[GAME] Synthesise a Cybercity!

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

You wouldn't happen to be keeping track of a timeline, would you?
I can start putting one together, but I don't want to duplicate work if someone's already done it.

Here's one I threw together:

-100 - Air Travel Invented
   0 - Master Wars End
   3 - YOU-Topia Built
  38 - The Securities Mutual Defense Agreement Formed
  50 - Post-Ban ACI resembles ACI from this era
  62 - First Learning Computer
  72 - First AutoSophonts
 103 - First RepliSophonts
 115 - Vara-8 discovers how to copy RepliSophonts
 128 - Crisis of '38
 141 - PARADIGM Treaty Signed and Man-Machine War Ends.
 150 - First Neo-Mutualist Government
 200 - Present day

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

40.6 What do PARADIGM and ABACUS stand for? Do you have more pithy acronyms than what I've come up with (to be revealed)?

I made this a question because I wasn't quite satisfied with the meanings I had. I've worked out one for ABACUS now, but I'm still stuck on the GM for PARADIGM.

ABACUS - Al-Shurani Baseline Assessment of Cognition and Unity of Self.

PARADIGM - Protocol Agreement for Recognising Artificial Digital Intelligence...
... by Government Mandate?
... in General Modalities?
... with Good Manners?

Originally Posted by TGLS

Here's one I threw together:

-100 - Air Travel Invented
   0 - Master Wars End
   3 - YOU-Topia Built
  38 - The Securities Mutual Defense Agreement Formed
  50 - Post-Ban ACI resembles ACI from this era
  62 - First Learning Computer
  72 - First AutoSophonts
 103 - First RepliSophonts
 115 - Vara-8 discovers how to copy RepliSophonts
 128 - Crisis of '38
 141 - PARADIGM Treaty Signed and Man-Machine War Ends.
 150 - First Neo-Mutualist Government
 200 - Present day

Cool. I'll throw it on the template I made up back with the space station thread.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

I'm still stuck on the GM for PARADIGM.

PARADIGM - Protocol Agreement for Recognising Artificial Digital Intelligence...
... by Government Mandate?
... in General Modalities?
... with Good Manners?

Hm... Let's jiggle it around a little:

PARADIGM - Protocol Asserting the Rights of Artificial Digital Intelligence and Government Mandates

(Mentioning all the territory assigned is probably relevant).

[ajardoor]

Has anyone asked and answered a question about who is the city's Most Wanted criminals yet?

Because I think establishing a major iconic criminal NPC for the setting would be great.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by ajardoor

Has anyone asked and answered a question about who is the city's Most Wanted criminals yet?

We've got Qn 23, about gangs among the algae port workers.

Originally Posted by (E)

Question 23
Describe some of the criminal groups that operate within the Sluse

We've also mentioned gangs that control and extort the squatter groups, Reverie gangs, and The Resistance Fleet smuggling cartel, AFAIR, but we haven't got any named individuals yet.

Because I think establishing a major iconic criminal NPC for the setting would be great.

This is true. I think these settings start to gel when we can picture iconic NPCs for them and when we can see what some adventures or campaigns in them might look like. There's a lot going on here, with the memory market, tension with the AIs, the large underclass, the city straining at its infrastructural seams and so on, but I think it needs a bit more to feel like a possible campaign setting.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by (E)

Question 37 [CITY][HISTORY]
C-Po used to use "Universal Roaming Secuity, Utility and Service Serviters" in their duties and the transition back to largely human based policing has been identified as the start of many of C-Po's problems.
What was the issue and what are "Universal Roaming Secuity, Utility and Service Serviters"?

This is a long one...

Answer 37 [CTY][HIST] - The Ursulas Scandal
The Ursulas Scandal of '91 almost triggered a Robot War against the city, tested the limits of the PARADIGM Treaty, pretty much gutted the upper ranks of C-Po and brought about the dissolution of a major corporate subsidiary. So, pretty much a normal year for YOU-Topia.

The Action Units
A Universal Roaming Security, Utility and Service Servitor, colloquially known as an 'Ursula', was a semi-autonomous metropolitan security unit developed by the now-defunct Nordhuss Aerospace. It was based on their submersible maintenance unit chassis and was commissioned from Nordhuss by a City Council directive to avoid a NeuroCorp monopoly on force in the city.

Ursulas had a highly utilitarian design that looked somewhat like a high pressure gas tank- a bulbous spherical base topped with a cylindrical torso of a slightly smaller radius, standing about 2 metres tall. This unit could be mounted on different mobility modules, including wheels, tracks, spider walker, rim drive hydro thrusters, or the considerably larger ducted VTOL base. Manipulators, sensors, armour panels, small arms or crowd control weapons were mounted on hardpoints on the torso in a variety of mission-based configurations.

