Terran Trade Union Setting

[Cycloneman]

This is a science fiction setting I've been working on for over a year. It contains a lot of different ideas, but I'm trying to boil it down to basics and do something of a "reboot" in terms of design. I'd like some opinions on it in its current form, and, if you've got any, suggestions for a name.

 

The current year is 2154 AD.

 

1. It is a space-based science fiction setting.

There are aliens, space travel, cybernetics, and cool guns. Aliens make up about 10% of the population. Space travel is affordable enough for a small company to afford to own a ship and use it for transport. Cybernetics are both highly advanced and are affordable enough to have filtered into the upper-middle class. Players are intended to play in space, not on Earth.

 

2. The World is at Peace.

While there are some fringe groups, the vast majority of the populace accepts the current order and don't rise in outright rebellion. New planets supply plenty enough freedom from old world politics to let people tolerate what authority there is out there. Few entertain the idea that the present order could come apart, and even fewer entertain hopes for its catastrophic collapse. There are no enemies to subjugate, no mass uprisings, and no ongoing interstellar wars.

 

3. Aliens aren't advanced.

The most advanced alien species known or suspected to exist was at a stage of development equivalent to approximately classical antiquity prior to first contact. There are no ancient artifacts from old civilizations, no rival powers flying around just waiting to be found, or anything of that kind.

 

4. Artificial intelligence is not humanlike.

While some significant forays into AI have been made, that is not equivalent to saying that you can really talk to an AI like you can a human. Sure, an AI can pretend to be a person (much better than a current one, anyway), but it isn't. Its greatest desire is to fulfill its purpose and it has no emotions. If a spaceship's AI gets personally interested in its crew, it is because it is concerned about their ability to do their job. An AI is not a person, it does not have the rights of a person, and it is not generally considered morally equivalent to a person.

 

5. Human modification is widespread.

In addition to baseline humans (those most familiar to the reader), there are gengineered humans and transhumans. A gengineered human was genetically engineered as an embryo, born out of a tube, and raised in a highly controlled environment over the course of two years. A transhuman was born baseline, but at some point underwent chemical, cybernetic, and/or retroviral modification. Some transhumans are military (i.e. government produced) and some are civilian. While the technology is widespread, most humans are still baseline, simply because most people don't want to cut off their extremities to get them replaced with robot parts.

 

6. Earth is (mostly) the same.

The general political makeup of Earth is largely similar to what it was at the turn of the third millenium, though with rather different views on economics. Some states suffered revolutions and counter-revolutions, but the most economically important nations (China, India, Japan, France, the UK, the US, Russia, etc) can trace their regimes over a century back.

 

7. The Terran Trade Union (TTU) reigns supreme.

The TTU is a federal body governing economic relations between its constituent members (every single recognized state), for the joint development of industry and technology. Additionally, the TTU central government is the undeniable ruler of interstellar travel. The foremost goal of the TTU is the maintenance of economic (and thus political) stability on Earth, all other concerns coming second. It has subjugated alien species, invaded nations, and gained sweeping powers all for this purpose.

 

8. The Elokoi

The Elokoi are the intelligent natives of Ozto: the Etachi and the Mazkai. The Etachi and Mazkai are closely related, but due to various evolutionary pressures, the Mazkai are much more intelligent, larger, and stronger, but live in small family unit sized "packs." The Etachi are dumber, live in large tribes and have been effectively domesticated as a species. The Mazkai needed to eat an Etachi to obtain valuable proteins that couldn't be found anywhere else or they would die. Modern chemistry and pharmaceuticals has rendered this unnecessary, but it has deep religious importance in Elokoi society and the TTU's disapproving stance towards the ritualized sacrifices makes many Elokoi (Mazkai and Etachi alike) angry at them.

