Once or twice, in the EP thread on SB, people would comment that ES and I had made the Jovian Republic "good" or "heroic" or words to the effect. This was never an objective; we wanted a Republic that was hypocritical, brutal, authoritarian, and full of inequality. Just not pointless or un-fun authoritarian brutality. To that effect, I wish to shamelessly self-promote
Rimward Revisited with another piece of fluff on the JR:
The Jovian Republic - Demographics
Original Colonists
The pre-Fall colonists of the Jovian Republic are on average more wealthy than the refugees and immigrants. The original colonists were selected by their respective governments for their above-average physical and mental aptitudes, as well as psychological stability; this gives the original colonists and their descendants an upper edge in the competitive aspects of Jovian society. The majority of Jovian industrial capital found itself in the hands of either the government or in the hands of oligarchs from among the pre-Fall colonists. Together with cronyism and disdain for the refugees and immigrants, this has served to stratify the original colonists as the upper class and upper-middle class elite of the Jovian Republic.
Fall Refugees
When the Fall came, Jupiter was hardly the ideal refuge; it was distant, inhospitable and dangerous, so the majority of the emigrants sought safety on Luna and Mars, which had sprawling, well-developed cities, infrastructure capable of supporting large populations, and in the case of Mars, an almost habitable atmosphere and a demand for labour.
Then the first reports came in that the TITANs were on Luna, and things stirred; Earth's moon was no longer safe. Then the TITANs hit Mars, and all hell broke loose. A wave of refugees from Luna and Mars, fleeing from the wars that ravaged the Inner System, washed up on Jupiter's shores. Today, the Fall refugees are the largest single group in the Jovian Republic. Demographically, they comprise both refugees from Earth and space colonists from Luna and Mars that fled when the TITANs spread out of Earth's gravity well. The latter include a somewhat prominent population of Rusters and Alpiners. These Martians tend to not be satisfied with the state of affairs with regards to discrimination and the morph tax levied upon their morphological capital.
Immigrants
A small but steady population of immigrants trickle into the Jovian Republic each year. There are as many motivations as there are people, but the majority are ideological immigrants who reject the self-mutilation and pie-in-the-sky techno-utopianism of the radical transhumanists. Others again immigrate to escape from slavery of the Planetary Consortium and the Extropians, as the Jovian Republic condemns slavery and offers political asylum and citizenship to escaped indentures. The Republic is cautious of autonomous AIs, and has a large demand for skilled labour in the industrial sectors, which causes many people who would be replaced by AIs and fall between the cracks in the Consortium to seek a safe, comfortable and prosperous life on Jupiter.
Officially, the Republic does not go digging into the morphological past of immigrants, and are perfectly willing to look through the fingers at infomorph refugees having been uploaded; who are they to judge the poor alpha-forks, who were forced into the life and memories of another person, who might even be dead? Infugees just receive a permanent mark in their file, are reinstated into a flesh-and-blood body resembling their birth-morph, and are barred from certain high-security positions in the government and military. The pragmatic need for labour and the value in projecting an open, democratic image is worth more to the Republic than dogma, it seems.
Unofficially, the truth is somewhat darker. In addition to the permanent mark all uploads have in their files, infomorph asylum seekers are all considered to be potential spies, infiltrators, terrorists or saboteurs. They are often harassed by the Federal Police, and will find it near-impossible to get a job at any level of federal or city-state government, police or the military. Instead of spending their mandatory military service in the military, they are often put to work on public works projects and low-risk mining operations. They cannot hold any job requiring a security clearance, and many major industries will not employ them. Big Sister keeps a constant eye on the Mesh activity of former infugees; any dissent or government criticism is investigated is treated as evidence the infugee may be an agent provocateur, leading to night-time arrests and hours of interrogation. Still, it is preferable to slavery and forced psychosurgery.
>>>NEW SIDEBAR
"Let me tell you why we treat infugees in this way. Because time and time again, the other powers of the Solar System have shown that they have no respect whatsoever for the laws of conventional war held on Earth. The Autonomist Alliance whines on and on about how we oppress refugees. You know why they do that? Because they send hundreds, even thousands of discardable, deniable assets as infiltrators every year, and no doubt even with our precautions, some get through the net. If they didn't send indoctrinated brainwashed assassins with hidden programmed directives, then we wouldn't have to treat every immigrant as a potential security threat!"
>>>END SIDEBAR
No, I accused feminists of hating men. You know, because they do.
I
don't know. Which is strange, given that I'm an ardent feminist. You'd think that if I hated men, I'd know about it.