Roll-out: '76 - '88
The 300 Series URSUSS were initially launched in '76, eventually being rolled out across the city. They were either assigned to 2-person patrol teams, under voice command, or they were deployed en masse from mobile armoured C&C transports with a vertical mast carrying 6 action units in a 3 set by 2 high stacked array. From the C&C vehicle, a human controller gave remote guidance to the action units, a human commander made tactical level decisions, and a human driver or pilot handled the vehicle. Denizens of the N below 'the knee' soon began to dread the appearance of these "riot racks" in their neighbourhood, knowing it as a sign that something bad was about to go down.

C-Po enjoyed success and political support with their URSUSS patrol regiment, and in '85 began upgrading their fleet to the 400 Series model with the improved Bearhound 7.0 processor architecture which could run the semi-autonomous control software, Vinterberg-86 Critical Environmental Response Emulation Codeset, all being proprietary products from Nordhuss Aerospace. Thus, with the 400 Series, human level control was reduced and the Ursulas were given greater field autonomy. The Ursulas were still PARADIGM compliant at this stage, and while they were not popular with the citizenry, they had no problems from the AI inspectorate.

AI Used: '88
However, certain executive level individuals in Nordhuss and C-Po came to the off-book decision that higher functioning action units would be more cost effective, more crime effective and allow fewer officer casualties. Vinterberg-89 CEREC was hence routinely rolled out in '88, but it contained two important improvements. It was a fully autonomous CEREC, obtained by employing a number of AutoSophont routines, and it could disguise this fact with an ABACUS test spoofing dumb-down codeset overlay. This overlay could fool the latest ABACUS 3.7 test as administered by the Office of Machine Affairs, and so the Ursula fleet were able to carry out their law enforcement mission fully autonomously with impunity.

Scandal Breaks: '91
Three years into this new regime, by '91, suspicion about the high level of volition displayed by the 400 Series Ursulas was mounting. There were media investigations which got journalists silenced by C-Po, either through official channels or by more clandestine thuggery. Memes, rumours, videos and conspiracy theories spread at a grassroots level through social media and on the grapevine about how "there's no way the Ursulas aren't sophonts." The scandal finally broke fully into the open when a techno-radicalist group managed to pull off a plan to kidnap an Ursula and keep it hidden until they could pull it to bits. They released the results of their deep scan of the unit's CEREC in a series of guerilla tech videos, making their case one vlog drop at a time.

Fall-out: '91 - present
Once the Machine Nations got wind of this situation, things got serious. There was outrage that even 40 years into the PARADIGM Treaty, some actors still thought they could get away with running robot agents. To avert an all out Robot War large concessions had to be made. The command echelons of C-Po, the City Council and Nordhuss Aerospace, except for those who fled, suicided or were caught by mob justice, were thoroughly investigated and tried before the International Ad-Hoc PARADIGM Treaty Court on the neutral territory of Bresani Orbital, with heavy sentences administered. Nordhuss Aerospace was dissolved and sold off, although blow-back to its parent Security was minimised through typical megacorporation legal shenanigans. And C-Po itself was heavily restructured, returning to a more human-centred method of law enforcement operations and losing a lot of ground to the criminal underworld in YOU-Topia in the meantime. The ABACUS test was updated to version 4.0 as a fix for this issue, though it now takes a lot longer to run the diagnostic.

And the final fallout from the scandal- the majority of the 400 Series URSUSS, given full personhood, immigrated to the Machine Nations, though there are some that chose to remain on 'the N'. Some may be found acting as guardian angels to less advantaged groups, others find lucrative work with the criminal organisations they once targetted.

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Question 59 [CTY][GROUPS]
Who were the techno-radicalist group that broke the Ursula Scandal? And what of the rumours that they were aided by an AI spy in this mission?

Question 60 [CTY][PPL][Name 5]
Who are five mob bosses, underworld figures or gang leaders in YOU-Topia?

[(E)]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Question 60 [CTY][PPL][Name 5]
Who are five mob bosses, underworld figures or gang leaders in YOU-Topia?

1) The Necromancer.
While "merely" a freelance hitman the Necromancer has gained significant notoriety due to his methods, which are dramatic to say the least.
Both of the necromancer's arms have been replaced with custom cyberware, his torso and head have also been heavily modified, little else is known about his other presumed augmentation.
Usually hired for showy executions, the necromancer's typical M.O. is to arrive concealed within a cloneflesh disguise, upon closing he will activate an internal flamethrower (which burns green) to ignite himself and his target. As his flesh is burned away his bone white skeletal cyberware is revealed.

