Peace is Everyone's Responsibility is one of the Planetary Consortium's largest charities, known for the large amounts of funding it receives from the hyperelite. It focuses on social influence and control, with the goal of maintaining the status quo under the guise of peace-keeping.
The bulk of the organizations efforts are focused on memetic engineering. The value of stability and order are emphasized, as are the risks of change and social progress. Problems among the autonomists are stressed, and problems among the Consortium downplayed.
One of their most successful program has been their introduction of sousveillance. Of course the hyperelite are not actually in favor of sousveillance, the program encourages citizens to inform on each other. This has been source of friction with the Planetary Consortium, who do not like busybodies "helping" local law enforcement.
Plot Hook: Occasionally the charity takes direct action. The PCs are hired to infiltrate an anarchist sympathy group and wipe their files.
Showing posts with label planetary consortium. Show all posts
Showing posts with label planetary consortium. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Monday, October 26, 2015
299. Planetary Convention
Immortality and compound interest are a powerful combination. Wealth and power begets wealth and power, and immortality allowed a select few to take advantage of this process as never before. This was the birth of the hyperelite, those whose wealth represented a significant fraction of the global economy, and seemed to own a part of every business and political body.
The Fall shattered this system just as it did to everything else, yet the hyperelite were not destroyed. Many of the hyperelite were already on Luna or Mars, where they could live as they liked, removed from Earth's laws, traditions, and taxes. Those on Earth were able to evacuate as they pleased, buying spaceports and farcasting facilities if necessary. The only hyperelite who died on Earth were those who were simply too stubborn to consider leaving.
Earth and all its institutions were dead. The hyperelite lost less than most, but their position was threatened. They had, however, funded or owned much of the colonization projects of Luna and Mars, giving them easy access to power in those places. In the traumatized post-Fall atmosphere gaining influence was not difficult, although many hyperelite still shied away from positions of formal power. As the situation stabilized, a number of conversations occurred that would lead to the creation of the Convention.
The Convention is not a government, but a treaty, establishing an economic zone of free trade, expansive property rights, and strict intellectual property laws, as well as a system of courts to adjudicate on matters falling under the treaty. The Convention courts have the authority to overrule local governments that contradict the treaty, although that has never actually happened.
Hyperelite control over Convention members is strong, but obscured. Power is exercised mostly through ownership of great conglomerate companies, who in total own or have some part in every substantial piece of economic activity. Make no mistake, however, although political power is secondary but it is still substantial.
Notes: The Planetary Convention is an alternative to the Planetary Consortium, replacing the hypercorps with ancient hyperelite gerentocrats.
The Fall shattered this system just as it did to everything else, yet the hyperelite were not destroyed. Many of the hyperelite were already on Luna or Mars, where they could live as they liked, removed from Earth's laws, traditions, and taxes. Those on Earth were able to evacuate as they pleased, buying spaceports and farcasting facilities if necessary. The only hyperelite who died on Earth were those who were simply too stubborn to consider leaving.
Earth and all its institutions were dead. The hyperelite lost less than most, but their position was threatened. They had, however, funded or owned much of the colonization projects of Luna and Mars, giving them easy access to power in those places. In the traumatized post-Fall atmosphere gaining influence was not difficult, although many hyperelite still shied away from positions of formal power. As the situation stabilized, a number of conversations occurred that would lead to the creation of the Convention.
The Convention is not a government, but a treaty, establishing an economic zone of free trade, expansive property rights, and strict intellectual property laws, as well as a system of courts to adjudicate on matters falling under the treaty. The Convention courts have the authority to overrule local governments that contradict the treaty, although that has never actually happened.
Hyperelite control over Convention members is strong, but obscured. Power is exercised mostly through ownership of great conglomerate companies, who in total own or have some part in every substantial piece of economic activity. Make no mistake, however, although political power is secondary but it is still substantial.
Notes: The Planetary Convention is an alternative to the Planetary Consortium, replacing the hypercorps with ancient hyperelite gerentocrats.
