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.
Showing posts with label autonomist alliance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label autonomist alliance. Show all posts
Thursday, July 2, 2015
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.
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
104. Democracy
Direct-democracies are a popular form of government in the Autonomist Alliance. Even those societies that are not wholly democratic often use democratic processes.
The difficulties of implementing direct democracy is greatly eased by post-singulairty technology. Many voters have their muses give their likely vote on routine matters. Some systems, allow voters to grant and rescind their votes, at will, to politicians and political parties. In others AIs embodying political philosophies or pursuing certain causes are favored. Someone might pledge their votes to the priorities of opening up trade, voting automatically on any related issue, next to a social stability oriented AI, voting in place of any pledged citizens, and have their muse handle anything that slips through the cracks.
Plot Hook: One of the political AIs of an Autonomist Alliance society has begun broadening its interest from embodying secular-transhumanism and begun making grander and grander promises to voters, speaking obscurely of "our benefactors". Firewall believes the AI is the early signs of TITAN infestation, and tasks the players with investigating.
The difficulties of implementing direct democracy is greatly eased by post-singulairty technology. Many voters have their muses give their likely vote on routine matters. Some systems, allow voters to grant and rescind their votes, at will, to politicians and political parties. In others AIs embodying political philosophies or pursuing certain causes are favored. Someone might pledge their votes to the priorities of opening up trade, voting automatically on any related issue, next to a social stability oriented AI, voting in place of any pledged citizens, and have their muse handle anything that slips through the cracks.
Plot Hook: One of the political AIs of an Autonomist Alliance society has begun broadening its interest from embodying secular-transhumanism and begun making grander and grander promises to voters, speaking obscurely of "our benefactors". Firewall believes the AI is the early signs of TITAN infestation, and tasks the players with investigating.
Saturday, March 7, 2015
66. Smart Constitutions
Power corrupts, but an AI need not be human enough to be corruptible. The increasing precision of formal legal language has met the improving fuzzy logic capabilities of sub-sentient AI. Many groups are now experimenting with autonomous legal systems.
Writing a smart constitution requires a somewhat different approach than a traditional document: they have trouble with generalities and abstract appeals to justice. Even the smartest constitution tends to err towards literal interpretations, and will favor what was actually written over what may have been intended. They are an effective supplement to a government, but it is risky to have them themselves govern.
A smart constitution is at its best when working within a formal, written framework. They therefore have served best in extropian influenced habitats, where formal contracts are the foundations of legal systems. Otherwise, they are most often used as hedges against power consolidation in autonomist habitats, carefully defining what can and cannot be done with formal power.
Notes
Inspired by Anders Sandberg's smart contracts.
Writing a smart constitution requires a somewhat different approach than a traditional document: they have trouble with generalities and abstract appeals to justice. Even the smartest constitution tends to err towards literal interpretations, and will favor what was actually written over what may have been intended. They are an effective supplement to a government, but it is risky to have them themselves govern.
A smart constitution is at its best when working within a formal, written framework. They therefore have served best in extropian influenced habitats, where formal contracts are the foundations of legal systems. Otherwise, they are most often used as hedges against power consolidation in autonomist habitats, carefully defining what can and cannot be done with formal power.
Notes
Inspired by Anders Sandberg's smart contracts.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
49. Consensus Societies of Extropia
On Extropia there is no central authority. The organization with the strongest claim, Extropy Now, exists to provide a haven for libertarians and anarcho-capitalists, and therefore avoids exercising any of its power. Large and complex markets have arisen, providing legal systems, security, arbitration and adjudication as paid services. Even with the advice of muses, expert systems and AIs, however, the potential interactions between these services can be inconvenient and unpredictable.
Like attracts like for both comfort and convenience. The interactions of competing legal systems, security contractors and private magistrates can become a headache for all involved. It is easiest to interact with those who share your expectations, and with whom you share a common adjudicator. Extropians are steadily conglomerating into sub-societies of shared legal systems, security arrangements and acceptance of arbitration: consensus societies.
The largest and most prominent examples of consensus societies are the Caliphate and the Commons. The Caliphate is ostensibly Extropian and autonomist friendly and the Caliph has deliberately downplayed formal authority: they use the open source legal system OpenSharia, and maintain no military or police system, being instead safeguarded by volunteer militia.
