The Age of Wisdom

In the Technocracy, the power was held by the intelligent and highly educated. This worked both on the grass level, where people passed their votes to their friends and collagues, and on the high level, where top experts of different disciplines dealed in votes counted in hundreds of millions. Thus, it's not surprising that intelligence and education became the most valued traits in the society.

More and more pressure was placed on education as people wanted their children to learn as much as they could as fast as they could. Soon it became evident that traditional teaching methods were no longer sufficient. Experts in neurology turned their attention to the unused capacity of the human brain. They developed procedures for harnessing that capacity to speed up learning and to enhance memory. Only a decade later, the first speedtraining facilities were invented - information was downloaded directly into the brain, using a combination of nanobots and neurological stimulation.

Speedtraining wasn't the answer for everyone, though. The large and expensive facilities developed, with time, into more affordable devices, controlled by the necklink with a connection to a remote database. However, the process didn't work equally for everyone. It depended heavily on DNA: those with high IQ and good memory were likely to learn quicker and more reliably using the new system as well. The gap between the intelligentsia and the stupid ones grew even wider.

When the Seed ships were launched, during the Seventh Decade of the Technocracy, DNA screenings for smart genes were commonplace for the wealthy families of Earth. Such techniques were also used to select the genetic material on board the Seed ships. As a result, the people on Da Vinci, as well as the other colonies, are the smartest, most capable people, spreading the best of humanity into the galaxy.

From Subcultures to Rings

National and ethnic boundaries lost more and more of their meaning during the decades leading to the Technocracy. The ever-globalizing commerse, migration, and the Internet created connections between different people all over the Earth, to the point that at the founding of the Technocracy it was agreed to make national borders the exclusive content of history books.

This was not the end to cliqueness and confrontation, though. As the borders faded, different ideological, aesthetical, and other kinds of subcultures became more and more prominent. When everyone was connected, it was possible to find people to agree with the most peculiar notions. Many subcultures were the same old ones, based on religion, music tastes etc, but the variety and scope increased dramatically. Even nationalities gained their own subcultures - for instance some people were dedicated to the preservation and practice of all things French, such as wine, sugary romantics, and escargot ice cream.

Many of the subcultures were informal, without even a generally agreed-upon name. Others became organized enough to be on par with religions and political parties: The Retropop Union, Association of Astrophysics, and Followers of Quon were only a few examples of groups that had an undisputable impact of many of the decisions made by the Technocracy.

Some subcultures, such as The Islamic Faith, lasted for decades without changing much. Others, for example the fan club of Kat the Kitten, fluctuated in and out of fashion on a weekly basis. Most people would join and leave subcultures at whim, being more or less active in several at any given time. Many sociologists argued that while this was a very free form of interaction, many became lost in this virtual sea of possibilities. This point was all but proven by the sudden popularity of rings.

Rings started off as teams in a very popular Massively Multiplayer Virtual Reality Ball Game called Batball Megaleague. (They were called "rings" in the game's lore to make the game stand out from all the other MMVRBGs.) In order to have a chance of winning the game, each ring would have to make alliances and trade balls with some of the other teams, giving the game a bit of a political aspect. Of course, out-of-game issues soon entered the game: Retropoppers would be seen joining forces with friends of Ambient Choy to fight the proponents of Post-Classisism. Members of the Jorian Reformist Party tried to outmaneuver the Martian Alliance on the playfield in addition to public panel discussions. (And everybody generally hated the Kat the Kitten fanclub.)

The game became extremely popular - too popular, many argued, to be explained by the accurate physics engine and simple yet elegant ruleset. Instead, what pulled people in was the immensely close-knit team spirit many of the rings had developed. But it was only after the rings started a life of their own when they truly became a phenomenon.

It was of course not unusual for the same teams to be involved in several MMVRBGs, but suddenly everyone started to invite their non-gaming friends to the rings as well. The Batball Megaleague community site with its ring profiles had to upgrade its equipment as suddenly it was being flooded with new members and even new rings with no connection to the actual game. Every other subculture wanted to be part of the new trend, competing about who had the most ambitious profile and catchiest slogan. Many entered the Batball virtual reality, standing around with their bats idle in their hands, hardly even looking at the balls but instead spending their time promoting their rings and ideals, arguing about topics of the day, often resulting to insults and shouting (which could be very impressive if you used certain exploits in the audio calculation system).

What was it that the rings could offer that the earlier similar systems couldn't? Firstly, the popularity was self-feeding: you could tell someone you met on the street what ring you were in and they were likely to know what you were talking about, making ring membership more meaningful. Secondly, the ring membership was exclusive: you were part of one ring and one ring only. Thus, the rings became more closely knit, since anyone who was in your ring believed your ring was the best, not only somewhat interesting. For many, the ring became a second family.

Of course, none of this was new - closely knit Internet communities had existed for over a century. But this was by far the biggest wave of such communities being built around a single concept.

The rings were a hit during the fourth decade of the Technocracy, and were already fading when the Seed ships launched. However, the word "ring" had then been established to mean a closely knit group of people, almost like a family. When the First Colonists of the Seed ship Solidarity felt the need for a family, it was natural for them to use the ring pattern to build upon.

