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Jovian Briefings Volume 1

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Extrasolar Angel Extrasolar Angel's picture
Jovian Briefings Volume 1
[i]"Throughout the Sol System, our problems are the same: so far from the places of our birth, so far from the sun's warm rays, so far from the lives we once expected to lead. devoured by the TITAN Swarms, those lives, and billions of others as well. And yet out here in the cold and dark we hang on, even thrive, because we're brave enough to believe we can. If the space around us is lousy with nanomachines, genetic abominations and inhumans blown upward by solar wind, well, at least we can do what's necessary to keep them outside.I think the General Watson, in widely published transcripts of failed negotiations 2 Y.A.F with would later be named as Planetary Consortium speaks for us all with his immortal words, "Shut up. We don't want to end up like the Earth."[/i] Jovian Republic Congress 15th Grand Session opening speech by esteemed Sentator Lugworth from Peace and Progress Party(see note 1) The following briefing describes the main factions within the Jovian Republic, their motivations and long term goals: *Heritage faction: would seek to rebuild military position of the Jovian republic and destroy TITAN remnants on Earth, reclaiming it. It's mainly composed of former military and space navy staff, veterans of war with TITANS(including people who fought on the ground-think of Kyle Reese, Sarah Connor when thinking of their attitude and beliefs) *Alamo faction: sees its goal to protect the last remains of "pure and untouched humans"(this one is in charge currently, however most factions acknowledge the rest of transhumanity as spoiled at ultimately leading to repeat of the TITAN-like disaster), made mostly of escaped bioconservative politicians and intelligence officials/operatives *Third Option/Escapists faction: settling of other stars, grey colonies(asteroids sent into deep space with long term habitation as a goal and hidden)-various members, some adventurous military folks and scientists with mix of space navy people. *Patriarchs: rich oligarchic families from military-industrial and energy complex of former USA together with some political dynasties that seek to continue their influential lifestyles and escape consequences of their contribution to the Fall(the Rich 6 are the most notable dynasties) Current regime is composed of Patriarch/Alamo faction who dominate politics while appeasing other factions *Prospero group. They seek to expand their wealth and prosperity of people by increasing trade with other powers and diverting resources to the improvement of people's standard of living(see note 2) Dissenters of Jovian Republic *Humanity First: radical bioconservatives who try to ban mods altogether and introduce only Flat lifestyle *Hermes Group-made in secret by original space colonists in Jovian facilities, engineers and some scientists who would like to tap the enormous potential of Jupiter system in full(terrafroming Europa combined with biomods, gasbag life in atmosphere and so on) Overall view: The official line in Jovian Republic is that Fall was the result of vain nanoresearch by technoprogressive countries and meddling of corporate entities interested in takeover of world governance(the republic's leadership largely made out of military, special ops personel and former Pan-American government officials hates and despise PC very much but both sides have cold peace kind of deal between them). All these factions are not represented as parties-rather they cover various institutions and official political organisations in Jovian Republic, and compete for influence. The current power struggle is stable-with Alamo/Patriarch faction being in charge and bribing Heritage faction with funds for military and warfare research. The A/P rule welcomes the status quo even though they do want to boost military capabilities of JR. Heritage faction has its people in Intelligence services and would like to scheme a grand war in Sol System to cripple Planetary Consortium with Lunar and Morningstar powers starting war with PC, and planned later involvement of JR to take over Mars. Later with consolidated resources of Mars, Jovian system and Luna they plan to retake Earth. Rogue Patriarch members(mainly those from former political parties whose members were slaughtered during Exodus by PC) do assist them in covert ways. The Jovians make also good use of Reclaimers as their spying network, and have infiltrated several Reclaimer groups and factions. Heritage faction hopes to use them as terror/sabotage operatives in war against PC. The oligarchs in Republic though are very different from the ones in PC-while those from PC usually come from corporate background, the ones in Republic are mostly from Pan-American one, from families deeply connected to government business and military-industrial complex. Think Haliburton, Joanne Herring, rich oil families from Texas to get the vibe. Unlike the PC, the Jovian Republic usually hides their existance in the background of society and does not publicly admit their influence. In secret one faction of Jovian intelligence has already prepared a list of corporate top dogs and scientists to be arrested and their mind state erased once the Republic will reassert its lawful rule over Inner System to protect humanity from Second Fall(this is a very, very long term plan and not all Jovian factions agree with Heritage and Patriarch factions on this, in fact there some within those factions as well that would oppose such act) There are also also connected to Nine Lives as aftermath of Pan-American operation dating back before the war which involved setting up various sleeper cells in foreign states as well as providing a secret evacuation route for valuable operatives. The least influential group(Third Option) is mainly attached to science and exploration research as well as threat assessment. Under the cover of set-up or allied hypercorps they also have engaged in gatecrashing. Those factions do control various branches and facilities of Jovian Republic-including laboratories, research and surveillance bases, as well as interrogation prisones for various anarchist and inhuman elements that attempted to harm the The Republic. It is quite common for the factions to unite together in various missions which the JR is engaged in(they will be detailed in future briefing). Sending recovery teams to Earth, pursuing cutting edge alien technology from Gatecrashing expeditions, scientists hidden in personas of common and mundane people on Luna or Mars and so on. ----------------- Note 1-this speech is taken somewhat from the novel Bloom. Note 2-this is an idea from Arenamontanus Any comments welcomed.
