| Settings |
|
Originally Posted By: Ken "Wirehead" Wronkiewicz and Marshall Motley ([email protected])
|
| Major Types Of Settings |
| USA Gone To Trash Or The Laissez Faire Capitalist Setting |
Goto Top |
|
In this setting, everyone either lives and works in one of the large mega-corps's arcologies or is a street hustler, a CyberPunk living on the fringes. There is no such thing as illegal activities, everything is legal. Corporations make the law, because no central government is in existence. The net is accessible to everybody, and data is as valuable as money. The world is broken up into sprawls and run for profit. There are a few problems with this setting. Thinking people are difficult to lead around by the nose-ring, therefore the net would be difficult to access. You need to explain everything in terms of profitability, and many elements of CyberPunk stories are not so profitable.
|
| City States In The USA | Goto Top |
|
The USA is broken up into city-states, ruled by corporate dictators. Control is determined by addictions to drugs, tech, or food supplies. Everybody works in this militaristic society. There will be lots of wars between the individual city states. Possibilities include any variety of high technology, space colonization, satellite warfare, superweapons and more. Groups of free traders run between cities in caravans. People in the city-states rebel. Plenty of espionage and conspiracies. Anarchists will live outside of the readily claimed lands, occasionally rising up if they feel interfered with. This setting is like the first setting, however, the political boundaries are slightly more defined. You run into plausibility problems when you think of the ideal city-state environment (Greece) and how the cities are geographically separated. This is not true in North America. However, with political bodies, technology becomes more plausible, especially if the only way to expand is up. City States are small political bodies, even smaller than states. Each one can have its own set of laws and government. Ideally, it would be more representative than our current system, because the people who live in the city state will shape the government to their preferences. However, the City States will probably end up being mere servants to the corporations. Also, huge projects are difficult for one city state.
|
| Socialist Empire | Goto Top |
|
The USA and the rest of the world are unified into one massive socialist empire. AI programs run the world, no hacking is possible or permitted. Computers monitor everything, so there is no corruption or crime. Money is only made by submitting ideas to the AI. Work is not even possible, because robots do most of the work. All people are protected by the computer, therefore there is no need for guns or weaponry. Many people will take up dangerous hobbies and sports instead, trying to kill themselves. Because each person is nothing but a number, the only way to express your individuality is to die in the most interesting manner. This is fine with the computer, because suicide is legal, giving him one less person to bother with. Think of the movie "Always" or "Point Break" and you get the picture. They do dangerous sports for the sheer rush of it. Socialism requires equal work from all members. This is impossible unless each member of society is the same. It will be tried again and again, but human nature goes against a large socialistic or communistic culture. Look at the example of the Soviet Union. They failed at their goal because they had to bring in the military to enforce socialism. You can't force socialism on people; they need to choose it out of their free will. However, small communes might work. If the US was split into many small communes, each with less than one hundred members, that was almost completely self-sufficient, it might work. Even this is debatable. In order for socialism to work, the people must want for it to work. With city-states, one or more of them can be socialistic. Getting out under the yoke of this system would make a pretty good epic series. People will never stand this system.
|
| World War | Goto Top |
|
See John Shirley's "Song Called Youth". War Zones, rebellions, fascism, nukes, extremely powerful military weaponry, space station, political intrigue are all present. Totalitarian governments are formed to keep the people fighting. However, plausibility leaks when you think about the power of today's weapons. The surface of the planet is likely to be devastated far too quickly, especially if nukes are used. A World War will probably signal the end of the world. It'll be one hell of a bang when it does, though.
|
| Systems Of Government |
| Anarchy | Goto Top |
|
Anarchy is a flawed system. It fails to draw out the evils of society. It seems that it is human nature to form a government. The next step after anarchy is to form a militaristic system, with the strongest leading and trying to answer the needs of all the people in the group. It is inevitable that feudalism will rise out of anarchy, because only the strong are prepared for anarchy, and there aren't enough strong out there.
|
| Feudalism | Goto Top |
|
Feudalism looks to be the only form of government besides democracy that works for long terms. Capitalism is merely feudalism disguised. Fascism is an extreme version of feudalism. The strongest person will kick down the weaker person and rule. It is a reflection of humanity's past as evolved primates. Cults are already fascist semi-feudal systems, thankfully doomed to follow their own prophecies and self-destruct. Larger religions usually end up supporting the reigning power in order to receive kickbacks for keeping the masses quiet and submissive.
