With the excitement surrounding Eclipse Phase Second Edition and the the discussions thereof, I wanted to take one more look at First Edition. Specifically, the supposed pro-Anarchist bias that keeps getting brought up. So I decided to calculate it just to be sure. I re-read the first 111 pages of EP 1[sup]st[/sup][size=9]ed.[/size] 4[sup]th[/sup][size=9]pr[/size], and noted every instance where that bias could be implied or inferred, as well as instances that countervailed such perceptions. I estimate this to be a reasonable scope, as later books were able to dedicate more space to nuance and counterpoints than the core book.
These evaluations are my opinion, of course, but I'm comfortable discussing or justifying any of the values I've noted below.
Biases are rated out of 3. "Pro" arguments support a balanced view, whereas "con" arguments propose bias.
(Conclusion at the bottom of this post)
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[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world.
[b]Con:[/b] The fact that this system is described as working at all could be an affront to pro-corporate readers. Favourable, fun verbiage.
[color=white][b]Bias: 0[/b][/color]
40/53
[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world.
[b]Con:[/b] Autonomists being portrayed as competent in scenarios that involve co-operation.
[color=orange][b]Bias: 2[/b][/color]
41/53
p18 Enter The Singularity: We still survive, divided into a patchwork of restrictive inner system hypercorp-backed oligarchies and libertarian outer system collectivist habitats, tribal networks, and new experimental societal models.[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world. [b]Con:[/b] The word libertarian here might have been mistaken as an appropriation of the Libertarian movement, a darling of American-style right-wingers. [color=yellow][b]Bias: 1[/b][/color] 2/53
p.28 Welcome to Firewall p.29 What You Really Need to Know[b]Pro:[/b] I love this example of grey-on-grey morality. Excellent implementation of the unreliable narrator. A little obvious when re-read, but makes a great dramatic impact the first time you read it. [b]Con:[/b] The mention of "overcoming petty tribal bullshit" could be seen by some as an anti-corp inclination. [color=white][b]Bias: 0[/b][/color] 3/53
p.32 A People's History of an Unfortunate Universe[b]Pro:[/b] Obvious unreliable narrator, and eminently thematic, given that rep economies are a large factor in the setting (let alone in modern-day futurology). [b]Con:[/b] Major expository section of the book portrays an anti-corp perspective. [color=orange][b]Bias: 2[/b][/color] 4/53
p.55 Politics and Power:[b]Pro:[/b] The corps are recognised for their struggle against the TITANs and the development of habs. [b]Con:[/b] Corp-friendly types might object to the corps being portrayed as exploiting the situation. [color=teal][b]Bias: -1[/b][/color] 5/53Spoiler: Highlight to viewIn the aftermath of the Fall, the hypercorps established three important goals: rebuilding the solar system, protecting themselves from any further attacks (either by the TITANs or any other threats), and growing in both wealth and power. The hypercorps and the Planetary Consortium are exceedingly skilled at attaining all of these goals. Since popular rebellion and widespread dissent complicate these interests, the hypercorps are also adept at making certain the inhabitants of the habitats and planetary settlements they control are safe, relatively content, and, ideally, unable to cause serious problems. By extension, the second goal means they also help protect the surviving transhuman population against any repeat of the Fall. As the largest and most well-organized entities in the solar system, the Planetary Consortium and other inner-system governments are in an excellent position to protect the people living in their habitats and settlements. This protection, however, comes at the price of freedom.
The Planetary Consortium is the only major non-local political entity in the solar system (with the possible exception of the Autonomist Alliance, which is more of a mutual aid pact than a unified polity).[b]Pro:[/b] Here, the PC is described as more significant than the AA, and more unified. [b]Con:[/b] n/a [color=teal][b]Bias: -1[/b][/color] 6/53
p57 Libertarian and Utopian:[b]Pro:[/b] Straight-forward exposition. [b]Con:[/b] First instance of the term 'Junta'. "Utopian" could be interpreted as either "seeking utopia" or "are utopian". [color=yellow][b]Bias: 1[/b][/color] 7/53Spoiler: Highlight to viewThe more radical of these elements grew out of or maintained ties to progressive, anti-authoritarian, and left-wing social movements and insurgencies on Earth, drawing support where they could. Others simply stole hypercorp resources from the inner system and smuggled them to their secret projects. In a few cases, entire ships or stations mutinied, refusing corporate orders and pursuing their own path. It was rarely feasible for the hypercorps to pursue and punish such subversion. Even among these radicals, differences existed, so that those adhering to similar sociopolitical tendencies tended to group together. Over time these have developed into four rough groupings: the anarchists of Locus, the technosocialists of Titan, the anarcho-capitalists and mutualists of Extropia, and the nomadic free-for-all societies of the individualist scum. These factions form a loose alliance, a united front against the hypercorps and Jovian Republic—or as they call it, the Jovian Junta—and a pact for mutual aid and support, known as the Autonomist Alliance.