 

9. The Libids

The Libids are the intelligent natives of Armab. Biologically, they are wildly divergent from humans; they are nocturnal, use photosynthesis to assist in chemical processing, are hermaphrodites, spend two-thirds of the day asleep, and lay eggs. One of their defining characteristics, at least in the eyes of humans, is their genetic versatility. Unlike humans, who have only a small genetic stock and thus largely similar "races," the Libids have many distinct subtypes which can be easily distinguished, and most of them hate each other.

 

10. Transhumanism

Transhumanism is a radical left-wing political ideology that sprung up in the 2070s. It is a political reaction to the mostly amoral nature of the TTU and represents an attempt to harness the radical innovations in technology for the betterment of mankind. At their most basic, transhumanists believe in improving human society by improving people. Most civilian transhumans are affiliated with the transhumanist movement.

[Walsingham]

I don#t want to sound negative, but a future without any grand conflicts sounds rather far fetched. I accept your point about expansion taking the place of fighting over existing assets, but surely we're getting to Firefly style secessionism?

 

Further, what about organised crime? It sounds as if your political class is likely to be well entrenched, and quite bureaucratic. I'd expect Aurelio Zen style intrigues between these bureaucratic bodies as they attempt to empire build, combined with the inevitable corruption which attends on quangocrats. Financial fraud, toxic waste dumping, medical research etc etc.

[Cycloneman]

I don#t want to sound negative, but a future without any grand conflicts sounds rather far fetched.

Where are the grand conflicts today? The nations of Earth in the setting do some political, economic and espionage-type infighting, but not a lot since they have a lot of shared interests (even moreso than in the modern world).

I accept your point about expansion taking the place of fighting over existing assets, but surely we're getting to Firefly style secessionism?

Nobody really believes they could secede successfully. The largest colonies have a little over a hundred million people, whereas the TTU military has forty-odd million warm bodies (purely volunteer at the moment, they could probably get a good chunk of draftees if anything too bad happened) and a huge industrial capacity. Unlike Firefly (?; might not be unlike, the population advantage of the Core Worlds is never explicitly stated), there is a huge population advantage that the Earth governments have (60:1 would be generous for any given colony). Force projection over many rebelling planets would be difficult, but the TTU delegates a lot of powers and responsibilities to local responsible governments, so they're not too angry. Because of various historical pressures, there is a consensus amongst the Earth governments that only complete subjugation will make their economies safe, so "willpower" isn't a big concern.

 

The big benefit for peace of the current situation is that control of resources is gained by economic, not military, strength. This is one of the big advantages that a global free market provides: theoretically, Luxemburg can get just as much oil as the United States from the same sources if it has the money.

Further, what about organised crime? It sounds as if your political class is likely to be well entrenched, and quite bureaucratic. I'd expect Aurelio Zen style intrigues between these bureaucratic bodies as they attempt to empire build, combined with the inevitable corruption which attends on quangocrats. Financial fraud, toxic waste dumping, medical research etc etc.

I hadn't really thought about criminal scale in the setting before you pointed that out, but it does make sense that there would be a lot of crime.

 

The TTU's primary method of dealing with organized crime (in contradistinction to current practices) is to legalize a lot of stuff (e.g. hard drugs), so as to prevent the formation of illegal industries. The TTU's ability to actually arrest criminals is low, especially since most crime-fighting is delegated to local administrations.

[Walsingham]

OK, it's still not what I'd imagine, but I'm satisfied that it makes sense. And in any case it's YOUR damn universe. I was mainly just concerned that there might not be enough conflict to hold people's attention.

 

I suppose, leading on from that, that a standard adventure hook would then be keeping the peace. I mean in the broadest sense, including tackling corruption and injustice to prevent growing resentment in the colonies (I'm thinking you should read Robert Harris' Imperium book), getting between ethnic groups, and punching the nuts off terrorists. There will ALWAYS be terrorists btw, as there's never any shortage of ideology-boiled college boys trying to find a way to get chicks. This could prove more interesting than the average dragon bashing since these tasks would emphasise non-combat skills more than normal.