Quote:
Originally Posted by Arith Winterfell
Now, how to approach creating cyberpunk's dystopia of haves and have-nots in such a setting and what would it look like?
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Someone once pointed out that artificial habitats are the ultimate
hydraulic society, since they have to maintain control over their own life support in order to survive. So, one simple approach is to make shirtsleeve habitable planets the rarest and most valuable resource available. The "Haves" live in luxury on suitable planetary surfaces under the open sky. The "Have-Nots" toil away in dingy, run-down habs -- built and maintained by the lowest bidder, naturally -- to provide that luxury, always looking for the One Big Break that will let them buy their way into the on-planet elite.
Habs can be free-floating, attached to asteroids, or located on worlds with unbreathable atmospheres or other environmental issues. The elite are painfully aware that orbital bombardment is a thing and that any stowaway who reaches the surface of one of the "good" worlds stands a fair chance of being able to escape into the wilds and survive, so they spend their efforts on thwarting such attempts and otherwise let the habs govern themselves. If the habs actually need goods from the surface -- if, say, their life support systems can't feasibly go over ~99.9% closed -- the elites can use that to solidify their rule.