Outer System Polities

Posted by: Cacophonous, Firewall Proxy

The rimward system’s scattered and more isolated population has given rise to unique political movements and entities. It is home to experimenters, innovators, and iconoclasts, side-by-side with those who cling to the past, regressive policies, and outmoded ideas.

Anarchists

Anarchists! Scary, right? We’re coming to get ya!

We’re not. Deal with a couple hundred years of capitalist propaganda turning you and yours into a bogeyman and see how much of a sense of humor you have about it. But why would corporations and so-called free markets hate us so much? Simple: we are the exact opposite of everything they represent. Hierarchies create inequalities. This is true in the entirety of history. You can't have capitalism without exploitation, full stop. Anarchists have this crazy idea that we don't need to fuck each other over to survive. We seek to minimize structures where people have power over others in order to maximize freedom and equality. That’s a direct challenge to the status quo, the rich, the people in power — so the sociopaths making bank on other people’s suffering do their best to paint us as monsters.

We’re Not What You Think

There’s an important distinction between anarchism and anarchy: the former is the lack of hierarchy, while the latter is chaos. Anarchists are not interested in mayhem and destruction. Capitalists hear “no laws” and immediately think “I can finally exploit people without consequences!” Anarchists do not. Cooperation, not competition, is the crux of survival in anarchist communities.

The natural extension of this philosophy is a kind of collectivism. We recognize that we can live without vertical power structures, so we instead create horizontal forms of organization that enable everyone within a group to have a voice. We work to build each other up instead of tearing each other apart.

That distinction may be why so many outer-system habs gravitate towards anarchist ideals. When everyone’s life depends on a single radiation shield, a handful of air recyclers, and a working nanofabricator, it’s in everyone’s best interests to keep the station going. There’s no room in that scenario for cut-throat individualism.

Ideal Organization

Anarchists are used to the question, “What’s to stop you from murdering as many people as you want?” The answer is, “We do murder as many people as we want: zero.”

There’s no threat of Hell, no political entity, and no king waiting to chop off your head if you fuck up. There’s only the imperative to treat others in the community with the same kind of respect and kindness you wish to receive. Understand that this altruism is rooted in selfishness; you selfishly want people not to act like assholes towards you, so you should not act like an asshole.

When anarchists organize, we do so voluntarily and horizontally. We create militias for self-defense. We sometimes select individuals to steer public projects towards approval. And we make no decisions without first allowing everyone affected by that decision to have a say.

Modern Anarchism

Various communities on Earth ran on anarchist principles in the years before the Fall (the Iroquois Confederacy, Spain, Ukraine, Chiapas, Rojava, etc.), but it wasn’t until the invention of nanofabrication technologies that we reached a level of post-scarcity and independence that anarchist communities could thrive. The modern anarchist credo states “from each according to their imagination; to each according to their need.” Nanofabricators allow anarchists to eschew traditional “work” to pursue personal interests, from scientific research to artistic expression.

Mesh technology was an additional boon to modern-day anarchism. Real-time communication, faciliated by apps and muses, enables everyone in a group to easily participate in referendums and quickly reach consensus on local community decisions. No one is left out of decision-making, unless they want to be.

This all leads to the most jarring difference between anarchist and hypercorp habs: there is no private property beyond personal possessions. The community owns everything, because it was fabricated from the community’s resources, by the community’s machines, for the community’s use. This concept is difficult for capitalists to wrap their heads around; so too our lack of currency. There are no retail shops, no need to buy things, just spaces where you can work on projects collaboratively or get help from skilled volunteers. Anarchists rely on reputation when they need things from others. Do good work for the community, your rep goes up. Be an asshole, it goes down.

What We Face

Anarchy isn’t easy. Informal hierarchies grow all the time, even in communities that take precautions against it. It can be something as innocuous as favoring one style of art over another or as destructive as ceding control of the station to an emergency council. Our gift economy attracts its fair share of mooches too, and they sometimes aren’t discovered before doing some real damage to a community.

We also face military invasion by the Consortium, Jovians, Ultimates, and other authoritarian forces, and we sometimes lack the means to fight back against their superior firepower. Sometimes. We have weapons too and are not shy about self defense. That in itself is another danger: in an open-source community, there’s nothing to stop someone from taking something destructive and using it improperly, maybe even unleashing a second Fall. Nothing but ourselves, that is. We self-monitor our fabbers and communities for signs of danger and antisocial tendencies, and the same opensource tools help us to quickly develop remedies.