p.58 Keeping the Peace As a result, standards of justice vary widely from the oppressive police state of the Jovian Junta to the free market judicial courts of the Extropians in the belt to the community justice policies of the anarchists out beyond Saturn.[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world. [b]Con:[/b] Jovian Junta described as oppressive. [color=red][b]Bias: 3[/b][/color] 8/53
p.60 Punishment Punishments are even more draconic in the Jovian Republic, where permanent execution and the destruction of all backups is the most common punishment for serious crimes against the leaders or large groups of the populace.[b]Pro:[/b] Use of an arguably-legitimate form of legal sanction. [b]Con:[/b] Mention of 'serious crimes against the leaders' reflects some oppressive/militant societies such as North Korea and Thailand. [color=orange][b]Bias: 2[/b][/color] 9/53
p.61 The Old Economy[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world. [b]Con:[/b] Some might have misread "the few other surviving examples are totalitarian regimes" for "the few other surviving examples [i]OF[/i] totalitarian regimes". [color=yellow][b]Bias: 1[/b][/color] 10/53Spoiler: Highlight to viewIn the present day, almost no one willingly lives in old economy societies. Very few individuals even visit such societies. The oppressive Jovian Republic holds most of the remaining old economy societies in the solar system. The few other surviving examples are totalitarian regimes where the wealthy elite maintain absolute control of all cornucopia machines and private ownership of one is a very serious crime.
[b]Pro:[/b] Aligns with modern futurology. [b]Con:[/b] "horror and pity", even if justified, are emotionally-charged terms. [color=white][b]Bias: 0[/b][/color] 11/53Spoiler: Highlight to viewResidents of old economy societies tend to look at the people of transitional and new economy societies with envy, while citizens of both transitional and new economies look upon old economy habitats with a mixture of horror and pity. Since the Fall, almost a third of the remaining old economy-based habitats have transformed into transitional or new economies by various means, often involving violent revolution. Most social scientists predict that unless there are further catastrophes, all but the most repressive old economy societies are almost certain to transform to transitional economies within twenty to thirty years.
p.62 The Transitional Economy[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world. [b]Con:[/b] n/a [color=white][b]Bias: 0[/b][/color] 12/53Spoiler: Highlight to viewThe transitional economy is a far more stable and easily maintained system than the old. Transitional economies blend old and new economies, and habitats using this system feature both private ownership of cornucopia machines as well as public fabbers and makers that are freely accessible. These public machines are strictly limited in the goods they can produce and the raw materials for various complex goods are also strictly regulated. Mars, Venus, and Luna are all examples of transitional economies, as is most of the rest of the inner system.
Transitional economies tend to be relatively safe places, since inhabitants cannot manufacture weapons more dangerous than knives, clubs, or similar primitive armaments. Everything from firearms to plasma weapons requires restricted cornucopia machines and exotic materials to manufacture. The proliferation of these items is strictly controlled.[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world. [b]Con:[/b] n/a [color=white][b]Bias: 0[/b][/color] 13/53
Though these are commonly described as “post scarcity” societies, some types of scarcity remain very real.[b]Pro:[/b] Clarification of the actual economic meaning of post-scarcity, allowing that scarcities do exist. [b]Con:[/b] n/a [color=teal][b]Bias: -1[/b][/color] 14/53
p.65[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world. [b]Con:[/b] n/a [color=white][b]Bias: 0[/b][/color] 15/53Spoiler: Highlight to viewBoth the hypercorps and the Planetary Consortium were quick to make use of this vast labor pool, especially on Mars. Mars has large amounts of open space and resources and is sufficiently close to habitable that Mars-adapted morphs like the ruster are inexpensive to create. As a result, the Planetary Consortium has been responsible for the employment of almost half of all remaining infomorph refugees. For the past decade, the vast majority of infomorph refugees who want bodies have found that indenturing themselves to the Planetary Consortium or one of the associated hypercorps involved in Martian terraforming is the most reliable way to find both a morph and housing, since both are guaranteed at the end of the contract. The work involved is particularly difficult, however, and the contracts are normally quite long. The Planetary Consortium is also particularly adept at adding charges that prolong indenture—though most indentures carry five to twenty year contracts, in reality these indentures typically last between eight and twenty-five years; some go on even longer. This large population of indentured servants on Mars—many of them now free and resleeved—is becoming a force in its own right, adhering to the Martian wilds and rural areas and disdaining the elite hypercorp domes. Adopting the name Barsoomians from an old Earth fiction series, this resentful lower class is increasingly becoming a thorn in the Planetary Consortium’s side.