|
| Empires / States | Goto Top |
|
Empires are likely. Much like the United States Empire swallowed up the individual states, the Russian Empire created the USSR, and many similar examples in today's politics, the city states or states of the futures will be bound up into confederations or empires or countries lead by a larger central government. States, like the United States are also likely. Today, people think of themselves as people of the state they live in as much as their country. Europe is going to be fragmentary for a long time, because each "state" has a different language, history, political system, and identity.
|
| Places |
| The Sprawl | Goto Top |
|
Many CyberPunk novels talk about the Sprawl. Many make specific reference to the BAMA Sprawl - the land between the Atlantic ocean and the Appalachians. Other suggested sprawls are the Rustbelt Sprawl in Ohio, Western New York State, Toronto, Michigan, and Chicago, the Texas Sprawl, which includes most of Texas, the Denver Sprawl, which is Cheyenne to Colorado Springs to Western Kansas. Usually people from the west coast write about their area as separate cities and states, but that can be yet another sprawl. Each sprawl is a conglomeration of major cities, towns, villages, etc. into one vast puzzle of real estate. Arcologies pick a reasonably abandoned spot and build a massive structure. Industries sprout along side of the arcologies to provide workers with anything not inside of the arcology. Everywhere except the arcologies is anarchy, but inside is a controlled system. Sprawls fit into many different settings. They can be a single city state, a conglomeration of city states, or a disorganized area. Remember that the suburbs will become part of the sprawl. The countryside near the suburbs will become part of the sprawl. The inner city areas might remain the same, or they might just end up a wasteland.
|
| Arcologies | Goto Top |
|
Arcologies are often linked to CyberPunk writings, even though they appear in many non-CyberPunk writings. An arcology is a massive structure that contains many of the elements of a city, however it is built like a massive building. They can only be built with massive corporate funding or massive government funding. The advantage of them is that you can have a massive population density in a small space. Think of a massive mall. Then think about adding a hotel. A few apartment buildings. An office building or two. A factory. A power generator. Stick a few mansions. Add some heliports. If you have enough roof space, try adding a runway. Elevators and walkways to connect it all. Air filtration systems. Make it the side of a few city blocks. Tall as the Sears Tower, except much wider. A corporate town is a lot like an arcology. Instead of building a self-contained building inside of a city, a self-contained town is built.
|
| Space Colonies | Goto Top |
|
Space colonies, built either in orbit or at one of the Trojan points over Earth, are also quite nice. The two popular locations outside of orbit are L4 and L5, which are about one eighth of an orbit away from the moon. In order to construct the colony, you need a moon base equipped with a mass-driver to fling buckets of undifferentiated lunar soil to lunar orbit. From there, you fling it to L4 or L5. Extract the titanium and aluminum from the soil and use it as building materials. The remaining slag, plus tons of extra soil, is used as the radiation shield. If you are not planning on artificial gravity, design the colony in a doughnut shape that rotates. The center of the hub is in zero-g and holds the manufacturing plant and docking ports. You also need space for a massive radiator and solar panels. The doughnut needs to be at least one kilometer in diameter in order to hold enough people to be self-sufficient. Population is somewhere over ten thousand. For larger designs, you either build a larger doughnut, or you build a sphere. Spheres are easy to make; they are just like blowing bubbles. It is expensive to build a space station. Arcologies are usually regarded as expensive, however space stations are an order of magnitude more expensive. Hundreds of launches are needed to get the building blocks up. More launches are needed to support the station as it is being built. A considerable investment is needed. Also, anything but a large space colony (100,000 people and up) will be dependent on the Earth. The larger ones will be mostly dependent on the moon or the asteroid belt. There is debate as to the realism of Space Colonies. It would take somewhere over twenty years to build a single colony. The CyberPunk era might be over by the time it is built. A space colony can be a wonderful way to take over the world. No current ICBM can reach a L5 point. A Saturn V or perhaps a Proton might be able to reach it. According to Larry Niven, in space, "Anything worth doing is worth turning into a weapon." A ten ton chunk of lunar material, if targeted at a population center, would cause more damage than a nuclear bomb, without the radiation afterwards. This is all theoretical, however. It depends on how you construct your universe. Marshal Motley is vehemently against the idea of space colonies.
