Future history

[smokingwreckage]

Yeah, and what I like about LoS is it isn't utopia or dystopia. There's room for things like overzealous cyber-security without having to do a rehash of 1984. You don't even have to have any real faith in the UN to buy the idea that it, being a bureaucracy with nominally global reach was the fastest, neatest fit for a loose-and-leaky "Earth Federation". The rushed negotiations under pressure, the fact that most governments the world over are trying quietly or overtly to subvert or circumvent the structure, it all has the feel of real politics, real history.

Also, by making sure that so many players are not merely a drab dull grey but a genuine mix of the truly admirable and the utterly hopeless or self-serving, you keep the game open for all sorts of things, including RPGs with scope for political, merchant, criminal, enforcement, or military campaigns.

[Clark]

The universe of Legions of Steel is neither utopian nor dystopian.  Overall, it reflects my own mix of cynicism and optimism.  There is a lot of room to explore what would have happened to Earth itself over the next century, and then how Contact and the LOS threat would change things.  Keep in mind that it was originally written just as the internet was coming online, so to speak.  Fifteen years ago, if you had talked about internet video streaming from my cell phone, that would have struck me as science fiction.

I have never read Rifters or Blindsight but I nosed about on the internet.  And, of course, I have seen the Transformers movies which can give you an idea of the mischief that rogue machines could cause on a wired world.  So it still makes sense for LOS Earth to back away from internet connectivity due to security concerns.

But the ramifications of that would be interesting to explore.  It wouldn't make a great deal of difference from a military standpoint, but it would change everyday life.  I don't think it would cripple the economy or anything: with the uplift technology (and we really need a better name than uplift or neotech etc) the economy would lurch sideways and get back to producing actual physical things rather than doc com vapour millionaires.  With licensing, the UNE would become largely self-funding. Cold fusion could potentially solve energy/carbon emissions problems, etc etc.  And the politiking would continue. 

We have a federal election this coming Monday here in Canada.  The leading Conservative Party has pledged to pass an omnibus criminal justice bill within 100 days if they score a majority (which is a coin toss right now).  Buried within that legislation - which there basically will be no time to debate - are internet provisions that allow cops to get warrantless access to your personal information, requires internet providers to create ways of spying on people, and allows for the cops to get warrants to access that information or even tap into communications in real time.  And this is Canada!

[Dave Chase]

...
We have a federal election this coming Monday here in Canada.  The leading Conservative Party has pledged to pass an omnibus criminal justice bill within 100 days if they score a majority (which is a coin toss right now).  Buried within that legislation - which there basically will be no time to debate - are internet provisions that allow cops to get warrantless access to your personal information, requires internet providers to create ways of spying on people, and allows for the cops to get warrants to access that information or even tap into communications in real time.  And this is Canada!

Ouch. Hope it gets stopped.

On with your lack of internet in the LOS/Planetstorm Earth, I wonder if there might not be a slight increase in the resurgance of Amish or other down to earth, use as little technology as possible or even the Ludlites (spelling) possibly becoming a religion of sorts.

Dave Chase

[Clark]

I suppose that UPFE would have embodied that.