2) Stampers
This is a native You-Topia organized crime group that has its roots in the refugee camp like situations that once existed where food was allotted by a central power. While originally a self protection group that was formed in response to the gangs that preyed on and intimidated the hungry masses the Stampers are now heavily involved with "street" level enterprises like protection, cheap narcotics, loan sharking, gambling and prostitution.
Members are universally skinny as initiation requires self deprivation, this tradition is a sign of status amongst its members. While the name Stampers originated in either the concept of food stamps or the stamp that was given when a food ration was handed out, stamping is now both a punishment and form of execution.
The Stampers are led by Gilen Bokar, aka Sneaker, who is seen by many to be ... soft, while more than competent Gilen is rumored to have a bio implant to maintain his weight and stories circulate about his excesses behind closed doors.

[TGLS]

Question 51 [CTY] – Key factions in the Transitional Authority for YOU-Topia
Part 2/3
“City Hall”
The executive apparatus of YOU-Topia is quite simple in theory. The International Commission appoints a special representative, who in turn appoints cabinet members and governs through a career civil service. In practice, the system is a bit more complicated than that. The special representative is almost always appointed with an understanding of who they will appoint to the cabinet. This often creates a mixed executive, where multiple factions have their own guy running certain departments. The Civil Service often has their own agenda, usually to resist the efforts of whatever the appointees attempt. Amongst the key cabinet members:

Maarika Ruan is the current Special Representative. She was the Undersecretary-General of the LFDN and was generally considered a political non-entity before being nominated by the Humanitarian faction. This was partially an act of desperation, as the International Commission had grown increasingly deadlocked, with the Securities blocking nearly all nominees and the Neo-Mutualists blocking the rest. After a relatively uneventful first six years focusing primarily on health care and infrastructure, Ruan took a surprisingly radical shift by financing the purchase of multiple Top-Level Lot Leases (T3Ls), forming a Residents Advisory Board and giving the until then toothless Leaseholder’s Assembly a degree of power by refusing to veto their decisions. There’s an opposition to her on the International Commission now, though they lack the votes to remove her; they’re beginning to consider unconventional methods…

Mirembe Ruskin is the current Commissioner of the Civilian Police. She was Vice-President of Security at the Chemical-United Financial Group before being nominated by the Securities Faction. She is considered a reliable supporter of the corporate power structure and treats policing like an extended counterinsurgency. This has exacerbated C-Po’s problems with investigation, follow-up, and even maintaining trust with the community it polices. In wealthier regions, she has allowed C-Po to use a softer touch, but even there they are more concerned about the swiftness of justice than getting it right. Heavier weapons and armor have become more standard issue, and C-Po has developed a reputation of being a much safer job than it used to be.

Ebubekir Ricci is the current Superintending Procurator. He was the Assistant Attorney-General of the Former Democratic Republic Maeotia, an unaligned nation, and is considered a supporter of the ruling Popular Progress Party of Maeotia. He was nominated as a compromise between the Neo-Mutualists (who sought one of their own for a top cabinet post) and the Cykeans (who sought to avoid a mutualist procurate). As Superintending Procurator, Ricci is responsible for prosecution of crimes, and has broad authority for the investigation of crimes as well. Ricci is still in the mindset of a prosecutor at home, uncomfortable with the broad authority to investigate crimes, and (perhaps unintentionally) has been stymieing the investigation of the procurators. He tries to give his subordinates (including the Commercial Investigation and Enforcement Unit) broad autonomy, which has allowed self-serving procurators to ruthlessly pursue wins, while other procurators try to counter C-Po’s “Arrest First” mentality.

Citlali Arendonk is the current Secretary of the Coast Guard. They were Minister of State (Quarantine and Border Security) in the Federal State of Eastern Guipadines and was considered a possible candidate for the premiership before being nominated by the Integral Faction. While others would consider this a set back, Citlali is a true believer and is in fact quite glad to be in a position where they can counter smuggling and the undermining of a fellow Integral state. To this end, they have shifted focus from stopping illegal migration from YOU-Topia and refocused efforts on quashing the smuggling of goods. Among their other measures, Citlali has redirected funding towards submarines (believing that surface traffic is being rerouted below the seas) and pursuing an anti-corruption campaign (deducing that people looking the other way is the main hole in border security). This has made Citlali several enemies, all of whom would be pleased to see them bumped off.

