Multireal

by David Louis Edelman

  The Congress's main function has turned out to be the settling of interL-PRACG conflict. Given that there are tens of thousands of L-PRACGs spread throughout human space, the administrative aspects of coordinating laws and dealing with contradictions between them are formidable.

  Most of the Congressional representatives are elected directly by L-PRACG citizens, but some representatives are still appointed by L-PRACG management. As of this writing, there are over 2,200 representatives on the Congress, headed by a single speaker. Given its large membership, the Congress tends to be slow to make decisions and often professes opinions far outside the mainstream of public opinion. This in turn means that the Congress generally has a difficult time commanding the drudges' attention.

  Since the ascendancy of Len Borda to the head of the Defense and Wellness Council in 302, the Congress's power has been limited. Governmentalists loyal to Borda controlled the speakership and a slim majority of seats until very recently. In late 359, the governmentalist speaker was indicted in an embezzlement scandal and ousted in favor of radical libertarian Khann Frejohr. Boosted by this scandal, the libertarians recaptured the majority of Congressional seats as well.

  THE PRIME COMMITTEE

  The major governing body of the centralized government is the Prime Committee. However, since so many of the traditional functions of government have become the province of the L-PRACGs, the Committee is largely a legislative body and an umbrella organization to the various branches of centralized government.

  The Prime Committee is divided into twenty-three voting and six nonvoting groups known as bailiwicks. Voting members of the Prime Committee include the bailiwicks of:

  Congress of L-PRACGs (12 members)

  Meme Cooperative (3)

  Creeds Coalition (2)

  orbital colonies (2)

  Dr. Plugenpatch (1)

  GravCo (1)

  TeleCo (1)

  The Vault (1)

  Nonvoting members of the Prime Committee include the bailiwicks of:

  Islanders (2 members)

  Data Sea networks (1)

  Pharisees and other unconnectibles (1)

  The Prepared (1)

  TubeCo (l)

  The number of representatives on the Committee from business interests has always been a concern of libertarians. They charge that no government in the history of humanity has ever been so slanted toward the concerns of its business class; governmentalists counter that this slant in fact provides for a great degree of stability in what would otherwise be a very rocky system. In 200, High Executive Par Padron took action on the libertarian complaints by arranging the passage of a resolution decreeing that the Congress of L-PRACGs will always hold a one-member majority on the Prime Committee.

  There is a growing movement by the libertarians for a nonvoting representative from the various groups of the diss. Many expect that this will be passed into law within the decade.

  THE DEFENSE AND WELLNESS COUNCIL

  The world's largest military and intelligence organization, the Defense and Wellness Council, was founded in 107 by the newly formed Prime Committee. Technically it falls under the jurisdiction and oversight of the Committee. Its single high executive and six lieutenant executives are appointed directly by the Committee.

  In practice, however, the Defense and Wellness Council has been the dominant voice in governmental affairs for many years. Its research budget alone far outstrips that of the entire Prime Committee by many orders of magnitude. Not helping matters is the fact that the Committee has a history of appointing strong-willed, independent thinkers to the post of high executive.

  The Council's peacekeeping officers have a complicated relationship with the tens of thousands of private L-PRACG security forces throughout human space. In years past, the Council's ubiquitous troops acted mostly as backup and support for private L-PRACG security; the Council's pledge of neutrality kept its officers distinctly above the fray of inter-L-PRACG conflict. Under Len Borda's tenure, however, the Council has moved away from its supporting role and become a force acting on behalf of the central government itself.

  NOTABLE COUNCIL HIGH EXECUTIVES

  Tul Jabbor (served 107-117), a well-respected military man, was the Prime Committee's first choice for the post of high executive. He served as head of the Council from its founding in 107 until his assassination in 117. Since the Committee did a poor job of defining boundaries in the Council's charter, Jabbor's aggressive, crusading style ended up defining the organization more than anything else. Jabbor's major accomplishments include the building of the Tul Jabbor Complex in Melbourne, the organization of the first central government army, the successful breakup of OCHRE's stranglehold on nanotechnology, and the setting up of governmental oversight for Dr. Plugenpatch.

  Toradicus (138-147) continued the expansion of central government power begun under the reign of Tul Jabbor. He was largely responsible for persuading the L-PRACGs to accept Council and Prime Committee oversight. Along with Prengal Surina, he also convinced the L-PRACGs to form an umbrella organization (the Congress) that could deal with the Prime Committee as an equal. Toradicus's other major accomplishment was the Islander Tolerance Act of 146, which legitimized the Islanders' withdrawal from technological society and established the principle of the Dogmatic Opposition.

  Par Padron (153-209) oversaw one of the world's major periods of technological change. During Padron's term, multi technology made the leap from theory to reality; practical gravity control allowed the colonization of Luna and the building of orbital population centers; and the bio/logics industry scaled to exorbitant new heights. Padron became known as "the people's executive" because of his decisive actions to limit the powers of the business community. The bio/logics industry, seeking to head off prosecution by Padron, formed the Meme Cooperative as a self-policing entity. Not satisfied, High Executive Padron cemented legislation decreeing that the Congress of L-PRACGs would henceforth always hold a one-member majority over the industry-appointed representatives of the Prime Committee. Unsurprisingly, Padron's actions led to great civil unrest and one of recent history's most vehement rebellions.

