Worldbuilding Realism Consultation Thread Mk. 4

[Austrasien]

It probably isn't too wrong to conceptualize the Soviet economy as a single massive corporation headed by the board of the Politburo.

Lenin was an enterprising founder in the vein of Steve Jobs/Henry Ford. Stalin was Jeff Immelt and the purges were a vitality curve. The Nomenklatura being the MBAs. The collapse was when it went bankrupt after decades of MBA tinkering.

I wonder what the analog to insider trading would be?

Personal profit extraction by GOSPLAN bureaucrats.

BASICALLY

Inside trading properly is a situation where an insider exploits their information advantage to bilk outside investors by unloading onto them something which only the insider knows will soon become much less valuable - but its hard to operationalize the concept in the absence of a market price and the USSR was neither fully integrated with global markets or possessing much in the way of internal markets.

As prices were mostly fixed and mostly arbitrary the opportunity for graft by simple skimming (divert products, hoard, re-sell on the black market) was enormous and generally far easier than a price manipulation scheme in an economy where prices were dictated by throwing darts at a board in Moscow.

[Austrasien]

So,

Holographic portraits + optical (Vanderglut) correlator + holographic capture = decentralized analog biometric ID system that is both machine and human interpretable.

You hopefully know what a hologram is, an image which records on film the interference of light waves from a scene at a specific wavelength, which when illuminated by the same wavelength at the correct angle recreates the recorded image in three dimensions. Imagining a hologram as a virtual window to a virtual scene is not inaccurate.

A Vanderglut correlator is a more obscure application of holography and is essentially a fully optical computer that can measure the degree of similarity between two images. It does this by, in essence, overlapping two holographic images (which are, recall, phase images that record the phase of light at any point on the film) so coherent light beams passing through each interfere to produce a single "image" (which to human eyes looks like a bright spot). This combined image happens to be the degree of similarity in phase between the two images which is physically identical to the degree of similarity between the two images; holding frequency constant the phase of a wave contains all the information about that wave and if that wave happens to carry information, like a portrait, all is in the phase information which a hologram records this is why a hologram preserves not just depth but holds up under different viewing angles and even different focal lengths.

Or more simply if you had a true holographic portrait of a face, and took a second holographic portrait of them, then stuck both films in a Vanderglut correlator it would produce immediately a correlation image which can be interpreted by a properly designed machine to indicate to the degree of similarity between the two images. And a significant advantage of holograms here is that the correlations are fully 3D, capturing the full structure of the face akin to a stereo camera. But unlike a stereo camera a hologram is unaffected by differences in aperture/focal length - a hologram is effectively focused at infinity. And there is no digitization of the inputs required which is advantageous IMO from both security and privacy perspectives.

And as a backup, a holographic portrait can be viewed directly by a person. Though mostly we only encounter low-quality holograms used on credit cards and the like, the quality of image that can be generated by holography is extremely high and even a rather small wallet-sized card could be imprinted with a high-resolution portrait that could if needed by optically blown-up. A high-quality holographic portrait would be extremely difficult to spoof because it records in great detail the 3D structure of the face. For adults at least it should be stable over very long periods and relatively insensitive to changes in hair, pigmentation, wrinkling, etc.

A downside of holography is it has traditionally relied on lasers which are not eyesafe and were often quite large. The former limitation is not fuindamental, it has been more about the cost and availability of different lasers commercially, while there has been significant progress on the latter. It is also possible holographic portraits could be combined with additional datum such as one or more holographic fingerprint scans - these are comparatively much easier to capture and could be printed on an ID card alongside a portrait for use as supplementary data or in more austere conditions where taking a new holographic portrait is impractical.