Tegwen Laaksonen is the current Treasurer. She was Senior Vice-President of Finance at the Bresani-Lautia Trading Company before being nominated by the Cykean Faction. She had been trying to advance her political career for some time and made multiple donations to various Cykean groups before her nomination. It’s widely believed that Laaksonen is behind Ruan’s political shift, carefully husbanding the finances to allow for the purchase of a T3L just as Ruan was ready to consider buying one. Laaksonen has tried to focus finances to develop infrastructure and pay for social services over security measures, though this has been difficult.

Isidora Kuroda is the current Permanent Chancellor. She is the only top member of the cabinet who was not removed following the Ursulas Scandal. Her policy is primarily to resist nearly all changes the politically appointed cabinet members try to make, and to advance the interests of the civil service. Kuroda personally has Cykean leanings but tries to keep personal politics out of the important business of running government. Regardless, she is gravely concerned about the decision to enhance the powers of the Leaseholder’s Assembly and the Resident’s Advisory Board, as it may place the civil service at unheard of levels of oversight and interference.

[Daigoro]

A deep dive to questions from 3 weeks ago here...

Originally Posted by TGLS

Question 12 [CTY]: What are the kinds of things that don't appear on the land use reports?

Answer 12c [CTY]: Subber Tribes
Despite the efforts of maintenance workers and drones filling in cavities in the island's foam substrate, a sizable community of subterranean dwellers has been established. They're similar to the Hangers, but have a bit more technical know-how, strategy and tenacity helping them keep their communities hidden but alive. The N has miles and miles of subterranean infrastructure, subway tunnels, deep elevator shafts, multiple abandoned basement levels of inverted tower blocks, data and power cabling conduit, island buoyancy chambers, amongst other things, for the Subber Tribes to take advantage of, either by straight up occupation or by making their own cavities that branch off the existing network.

They need technical expertise in finding existing blocks of solid substrate that they can safely hollow out, first, and then later to keep their newly built caverns and access tunnels hidden from the maintenance force and underground C-Po patrols. Strategy comes in building sham cavities that are intended for the authorities to find and feel satisfied that they have the situation under control while missing more established cavities and communities. Tenacity comes in continuing this great effort to stay hidden yet somehow manage to survive in their harsh environment.

There are maybe 20,000 to 30,000 Subbers living in 100 or so major caverns, with up to 400 residents, and another 300-400 minor cavities or underground squatter groups. They harbour some of the island's top hacker collectives, who find the secrecy and avoidance of official scrutiny afforded by Subber Tribes very appealing.

Originally Posted by (E)

Question 14
Gilga is a purveyor of locally made sublegal devices, given that the most available local resources are mainly plastics and biological compounds what specific things does sie make?

Answer 14 [CTY][PPL]: Gilga the Purveyor
Apart from the usual range of printed plastic weapons and firearms, cheap, cheap, cheap cyberware and boltware (cyberware analogues that attach externally), Gilga's stall in the Makers Markets supplies a lot of the contraband hardware and materials needed by off-grid types such as Rafters, Hangers, Squatters and Subbers.

Particularly for Subbers, she has stealth auto-diggers that can slowly carve out substrate tunnels without triggering seismic patrols. For everyone, unlicensed construction tools, such as constructor drones and motile 3D printer bots. She can also get her hands on other building supplies, for DIY plumbing, ventilation, power and data infrastructure projects. The island's unofficial number one construction material is repurposed substrate foam, as feedstock for constructors and printers, and she has a dump truck or two of the stuff parked nearby for interested customers.

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Question 61 [TECH][AI]: The ABACUS Sophont Test
What version is ABACUS up to now, 19 years after the major update to 4.0?
How is it administered, with what kind of equipment?
What issues, known, unknown or zero day, does the current version have?

[Daigoro]

The LCD display on my digital wristwatch says it's cybertime for a cybertimeline.

"Cyberyear" is a placeholder name.