  Zetarysis (229-232) was notable mainly for the excesses of her reign. Appointed by a deeply divided Prime Committee, she spent her three and a half short years in office conducting a pogrom against the diss and intimidating her enemies. It was not for nothing she was known as "Zetarysis the Mad." Her assassination by a member of the diss in 232 ended her tenure.

  Len Borda (302-present) brought power back to the high executive's chair after a long series of lackluster officeholders. Given Borda's squabbles with Marcus Surina over teleportation early in his career, many felt that Borda would be a vehement antitechnologist. But after Marcus Surina's death and the subsequent Economic Plunge of the 310s, Borda became a champion of the bio/logics industry in general, and the fiefcorps in particular. His massive programming subsidies have been credited by many for lifting the world out of the Economic Plunge. Critics point to the stifling of civil liberties and dangerous expansion of the Council's military presence under Borda's rule, as well as the exponential increase in hostilities with the Islanders and Pharisees.

  OUTSIDE THE DOMAIN OF THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT

  A number of political entities exist that claim no fealty to the central government and do not follow its edicts. Among these are the Luddite government in the Pacific Islands, the numerous tribes and clans in the Pharisee Territories, the uncounted numbers of the diss, and certain orbital colonies and remote outposts beyond the reach of the Council's military forces.

  Still, the Committee and the L-PRACGs do treat with these outside governments fairly regularly (see Dogmatic Oppositions and the Diss L-PRACG movement).

  APPENDIX F

  ON THE SIGH

  The Sigh is the colloquial name for a group of autonomous networks devoted to sexual pleasure. Its usage rate among connectible citizens is paralleled only by the multi network.

  The impact on society o
f such a system has been enormous. Sexually transmitted disease has become a thing of the past (though OCHREs and bio/logic programming had largely eliminated those threats anyway). Unplanned pregnancy is almost unheard of, and abortion has become exceedingly rare.

  While the channels on the Sigh all rely on a common set of protocols and guidelines to function, each channel is a private and independent entity. Quality and user experience vary widely from channel to channel, and competition for innovative features rivals the competition among the bio/logic fiefcorps.

  MECHANICS OF THE SIGH

  In theory, the Sigh works the same way as the multi network. The user remains in a stationary location while sensations are broadcast directly into the mind via bio/logic neural manipulation.

  In practice, however, the two networks work much differently. The Sigh is an entirely virtual environment that does not intersect with "real" space at all. Therefore its users are not subject to the strict rules of physics and mechanics that control the multi network. Users can project any type of body on the Sigh they desire, and rules of interaction are as varied as the imaginations (and Vault accounts) of its users.

  Because the engineers behind the Sigh compete with one another and are not prone to sharing trade programming secrets, virtual sex is not nearly as "seamless" an experience as projecting onto the multi network. It's a rare channel that can claim complete verisimilitude in the act of sex.

  Many, of course, see the separation between the real and virtual experiences to be the Sigh's greatest asset. Billions of users are content to trade realism for the benefits that only a virtual environment can provide. The uncomfortable aspects of sexual intercourse can be safely avoided in a world entirely governed by computational rules. The existence of a virtual environment for sensuality has also allowed certain relationships to blossom that might not otherwise have been possible, because of the constraints of nature, distance, or physiology.

  So enamored are some of the Sigh's users of their virtual playground that hundreds of millions of couples choose to never have physical intercourse in the "real" world at all. Since sex is no longer a prerequisite for procreation, many couples decide to keep their love lives strictly online.

  STRETCHING OF BOUNDARIES

  Any environment used by billions of customers is bound to produce a wide array of legal, technological, and psychological challenges to society. The Sigh is no exception. Some examples follow.

  Law. Long-held definitions of terms such as rape and harassment have undergone significant revision as a result of the Sigh. Is it possible for rape to occur in a virtual environment where the victim cannot be physically harmed and can log off the network at any point? Most L-PRACG courts say yes, but some claim no. Neither the Prime Committee nor the Congress of L-PRACGs has passed any definitive legislation on the issue.

  Companionship. Because of the highly impersonal experience that certain channels on the Sigh provide, some users consider virtual sex to be closer to masturbation than intercourse. As a result, in many modern relationships it is not considered a violation of monogamy vows to have virtual sex.

  Gender roles. The Sigh has brought the concept of alternative sexuality to new levels. In a world bounded only by the imagination, some choose to be neither male nor female, but some mixture or blend between the two. The artist Pullix Homer recently caused a stir by creating new and fanciful Sigh genders that interact in strange and sometimes startling ways.

  Pleasure. Some scholars have decided that human sexuality is an unneeded intermediary step in the goal of achieving pleasure and have abandoned physical interaction altogether. Instead they have founded a new wave of bodiless "endorphin blast" channels, which many see as a future battleground between governmentalists and libertarians.

  SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS

  When the Sigh first moved from the laboratory into wide public usage (around the 280s YOR), many pundits predicted that virtual sex would be devastating to society. They imagined a world of users constantly plugging in to the network for a sensual fix, to the detriment of work, law, and creed.

  Although the Sigh has created its share of addicts, it is apparent that the fears of the doomsayers never materialized. The economics of the Sigh prohibit users from spending too much time logged in; those for whom economics is not an issue often find moderation through strict creed and L-PRACG rules that strongly penalize addiction.

  However, on the other end of the spectrum were those who declared the Sigh would bring about an end to social ills such as prostitution, sexual slavery, and rape. Unfortunately, these utopian predictions have not proven accurate either. While the Sigh might provide some would-be sexual predators with a place to vent their behaviors, it has undoubtedly inspired others in the real world to new heights of deviancy.

  APPENDIX G

  ON THE

  TRANSPORTATION

  SYSTEM

  In the waning days of Earth's fossil fuels, many predicted that the lack of combustible fuel would cripple the world's transportation systems and bankrupt the world's economies. The truth of that prediction would never be tested, however, as the Autonomous Revolt occurred at roughly the same time as the last of the big oil wells ran dry.

  Human transportation was not nearly as much of a challenge after the Revolt as the transportation of cargo. The civilizations of antiquity relied on intricate shipping, trucking, and airborne networks to keep goods and services moving. Without fossil fuels, these networks proved impossible to reconstruct.

  The Reawakening (and Prengal Surina's universal law of physics) brought with it nearly inexhaustible sources of clean, renewable energy. This in turn gave rise to a number of transportation systems that greatly expanded humanity's options of getting from place to place.

  THE TUBE

  For the greater part of the Reawakening, the tube has been the dominant form of Terran transportation. Its tracks are ubiquitous throughout the civilized world, allowing travel to almost any spot on Earth at a fair price. In many cities, local tube trains cover almost as much ground as the ancient asphalt roads once did. Longer express routes run underground in dedicated tunnels that allow for faster speeds.

  The tube's success is mostly the product of two technological advances: the development of so-called unbreakable steel, which allows for unobtrusive tracks that are extremely cheap to install and maintain; and the ability to control inertia, thereby enabling rapid starts and stops.

  For many years, TubeCo was the darling of the financial world. Its influence was so pervasive in government that the company was given a seat on the Prime Committee itself.

  Since the advent of affordable multi technology, however, TubeCo's fortunes have been on the wane. Local tube routes still have heavy ridership, but most fail to see the necessity of traveling long distances when they can multi instead. Expansion to Luna and Mars has not lifted the company's fortunes either, due to poor offworld planning and the exorbitant cost of shipping. (The ineptitude of the Martian tube system has even given rise to the popular phrase "as slow as a Martian train.")

  The recent stripping of TubeCo's seat on the Prime Committee has lessened the company's prospects even further and led to chronic labor disputes. Many predict an imminent collapse.

  HOVERBIRDS

  Air travel has long been a staple of modern society, and the class of vehicles known as hoverbirds provides this service. Private hoverbird fleets run through and between all the major cities on Earth, Luna, and Mars. Specially outfitted vehicles make runs up to the orbital colonies as well.

  Personal air travel has never really caught on among the masses. Given the fact that the tube is cheaper, safer, and almost as quick, hoverbirds have long had a reputation as a vehicle for the business class. Private ownership of hoverbirds is considered an extravagance that few but the wealthy would need or afford.

  Hoverbirds do have an important advantage over the tube, however, in that they're not constrained to traveling where the tracks are. The typical hoverbird both takes off and
lands vertically, allowing direct transport to all but the most crowded and confined locations. So businesses have relegated many of their shipping and transport needs to the hoverbird sector.

  The Defense and Wellness Council has also made a heavy investment in hoverbirds, for obvious reasons.

  UNDERGROUND TRANSFER SYSTEM

  Faced with limited resources, the civil planners in the early years of the Reawakening struck on a pragmatic solution to their transportation issues. They would use the ancient sewers and data cable pipes to move cargo from place to place. Early underground transfer systems were rudimentary, often dependent on wind power, water power, and even manual labor.

  But as technology progressed, so did the global underground transfer system. Heavy infrastructure investments during the time of Par Padron (late 100s YOR) brought the underground transfer system to the entire globe, where it has become one of the central government's strongest success stories.

  In modern times, underground transfer has become a nearly seamless method of shuttling goods from place to place. The system is generally only used for local cargo traffic, given that there are much faster methods for transporting goods over large distances.

  ORBICO

  Interplanetary shipping has proven consistently resistant to economization, despite the best efforts of generations of entrepreneurs. As a result, the quasi-governmental agency OrbiCo has been given a virtual monopoly on transporting goods through space. (Transport of personnel remains a viable-though not wildly profitable-business, and OrbiCo competes against a number of smaller rivals in that market.) The agency is heavily subsidized by the Prime Committee and has never come close to turning a profit since its inception in 315.