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Glass Half Full

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RvBOMally
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My cover for the DPRK's world in An Examination of Extra-Universal Systems of Government by Ephraim ben Raphael. Again, many thanks for EBR for helping me out of this one; he also wrote all of the text below except for the PoD stuff and the stuff on Antartida. It's a rather optimistic view of the future, so I was a bit out of my element. Nonetheless, it's a very interesting world and I'm glad to have worked on it. :)
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  • The PoD is the Brexit vote failing, and that result becoming a catalyst for greater integration within the EU.
  • Uzbekistan, Free Pakistan, and Central Africa are the world's only remaining dictatorships. That said they're really awful and authoritarian.
  • New Brunei is the world's only non-ceremonial monarchy, they have an elected parliament but the Sultan can still veto legislation, propose legislation, call referendum, and dissolve the government.
  • Arabia is a non-denominational Muslim theocracy akin to Vatican City- they have a very good human rights record and local governments run along Neo-Demarchist lines.
  • The big social issue of the day involves Transhumanism- people with money can afford better enhancements than those without, and those with better enhancements will be more successful in life and make more money while those with less enhancements can't compete and this stifles social and economic mobility. How to solve the problem is an ongoing debate. Other issues include the fact that people may be living a little bit too long (also a problems when it comes to social mobility, etc.), is it okay to let people own artificially created non-sentient beings for the purpose of sex (can I have my own catgirl?), and does letting theists (now only 5% of the population) opt to have non-designer babies who may end up having disabilities count as child abuse, and should it be banned? (Most of these are not major issues in North Korea, where transhumanism is so strictly regulated that rich people getting too many enhancements isn't yet an issue, having sex with anything other than a human being is strictly illegal, and thesists are still in the majority).
  • Laos, New Brunei, Afghanistan, Oman, and Ethiopia are part of the League of Sovereign States- sort of a club of non-WU members. They co-operate primarily on issues involving trade, currency, and bankin
  • Uzbekistan and Free Pakistan have a mini-United Nations called the Community for Freedom and Democracy, which it is not.
  • The Republic of Antartida is a former Argentine colony, established as the ice began to melt in the mid-21st century, and gained independence after the Argentine Civil War in the 2120s (that also saw the fall of the Argentine junta and the rise of a pro-World Union government). The Antartidans are made up of the descendants of the first settlers, who form the country's ruling class, and subsequent waves of settlers, particularly from sinking areas, political and religious minorities, and - most recently - transhumans who are discriminated against in their home countries. Antartida still has a strong Argentine/Hispanic culture, and because of its origins, a strong independence streak that keeps it well away from World Union membership.
  • Most of the colonization of the solar system was conducted by private corporations, and as a consequence while the inhabitants of the off-world colonies are eligible for World Population Sample and enjoy pretty much the same rights as people on Earth, most of these colonies are still run as large company towns. Lose your job, and you get a one-way ticket back to Earth. All of the company-colonies are legally WU territory.
  • The only notable state-established extra-terrestrial colonies are on the moon, where there are some smaller operations run by Mongolia, Israel, and the Congo. There are also several Lunar colonies established by governments that later joined the World Union (America, China, etc.) which are still administered as part of their respective WU constituents. The only non-WU, non-WU associate colony is prestige Lunar settlement run by the Central African Republic.
  • Extra-terrestrial operations are actually more focused in the moons of the Gas Giants than the in the Inner Planets- Mars is important for its position as a way-station between between the two and has an economy based on services and processing raw material from Ganymede, Callisto, Io, etc, for shipment to Earth and the Moon. Mars also has the only non-corporate colony outside of Luna- a former ESA base on the equator now administered by Germany as part of the World Union.
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PolandStronk2's avatar
PolandStronk2

I don't think the position of the president of the United States would be purely ceremonial in this case