Transdimensional Brain Chip
is a webcomic by Øyvind Thorsby where a bumbling Idiot Hero named Ulf agrees to get a brain chip implanted in his skull. Once a week, the chip will "split" his consciousness across parallel universes, creating a Psychic Link between an exponentially increasing number of parallel selves.
Thanks to random chance, these universes can have very, very different outcomes from one another. Ulf can influence his current universe with information he's gained from his other selves. This, of course, has many practical applications: getting a girlfriend, gaining infinite wealth from the stock market, learning perfect karate in a fraction of the time...
However, once more and more versions of Ulf start dropping dead from seemingly unrelated bursts of nuclear war, it becomes a race against universal time to stop doomsday once and for all.
Transdimensional Brain Chip is notable for Deconstructing just about everything related to its concept, Transhumanism, and the extreme Serial Escalation that follows. Expect heavy spoilers!
Transdimensional Brain Chip contains examples of:
- Anthropic Principle: Discussed by both Ulf and Aisha. The reason why he's had such trouble stopping all the instances of nuclear war is that statistically, it's a lot more likely than they'd expect. Most universes before them have already ended in nuclear fire. Theirs was just very lucky to have enough coincidences happen to prevent annihilation in the first place. Cue the Oh, Crap!
- Cerebus Syndrome: And how!
- Hive Mind: Since every single Ulf can communicate with one another instantly, information and skills can be accumulated incredibly quickly between all copies.
- Our Angels Are Different: Killer Robot angels, at that.
- Power Perversion Potential: What's the first thing that Ulf does once he's freed from the hospital? Use his alternate selves to help pick up chicks, of course!
- The Chessmaster: Ulf gradually grows into this as he learns all there is to know about every person and subject on earth. Influencing global events becomes as simple as throwing enough money around, or blackmail, or inventing an increasingly complex robot to solve the problem altogether. Aisha becomes one as well once her own chip is inserted. Ultimately, she takes this trope up to eleven by playing chessmaster for the entire human race!
- The Virus: The Christian Ulfs engineer a chip virus to convert Ulfs in other universes into Christians. Later, the Buddhist Ulfs create a virus of their own with similar effects. The Ulf the story follows is one such casualty, causing him to re-engineer the entire world to convert all humans to Christians.
- Transhuman: Ulf, thanks to his brain chip.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: Discussed, then Deconstructed. Stopping nuclear war is just a bit difficult when the politicians blackmailed to destroy nuclear weapons instead take it to the media... and large-scale riots are likely to follow a public announcement that war is imminent. At that point, it's just so much easier to kidnap the president and replace him with a robot. In Aisha's perfect universe, almost all humans have a brain chip that stops them from attacking other humans. Despite their discontent, she insists this is for the best.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Since an Ulf that fails can always have a parallel self try again with new information, it's easy for him to come up with new plans on the fly. Comes to a head in Aisha and Ulf's final battle, where Ulf's awareness of Aisha's parallel selves leads to him constructing incredibly complex and continuously shifting defenses to thwart her.