p.67 Scum[b]Pro:[/b] Hardly sounds idyllic to me. [b]Con:[/b] Scum are protrayed as occasionally having access to material prosperity. [color=turquoise][b]Bias: -2[/b][/color] 16/53Spoiler: Highlight to viewIn contrast to egocasting or the faster and more efficient fusion drive ships, so-called scum barges offer a floating city alternative to space travel. These ships function as roving black markets and carnivals of the bizarre—lawless zones where anyone can find whatever they want or need for the right rep or price. Most scum barges have fusion-powered plasma drives and hold between two hundred and five thousand inhabitants. The worst barges are exceptionally overcrowded, with aging life-support systems struggling to maintain a breathable (but still foul-smelling) atmosphere under the strain of too many passengers. The larger and more prosperous scum barges are often fitted with various modern conveniences, including large cornucopia machines and vast stores of pirated manufacturing templates. Some are thriving utopianist enclaves, while others are mobile dens of smugglers and thieves that would have been destroyed long ago except for the fact that large and powerful organizations find their existence occasionally useful. Living conditions on the scum barges range from overcrowded refugee camps or thriving, egalitarian anarchist enclaves to relatively modern habitats outfitted in barbaric splendor by successful organized crime gangs.
p.69 Private Habitats The most rare and exotic of all of the types of habitats are the luxurious private ones owned by exceedingly wealthy or high-rep individuals.[b]Pro:[/b] Describes both Old Economy and New Economy elite as capable of attaining prosperity. [b]Con:[/b] n/a [color=white][b]Bias: 0[/b][/color] 17/53
p.70 Factions, The Hypercorps[b]Pro:[/b] Hypercorps are compared favourably with their predecessors. [b]Con:[/b] n/a [color=teal][b]Bias: -1[/b][/color] 18/53Spoiler: Highlight to viewTo some economists, the Fall and the numerous crises that predated it on Earth can be viewed as an extinction event, the end of the line for the massive transnational megacorp dinosaurs, financial giants that supported their monolithic frameworks on outdated economic models and industrial technologies. The hypercorps are their evolutionary descendants: slimmer, faster, meaner, and more flexible, eagerly embracing the possibilities of new technologies and never afraid to toss the old aside to take advantage of the new. It was the hypercorps that drove transhumanity’s expansion into space and who continue to push the technological envelope, guiding transhumanity towards new horizons—always with profit as their driving goal.
The need for physical labor has mostly been reduced to tasks associated with habitat construction, terraforming, or deep space mining. Infomorphs and AIs are heavily employed (or more accurately, owned) as drone operators or virtual workers, and many administrative tasks are performed online via augmented reality, virtual private networks, and simulspace nodes.[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world. [b]Con:[/b] Infomorphs and AI can be considered to be "owned". [color=yellow][b]Bias: 1[/b][/color] 19/53
[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world. [b]Con:[/b] n/a [color=white][b]Bias: 0[/b][/color] 20/53Spoiler: Highlight to viewMost hypercorps are traditional capitalist in outlook, though many have adopted alternative business philosophies and management models. This might include basing decisions on internal forecast market trends, groupthink consensus models, or ditching management entirely in favor of staff polling/voting initiatives that statistically fare better. A few are anarcho-capitalist or mutualist companies originating from Extropian enclaves, though these often suffer from a bias when making deals with inner system powers. The solar system boasts thousands of hypercorps; a few of the more prominent and interesting are noted below.
p.75 The Jovian Republic[b]Pro:[/b] Forward projection of some current trends. [b]Con:[/b] Focus on the worst aspects of South American and USAian politics. [color=orange][b]Bias: 2[/b][/color] 21/53Spoiler: Highlight to viewExploiting the chaos of the Fall, a group of stations and habitats were seized in a military coup and the Jovian Republic was born. Combining terrestrial South American dictatorship with U.S. American political lobbyism, this regime quickly brought the entire Jovian military-industrial complex under its control. Widely referred to as the Jovian Junta by the rest of the outer system, the Republic’s authorities hold a strict bioconservative stance against many transhuman scientific and technological developments. Exploiting fears engendered by the Fall, the Republic restricts access to sophisticated technologies such as nanofabrication, cloning, forking, and even uploading, and is one of the few old economies left in the system. Public communication channels are subjected to extensive censorship and travel privileges are extremely limited. Both uplifts and AGIs are strictly forbidden and treated as property without civil rights. Diplomatic relations to progressive factions remain cold; heavily modified transhuman emissaries or visitors are viewed with suspicion or simply denied access. Despite continuous reports of heinous acts of government oppression, the Republic’s intimidating military assets keep any other factions from intervening.