[Minoa]

In Minoa, each first level administration will have their own colour and symbol (within a circle): it is a bit like the Hunger Games, but with less dystopia. As it stands right now, I am looking at:

Region	Colour	Symbol
Aegean Islands	Underground Waterloo & City Line Turquoise	Mediterranean Monk Seal
Blagoevgrad	Bulgarian Flag Green	Horse
Athens	Sky Blue	Little Owl
Ergene	Blue-Gray	Trout
Izmir	Pink	Flamingo
Istanbul	Azure Blue	Tessellated Triangular Ripples
Caria	Orange	Mandarin Orange
Lydia	Red	Tulip
Marmara	Underground District Line Green	Top Part of the Doric Column
North Macedonia	Yellow	Lion
Morea	Gold	Olympic Flame
Epirus	Lime Green	Eurasian Brown Bear
Thrace	Lilac	Haberlea
South Macedonia	Underground Piccadilly Line Navy Blue	Medusa
Thessaly	Bronze	Centaur
Thessaloniki	Magenta	White Tower
New Syria	Purple	Five Seven-Pointed Stars

Ordering is according to the subdivision letters under ISO 3166:MI. The subdivision letters also have relevance to the location.

I am doing some documentation for my scheme, so I wish to ask if there are real-world examples of a country that uses such a system where all of their first-level administrations do not share the same main colour and symbol. I got the idea from the Mexico City Metro stations, which uses symbols due to the country’s poor literacy rate at the time when the first line opened in 1969.

[Triplebaconation]

You mean any countries with state or provincial flags?

[Minoa]

You mean any countries with state or provincial flags?

No, that is too broad if you mean the mere presence of state or provincial flags. Maybe I need to try harder to explain how my system works.

[Triplebaconation]

The Hunger Game district symbols are just simplified analogies to state seals.

[The Akasha Colony]

No, that is too broad if you mean the mere presence of state or provincial flags. Maybe I need to try harder to explain how my system works.

I suspect you are putting too much emphasis on the perceived "uniqueness" of the concept; it is not functionally different than the current system of state/territorial flags/emblems/seals/coats of arms found in most nations with major subdivisions (or indeed, national flags within the international community).

The only difference is that these happen to be more uniform as they seem to be assigned by the national government rather than selected by the polities themselves, but they ultimately serve the same purpose: some kind of pictographic representation of a given polity. Whether colors are duplicated is a fairly minor niggle; in nations with as many subdivisions as the United States or Russia, duplication of colors is all but guaranteed anyway.

The prefectural flags of Japan are a reasonably close approximation in any event. They are not literal pictograms in the Western sense (as they are derived from traditional Japanese mon), but all are relevant in some way to the prefecture they represent and are much more uniform and simplified in design and style than conventional Western flags or coats of arms.

[Gallia-]

Good flags are recognizable at a distance on a flag pole.

New Mexico, Japan, Alaska, the UK.

These are flags people can see from a distance and say "YO I KNOW THAT".

Poland, Indonesia, Chad, Rumania.

All terrible flags.

Japan's prefectural flags are too cyberpunk. They don't have anywhere near enough Patlabors building sea walls in Tokyo bay and underneath it to deserve that.

[Kyria]

Greetings,

I am currently attempting to list the political and administrative subdivisions of Kyria but as a foreigner to North America I am having difficulties. Two subdivisions I have thus far made canon are the provinces of Cascadia and Nova Anglia (New England). What other regions or states could I group together to form reasonable provinces with internal borders based on geographic barriers like rivers or mountains, or straight lines where there are none to be found?

Thank you.

[Kazarogkai]

Just putting this up, a sorta first draft for the characters of my Nations base-60 numeral system "The Old Temple Numerals". The history is a bit complicated but to keep it abbreviated the whole thing in many ways was a compromise thought up by the monks which in addition to "The Old Temple Weights and Measures" served as a compromise for a large number of already existing systems(base-8, base-12, base-10, base-20) to sere as a unified but neutral replacement. Eventually this along with the formally mentioned number are going to get replaced by a vastly simpler base-12 system after the conclusion and with it victory of the Central Parliament during the confederate wars but that would be a while off. For a good 1200 years from it's early adoption among the Monastic Laymen of the Central Heartlands in the later Kaza Iron Age Gregorian up until the creation of the New system around the early modern or Second Imperial era as they would refer to it as. Still it's a draft plan on fulling finishing the thing up sometime later. Make it a little more rational and consistent.