[I]Raise your hands to the sky and break the chains. With transhumanism we can smash the matriarchy together.[/i]
kingsley_zissou kingsley_zissou's picture
Re: Jovian Briefings Volume 1
One of the elements I'd like to expand on is the Latin American heritage of the Junta. Now, unfortunately, beyond a Garcia Marquez book or two, my knowledge of 20th Century conservative Latin America is limited. But let me raise a few questions: What kind of secret police or death squads does the Junta use? (like the Caravan of Death in Chile) While religion wanes elsewhere, did the Patriarchs bring the zealous and mystical Catholicism with them? And if not, do rituals and holidays like Día de los Muertos still survive in some form? How does the coca leaf survive in these habitat? I imagine, to up production, the Junta may subsidize the old method of coca use, using the leaf and some pH base solution. Flats walk around the hot-ass habitats, chewing on leaves to stay peppy. Last, I think descendants of dudes like Branco or Pinochet would be great NPC's to see how their legacies survived despite the truth.
Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture
Re: Jovian Briefings Volume 1
I think it is important to remember that South America is no longer banana republics, just as the US is no longer stuck in the 60s. Look at the cultural dimensions instead, they are more persistent: big power distance (you are afraid of your boss), strong family ties, heavy uncertainty avoidance (bureaucrats rather do something stupid than break a rule or venture into "making it up as we go along"-territory) and strong masculinity (Hofstede's term: winning and being macho is valued, egalitarianism is not). The US is much higher in individuality and accepting uncertainty, lower in power distance but also has high masculinity. So I would think the JR is definitely a high-masculinity society, with individualism/collectivism, power distance and uncertainty avoidance somewhere in between or varying between places.
kingsley_zissou wrote:
What kind of secret police or death squads does the Junta use? (like the Caravan of Death in Chile)
Isn't it more scary to base it on the current DHS and the Guantanamo system? "Sorry, we cannot tell you what happened to your husband. National security issue." The classic secret police and death squads were nasty in an "up close and personal" way, but they were also low-tech and quite human. Having a distributed network of interrogation/torture houses like in Argentina means enough people would escape and interrogators would crack to make the system leak (I have a friend who escaped it; the escape was amazingly half-assed and yet a literal matter of life and death).
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While religion wanes elsewhere, did the Patriarchs bring the zealous and mystical Catholicism with them? And if not, do rituals and holidays like Día de los Muertos still survive in some form?)
Religions tend to have an upswing when there is a crisis, so we should expect the EP world to be *more* religious than it was before the Fall. Which might still be less than now, since religions tend to decline when standards of living improve (see this statistical analysis).
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How does the coca leaf survive in these habitat? I imagine, to up production, the Junta may subsidize the old method of coca use, using the leaf and some pH base solution. Flats walk around the hot-ass habitats, chewing on leaves to stay peppy.
Why use hard to culture plants for it, except for traditional reasons? It is trivial to put the right genes into lactobacteria and make a coke yoghurt. Or why not update the plants to produce some modern designer drugs? Ah, bioconservatism...
