The neuronet is essentially an implanted computer in the brain that gives virtual reality access as well as a more efficient way to work in a highly advanced civilization. The purpose of the neuronet in the universe of The General's Shadow is how it's creator, Gaeto Pentra, became a superpower and enemy of my hero's people. Humanity has used the technological growth spawned from the neuronet to populate multiple galaxies over a few thousand years.

Here are the specifics of its history:

Back on the homeworld of humanity, Therus, Gaeto Pentra adapted an earlier invention to connect neurons to a small device on the side of the head that was able to relay thoughts to a computer. He developed a hidden implant using nanotechnology that went into the base of the skull. His implant wirelessly connected with laptops at first, but over the next twenty years became a super computer that powered itself off of the energy of the hosts body. The first decade after that invention ended with virtual reality worlds within worlds within the real world.

The politics within these layered planes of existence were all controlled by Pentra and his men, making him as powerful as he was wealthy from his patents. A tribunal The real wars were fought in virtual reality, with murder dropping worldwide to only 2% of recorded causes of death. Pentra policed his neuronet by withholding neuronet time as a system of punishment and limiting access to certain areas for rival groups.

Questions:
1) How does the politics sound?
2) Does the reduction in murder and crime sound reasonable?
3) Any questions to help me add depth to this history/idea?

Please check out the next part of the story at The Persecution of the Rucien

I'm not much of a sci-fi person, so I can't help you much with ideas, but I do think it is a great idea! I do have one question, though. Are there any people who don't use the neuronet or the virtual reality?

Thanks for your reply Princess. I'm working on that today. In short, the leader of this new technology has a vision to make this a way of life for everyone. Check out the thread on "persecution of the Rucien"

Okay, I checked the other thread, and I like how you worked a Christ-figure into it!
So what is the virtual reality like?

Oops... I just realized that Caleb (Griffin) was still logged in when I posted that! Sorry!

I expand on the virtual reality some in this post: TGS: Choosing My Enemy - Idea 1

1. The politics a believable in general. Some points will have to be pushed along a bit with help of some kind. I am a little unsure of how neuronet could assist the development of inter-galactic colonization.

You may also want to scale up the penalties a bit.

(It's a bit of a side jump, but you'll need some kind of extremely efficient (and exotic) source of energy for the degree of deep space travel we are talking about here; it may be reasonable to start a thread in technology to discuss this point)

2. I actually tend to think that crime (in general) would decrease while crime specific to murder would increase. Because fake murder can be committed in virtual reality with relative ease and minimum consequence, violent behavior would be fostered and eventual break out into violence. Of course, penalties could be used to channel violent attitudes into a direction that the leaders want.

3. Exactly how much of a life outside the neuronet do people have? Perhaps robots perform most of the labor while humans perform mostly scientific and mental labor, as facilitated by the neuronet?