The Autonomist Alliance

And here we are: anarchists, Extropians, scum, Titanians, and other radicals united. To hear the Consortium talk, we’re a collection of unwashed, rabble-rousing parasites interested in taking your hard-earned stuff and giving it away to lazy moochers. No. We’re proof that their way of life is fading to extinction, while ours works — and works well. They’re scared of us not because of our weapons, but because we’re living proof that one day their slaves will revolt against them and throw them from their glittering towers.

The outer system, from the Main Belt to Saturn, is our power base, but there are Alliance members everywhere rimward, and more in the inner system than the Consortium will ever admit.

From the Fall

As the smoke cleared from the Fall and rimward stations took as many infugees as possible from Earth, we watched in horror at the consolidation of power in the inner system and Jovian Republic. We devised an alternative: the Autonomist Alliance. In the beginning, the Alliance was a mutual-aid and defense pact. If a habitat were attacked or in need, other habs would respond, help, and defend.

Not long after, the Consortium attempted to shut down Locus with a small military force based on trumped-up claims of copyright infringement and property theft. The anarchists were more well-armed then expected and drove off the invasion. Stunned, the Consortium regrouped and returned with a much larger fleet. They were met by a ragtag band of anarchists, scum barges, brinker cargo ships, Extropian pleasure yachts — and the Titanian Fleet, which officially chose a side and joined the Alliance. This victory transformed the Alliance into a true political power.

Ideologies and Structures

The Alliance represents diverse points of view, though they are largely anti-authoritarian. Members agree to abide by four distinct points of unity, guiding principles for autonomist communities:

• We demand autonomy, self-organization, and self-governance for all sapient beings.
• We support direct democracy and forms of organization where sapients collectively decide their own future.
• We promote mutual aid and reciprocating altruism between sapients.
• We affirm the right to engage in self-defense against oppression and coercive authority and stand in solidarity with sapients so attacked.

There is no formal political structure behind the Alliance; its members’ dislike of hierarchy creates massive internal resistance to any consolidation of political power. Instead we have joint resolutions; only a few dozen have ever passed. The first condemned the Planetary Consortium for the attacks on Locus and called for autonomists to resist hypercorp expansionism. Another codified uplifts and AGIs as full transhumans with equal rights; yet another threw Alliance support behind the Love and Rage Collective’s gatecrashing expeditions.

Joint resolutions can also create task forces, voluntary organizations that enact the will of the Alliance. Task forces have no individualized authority. They are accountable to the Alliance specifically for the job for which they were created. The Open Science Initiative (OSI) is one such Force, tasked with putting science in everyone’s hands.

Political Relationships

Alliance members understand that their largest risk is an organized military operation from the Jovians, the Consortium, or both. This very real threat has led to a three-way stalemate between the three powers. The Alliance has become very good at playing the Republic and the Consortium off each other. It gives their scientists time to increase their technological advantage and keeps their two largest enemies firmly occupied.

Spreading the Revolution

Posted by: Eludere, Firewall sentinel

It’s an open secret that various anarchists and other Alliance members funnel resources, technology, and data to Barsoomian groups on Mars. Some see this as an imperative, to help the people of the inner system throw off the choking hold of the oligarchs. Some see it as payback for the saboteurs the hypercorps send to the outer system whenever autonomists start getting in the way of their expansion plans and profits.

Extropians

Posted by: Mizar Alcor, Firewall Sentinel

Extropians are the only ones to truly embrace the free market. The hypercapitalism destroying Mars and the inner system isn’t an actual free market, it’s just more of the same liberty-crushing regulatory nonsense with government wolves in corporate clothing. And the lovey-dovey collectivist bullshit going on across those anarchist habs seems nice in principle, but in reality it’s hot garbage. The lack of laws is good, but do you really want to share all of your stuff with strangers, rely on your neighbors for backup, and sacrifice yourself to the collective? We’re the happy medium between the two, the truly free market that lets individuals express themselves.

Entering the Contract

The unifying principle of all Extropian communities is the contract. When you enter an Extropian habitat, you sign rental agreements for the life support and space and hire private contractors to provide protection and emergency services. Any ongoing economic transactions and relationships are based on contracts agreed upon by all involved parties. The only binding law is what’s put into writing in these contracts, backed by a freelance judiciary service. Private ownership is respected in Extropian communities, and rep is based on completing contracts to the benefit of all. ALIs are integral to such a complex economic system, handling contracts, disputes, and microtorts in real-time. Contracts are scrupulously maintained and tracked in decentralized holochain cryptographic ledgers.

Market Anarchist Flavors

Most Extropians identify as individualists and “anarcho-capitalists,” a term which always triggers those collectivist anarchists who consider capitalism and anarchism to be incompatible. Sorry, not sorry. The basis of Extropians ideology is a strict non-aggression policy, stating that any threat or act of violence against another person violates their right to self-determination. A subset of Extropians known as mutualists have a more anti-capitalist bent, favoring markets but not profiteering. They establish mutualist cooperative banks, owned by their customers and operated by ALIs, which give out interest-free loans and use their own m-credit cryptocurrency. Mutualist corporations are structured as worker-owned cooperatives, and these compete alongside hypercorps in transitional economies.

