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Edited: Aug 31

Mastermind Season 7 Discussion Thread

Welcome to the Mastermind Season 7 Discussion Thread! Please leave comments on this discussion thread if you want to give/receive constructive feedback to people’s/your own submission this season. You may also ask any related questions to this season's writing prompt.

Replies to the Mastermind Season 7 SUBMISSION Thread will close on Saturday September 14th 2024 at 11:59 pm EST.

Please keep in mind that the judge(s) will assign grades based on the following marking criteria:

Communication /20

Creativity /20

Total /40

Communication:

For example, how well does the submission follow conventions of spelling, grammar, and structure? Are all formatting points followed?

Creativity:

For example, how interesting are the ideas? How well are they executed?

Please give the judge(s) at least two weeks after the deadline to grade each submission and return the scores accompanied with constructive feedback.

At the end of the competition, we will contact you via email from info@mastermindbp.com if you are eligible to receive a prize. We will not use any other email address to give out the prizes.

All prizes come in the form of PayPal donations so you need to have an email that is connected to a PayPal account to receive the award(s).

The submission(s) with the highest number of points will win the 1st place $100 USD prize. The submission(s) with the second and third-highest number of points will receive a $50 USD prize each.

Good luck, have fun, and let your creativity flow!

14 comments

Comments (14)

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Kardashiana7

Sep 06

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Good evening. So, I need to write a 200-300 word writer's comment, but what kind of things do I need to cover? I sound really stupid for asking this question, but if there are particular reasons why it needs to be that long, I'd love to know. Thank you.

Burton

Sep 06

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Replying to

Hi Kard,

Thank you for your question. The comment should delve in into what the submission is about, what you hope the reader will get from reading it, and any special remarks about your submission. It doesn’t actually need to be 200-300 words long. The numbers are there to ensure that everyone’s comments are somewhat detailed and well-thought out. They are also there to ensure that the submission offers enough context so that anyone who reads the submission has some basic level of understanding before reading it. Sometimes, just a few sentences explaining what your submission is, how you completed it, and what you think is the most interesting should suffice.

Aug 31

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I’m having a hard time understanding the prompt. It’s the year 2495, five years from 2500, and someone invented a device that can only be used for five years and then it becomes obsolete? Is it up to us to decide how and why the device stops working in 2500? Does the problem have to be in the source code? Does the fix have to be a code? I think it’s more logical if the problem is elsewhere since we fixed our Y2K problem. And even if it’s another Y2K problem, it’s an easy fix. You don’t need someone from the future for that.

After the device is fixed, can they see the future all the way to extinction or can they only see the future in a five-year range? Meaning they only discover they’re about to hit extinction when it’s five years away?

Since you said the prediction is accurate, that means you can’t change the future, and that means this fix has already written into history? Meaning, it won’t change the timeline? Basically they already know the outcome of the mission? They’re arguing for their own existence?

Burton

Sep 01

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Replying to

Hi Kard!

The device (used to retrieve info from the future but not far-future) from timeline 1 is being tampered by the spy technician coming from timeline 2 so that it may continue to function until extinction. If there exists no spy technician, then the device will fail to work from 2500 onwards.

Here is a clarification what Johnny has pointed out about the prompt. Remember that there are many ways to interpret the writing prompt and the way you answer the prompt will depend on your own creativity.

Here is Johnny’s interpretation (to my understanding). It is the year 2495 and we already have a device (during 2495) that can retrieve information from the future (2100-2500) up until the beginning of the far-future (2500-). The future is from 2100 to 2500 and the far-future is from 2500 onwards. It is important not to confuse “future” with “far-future” even if this is definitely against intuition. This is the first timeline.

The spy tech has been sent back in time in timeline 2 during the far-future (2500-). The technician is somehow transported from timeline 2 to timeline 1, except that the spy travelled back to 2495 (which is the future not far-future for timeline 1) so that the device can be fixed for it to function until the extinction of human kind. The spy tech’s original timeline is the second timeline.

To understand the “two timelines” better, don’t think about timelines first. Just imagine there are two separate universes (U1 and U2) and we swap an apple’s location in U1 with an orange’s location from U2. Now, U2 has an apple where the orange once was, while U1 has an orange where the apple once was. U1 and U2 are two distinct realms. Okay. Now that we are dealing with two separate realities/realms we are also dealing with two separate timelines. In Johnny’s case, the timeline is not just one timeline; there are two timelines because the spy from U2 at some future point in time is moved to U1 at a previous point in time.

Think of it like this. Draw two lines parallel to ones another but shift one of those lines to the right or left by some length. The line shifted forward in length to the right is timeline 2 while the other is timeline 1. Now draw a line that bisects the two parallel lines. This bisector is the path that the spy travelled to go from U2 to U1, and subsequently, from U2’s “far-future” to U1’s “future.”

In short, there is no single timeline where THE far-future INFLUENCES THE future. We are sending technicians from one reality at some future point in time to another reality at some previous point in time.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Edited

Sep 01

•

Replying to

Sorry but I have more questions. Lol. If the spy tech and the far-future people are from a different timeline, what’s their incentive to mess with another timeline?

Also, this classified document is like a mission proposal, right? It’s prepared before the actual mission taking place, right? Should it contain the steps the spy tech needs to take to accomplish the mission? You said it would detail the benefits and impact, so no mission steps, but I just want to be sure because that’s the exciting part. Lol

Poon

Sep 01

Replying to

I surmise this is where your creativity comes in. You will need to develop how you want your story to go. Hope that helps! 😅

Edited

Kardashiana7

Aug 31

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I have a question. What is a classified-style document? I've looked it up, and I know roughly what it is, but I want to make sure I've read it right (and understand what it means). Thank you.

Edited

Burton

Sep 01

•

Replying to

Thank you for your question!

For our purposes, a “classified-style document” is a a typed-up report whose contents are only known to a select group of people. There are, however, many different ways to format and structure your report. You may decide what content is included.

Edited