Thursday, July 2, 2015
183. Stoking the Firebrands
The Planetary Consortium's approach to their cold war with the Autonomist Alliance is to treat them like pests. They may never be eliminated entirely, but they can be managed, suppressed, and prevented from doing real damage. To the minds of the PC, the greatest weakness of the autonomists is that the disorder of their sociopolitical systems is only a step away from a breakdown into proper discord, balkanization, and dysfunction.
To this end, PC memeticists have maintained a powerful memetic campaign. Rather than attempt to convince autonomists of the PC's views, moderate them, and draw them towards compromise, the campaign seeks to radicalize all possible ideologies, driving wedges into autonomist communities. These memes are designed to support almost all ideological positions, encouraging stronger and stronger views, or else to make finer and finer distinctions within ideological groups, causing fractures among those who were previously united.
Plot Hook: PC memeticists have been carefully raising paranoia among autonomists regarding crypto-facist conspiracies that sound suspiciously like Firewall. Firewall needs a team to perform a raid/hack mission to determine if the memeticists have information on Firewall, and whether this might be an Ozma ploy to attack Firewall.
To this end, PC memeticists have maintained a powerful memetic campaign. Rather than attempt to convince autonomists of the PC's views, moderate them, and draw them towards compromise, the campaign seeks to radicalize all possible ideologies, driving wedges into autonomist communities. These memes are designed to support almost all ideological positions, encouraging stronger and stronger views, or else to make finer and finer distinctions within ideological groups, causing fractures among those who were previously united.
Plot Hook: PC memeticists have been carefully raising paranoia among autonomists regarding crypto-facist conspiracies that sound suspiciously like Firewall. Firewall needs a team to perform a raid/hack mission to determine if the memeticists have information on Firewall, and whether this might be an Ozma ploy to attack Firewall.
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
182. Sleepers
Transhumanity is in the middle of a cold war. The battle of Locus demonstrated the great difficulties of conquest against post-singularity peoples, but the inner and outer systems have certainly not given up on their rivalry. The Planetary Consortium is continually seeking to destabilize the Autonomist Alliance, while the autonomists in turn seek to undermine the PC and hypercorp.
One of the most active weapons in the autonomist arsenal are the sleepers. The inner-system economies rely heavily on infugees, much more than anyone else. Infugee databases should be well protected, and infugees should be subject to careful screenings, but of course no security is perfect. It has become common practice for anarchist firebrands to hack into infugee databases and copy a fork of themselves into it. They then do their best to be a good candidate for an indenture contract. At whichever job they end up, they will attempt to sabotage industry, incite rebellion among their fellow indentures, assassinate key figures, and in general take advantage of any opportunity to undermine the PC.
Sleepers are often given a programmed identity.
Plot Hook: Anti-Autonomist factions within Firewall see attempts to destabilize the PC as potential x-threats due to the high likelihood of war, economic collapse and balkanization in the event of success. The players are tasked with preventing the assassination of a particularly important hyperelite executive, but the executive cannot know of the player's intervention.
Plot Hook: An anarchist sleeper saboteur has plans to disable key elements of a Direct Action munitions fabrication site, and calls on an @-rep favor from one of the players for help.
One of the most active weapons in the autonomist arsenal are the sleepers. The inner-system economies rely heavily on infugees, much more than anyone else. Infugee databases should be well protected, and infugees should be subject to careful screenings, but of course no security is perfect. It has become common practice for anarchist firebrands to hack into infugee databases and copy a fork of themselves into it. They then do their best to be a good candidate for an indenture contract. At whichever job they end up, they will attempt to sabotage industry, incite rebellion among their fellow indentures, assassinate key figures, and in general take advantage of any opportunity to undermine the PC.
Sleepers are often given a programmed identity.
Plot Hook: Anti-Autonomist factions within Firewall see attempts to destabilize the PC as potential x-threats due to the high likelihood of war, economic collapse and balkanization in the event of success. The players are tasked with preventing the assassination of a particularly important hyperelite executive, but the executive cannot know of the player's intervention.
Plot Hook: An anarchist sleeper saboteur has plans to disable key elements of a Direct Action munitions fabrication site, and calls on an @-rep favor from one of the players for help.
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