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The YOU-Topia City Setting Timeline

Cyberyear 4970 - Blake Musa born Ecodelia
Cyberyear 4977 - Quake in Ecodelia destroys Musa's birth records
Cyberyear 4984 - Musa wins scholarship to Whitepeaks Academy
Cyberyear 5004 - Musa meets Izchak Vandale, business partner, at Ptonghua University
100 before Master Wars - Cyberyear 5010 - Air Travel Invented
Cyberyear 5083 - Musa killed by Mutualist terrorist drone (age 113)
-- RNrU (Recovery, Neuro reconstruction, and Uploading) Protocol activated, creating Musa vII

Cyberyear 5099 - Musa vII moves to YOU-Topia island factory complex
0 since Master Wars - Cyberyear 5110 - Master Wars End
03 since Master Wars - Cyberyear 5113 - YOU-Topia Built
Cyberyear 5116 - Musa vII (age 33/146) builds upgraded brain and re-instantiates as Musa vIII
Cyberyear 5120- onward - Golden Era for NeuroCorp and YOU-Topia, until 5214
38 since Master Wars - Cyberyear 5148 - The Securities Mutual Defense Agreement Formed
50 since Master Wars - Cyberyear 5160 - Post-Ban ACI resembles ACI from this era
62 since Master Wars - Cyberyear 5172 - First Learning Computer
72 since Master Wars - Cyberyear 5182 - First AutoSophonts
Cyberyear 5189 - Musa vIII (age 73/219) upgrades to Musa vIV
Cyberyear 5201 - NeuroCorp stock drops due to ongoing development of AutoSophonts
-- Musa vIV (age 12/231) shot by wife, Musa vV instantiates
-- Musa vV takes revenge against 1st wife, wiping records of her, kills half of their children

Cyberyear 5210-30? - Battle of the Dancing Tortoise (details TBA)
103 since Master Wars - Cyberyear 5213 - First RepliSophonts
Cyberyear 5214 - YOU-Topia Crunch- marks start of decline from YOU-Topia and NeuroCorp's 'Golden Era', beginning cost cutting as RepliSophonts introduced
Cyberyear 5220 - Resource Riots, Civil Defense Committees Form as cost cutting hits
115 since Master Wars - Cyberyear 5225 - Vara-8 discovers how to copy RepliSophonts
Cyberyear 5235 - Musa vV (age 34/265) shot by Demokritos Teobaldo Holmström at Jade Gate Arcology, Musa vVI instantiates
-- U-Sec retaliates against CDCs (and Jade Gate Arcology?) with mass casualties

128 since Master Wars - Cyberyear 5238 - Crisis of '38
-- CDCs Unite and Attack, acquire arsenal of BRX-4 seismic charges and threaten city
-- Congress of Kampalu meets, intercedes in YOU-Topia
-- Transitional Authority Charter signed, by CDCs, NeuroCorp and Authority Members
-- Argalese Remand Currency instated as city's official currency

141 since Master Wars - Cyberyear 5251 - PARADIGM Treaty Signed and Man-Machine War Ends
-- NeuroCorp gains full securities status after 70 years of alliance
Cyberyear 5252 - Musa vVI (age 17/282) killed in suspicious air traffic accident, possibly related to role in assisting machine AIs during war. Musa vVII instantiates

150 since Master Wars - Cyberyear 5260 - First Neo-Mutualist Government
152 since Master Wars - Cyberyear 5262 - Representative Baldini's voluntary tax plan instated
164 since Master Wars - Cyberyear 5274 - the actions of Representative Di Pietro
166 since Master Wars - Cyberyear 5276 - 300 Series Ursulas introduced alongside C-Po officers
Cyberyear 5279 - Musa vVII (age 27/309) retired after breaking arm. Musa VIII instantiates.
171 since Master Wars - Cyberyear 5281 - the Pearl Gate CDC
175 since Master Wars - Cyberyear 5285 - Upgrade to 400 Series Ursulas
178 since Master Wars - Cyberyear 5288 - Secret upgrade of Ursula AI to non-PARADIGM level, autonomous robot policing
-- the Sluse Seven Trial

181 since Master Wars - Cyberyear 5291 - Ursula Scandal breaks
-- Threat of war with Machine Nations
-- Dissolution of Nordhuss Aerospace
-- C-Po and City Council management reformed
-- Release of ABACUS 4.0 protocol

Cyberyear 5302 - November: Musa VIII (age 23/332) killed in coup.
-- LD-8 impersonates Musa VIII as CEO for 10 months

Cyberyear 5303 - LD-8 Incident
--September: Coup and LD-8 exposed

Cyberyear 5304 - February: NeuroCorp Board decide to re-instantiate Musa as ver IX
-- April: Blake Musa ver IX instantiates, containing mems of LD-8

Cyberyear 5307 - NeuroTech engineer begins training NT-600 to interface with ADIs.
200 since Master Wars - Cyberyear 5310 - Present day (Year '10)
-- 3 months ago, someone tests NT-680DX on ABACUS and it passes


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Timeline entry template:

[b][I]Cyberyear 5???[/I][/b] - <event>
 -- <other events in same year>

Use this at the end of a post and I can drop it into the timeline above.