Morningstar Constellation[b]Pro:[/b] Sympathetic portrayal of corporate entities [b]Con:[/b] Sympathy framed as alignment with anarchist values. [color=teal][b]Bias: -1[/b][/color] 22/53Spoiler: Highlight to viewThe system’s newest political bloc, the Morningstar Constellation is an alliance of aerostat habitats floating in Venus’s upper atmosphere. Formed after a recent series of joint vetoes from the major aerostats against hypercorp governance initiatives intended to limit aerostat self-governance, the Constellation’s joint political statement and agenda are still being discussed. While the Planetary Consortium views the formation of this new power bloc with bemused resentment, the Barsoomians on Mars and the outer system autonomists view the Venusians as free-thinking reformists rather than anti-hypercorp radicals. The population reportedly enjoys great liberties in morph and enhancement technologies as well as freedom of social and political expression. The aerostat of Octavia has emerged as the Constellation’s designated voice.
p.76 Planetary Consortium[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world. [b]Con:[/b] n/a [color=white][b]Bias: 0[/b][/color] 23/53Spoiler: Highlight to viewThe Consortium applies basic democratic principles supported by a real-time voting system for all registered citizens. The congress and executive bodies feature a rotating cast of hyperelite politicos, gerontocrats, socialites, and even media icons. It’s a known fact that despite this political façade of a democratic republic, the members of the secretive Hypercorp Council are the true powers behind the Consortium. These hypercorps are major proponents of the transitional economy, the interdiction of Earth, and expansion beyond the gates. Aside from economic interests, the Consortium advocates the imperative of eugenics as social responsibility and for transhumanity to reclaim its former strength and prosperity—a campaign sometimes accused of euphemizing discrimination against unmodified humans, indentured infomorphs, uplifts, and the clanking masses.
Autonomist Alliance[b]Pro:[/b] Good and bad aspects of anarchism are presented. [b]Con:[/b] Another mention of "Jovian Junta". [color=teal][b]Bias: -1[/b][/color] 24/53Spoiler: Highlight to viewThe outer system presented an opportunity for people who wanted to set up a way of doing things that was drastically different from the authoritarian politics and sham democracies of Earth and the inner system. Far from the reach of governments and hypercorps, this frontier was populated by political radicals, social dropouts, and people who just wanted to experiment or do their own thing. These initial habitats drew the interests of insurgents from Earth, scientists and technicians who didn’t appreciate being on a corporate leash, indentured vacworkers who sought to escape their oppressive terms of service, and even criminals fleeing hypercorp justice or forcibly expelled from inner system habitats. Their ranks swelled with every act of inner system injustice, though life on the fringe was often harsh and deadly. Despite occasional hostilities with nation-state military units or hypercorp security, the expense of reining in these radicals and expats was too high. To some degree, their presence was useful to the powers-that-be. Breakthroughs with nanofabrication brought these anarchists and fringers the edge they needed to keep their autonomy over the long-term. Once cornucopia machines were widely available, anyone had the means to support and defend themselves without relying on outside or higher authorities. Already an outpost for open source and free culture activists who fought restrictions on ideas, media, and digital content, the outer system became a haven for sharing nanofab designs and circumventing the controls the hypercorps attempted to place on their software and other digital goods. During the Fall, many outer system habitats opened their doors to refugees from Earth. Distance and the high cost of egocasting curtailed these efforts, however, as did inner system reluctance to send potential recruits to their ideological opponents. Simple overcrowding and lack of resources drove them to push many refugees to the outer system, however, though the hypercorps weeded through their virtual infugee mobs and sent those with the highest risk of criminal tendencies or discontent with inner system life. Though the outer system habitats run the gamut of the socio-political spectrum, four primary tendencies have emerged. The stations and swarms adhering to these ideas have bonded together under a loose autonomist alliance, a mutual aid pact to help each other in times of crisis and present a united front against the inner system powers and Jovian Junta. There is little formal structure to this alliance as an entity unto itself; it primarily exists as an assortment of joint resolutions agreed to by its various member habitats and a few ad hoc task forces dedicated to addressing a particular problem or issue and then dissolving. Delegated ambassadors act as negotiators with outside powers, but these have limited authority and are held strictly accountable.
p.77 Anarchists[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world. [b]Con:[/b] The fact that this system is described as working at all could be an affront to pro-corporate readers. [color=white][b]Bias: 0[/b][/color] 25/53Spoiler: Highlight to viewIn anarchist stations, private property has been abolished above the level of personal possessions—nobody owns anything, it’s all shared. There are no laws and no one to watch over what you do—reputation networks encourage positive behavior and anti-social acts are likely to draw a response from locals or even the entire populace, with disputes handled through ad hoc community conflict resolution. The mesh and various networking tools are used extensively to strive for group consensus decision-making in real-time. AIs and robots are relied on for most mundane and demeaning tasks. Various self-organized collectives, syndicates, worker’s councils, and affinity groups, often with rotating membership, take on different tasks and services that are important to a habitat’s community, including everything from communications and space traffic control to backup and resleeving services. Participatory militias organize collective defense against external threats. Among the anarchist stations there are many variations and permutations on how things are organized, as everything is fine-tuned at the local level by whomever is involved. Larger decentralized confederations handle inter-habitat affairs and resource-sharing, even trading with the hypercorps. Though a hypercorp presence is allowed on some habitats, they are treated just like everyone else.