Extropian
kingsley_zissou kingsley_zissou's picture
Re: Jovian Briefings Volume 1
This is all great, especially given my lack of knowledge in the field. While the banana republics are mostly from the 60's, don't you think that some Jovian elements would be nostalgic for that kind of control, so much that they may implement some of their methodology? Arguably, nanosocialism uses some of the ideas that arose in the 60's, so the other side of the coin might make sense. That said, the patriarchal atmosphere is something worth exploring; I was going to mention machismo, but I wasn't sure how widespread it was. This also makes me wonder how integrated Brazilian culture is in this whole setup; from the gender readings I've done, it seems slightly different from their Spanish neighbors. While Guantanamo is definitely the default for dissidents and illegal internment, I still think that death squads still have a place in the Junta. With so many soldiers available, wouldn't it make sense for some of that surplus aggression to be funneled into direct and personal intimidation/kidnapping/murder? On the topic of religion, I would tend to agree that the Junta is probably more religious, but how accommodating do you think are of mystical traditions like Santeria? Do these kind of non-Western rituals conflict with patriarchy? Also, I love the idea of coca yogurt. I imagine people squeezing Gogurt packs all day.
Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture
Re: Jovian Briefings Volume 1
kingsley_zissou wrote:
While the banana republics are mostly from the 60's, don't you think that some Jovian elements would be nostalgic for that kind of control, so much that they may implement some of their methodology? Arguably, nanosocialism uses some of the ideas that arose in the 60's, so the other side of the coin might make sense.
Hmm, how much of current US society draws on pre-civil war politics and culture? Nanosocialism like the one in EP is pretty alien to the socialist ideas of the 60's, yet is descended from them. Most ideas have longer pedigrees than people recognize - extropianism ties in with renaissance and early enlightenment ideas - yet change enormously (Marx would likely be totally aghast at the idea of a reputation economy with AI, since it completely wrecks his conceptual foundations).
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While Guantanamo is definitely the default for dissidents and illegal internment, I still think that death squads still have a place in the Junta. With so many soldiers available, wouldn't it make sense for some of that surplus aggression to be funneled into direct and personal intimidation/kidnapping/murder?
A society where the military is doing whatever it wants because it feels like it is not going to be very stable. There was a reason those juntas were couping each other all the time.
Extropian
Extrasolar Angel Extrasolar Angel's picture
Re: Jovian Briefings Volume 1
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A society where the military is doing whatever it wants because it feels like it is not going to be very stable. There was a reason those juntas were couping each other all the time
That's not the complete picture though-Salazar's Portugal, Turkey, South Korea or Taiwan were quite stable autocratic states with strong influence or leadership role of military.
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This also makes me wonder how integrated Brazilian culture
Either Sunward or Core rulebook mentions Pan-American forces shooting down Brazilian starship with refugees. My guess is that Pan-American Alliance is a USA led political entity where USA is semi-fascist power with strong political influence of Hispanic community. Brazil as a more democratic multicultural entity on the rise might be a rival power in such a scenario, and thus not present in Jovian Republic.
[I]Raise your hands to the sky and break the chains. With transhumanism we can smash the matriarchy together.[/i]
Axel the Chimeric Axel the Chimeric's picture
Re: Jovian Briefings Volume 1
Am I the only one who finds the idea of the United States becoming fascist silly? The US is too utterly divisive to ever become fascist; you can't appeal to one group large enough to swing your vote without pissing off the twenty others who are just as big. Pick any scapegoat issue a fascist group might use to rise to power and you'll find just as many people willing to shout you down on it. This, combined with one hell of a nebulous government, leads me to the conclusion that, while you might see a very corrupt government rise to power, it'd still ultimately be a democratic one (or at least have that kind of facade).
pablofiasco pablofiasco's picture
Re: Jovian Briefings Volume 1
unless the military really got behind one party, and just kinda "moved in" unlikly? very yes, but unpossible? well, theres always that slight chance

"the hunt is not complete until the targets heart is pulled from its chest and eaten" -hunter

Axel the Chimeric Axel the Chimeric's picture
Re: Jovian Briefings Volume 1
Extrasolar Angel Extrasolar Angel's picture
Re: Jovian Briefings Volume 1
Quote:
Am I the only one who finds the idea of the United States becoming fascist silly?
Russia turned from Orthodox monarchy ruled by tsar without electricity into a an atheist superpower ruled by collective of workers, peasants and thinkers that splitted the power of the atom in the timeframe of one century. A lot of things can happen in a century, especially to a declining power with nostalgia for good old times when it was the sole superpower in the world. Also there was always a certain under current of fascism(fascism not nazism-more of a Italy under Mussolini than Germany) in the States that could become dominant in more desperate times.
[I]Raise your hands to the sky and break the chains. With transhumanism we can smash the matriarchy together.[/i]
Extrasolar Angel Extrasolar Angel's picture
Re: Jovian Briefings Volume 1
kingsley_zissou wrote:
With so many soldiers available, wouldn't it make sense for some of that surplus aggression to be funneled into direct and personal intimidation/kidnapping/murder?