The Commons is populated primarily by refugees from commonwealth nations. They have created a legal system based primarily on the traditions of English common law, adjudicated by a hierarchy of elected judges, and enforced by volunteer police.
Plot Hook: Extropy Now, owners of Extropia, have become concerned with consensus societies, fearing that they will grow into states. They are looking for discrete social engineers, memeticists and hackers to non-violently undermine and collapse the Caliphate and the Commons.
Like attracts like for both comfort and convenience. The interactions of competing legal systems, security contractors and private magistrates can become a headache for all involved. It is easiest to interact with those who share your expectations, and with whom you share a common adjudicator. Extropians are steadily conglomerating into sub-societies of shared legal systems, security arrangements and acceptance of arbitration: consensus societies.
The largest and most prominent examples of consensus societies are the Caliphate and the Commons. The Caliphate is ostensibly Extropian and autonomist friendly and the Caliph has deliberately downplayed formal authority: they use the open source legal system OpenSharia, and maintain no military or police system, being instead safeguarded by volunteer militia.
The Commons is populated primarily by refugees from commonwealth nations. They have created a legal system based primarily on the traditions of English common law, adjudicated by a hierarchy of elected judges, and enforced by volunteer police.
Plot Hook: Extropy Now, owners of Extropia, have become concerned with consensus societies, fearing that they will grow into states. They are looking for discrete social engineers, memeticists and hackers to non-violently undermine and collapse the Caliphate and the Commons.
Saturday, January 3, 2015
3. All-Thing
Virtually every conceivable type of government or non-government can be found in the Autonomist Alliance. Some succeed, many fail, but the grand parade of social theories, experiments and designs always continues. The information and communication technologies of transhumanity make many new forms possible, and many old forms can be improved.
The citizens of the small Bernal sphere named Leer Fluss are governed by the All-Thing.
The All-Thing is a reincarnation of the things of Germanic tradition, a meeting of every citizen to decide all matters of law and policy. It is overseen by Lawspeaker, a purpose built AI with no interests except to ensure smooth procedure and cite relevant precedence. It is always in session.
In order for the All-Thing to always be in session, every citizen provides an alpha-fork of themselves as a representative. The regular forking and merging makes cyberbrains a requirement; forking with biological brains simply takes too long. Citizens merge with their representatives and then re-fork after every decision, ensuring that the forks represent their citizens accurately, and that the citizens have full memory of deliberations and decisions and are kept up-to-date.
As Leer Fluss has slowly grown, the All-Thing has become more and more cumbersome. The simulspace meeting-hall can simply be expanded, but regular procedure has become slow. Some have proposed the creation of smaller Things, each with jurisdiction over its members, with the All-Thing reserved for habitat-wide issues only. Anarchist-leaning citizens, however, object to the creation of a federal hierarchy, and threaten to leave if this is implemented. Some, with gleeful irony, have noted in return that an exodus of anarchists would in fact alleviate the population problems necessitating the new structure. It seems conflict is in Leer Fluss' future.
The citizens of the small Bernal sphere named Leer Fluss are governed by the All-Thing.
The All-Thing is a reincarnation of the things of Germanic tradition, a meeting of every citizen to decide all matters of law and policy. It is overseen by Lawspeaker, a purpose built AI with no interests except to ensure smooth procedure and cite relevant precedence. It is always in session.
In order for the All-Thing to always be in session, every citizen provides an alpha-fork of themselves as a representative. The regular forking and merging makes cyberbrains a requirement; forking with biological brains simply takes too long. Citizens merge with their representatives and then re-fork after every decision, ensuring that the forks represent their citizens accurately, and that the citizens have full memory of deliberations and decisions and are kept up-to-date.
As Leer Fluss has slowly grown, the All-Thing has become more and more cumbersome. The simulspace meeting-hall can simply be expanded, but regular procedure has become slow. Some have proposed the creation of smaller Things, each with jurisdiction over its members, with the All-Thing reserved for habitat-wide issues only. Anarchist-leaning citizens, however, object to the creation of a federal hierarchy, and threaten to leave if this is implemented. Some, with gleeful irony, have noted in return that an exodus of anarchists would in fact alleviate the population problems necessitating the new structure. It seems conflict is in Leer Fluss' future.
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