p.78 Extropians[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world. [b]Con:[/b] n/a [color=white][b]Bias: 0[/b][/color] 26/53Spoiler: Highlight to viewContrary to the anarchists, the Extropians very much support private property and personal economic wealth; Extropian-owned corporations actively participate in the solar system’s hypercorp economy. Many of these corporations are worker-owned cooperatives, with workplace councils in local offices and an elected cooperative congress handling management. This puts the Extropians in a remarkable position where they interact heavily with both the hypercorps and autonomists but are not fully trusted by either.
Scum[b]Pro:[/b] Good and bad aspects presented. [b]Con:[/b] Corporate-friendly readers might resent the "appropriation" of the concept of freedom. [color=teal][b]Bias: -1[/b][/color] 27/53Spoiler: Highlight to viewScum are nomadic space gypsies, traveling from station to station in heavily modified barges or swarms of smaller space vessels, mostly former colonial ships. The term “scum” has been gleefully appropriated from its original derogatory usage. Despitetheir reputation as criminals and scam artists, their temporary presence is often tolerated in many habitats for the entertainment they bring in the way of exotic performances and storytelling, both of which offer change and relief from the isolation of remote habitats and clusters. Their thriving black markets are an open secret but shut down only in the most oppressive regimes, as citizens returning with illegal goods must pass their station’s security anyway. The scum themselves comes from all manner of backgrounds. They are rejects, anarchists, criminals, societal dropouts, wanderers, artists, eccentrics, and more. As a culture, however, they embrace experimentation and an “everything is permissible” attitude. Many are ardent practitioners of extreme transhuman modifications. Long-time scum are sometimes scarcely recognizable as having once been human.
p.79 Titanian Commonwealth[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world. [b]Con:[/b] The fact that this system is described as working at all could be an affront to pro-corporate readers. [color=white][b]Bias: 0[/b][/color] 28/53Spoiler: Highlight to viewUnlike old Earth socialist regimes, there are no state monopolies and no central planning. Anyone able to garner enough votes in the Plurality (the Titanian cyberdemocracy) can start a social money-funded microcorp and compete with other microcorps. Microcorps are owned by the Commonwealth, and profits are disposed of by the Plurality. Microcorps are required to be transparent as administrative entities, and the Plurality votes on whether to transfer discoveries to the open source domain. Regulatory matters are handled by AI and AGI bureaucrats (red tape still exists, but it doesn’t slow things down ... much). The main reward for individuals in this system is rep. Titanians who invest a lot of time or resources in a given field gain rep rewards for doing so.
p.97 System Gazeteer, Jupiter[b]Pro:[/b] Justification for the Jovian Republic's lesser prosperity. [b]Con:[/b] Mentions of "Junta" and "protection money". [color=orange][b]Bias: 2[/b][/color] 29/53Spoiler: Highlight to viewJupiter’s powerful gravity well is a major hindrance to gas mining in the planet’s atmosphere, as even craft that do not succumb to the violent, centuries-long atmospheric storms can only achieve escape velocity with the most powerful propulsion systems. Given the need for heavy shielding on such craft, gas mining on Jupiter is not nearly as efficient as on Saturn. Jupiter’s gravity, however, is also a valuable resource. Craft bound for Saturn and beyond can slingshot themselves outward by circling the planet to pick up velocity, cutting months or years off their trips. The heavily militarized Jovian Republic levies tolls against all spacecraft using Jupiter’s gravity to pick up velocity, including asteroids under propulsion. This protection money is the Junta’s primary source of revenue. Planetary Consortium ships generally accept the payment as part of operating expenses. Other factions are not so cooperative, and the Junta regularly seizes or destroys blockade runners.