|
| Obstructions |
| Nukes | Goto Top |
|
Nuclear War has been a shadow over our heads since it's invention. When communism collapsed, everybody thought that we didn't have to worry about nuclear annihilation anymore. Right. The opposite has happened. The chances of a nuclear bomb are greatly increased. Russia is selling nuclear weapons to the highest bidder. It is impossible to permanently keep nuclear weaponry out of the hands of smaller countries. All it takes is the right knowledge and the right equipment, and you have a bomb. If the USA splits up, each state will have a bomb. If the corporations become powerful, they are likely to have nuclear bombs as well. Right now, there's thirty hit wars going on, eleven of them involving a nuclear power. If you don't have an airplane to drop a nuke, then you just need to sneak one in. Even if it doesn't work, you still have the radioactive fallout all over the city. A truck or a trawler could conceal a nuclear bomb. The coast guard and the police don't carry Geiger Counters. The US used to think that our nuclear umbrella was enough to deter opponents. However, that is sadly wrong. The more countries that have nuclear bombs, the greater the chance that a group of individuals will get their hands on it. No longer do we have to use James Bond style tricks to get a nuke, because large amounts of Russian nuclear material are already missing, thanks to inadequate record keeping. You can't nuke or bomb a terrorist group without killing a lot of innocents. Therefore, it is not a question of if a nuclear bomb will go off, it is a question of when, where, and how damaging will the effects be when it gets set off.
|
| Plagues | Goto Top |
|
Doctors used to think that all of the diseases were curable. Nope. We thought that Syphilis was history, but it is back with a vengeance. All of the old viruses that we stopped fearing can easily kill you. Because bacteria evolve at a frantic pace, they quickly evolve to exploit our mistakes. We overused antibiotics in the farm and the hospital. Antibiotics are overprescribed all across the country and we are going to regret that when we don't have any more antibiotics that work on killer bacteria. AIDS is a killer. What many people don't know is that there are many different strains of HIV and some of them are undetectable by standard medical tests. Science has yet to come up with a vaccine to it. You can be vaccinated against one strain of AIDS and the other strains will infect you worse. The now famous Ebola virus is out on the loose as well as the Hantavirus. Also out there is the Dengue Hemorhaggic fever, which can infect you multiple times, each time worse until you are finally dead. Plus, it is spread by mosquitoes, just like meningitis. Genetic engineering is a wonderful weapon. Killer bugs can infect other populations. If the designer is racist, it can be keyed to infect only people of a certain racal group. Killer bugs are better than Nuclear bombs for wiping out the population. The cities are still there, but the people are gone. If you design it properly, you will have a vaccine that you can administer to your troops. If you don't design it properly, you will be decimated, however.
|
| The Curse Of Immortality | Goto Top |
|
Immortality sucks. Man is not meant to be immortal. Today's technologies have extended life and reduced mortality. Population is slowly reaching the limit of the maximum food production on Earth. People are not stopping to reproduce. Therefore, our population is increasing exponentially. Science has discovered the key to eliminating natural deaths. Computers can scan DNA fragments. Eventually, they will be able to scan the entire set of chromosomes and repair any accumulated DNA damage. Telomeres, which serve as caps for the DNA, will eventually be able to be regenerated, which will also eliminate aging. Xeroderma pigmentosum controls the rate of the body's natural DNA repair system. Accelerate its production, and the body will repair its own damage. Nerve cells die in time and no new nerve cells are created to take their place. Extract chemicals from aborted fetuses to stimulate nerve growth, and senility will be cured. Humanity is not well suited to immortality. Paradoxically, we search for immortality. There is not enough room for humanity on Earth. The ecosystem is strained already. Some independent soul may release a retrovirus containing the necessary genetic changes necessary for immortality. If such a virus is released, chaos will result. Humans will live much longer, freed of the limitations of natural death, leaving unnatural death as the only method of population control. Wars will be fought over the Earth's finite resources. Everybody thinks that they are the most suited to survive, therefore they will fight hard for immortality. Everybody thinks that they should spread their genetics, therefore they will all have children, with nobody stopping them from doing it until it is too late. |