[Danternoust]

It doesn't look very sloppy handwriting resistant.

Do you intend to write only on wax or clay tablets in large print?

How large is your alphabet? With maybe a number symbol, you could reuse your alphabet for numbers.

[Kazarogkai]

It doesn't look very sloppy handwriting resistant.

Do you intend to write only on wax or clay tablets in large print?

How large is your alphabet? With maybe a number symbol, you could reuse your alphabet for numbers.

To the first Inquiry I made it in paint it was the best I could do, also it's a rough draft. And if your wondering in it's original form it was primarily written on clay, stone, and wood hence the rather angular nature similar to Roman Numerals.

To the Second Kaza lacked an alphabet at the time they made use of a Logographic Script known as Old Kaza, think Chinese, when this system was made. It wasn't until the Second Empire when they got their Syllabery but even that wouldn't work so great since that would have in excess of 200 Characters which again would be problematic. Also a system like you mentioned would not have jived all that great with a positional number system which this system is based around. Due to trade with India and the greater Persian-Arab sphere the concept of zero would have been learned already.

[Kedri]

How would an island country handle its land usage to be as efficient as possible? Obviously, since there isn't as much land as in many other countries, would the government have to have a greater role in how it's used and who can live where?

Idk how realistic it is, but I kinda want Kedri to solve its issue with land via seasteading and artificial islands.

[Taihei Tengoku]

How would an island country handle its land usage to be as efficient as possible?

market pricing

[The Akasha Colony]

How would an island country handle its land usage to be as efficient as possible? Obviously, since there isn't as much land as in many other countries, would the government have to have a greater role in how it's used and who can live where?

Ask Singapore. 80% of the population lives in public housing high-rises.

Idk how realistic it is, but I kinda want Kedri to solve its issue with land via seasteading and artificial islands.

Expanding the existing land is far more practical. Separate artificial islands just create transit headaches and waste space; you could just fill in that extra area and get even more land.

[Gallia-]

A shrinking population helps.

[Kazarogkai]

Just putting this up, a sorta first draft for the characters of my Nations base-60 numeral system "The Old Temple Numerals".Snip

Working from my original post. What I show you here is simply the succesor of the formerly mentioned base 60 number system. Being that it was the Central Parliament who won the civil war it came as no shock to anyone that the number system they bought about was a base-12 system(the native system of their land). This would go on to be known officially as "The New Temple Numerals" to differentiate it from the Old Temple Numerals though unofficially it is known as "The Central State Numerals" depending on who you are talking to. Though the old system was still used for various special purposes like religious texts and certain official documents in a manner like Latin numerals this would go on to become the system used for general use up into the present day.

The NTN are a bit different not only in comparison to the OTN but also in comparison to other contemporary writing systems. The most similar is probably the Chinese Counting Rod system in a similar vein it also is primarily meant to be used on a counting board of sorts and were personally a pretty big influence both OOC and IC in the development of the system. Due to trade ties mostly indirect in the Song era and Direct during the Ming they would have maintained some degree of correspondence around the time this system was being made/used. Hence they look rather similar. To go into the particulars of how it works one of the most important things to keep in mind is number positioning unlike Arabic Numerals with their exclusive right to left format this system instead makes use of a somewhat elaborate right to left bottom up system that is referred to as blocks and strings. Starting from the bottom, the right side is the initial position and forms the ones place, the left functions as the tens place. This continues on as one rises from block to block going something like this:

10^13|10^12
10^11|10^10
10^9|10^8
10^7|10^6
10^5|10^4
10^3|10^2
10|01

To put in simple terms it has a weird bounding upward moving system to determine place value and the like. Due to the dark nature of the paper they use the preferred color of the ink they use is white rather than black. Hence again similar to the aforementioned Rod Numerals color does have a functional basis namely White Is used for Positive Numbers while Red is used for Negatives; Expanding from that decimals are colored Green and fractions when rendered are usually yellow. Is this system the most practical and useful system? No. But it looks cool so whatever. This is helpful for making equations too when adding the numbers will be rendered white, while subtracting the numbers one is rendered white while the other is rendered Red, etc.