Intermediaries

Extropian habitats serve as a bridge between inner-system hypercorps and outer-system collectives. The suits like having their markets and the freaks like not having cops breathing down their necks. We put both at ease while pissing off both at the same time.

While Extropians are in favor of tangible private property, we long ago surrendered support for intellectual property. Quite a few Extropian hypercorps base their business models on reverse-engineering or the concept of shanzhai (counterfeit goods, trademark infringement, and other reproductions). We also are less concerned with overbearing habitat legalities, so our corps are often willing to trade products or services that aren't economically feasible for Consortium corps: narcoalgorithms, hacking zero-days, weapon systems, AGIs, certain genetic mods, etc. This gives our habitats a reputation among sunward types for being outlaw havens, which certainly has a nice ring to it.

Meanwhile, the autonomists criticize us for allowing contracts that are “exploitive,” but if an adult wants to sign an agreement to become an indenture, I don't see why I should stop them. They also criticize our lack of a social safety net for society’s downtrodden, as if we are all somehow responsible for each other’s mistakes and bad luck. You ask me, if we're pissing off both sides, we're probably doing it right.

The Jovian Republic

Posted by: Tio Silencio, Firewall Proxy

The Jovian Republic rose from the ashes of the Seventeen-Minute War, when US military forces and their South American allies, acting on spurious intel, wiped out opposing Chinese and Russian forces and seized control of Jovian space. This was immediately followed by a coup, bringing all Jovian stations under their control, with the exception of Europa.

With the collapse of Earth and the arrival of various government officials seeking refuge, the military junta established the framework for a new Republic. Though lip service is paid to democratic ideals, and an elected Senate nominally passes laws, everyone knows the Security Council wields true political power. Its word is law, and its head, Commander in Chief Monica Contreras, rules the Jovian system with a titanium fist.

What Drives the Republic

I wish I could condemn the actions of the Security Council as fascism, but the truth is far murkier. Every Jovian citizen looks back at the Fall with two words on our lips: “never again.” Whatever it takes for humanity to survive, we will do. If we must be the ones to make those hard decisions, then so be it. This is why we lean so bioconservative, why AGIs and uplifts are forbidden, and why scientific research must be carefully regulated. I don’t agree with these actions, but the goals themselves I do wholeheartedly. Never again means never again, whether it’s the return of the TITANs, out-of-control transhumans, or another threat we cannot conceive.

Religion plays a major role in our lives (I am an ordained priest). The Roman Catholic Church found safe refuge here, and the Security Council maintains a long-running partnership with the Papacy. The Vatican offers religious guidance to the Council, which is thinly-veiled lobbying, and not all of it in the best interests of the faithful. Religious attitudes prevail; while genefixing is accepted, many enhancements are considered unnatural, and resleeving is considered suicide/murder. Many Jovians retain their original birth bodies.

The Council on Bio-Ethics and Advanced Technology (CBEAT) mandates social and legal policy in the Republic. CBEAT is responsible for evaluating new technologies to determine whether their application is safe and ethical for Jovian citizens. I joined Firewall after watching the child of one of my parishioners pass away from a disease that could have been cured by technology deemed unethical by CBEAT. I held the boy’s cooling corpse in my arms, and promised his parents two words: “never again.”

Our Place in the System

The Jovian Republic has one thing no other political body has: the strongest military in the system. The Consortium fears us, because they make every effort to woo us from their embassy on Liberty.

This relationship is also a function of the Republic’s slingshot taxation, one of our chief sources of revenue. Many ships traversing the Solar System take advantage of Jupiter’s gravity well to save on fuel. Each of these is automatically assessed and taxed. The hypercorps seek to lower these tariffs as well as ease restrictive Jovian laws so they can more effectively tap into the Jovian consumer base. The Security Council remains skeptical of transhumanity’s ability to keep a handle on destructive technologies, however, and so limits trade in the interests of security.

Scum

Posted by: Isabella Dandolo, Firewall Proxy

The scum are societal dropouts. They have walked away from normie transhuman culture to pursue their own radical self-expression. They have rejected consumerism, work, and the other spectacles and shackles that people live under. Their central imperative is to live life to the fullest, and they pursue this with drugs, body mods, sex, art, and anything else that captures their interest. Some consider this hedonistic, depraved, or even criminal. The scum response would be that a life in a cage isn't worth living.

