Introduction
It is the year 2100, and the world is highly divided. The worldwide renaissance of the mid-21st century has yielded spectacular advances in nearly all fields of technology. The world had utopia within its sights, but fail to reach it. The high costs of mass implementation of Transhumanist ideas forced governments to prioritize specific fields. As their citizens integrated Transhumanism into their daily lives, they found themselves increasingly isolated from those under governments prioritizing different strains of Transhumanism. As tensions rose, former allies began to drift apart, giving rise to alliances based around Transhumanist ideologies rather than political ideologies. The anti-cyborg riots of 2087 solidified the divide, as governments split over the proper response and began a volley of condemnations against one another. After a failed attempt by the UN to enforce the Transhuman Equality Bill in the US, which was reportedly discriminating against Collectionists, numerous nations withdrew - eventually leading to its total collapse. Earth now stands at the brink of a nuclear world war, one from which it may not recover.
Meanwhile, in countries which have not chosen a side, riots between various Transhumanist groups and anti-Transhumanists are very common in major cities, sometimes resulting in civil wars in already unstable nations. These countries are often completely unable to keep the peace in large tracks of land where warlords or gangs have taken over. In these countries, Corporations have been able to fill the void, providing select neighborhoods protection in exchange for loyalty. Terrorist organizations have also been able to take quite a bit of control, larger ones succeeding more than ever at achieving their goals.
Transhumanist Factions:
The Biodirectionists
The Biodirectionists believe in the advancement of Humanity through the use of genetic engineering. Biodirectionists are particularly well known for having very long and relatively disease-free lives, often extending as much as 160 years. Due to extensive genetic engineering, many are able to perform feats of superhuman strength and stamina up until the very end - making them particularly popular amongst poorer countries which continue to struggle with disease and rely heavily on manual labor. Additionally, recent advances in genetic engineering has made it significantly cheaper than other forms of Transhumanism, further increasing its popularity amongst the poor. Biodirectionism is also particularly popular amongst doctors and medical companies, who see genetic engineering as the solution to numerous illness-related woes.
The Immortals
The Immortals a subset of Biodirectionists dedicated to achieving biological immortality (preferably within their lifetime), seeking to stay on the cutting edge of genetic modification to keep them alive in the meantime. Recently, Immortals have been rapidly gaining in popularity as scientists close in on a potential fix for the Hayflick limit, potentially giving the Immortals the immortality they desire.
The New Gaians
The New Gaians believe in the use of genetic engineering to become one with nature. This can range from the tweaking of genes to become more environmentally friendly to complete overhauls of parts of the Human genome, giving them powers like the ability to photosynthesize or breath underwater. The latter tends to be much more dangerous, as the technology is still new, but many Gaians see no other choice in their quest to rejoin nature.
The Revivalists
The New Ancestor Cult in China, Syndrome Corp in the US, and the Cult of the Dead in Mexico have brought the revivalists fame and controversy, many of the members having to go into hiding from mobs. The Revivalists are closing in on the secret to the revival of recently deceased corpses and organs, and are determined to use this invention to its full potential. They are hated by many, but often work closely with certain strains of Transhumanists, notably the Immortals, who want to ensure their own survival by any means necessary.
The Cyberneticists
The Cyberneticists believe in the advancement of Humanity through the use of genetic implantations. Cyberneticists, while having the ability to perform superhuman tasks of strength and speed through limb implants, are usually focused on the brain. Particularly popular implants are the Steward v24.597, which functions as a small supercomputer which allows the user to calculate complex equations with ease; the Infobank 2000, which serves as a vast storehouse of knowledge available at a thought's notice; and the IFRD-5, which assists the user in diplomatic duties by improving verbal and nonverbal communication and recognition of nonverbal cues. Due to the high cost of cybernetic implants, they are usually only used by high-ranking diplomats, wealthy politicians, executives and some scientists and professors who are given them for free. Many top universities have begun to give out free cybernetic implants to their professors, greatly improving the quality of university teaching.
The Intellectuals
Cybernetic Implants are particularly popular amongst intellectuals, who have been known to use them to great success in their academic pursuits. Cybernetic Intellectuals are particularly common in major Computer Science companies, who are seeking to change cybernetic implants to fully-optical computing, increasing their speeds to unfathomable levels. Cybernetic Intellectuals hope that computers will be able to catapult human intellect to spectacular levels, allowing Humanity to finally escape the shackles of ignorance.