Organized Haggling

At the time The Technocracy was formed, humanity had long ago recovered from globewide catastrophes such as overpopulation, the spiral of violence, and global warming. In fact, the standard of living was far beyond necessity all around the world. Automation was rapidly taking over the last unpopular jobs still plaguing mankind. Most people could live their lives doing work that inspired them, or do no work at all, without having to worry about their material well-being. Most governments provided their citizens with material goods such as food, accommodation, and clothing free of charge. Jealousy between those who chose to work and those who chose not to was steadily going out of fashion.

Capitalistic economies did not vanish on their own but they became less and less central to the human condition. Most found the concept of spending their lives trying to increase their bank account absurd or disgusting. The more popular reasons for working (if you did) were to bring joy yourself and others, to satisfy your curiosity, or the embettering of humankind (though many considered the latter rather pompous attitude). And even though working for the sake of money was something you'd accept with a frown, doing business to maximize profits was shunned by most - usury had reclaimed its place among the deadly sins.

These attitudes made it possible for The Technocracy to pull its support for money as one of its first acts. With no government backing, money soon lost its value. Instead of buying goods, the citizens of The Technocracy had to file a request for them. The requests were processed within minutes by one of the Administration Assistance Units and if the goods were available they could be retrieved from the nearest sharepoint. For services, a matchmaking application in the Internet was used to help find someone providing the needed service (for free).

People still weren't pleased with their lives, of course. However, the things that made the grass greener had shifted away from material wealth. Instead, people measured their success in life by the inventions they had in their name, their friends, families, their popularity and lifespan. And of course, power.

The votes used in the everyday decicion process of The Technocracy became a sought-after commodity. Just like politicians in earlier societies, some would make promises, distribute gifts and favors, or even lie to be the recepient of as many vote delegations as possible. A black market emerged around the voting. Other things traded were the more extravagant of material goods not provided to everyone, invitations to parties, sex, inventions, high-end expert health-care... However, votes soon became the new de facto currency due to their government-backed value.

Vote trading was, of course, highly illegal and publically dispised. However, studies showed that at nearly one half of the world's population had taken part in it at least once in their lifetimes. It has been claimed that many of the most powerful people in the world rose to their power by very carefully organized illicit haggling.

My Life as Martian

The colonization of Mars became long before the Technocracy. By the time the Technocracy was formed, the fourth planet had a stable population living in a terraformed world. The landscape was still considerably more arid and the temperature was far below terran standards - and the rusty red color was still present all around - but nevertheless, woods and fields and even seas surrounded the sparcely populated settlements. The atmosphere at sea level was about as thick as mountain air on Earth but it was fully breathable. The population total of Mars had stabilized around 150 Million.

Life on Mars was, especially at the polar areas, considerably harder and less prosperous than on Earth. The poor soil and cold weather caused agriculture to require a lot of machinery that had to be maintained. The planet, as well as the terraformed climate was still not completely understood, giving scientists lots of questions to solve. Even industry required more manual labor, since the automatization hadn't had the centuries to develop into a self-repairing, self-providing system. An average able-bodied adult on Earth did about 13 hours of work per week, while on Mars the same number was 29, and on the polar regions 49. Lots of goods were imported from Earth, of course, but space travel was still too costly to provide the masses on Mars with the same standards of living as the common Earthling.

Naturally, this made Mars very popular on Earth. The untamed frontiers inspired countless stories of heroic prospectors defying the forces of nature. Many travelled to Mars in search of adventure, challenge, or bragging rights. Upon realizing how unromantic a ten-hour work day could be, many quickly returned to Earth but others fell in love with the sense of purpose present in many of the Martian colonies - something difficult to find on Earth.

This was only one of the reasons why a somewhat separate culture developed on Mars. The other had to do with stellar cartography and the theory of relativity. The limitation of speed of light causes a delay of five to twenty minutes in all communications between the two planets. This didn't, of course, prevent a fully connected Internet, but everyday communications were seriously hampered. The delay was simply too much for the attention span of most, when idle chit-chat - the basis for the community spirit in most subcultures - was concerned. As a consequence, Earthlings and Martians, while still tightly connected, tended to form their own subcultures. This was less of an issue in professional matters such as scientific research.

The Technocracy governed both of the planets, of course. When votes concerning both populations were taken, people waited.

The Naming Merry-Go-Round

The name of the governmental entity formed as the nations of the world united was, as stipulated in the agreement, "The Global Union of Democratic Peoples". The next year, it was shortened to "The Global Democratic Union", as a majority vote felt the reference to peoples as separate entities was outdated. The Global Democratic Union was the longest-surviving name of the global government: it took a full 11 years before it was changed to "Assiciation of Independent Citizens", then quickly to the simple and to the point, "Earth".

At the time of the launch of the Solidarity, there was an active unofficial committee, made up from people who at the moment had received most transferred votes on matters of governmental nomenclature. Due to constant fluctuations in the flow of votes, the power balance never stayed stable long enough for one name to stick around for long. The hobby, however, remained alive. As for people referring to the governmental entity, the name "The Technocracy" had long ago become the de facto standard.

It's unclear from how this rather ironic name originated, or how it gained the popularity it has today. It is, however, being used in most official and scientific texts (though usually with the option to display the current official name in its place). And that's how it was referred to in the speedgrowth training.