't even happened yet?