The Cybernetic Egalitarians
Cybernetic Egalitarians see the good done by Cybernetics, but instead of seeking to improve upon the current implants, they seek to make these implants cheap enough to distribute to the general populace. This way, the intellectual divide will finally be destroyed, and humanity can live as one without academic elitism and the shunning of those of lower intelligence. The Egalitarians are highly popular in the poor of Cyberneticist countries, and commonly find themselves in conflict with the Intellectuals, who do not care nearly as much about making the implants cheap. The Supposed "Egalitarians" are also popular in certain low-cost retail corporations, who are merely seeking to lower the cost of cybernetic implants for the sake of profit.
The Transformationists
The Transformationists believe in going one step further from traditional cybernetic implants, replacing the majority or entire body with metal. This, in the most extreme cases, can include downloading brain onto a harddrive through the use of the Voransky process. Transformationists remain extremely rare, both due to the exorbidant cost and social isolation resulting from such a transformation. The Transformationists have come in the news recently, as eccentric billionaire and second richest man on Earth, Jenson Harvey, has successfully made the full transformation from man to machine.
The Uploaders
In the mid-21st centuries, massive advancements in large-scale optical computing, cybernetic implants and scanner technology allowed for the creation of life-like fully-immersive environments - immersive to the point that the average citizen can't tell the difference between the real world and the simulation. The Uploaders utilize this technology by "uploading" their minds into massive super-computers, where they live immortally in these virtual utopias.
The Full Virtual Uploaders
Full Virtual Uploaders use the oldest process of virtual uploading, which essentially consists of "copying" all the information in the brain onto a computer. The "person" continues to function within the computer, though no one knows whether the original consciousness was transferred with the information.
The Voransky Process Uploaders
The Voransky process slowly moves the information of the brain to cybernetic parts or computers by only replacing certain parts of the brain at a time. A person can function with half an organic brain and half a cybernetic brain during the process. As far as anyone knows, it seems to transfer the original conciousness, though it is more time-consuming than full virtual uploading and the philosophical implications of this method are still unclear.
The Biological Uploaders
To assuage those who fear that their consciousness won't *truly* be transferred, biological "uploading" keeps the old brain, simply merging it with the computer. This, unfortunately, does not guarantee immortality, and requires people to stay behind to care for the brains, but it at the very least does not instantly destroy the consciousness, which many philosophers fear happen with the former two processes.
The Connectionists
Connectionists believe in uniting Humanity through the use of special genetic engineering techniques and telepathic communication implants. Modern Communicationist societies distribute mandatory implants which allow for telepathic communication between others with the same implant over very large distances - like instantaneous texting. However, this is only temporary. Eventually, Communicationists seek to eventually modify the genetic structure of the Human brain, changing their mentality to force people to act communally rather than individually. Then, children with this genetic modification are to be trained with telepathic communication implants from birth. Incremental changes from this point will allow for all thoughts to be transferred inadvertently, theoretically creating the first human hivemind. Connectionists are often seen as somewhat creepy by much of society, but have become very popular in parts of Asia.
Human Collective Connectionists
The more mainstream force of the Connectionists imagine a society in which everyone is more or less individual, functioning essentially independently, with constant ideas and thoughts coming in from all other members of the society. They find themselves in conflict with the "True Hivemind Connectionists"
True Hivemind Connectionists
True Hivemind Connectionists believe that the hivemind should essentially eliminate the idea of the individual. All minds in the collective would contribute to the thought process of the collective, which makes major decisions. Individuals would still be under control of their own bodies, but would be fully subservient to the collective's desires.
Anti-Transhumanist Factions
The Religious
The religious have a number of varying reasons to oppose Transhumanism, depending on their faith. They generally despise Biodirectionists, moderately oppose Cyberneticists, and have varying opinions of Connectionists and Uploaders.
(There are too many subgroups to list)
The Equalists
The Equalists believe that transhumanism creates a major inbalance of power between those who chose to become transhumanists and those who refuse to, and so should opposed on the basis of equality. In general, Equalists aggressively despise Cyberneticists, mildly oppose Biodirectionists, disagree with Connectists, and are neutral towards Uploaders.
The RP
We will be using this as the the Map:
http://i.imgur.com/Sr7cnfC.png
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(Note - Corporations, while being able to control mercenaries, will not officially hold land or a very large army like a country except in very special circumstances)
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Rules:
1. The OP's decision is up for debate, if you wish. Just make sure to debate it in large, ranty posts ending with a threat to leave the RP or to call the mods.
2. Nuclear War has to be signed off by me, for obvious reasons.
3. Be courteous about losing; don't think up ridiculous stories as to why you somehow won a battle against a 10,000-strong army using only a ball-point pen.
4. I reserve to right to kick out players if one-liner posts are being made in IC or if rules are being repeatedly broken.
5. Every other forum rule and Portal to the Multiverse rules apply, of course.
too lazy.
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