[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world. [b]Con:[/b] Several mentions of "Junta". [color=yellow][b]Bias: 1[/b][/color] 30/53Spoiler: Highlight to viewMost of Jupiter’s moons are really captured asteroids, lacking the size and geological complexity of plan- etary bodies. All are occupied. Some were converted to habitats; others host only Junta military and mining outposts. The Jovian moonlets consist mostly of carbonaceous rock, poor in metal, with some of the larger moonlets having layers or even cores of ice. Beehive habitats and Reagan cylinders predominate in the Jovian system. Reagan cylinders (called “sarcophagus habs” by other factions) are an inefficient variation on the O’Neill cylinder in which excavators hollow out an immense, cylindrical cavern in a rocky asteroid and then alter the asteroid’s rotation with external thrusters to simulate gravity. Other habitat types are rare in Jovian orbit, especially within 2 million kilometers of the planet, where the radiation is strongest. For a bioconservative faction unwilling to adopt radiation-resistant morphs, the Junta is in a poor location.
The Jovian Republic has renamed Jupiter’s moons after various neo-conservative heroes from Earth’s history. From closest to most distant, the moonlets are Metis (Bush), Adrastea (Fairway), Amalthea (Solano), Thebe (McAllen), Leda (Chung), Himalia (Pinochet), Lysithea (Friedman), Elara (Buckley), Ananke (Nixon), Carme (Kissinger), Pasiphae (Schilling), and Sinope (Garcia). All are tiny, between 5 and 100 kilometers in diameter.[b]Pro:[/b] n/a [b]Con:[/b] Some of these names might seem like obvious pandering to left wing sensibilities, even though perceptions can changeover the years. Just ask Christopher Columbus or Marie Antoinette. [color=yellow][b]Bias: 1[/b][/color] 31/53
The largest of the moonlets, hollow Amalthea is probably the most livable sarcophagus habitat due to the large lake created from its icy core. Living on Solano carries some prestige among Junta citizens.[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world. [b]Con:[/b] Mention of Junta and prestige. [color=yellow][b]Bias: 1[/b][/color] 32/53
The Junta’s most notorious prison, Maui Patera Rehabilitation Center, is dug into a (mostly) extinct caldera wall north of the equator.[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world. [b]Con:[/b] Mention of "Junta" and "notorious prison". [color=yellow][b]Bias: 1[/b][/color] 33/53
p.100 Ganymede tends to swing more heavily toward the Junta, as its citizens still see the Junta-maintained infrastructure—accurately or not—as necessary in such a hostile environment.[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world. [b]Con:[/b] Junta. [color=yellow][b]Bias: 1[/b][/color] 34/53
Now Hyoden has 2 million inhabitants, making it the largest city-state on Callisto and the largest non-Junta state in the Jovian system. Hyoden is itself heavily militarized, as the tendency of the local authorities to turn a blind eye toward operatives using their territory for forays against the Junta makes for uneasy relations with their powerful neighbor.[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world. [b]Con:[/b] Mention of Junta. [color=yellow][b]Bias: 1[/b][/color] 35/53
Situated along the southern edge of the vast, rocky plain called Galileo Regio, almost on Ganymede’s equator, Liberty (population 7 million) is the Junta’s largest planetary city-state. It is closely tied to Liberty Station, a major shipyard and defense installation in geosynchronous orbit. Major industries include ship-building, space construction, fabrication, and security products and services. The Castle, the central security network point from which all surveillance data collected in the Junta is monitored and processed, is rumored to be in or near Liberty.[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world. [b]Con:[/b] Mention of Junta [color=yellow][b]Bias: 1[/b][/color] 36/53 p.101 Locus
Locus is the largest cluster habitat ever formed. It is still growing, with over one million inhabitants in the habitat proper and another million in the nearby suburbs of scum barges and small asteroid stations.[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world. [b]Con:[/b] The fact that this system is described as working at all could be an affront to pro-corporate readers. [color=white][b]Bias: 0[/b][/color] ... 37/53
A quarter of its total volume is cut out in a roughly conical shape all the way to the Amoeba, an immense, softly glowing sculpture at the center of the habitat.[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world. [b]Con:[/b] Portrayal of a beautiful landmark in an Autonomist habitat. [color=white][b]Bias: 0[/b][/color] ... 38/53
This space teems with small craft and people on thrustpacks or voidscooters as they cross the habitat, play zero-g games, or visit the free-floating spimes and sculptures that dot the area.[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world. [b]Con:[/b] Autonomists being portrayed as being notably fun-loving and having lots of free time to indulge in cultural interests. [color=orange][b]Bias: 2[/b][/color] 39/53
Spoiler: Highlight to view
Locus was founded by a joint anarchist-argonaut venture and was the first major stronghold for the autonomist factions. Unlike Extropia, which has the tacit blessing of the Planetary Consortium and encourages the presence of security and insurance companies, Locus runs on a pure reputation
economy. Security, maintenance, expansion, and defense of the habitat are all performed by volunteers. Inhabitants interested in security monitor incoming ships and operate crowdsourcing systems that dispatch volunteers to perform WMD scans on new arrivals. Ships that won’t submit to a scan are asked to leave. If they don’t, anyone who’s designed a cool new weapons system recently is welcome to take a shot.