Good point-I have an idea about Jovian Republic having mass sports events with much more brutal rules between rival teams from its colony cities mentioned. All in the spirit of "Starship Troopers" movie portayal of rivalry between teens and military staff. Semi-Gladiator fights could also be an option.
[I]Raise your hands to the sky and break the chains. With transhumanism we can smash the matriarchy together.[/i]
nezumi.hebereke nezumi.hebereke's picture
Re: Jovian Briefings Volume 1
Keep in mind also, we are talking about 1% of the population, selected based on unknown criteria, offered the chance to emigrate based on preference, threatened by a world-destroying threat, and under a constant state of culture-war. Yes, fascism seems completely rational under those conditions. Bear in mind, you can still have disagreement under fascism. It isn't the same as totalitarianism. All that it requires is an institutionalized sense of nationalism and loyalty, combined with a drive towards industry and cooperation, lightly seasoned by cultural homogeny.
Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture
Re: Jovian Briefings Volume 1
Axel the Chimeric wrote:
Am I the only one who finds the idea of the United States becoming fascist silly? The US is too utterly divisive to ever become fascist; you can't appeal to one group large enough to swing your vote without pissing off the twenty others who are just as big.
But suppose 99% of the inhabitants disappeared, and some groups (say parts of the military, parts of the federal establishment, some companies and some random small towns) preferentially survived. Suddenly a lot of the diversity is gone, there are some very strong groups that have good reasons to enforce firm rules, a very real threat everybody recognizes the need for social cohesion in order to handle... And of course, fascism is just a recent form of nasty governance. Future societies will invent new ones!
Extropian
kingsley_zissou kingsley_zissou's picture
Re: Jovian Briefings Volume 1
I tend to agree with Arenamontanus about fascism not exactly translating into the future. Fascism as we understand it has mostly been based in cults of personality, where the EP writers seemed to have purposefully left out any central character for the Junta. I think they would have named some authoritarian figure to draw focus. So what elements of fascism would survive, if any? If power if divided amongst the rich and the military, can they still draw a laser-like focus on the power of the state?
Shark_Sandwich Shark_Sandwich's picture
Re: Jovian Briefings Volume 1
Nationalism for one. The Jovians can easily define themselves as a people (i.e. those who reject transhumanist modifications), a place (Jupiter), and a national identity or ideology. Democracies can be nationalist--take a look at France and Britain before WWI. If you have a governing class with a cohesive self-identity, it could work. Or, to take a somewhat more controversial example raised in another thread, look at Israel today. Here you have a group of people who believe they face a continuous existential threat. They have a strong sense of who is inside the society and who is outside. If you are outside, then you are potentially part of that existential threat, and most insiders are fine with the government doing whatever it takes to contain the threat. And if in the process you develop a reputation for being dicks, well, that's the price of doing business (and is even a potentially useful means of intimidating folks). The Jovians don't have to be Stalinist-style police state that uses random terror. It can be more like a paranoid National Security State, where everyone kind of understands that going against the grain in certain areas is going to have serious consequences. To again use an Israeli example, take a look at what happened to Mordechai Vanunu--leaking secrets about Israel's nuclear weapons program guarantees you an unpleasant visit from Mossad (he's probably alive today only because of the public profile of his story). It's not personal, it's just national security.
