IOSHI
by Rebecca Borgstrom
Individually Organised Science and Hobby Index. The development of human knowledge is strictly limited by the sophistication of the techniques used to organise and convey that knowledge. IOSHI (a.k.a. Ïthe wellÓ) conveys knowledge in the traditional fashion: datajacked into a two-level personal library stored on a chip in oneÌs brain. It serves as a significant boon to anyone who can afford personal or professional access. With a solid grasp of the state of the art, those who have learned from the well are just plain better.
IOSHI is a patented technology. Getting to the state of the art isn't just a matter of money; it's a matter of legal entanglement. By the time you've dragged yourself permanently out of the ghetto, the corporate power structure owns you -- usually a few hundred corporations own very small pieces of you, to be more precise.
Heaven Over Mountain
by Bruce Baugh
The Orbital Tower project, or as everyone calls it when not on the job, the beanstalk, draws on the traditions of biotechnology to simultaneously present the largest artefact in the solar system and an ecosystem so distinctive as to be almost an alien world unto itself.
It rises from Earth to orbit, via carbon nanotube, and is reinforced by biotechnology. The elevator is a living thing, governed and groomed by vast networks of humans and artificial intelligence. The city at its base, and those along its length, are focal points for political and economic power Ò yet only from the elite reaches of Heaven can one gain perspective and a sense of the world below; a huge fraction of the world's trade and manufacturing now depends on this one thing, a 25,000-kilometer-high tree with a mind of its own.
Daedalus
by Michelle Lyons
In a sort of 90-minutes-from-reality future, things haven't gone so well. The shadow government set up to free us from the fear of total federal collapse in case of a terrorist strike has instead become the real power in the world. Their think-tank of the brightest minds of the time is Daedalus Ò now free from the checks and balances that keep more available agencies from overstepping themselves, Daedalus has taken over. The new government is devoted to the protection and welfare of the political and socio-economic state, no matter the cost.
ItÌs a happy place, where everyone is chipped and tracked; the watchers are scattered through the community, from local businesses, to church-group leaders, to the Regional Patrols ÷ all the way up to the Department of National Security. But sometimes the programming crashes, and you are left alone in your mind.
Underworld
by Chris Gossett and Brad Kayl
Underworld is to Cyberpunk what the Third World is to the United States. Where most cyberpunk worlds immediately evoke a futuristic metropolis, Underworld is the hellhole where the cheap labour is found. Same world; different focus. This is not the place to find the existential angst of a hard-bitten ex-cop or the messianic fantasy of an awakened uber-hacker. Underworld is a dusty mirror of the world ÏaboveÓ that has created and maintains it. The needs of the wealthy demand the existence of Underworld.
Underworld is a closed community, where drones toil endlessly for the corporate masters. Their lives in the factories an unending hell, yet life on the street is nasty, brutish, and short. Mafia, Yakuza, gangs, and strange societies divvy up the territory, each trying to survive another day.
Posted by Jesse on 2004-07-12 Discuss this on our message boards |