Spoiler: Highlight to view
While saboteurs from the Planetary Consortium and other hostile entities can and do occasionally cause trouble on Locus, the hypercorps are currently unwilling to attempt a direct military attack on the habitat. The first time they tried, the Planetary Consortium and the Martian city-state of Valles-New Shanghai sent a small expeditionary fleet. The interlopers were caught completely off-guard by a fierce and well-coordinated defense. Six months later, they sent a much larger fleet. Help arrived from elsewhere in the Trojans and Greeks and from Titan, whose citizens took a dim view of any Planetary Consortium expansion beyond the belt. The Titanians now maintain a permanent base near Locus. Rumor has it they agreed to a mutual defense pact with one of Locus’s citizens, possibly the famous programmer-armsman Teilhard Liu.
[b]Pro:[/b] Open admission of the dangers of unregulated habitats. [b]Con:[/b] Unreliable narrator presents an in-universe "excuse". [color=green][b]Bias: -3[/b][/color] 42/53Spoiler: Highlight to view“Welcome to Locus. You voluntarily assume the risk of organic damage or mental trauma by mooring here. You must bring or be capable of acquiring enough food, H[sub]2[/sub]O, oxygen, and shelter to survive for the duration of your stay in a harsh, asteroid-rich environment. Weapons of mass destruction are prohibited. Further guidelines for coexisting with your fellow entities are in the habitat survival guide. You and only you are responsible for yourself—learn to love it!” —Locus Immigration AR broadcast “You have chosen the habitat Locus in the L5 Trojans as your destination, using the private carrier Atsuko van Vogt as your receptor. ComEx corporate policy requires us to inform you that the destination and carrier you have selected are unregistered and possibly unsafe. ComEx takes no responsibility for the continuity of your consciousness upon arrival. You assume any and all risks for travel to this point, including theft of forks or deletion. ComEx will include a permanent record of travel with this carrier on your file. Would you like to continue?” —ComEx legal disclaimer “The ComEx disclaimer? Yes, yes ... Listen: my neighbor three doors toward the Amoeba from here is a physicist. She has a box that generates micro-singularities in her lab. If people along my spar found out I’d stolen a fork of someone, they’d pop my stack with a grapefruit knife and throw it in there. That’s what we call ‘accountability.’ See if you get the same from ComEx.” —Atsuko van Vogt
p.102 Saturn[b]Pro:[/b] Justification of Saturn's greater material prosperity, compared to Jupiter. [b]Con:[/b] n/a [color=teal][b]Bias: -1[/b][/color] 43/53Spoiler: Highlight to viewThe second largest planet in the system is a much more favorable habitat for transhumans than Jupiter. Saturn’s lower gravity and milder magnetosphere are a boon to gas mining operations, and for resource-hungry habs, the rings are a feast (literally, in the case of the new Hamilton cylinder type habitats).
For ships traveling to the far reaches of the outer system, Saturn is an important alternative to using Jupiter for gravity assists. Less restrictive than Jovian regimes and richer in resources than the Trojans, Circumsaturnine habs and settlements are important innovators in habitat design and cultural organization.[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world. [b]Con:[/b] n/a [color=white][b]Bias: 0[/b][/color] 44/53 p.103
Profunda is run along anarcho-capitalist lines. Thanks to the rich supply of organic chemicals, its upper reaches are home to many of the outer system’s best-known morph designers. The Enceladian Glitter Bloc is said to have as much influ- ence over body styles as the Lunar fashion houses do over what people wear.[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world. [b]Con:[/b] n/a [color=white][b]Bias: 0[/b][/color] 45/53
The habitats of Twelve Commons organize themselves primarily along open-source anarcho-syndicalist lines, with work groups and research pods acting as the basic political unit.[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world. [b]Con:[/b] The fact that this system is described as working at all could be an affront to pro-corporate readers. [color=white][b]Bias: 0[/b][/color] 46/53
p.105 Phelan's Recourse[b]Pro:[/b] Open admission of the possible ills of unregulated habitats. [b]Con:[/b] Portrayed somewhat favourably, like a diversity-friendly barrio. [color=turquoise][b]Bias: -2[/b][/color] 47/53Spoiler: Highlight to viewPhelan’s accepts all comers. One could meet just about anyone here, from the government in exile of East Timor to hasidim from Brooklyn. The core of the swarm is the Stills, a fusion-illuminated grain farm and distillery operated by an allegedly reformed gang of Irish travelers who conned their way off Earth a few weeks before the Fall and escaped to the outer system. The Stills produce Phelan’s Ma, the most sought-after whiskey in the system, and Phelan’s Da, possibly the worst beer ever made. Despite the Phelans’ protestations of legitimacy, the criminal element is heavily represented here. The swarm represents an important link in red and gray market supply chains.