Scum resemble anarchists (and some are). Most take politics less seriously, however, though they adopt various communal methods of organization. They have little regard for rules that impede personal growth and pleasure, so long as everyone is a willing participant. However, many scum groups adopt guiding principles that include concepts like self-reliance, radical inclusion, and active consent. Scum often cohere into tribes, camps, crews, or packs based on thematic concepts or general affinity, but these are ephemeral and fluctuate frequently.

Origins

The scum have their roots among those that followed the expansion into space and either broke ranks with the hypercorps or were abandoned by them to their own fate. These exiles survived in the cracks and fringes, refusing to go back down the well.

Following the evacuation of Earth, refugee ships choked the system, often overcrowded and in danger of overloading their systems. These were turned away from major settlements that were themselves already full. The scum who already survived on their own came to their aid and helped them to congregate in fleets to share resources and support each other in emergencies. Together they attempted to occupy the remnants of habitats destroyed or abandoned in the conflict or erected other emergency hab structures from ingenuity and desperation. As the fleets moved, they found ways to pull these structures with barges or made them mobile by fitting rockets to them.

Given their rejection from sanctuary, these survivors turned their back on society. Many turned to drugs, escapism, or even suicide out of despair. In response, others worked hard to create a positive, celebratory, party atmosphere. Anarchists and other radicals in their ranks helped them to self-organize. It wasn't long before these swarms adopted the practices of Traveler and Roma cultures, choosing a nomadic lifestyle, living by their own rules, and staying in one place only as long as necessary. These perpetual rovers circle the sun using minimal amounts of fuel, going wherever their whims takes them.

The Black Market

Scum swarms are valued as bringers of (temporary) entertainment to the habitats they pass near. They also serve a valuable economic function, acting as black and red-market dealers and transports. Swarms straddle the fence between various economies; their dealings with inner-system stations require them to handle currencies, and interactions with Extropians require contracts, but among their own ranks and with autonomists they practice gift exchange and rely on rep.

Swarms of Note

These scum swarms are notorious throughout the Solar System:

• The Carnival of the Goat is infamous for its sexual expression, lasciviousness, body switching, and unique morph designers.
• Get Your Ass to Mars travels a languid path between Mars and Titan, and is famous for hosting the creative Scum Olympics.
• Lick Me, I’m Delicious is on a grand tour of the Solar System, with the stated goal of visiting every moon, station, and planet.
• The Stars Our Destination happily advertises itself as a home for social rejects. More organized than other scum, each ship has a specific role designed to keep the swarm running.
• Each ship in There’s No Going Back is devoted to re-enacting a different historical theme with a technological twist, from Shogunate Japan to the American Wild West.

The Titanian Commonwealth

Posted by: Magnus Ming, Titan Autonomous University

60 million transhumans live on Titan, and we have forged a model society for the future of transhumanity. Everyone is welcome, everyone contributes, and everyone breathes free together. It is our hope that we will serve as an example for the rest of the system to one day emulate.

From Settlers to Leaders

Titan was settled in the 21st century by researchers and academics; it was the only major settlement in the Solar System not funded or controlled by hypercorp interests. Titan remained fiercely independent, emulating the socialist economies of the Scandinavian countries familiar to its original colonists. The Commonwealth is a gift economy, relying on reputation like much of the outer system. However, we also use a currency called the kroner, which is not spent but reinvested in microcorps, thus helping us allocate collective resources.

Technosocialism

The Titanian Commonwealth is a direct democracy. There’s no Senate or Parliament, just a voting body called the Plurality. Everyone votes using their muse, and initiatives are decided quickly. Every Titanian citizen literally enters a social contract when they come of age, which outlines their rights to vote and raise initiatives to the Plurality.

The Commonwealth’s powerhouse economy is driven by microcorps (rather than Consortium hypercorps); these ventures range from one-person outfits to the Gatekeeper Corporation, which employs tens of thousands. Microcorps are technically owned by the Commonwealth, and their successes buoy everyone.

In turn, the Commonwealth reinvests its social and economic capital in projects for the greater good: telescope arrays, radio antennas, antimatter-drive exploration, and even generation ships aimed at nearby systems.

Titanian Life

The Commonwealth prides itself on its permissible social policies. Uplifts and AGIs have full rights within the Commonwealth, forking is permitted, and drugs are widely available. There is no indentures, and scientific research doesn’t face the Republic’s hurdles or the Consortium’s profit-seeking diversions.

The Titanian Commonwealth maintains a powerful military force, cementing our position as a major political power in the outer system. Like it or not, they’re the only element that has staved off attacks by the Republic and the Consortium. Everyone in the Commonwealth and the Alliance owes their safety to the brave people who protect our hard-won freedoms.