I can accept an Jjaro enhanced being such as the player having the ability to have his memories travel back his save time.
However, what I can't really understand is how humans would have such an device that can somehow access an place where time/matter have no meaning: a place where an regular civilian can access his future memories [until his death] to downloaded back into his consciousness.
I'm aware this nitpicking of an futuristic appliance can border on silly - but some of the possibilities of an regular civilian using an pattern buffer are seriously bizarre.
The immediate effect of an PB (aside from the perspective of the player, who appears just reverts after dying) to the average citizen would be wholly different.
Schizophrenia, or an similar mental disorder could arise among the human population as a side effect of heavy pattern buffer use - the normal individual would have trouble distinguishing reality from what has/may happen in their future.
(ex: Did I *really* sleep with that woman yesterday? Or was that tomorrow?) ; )
People could become intensely paranoid about life in general - a similar effect can be seen in Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits episodes where an man somehow learns the time and place of his own death. Only with an PB, there wouldn’t be a morality tale attached to the story.
You just die.
Perhaps PB addictions would develop among individuals in the population whom have an overwhelming desire to control their own destiny.
Unless they were a daredevil or just liked dying Ten thousand times, the average person wouldn't get much out of an pattern buffer. Perhaps it would appear more like an fortune telling machine than an replicator as it does for Ian in Marathon:Red (see the 1st message in the level Jaggermiester's Nightmare). ; )
Interesting stuff indeed.
-Blayne [Ernie]