[Great Nortend]

Dots are easily accidentally added. They're not a good idea for numbers, I think.

[Kazarogkai]

Dots are easily accidentally added. They're not a good idea for numbers, I think.

Mayan numerals along with Morse code technically speaking would like to talk to you. Also they were supposed to be miniature squares, the shape of their clay stylus, but the eraser on paint doesn't get any smaller hence had to roll with it. That is until I found the pencil tool actually does have a square shape hence the later simbles make use of such. Going on from there:



This is an expanded version of the previous picture showing the aforementioned stacking system in question alongside different arithmetic equations being done with this system specifically adding and subtracting. Simply meant as a show of it being used in a practical sense. Also fixed up the error with 100 showing it as 1x12^2 when it should have been shown as (8x12^1) + 4.

[Triplebaconation]

The Mayan numbers are quite good.

Yours looks so cumbersome that I don't see it surviving contact with other number systems.

What's the difference between 1 and 144? A slightly larger dot? Imagine a dispute involving a contract with this system. Or how easy it makes a forger's job.

[Kazarogkai]

The Mayan numbers are quite good.

Yours looks so cumbersome that I don't see it surviving contact with other number systems.

What's the difference between 1 and 144? A slightly larger dot? Imagine a dispute involving a contract with this system. Or how easy it makes a forger's job.

The Mayan numbers are pretty elegant I would say.

Depends it works well with the language which itself is centered on base 12 and since the only other potential number systems are base 10 their unlikely to change. Also as mentioned before this wasn't really designed with blank papers like the one you see in mind. From the get go it was designed to be used with a counting board with clearly delineated sections for numbers. The fact that the Rod, as it is referred to, is twice as long should make it intuitive enough. Also this while a bit clumsy looking it does have some good advantages due to the fact that it is a featurel system with previous numbers influencing the construction of larger numbers. Makes math, specifically arithmetic, quite easy as displayed in the aforementioned post. The amount of actual number crunching is quite small the bulk of it is simply eliminating or adding similar symbols. That and it's consistent and contrasts nicely with their existing Top-Down Left-to-Right Syllabery Being a Bottom-Up Right-To-left System which is nice.

Never the less you do have a point about. Their Zero figure is a bit ambiguous. At the time it was made stone and clay were still vastly prefered as mediums of writing with paper only really being used in informal affairs and for quick messages. Things like court records, religious scripture, Memory Documents(history) were still largely made with the former rather than the latter. Hence I imagine as paper starts becoming more widespread, certain reforms might be made to fix it up. Notably the Zero is going to get an update. I'm thinking something like this with The Zero receiving a hollow square in contrast to their One which receives a full square:

[Manokan Republic]

Exponents are better to represent whole numbers or numbers that are only 10's places, so you can immediately tell that 10^12 is one trillion, where as counting the zeroes exactly can be kind of hard or annoying, such as 1,000,000,000,000, but it's better to use zeros as a place holder when you have more complex numbers. So, for example, with 1,286,482,504,202 is easier to tell what each position is (1 trillion, 286 billion, 482 million, 504 thousand, 202) rather than 1.286482504202 x 10^12. So with simple 10's numbers exponents make sense, and with complex numbers zeroes as a place holder makes sense. It depends on what you are representing.

[Manokan Republic]

Dots are easily accidentally added. They're not a good idea for numbers, I think.