p.106 Kronos Cluster[b]Pro:[/b] Open admission of the potential dangers of anarchism. Autonomists being called a junta (!!!). [b]Con:[/b] n/a [color=green][b]Bias: -3[/b][/color] 48/53Spoiler: Highlight to viewNearly five kilometers long and three wide, Kronos has major problems with crowding and infrastructure that have kept it from growing to the same size as Locus. The designers simply did not plan for the size the place might reach, and as a result another 150,000 people live in suburbs of tin can habs and scum barges in the space around the habitat. Kronos can be an extremely dangerous place. Insurance companies don’t like operating here, and the habitat is a patchwork of criminal and anarchist neighborhoods. Anarchist zones are generally heavily armed and safe, but a trip from an anarchist holding to the spaceport is best done with a group of well-armed friends. Criminal neighborhoods are only safe if you’re in the neighborhood’s controlling gang, and even then conflicts flare up regularly. The situation is exacerbated by the Kronos Port Authority, a junta of ultimates who operate security for the spaceport. Originally an Extropian hypercorp, the KPA fell into the hands of the ultimates when they decided that they could profit more directly by owning the company outright than by working as hired muscle. They violently ousted the original management and now use indentures in worker pods to maintain the port. This situation is tolerated by the local crime bosses and loathed by the mostly anarchist citizens, but so far no one is able to challenge the KPA, which enforces use of the port rather than any other mooring point with killsats and artillery.
p106. Titan[b]Pro:[/b] Justification of Titan's material prosperity. Admission that New Economy projects can fail. [b]Con:[/b] n/a [color=green][b]Bias: -3[/b][/color] 49/53Spoiler: Highlight to viewThe meager sunlight reaching its surface is insufficient to grow any but the hardiest plants, the mostly nitrogen atmosphere is dangerously toxic, and the surface is dotted with lakes and seas of liquid methane. In spite of all this, abundant hydrocarbons, a thick atmosphere, and diverse chemistry make Titan one of the few worlds in the system where colonists may rely entirely on local resources. Titan’s population is now over 60 million. Social money and the microcorp system have led to some spectacular gains and failures.
The St. Catherine Tong, the most dangerous native Titanian mob, is based in New Quebec. Titanian law is generally very permissive regarding individual freedoms, so the vices this gang trades in are of the blackest: snuff pods, stolen alpha forks, and nanoweaponry. A ready supply of fresh morphs bought from corrupt microcorp nursery administrators further fuels their rackets. The Tong is extremely violent and a major embarrassment to Commonwealth security forces.[b]Pro:[/b] Admission of serious crime in Autonomist territory. [b]Con:[/b] n/a [color=green][b]Bias: -3[/b][/color] 50/53
Nyhavn’s massive central dome, with its elegant blue towers and bioengineered parklands, rivals New Shanghai in size and ambition.[b]Pro:[/b] New Shanghai compared favourably to a supposed darling of the Outer System. [b]Con:[/b] n/a [color=teal][b]Bias: -1[/b][/color] 51/53
At the same time, the squalid blandness that prevails in the Martian suburbs and outlying souks is absent; the dwellings and neighborhoods of the Titanian working class display a riot of color and design, empowered by public fabricators limited by none of the enforced scarcity of Martian economics. For all its idealism, the Plurality is not immune to a desire to showcase its achievements.[b]Pro:[/b] Admission of displays of pride in Autonomist space. [b]Con:[/b] Titanian suburbs compared favourably with Mars. [color=yellow][b]Bias: 1[/b][/color] 52/53
There is an active underworld, despite the efforts of security forces, with the local St. Catherine Tong engaged in continual low-intensity warfare with triads from throughout the system.[b]Pro:[/b] Admission of crime in Autonomist space. [b]Con:[/b] n/a [color=green][b]Bias: -3[/b][/color] 53/53
p.108 Fissure Gate The Fissure Gate remains in anarchist hands, operated and defended by the Love and Rage Collective. The gate is made available to almost anyone unless their rep score is tanked or they are pursuing commercial interests (ruling out most hypercorps). Support for gatecrashers is minimal—traverse the threshold at your own risk. Any discoveries made via this gate, however, must be shared for the collective good of transhumanity.[b]Pro:[/b] Basic description of the game world. [b]Con:[/b] The fact that this system is described as working at all could be an affront to pro-corporate readers. [color=white][b]Bias: 0[/b][/color] [center][b]~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~[/b][/center] [center][b]~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~[/b][/center] [center][b]~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~[/b][/center] Conclusion: So, after counting the totals, it seems like PHS is biased after all. By 1.2%. [i][u]Against[/u][/i] the anarchists. (-2/159)