Prophet710 Prophet710's picture
Re: Jovian Briefings Volume 1
I still love this thread. This is how I play the JR in my game. Much less hokey fascist ethic and radical technophobia. Rather, more like this: The Jovian Republic is an established military republic based heavily on technoregulation and a well organized military industrial complex. The rule of law is enforced strictly with corporal and capital punishment up to and including public beatings and public execution. Proliferation of nano-technology and augmentation technology is punished to the fullest extent of the law as the general rule is regarded as "The Fall happened because of...and we always knew and said this was going to happen". The society itself is based more on a veteran/military stability body as can be seen in the Federation from Heinleins' novel Starship Troopers. As thus there are two distinct sectors of soceity; citizens-who have higher privileges such as voting, access to regulated nano-fabbers and commercial augmentations, and civillians; who are left to their own devices either high financial assets, high reputation, government service or black market pipelines to attain such, minus the right to vote. The economy of the Republic is not solely based on Old Economic standards. At the higher levels of both citizen and government relations reputation takes the role of financial backing as extremely regulated and reported information of electee platforms is widely available. This society may seem like a far cry from the JR described a la canon however, the constant bombardment of psycho-social oppression is very apparent. Citizens Action Parties (basically organized mobs) are enlisted or drafted as auxillary law enforcement. Neo-Uncle Sam propaganda is intensely populous throughout every corner using the usual addage "There is nothing to fear but fear itself; with that said the man or woman standing next to you may not be who they appear." There is no real threat of being taken at night, the real threat is being caught doing something the Republic looks down upon and being punished publicly. "Public and Brutal" to coin the phrase. As far as regulated augmentations are concerned. Limited augmentation tech is available to the citizenry and the wealthy public. Higher grade or enforcement related augmentations can be bought after purchase of a liscence from the government body. Military grade and advance augmentations are restricted to government/military/clandestine use only. This type of regulation however, has led to some extremely advance innovations concerning robotics, electronics, and habitat/space vessel engineering. Hyper-advanced ectoptics, phased array optics, wireless and wired services, quantum computing, labor machines, anti-matter production, etc. Are all readily available within the Republic. With such a focus on limiting bio-augmentation and frivolous morphing, habitat construction has once again taken a front seat. The Republic has THE BEST life support and amenities systems in the solar system. Advanced methods for radiation shielding, micro-gravity farming, air and water filtration/reclamation, medical technology and practices all receive heavy grants for consistent improvement from the government and civillianry at large for the direct purpose of keeping citizens both happy and healthy. The military is also another major focus with a heavy focus on semi-smart robots to limit physical casualties and capital ships as both a deterrent and Assured Destruction weapon. (Massive battleships with Anti-Matter Space-to-Surface warheads). I'll post more once I have another break for now it is back to coding!
"And yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes. And slowly, and surely, they drew their plans against us."
Lord High Munchkin Lord High Munchkin's picture
Re: Jovian Briefings Volume 1
I'm sure the proto-Junta "weeded-out" all the potential "troublemakers" in the Fall... everyone allowed in to the polity has pretty much bought-in to the meme of "security first, US against IT". I tend to think the Jovians as being pretty xenophobic, but fairly "we are all in it together" amongst themselves (rather like the UK population during WWII). That said, dissenters can and no doubt will appear over time.
MirrorField MirrorField's picture
Re: Jovian Briefings Volume 1
Extrasolar Angel wrote:
Good point-I have an idea about Jovian Republic having mass sports events with much more brutal rules between rival teams from its colony cities mentioned. All in the spirit of "Starship Troopers" movie portayal of rivalry between teens and military staff. Semi-Gladiator fights could also be an option.
Good catch. That would be a nice way of venting aggression in relatively harmless way. Also remember: While Junta is bioconservative, they do have proper medical backup. Nobody is going to end permanently crippled even after severe mauling unless the unfortunate ends up with brains splattered across arena and I suspect good helmets and the few rules such games have are there precisely due to this issue. Jovian Blood Bowl... Now, there is an idea :P
MirrorField MirrorField's picture
Re: Jovian Briefings Volume 1
Shark_Sandwich wrote:
The Jovians don't have to be Stalinist-style police state that uses random terror. It can be more like a paranoid National Security State, where everyone kind of understands that going against the grain in certain areas is going to have serious consequences. To again use an Israeli example, take a look at what happened to Mordechai Vanunu--leaking secrets about Israel's nuclear weapons program guarantees you an unpleasant visit from Mossad (he's probably alive today only because of the public profile of his story). It's not personal, it's just national security.
I personally think that Jovians aren't stupid enough to use random terror, agreed. One twist I recommend is that emigration from Jovian Junta is relatively easy in comparison to old school totalitarian states (East Germany, North Korea, USSR, etc.): Unless you're involved in anything too sensitive, the train of though on part of authorities run along lines "The Guy is ideologically suspect if he wants to leave, but eliminating him just for ideological suspicion, few alcohol-fueled indiscreet comments and half-dozen parking tickets is going to generate too much blowback. We let him go and we're rid of him nearly as good as eliminating him and in the end he doesn't know anything critical. Good riddance."
King Shere King Shere's picture
Re: Jovian Briefings Volume 1
I kinda viewed the Jovians as a Nomocratic Stratocacy. Listen some types of goverment that could be made to fit. Nomocracy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomocracy Stratocracy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratocracy Kritarchy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kritocracy Adhocracy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adhocracy