Mayan numerals along with Morse code technically speaking would like to talk to you. Also they were supposed to be miniature squares, the shape of their clay stylus, but the eraser on paint doesn't get any smaller hence had to roll with it. That is until I found the pencil tool actually does have a square shape hence the later simbles make use of such. Going on from there:



This is an expanded version of the previous picture showing the aforementioned stacking system in question alongside different arithmetic equations being done with this system specifically adding and subtracting. Simply meant as a show of it being used in a practical sense. Also fixed up the error with 100 showing it as 1x12^2 when it should have been shown as (8x12^1) + 4.

The biggest problem seems to be a lack of a linear structure, with it not progressing in a simple and importantly, scalable format. The reason why being able to add up numbers sequentially, such as 1,000,200,400 etc. is great is because it's easy to use the numbers to represent a larger number, using the base 10 numbers, which doesn't include 10 but rather 0-9 ironically. 5 millions is an easier concept to grasp when you can represent 5 of those millions, where as the line and dot structure you have tends to change based on the exact number, so 24 is represented by a different symbol, rather than being a 2 and a 4 next to each other. It's better to explain 0-9, or 0 through something, say 12-20, and then arrange that in order, than it would be to have new characters for each new number. Basically you need the ability to represent a compounding increase, rather than just numbers by themselves. Five 1000's, or even five, 12's (or 60) is an easier concept to represent than, needing a new number to represent 60, 24, 50 and so on.

So, basically the biggest problem is, numbers should be added together to make bigger numbers. 36 should be a combination of 3 and 6 put together, and not it's own new character, basically. 36 is it's own number, when it should be represented by two numbers added together, or 70 should be 7 and 0, and not it's own thing. It can be easy to make the mistake but, numbers should be infinitely scalable, which this of course would not be, as you'd need to make up an infinite number of combinations to get to larger numbers. The advantage of Base-10 is just that it's the same 10 numbers repeating over and over again. In the english language, dozen (or 12) and Score (20) emerged to represent commonly used terms, and so you might represent those as their own distinct numbers to be used in their own distinct ways, but not as a general rule essentially. For something more exotic, Base 2 and Base 60 are also plausible, with Base 60 being based on angles and Base 2 basically being Binary, while Base 20 was actually widely used by the Maya, the Gauls, and numerous other societies, and Base-12 has been used in various sub-counting systems like for time (with 12 hours representing a half of a day). I can't imagine math getting anywhere in a society without at least having some kind of positional notation though.

The other option is a separate character for the place. So, you could say, 5 millions, or 5, 10's, millions, or something, so essentially 5 x (Graktar) to represent 5 millions, or 5 x (Banar)(Graktar) for 50 millions, but this would quickly fall apart, especially if trying to represent larger numbers.

[Gallia-]

senary is the only notation that matters

11th ACR is also the 7th Cavalry Regiment

War in 2020 meets Dad Got Atomized in Fulda for your Freedom

[Ticoron]

What sorts of factors increase the odds of a revolution producing liberal democracy?

For context, Ticoron is an island nation in the pacific, that successfully resisted European domination. Ticoron used to be ruled by a sort of Aristocratic Republic, with a body of hereditary nobles ruling, legislating, and politicking. There was a monarch, but his powers were quite limited. However, the industrial revolution still came to Ticoron, and the industry did still industrialize. This brought with it western ideas, such as democracy and suffrage. This caused many people in Ticoron to hate the aristocracy, not least of which was the burgeoning wealthy capitalist class. This eventually led to a popular uprising and civil war.

Eventually, the aristocracy was defeated. However after they defeated the aristocracy, there were still several different rebel factions with different ideologies, with the primary conflicts being a matter of capitalism vs communism. Eventually, the factions were able to come together and form a new national government. This was partly due to their common origins in (generally pacifistic) Ticon religion and philosophy (all the factions counted priests and religious leaders among their numbers), and partly due to fear of Imperial Japan. Over time, the situation stabilized, and Ticoron became a peacful, liberal democracy. They also retained the monarchy, as a largely symbolic position.

I realize this is very brief, but how realistic do you all think this backstory is, as a brief description? Is it realistic for factions to unite?