Wushu Skidoo
Another goon kicks Sam's shotgun up and off target, sending the next shot straight through an antique chandelier. Shards of hand-blown glass rain down around him. Sam's eye tap captures the image and beams it to a dedicated AI on a quantum computer two continents away. It calculates the chandelier's market value and displays the liability on Sam's HUD in a readable san-serif font.
Goddamnit!" Sam knees the guy in the groin and sweeps his legs with the shotgun. "You owe me your first born, asshole."
Cyberpunk authors exaggerated the corporate greed of the 1980's into a hyperbolic future where criminals and iconoclasts waged nihilistic war against monolithic organizations. Two decades later, the emergent properties of the social web suggest other possibilities: global economies that run on virtual teams and venture capital, world governments dominated by activists and ad hoc interest groups, the upper and lower classes smashed together into a creamy middle.
Or, to put it another way: What if the cyberpunks won?
From here to there...
As the twenty-first century wore on, surplus pollution and scarce fossil fuels ground Western civilization to dust. Economic collapse preceded a series of bitter, regional conflicts over fresh water, arable land, and all-important energy. These "Blackout Wars" utterly consumed Europe and the Middle East, devastated Africa and Latin America, and transformed the United States into the emaciated poor man of the new world order.
After decades of decline, the unexpected development of a Unified Field Theory unlocked an entirely new science: gravitics. It provided a limitless source of clean energy and allowed cities to stretch upward, rather than sprawl over fertile flood plains. Most importantly, it finally delivered on the ages-old promise of flying cars. (Woohoo!)
The sudden emergence of this technology allowed countries with minimal “old-tech” infrastructure to leapfrog ahead of the traditional power blocs. China and India emerged as the new superpowers. Brazil parleyed its biochemical resources into economic dominion over all of South America and much of the Pacific. The West became little more than a source of scrap metal and cheap labor.
Gravitics was also the key to quantum computing and artificial intelligence. Every square inch of the 22nd century is infused with computing power that defies comprehension by squishy, human brains. The entire world is wired and, as it turns out, that kind of connectivity does strange things to civilization…
Cultural Singularity
First and foremost is the so-called End of History. As telecommunication becomes faster and more pervasive, it increases the pace of cultural change. Gone are the generational shifts in political and religious views that characterized previous epochs. Humanity’s memes have reached critical mass. They seethe and roil in an ever-changing miasma of ideas. Everything old is new again, every damn day.
Government is dominated by ad hoc groups that emerge out of the chaos in response to current events, then sink back into oblivion as the next crisis crests. The economy moves too fast to support stable corporate entities. Instead, venture capitalists and holding companies usher credits through a teeming market of consultants, freelancers, and virtual teams. Contractors make good money just by helping people find the right partners at the right time.
In short, it’s every man for himself.
Not that social organizations don't exist. Quite the contrary: subcultures are more numerous and diverse than ever before. Ravers, flappers, Victorians, cowboys, pirates, ninjas... you name it, someone self-identifies with it. Groups dedicated to religious or political causes outnumber the stars in the sky. However, most people float in and out of such "clicks" like leaves on the wind. They're smart mobs, not religions.
Hyper-Reality
Information technology pervades the physical world. There are no neural implants in the Datarchy future; the brain, as it turns out, is ridiculously complex. Consequently, there is none of the virtual reality that cyberpunk fans know and love. In its place, allow me to introduce you to Augmented Reality.
Eye Taps are standard issue for all the world’s Haves. These eyeglasses, monocles, or contact lenses superimpose digital imagery over the wearer’s field of vision, creating an information-rich “Hyper-Reality” that’s unique to them. Combined with ubiquitous computing and natural language processing, this allows humans to interact with computers and information exactly as they would with people or objects. It's a brightly-colored candy coating over reality's chewy center.
This infrastructure has also given rise to pervasive surveillance, but the Panopticon never came to pass. Surveillance is a two-way street. The global net is a bottom-up structure where the watchers are as easily watched as anyone else. This “inverse surveillance” grew in direct proportion to the top-down variety and it now imposes just as much accountability on the rich and powerful as it does on the average citizen.
Instead of Big Brother, we got Big Everybody.
However, even this unprecedented level of monitoring has not put the final nail in crime’s coffin. When secrecy is impossible, the only effective countermeasure is misinformation. If you can’t stop the signal, crank up the noise. This is the core of the Cipher movement. It’s also the perfect environment for the next generation in organized crime…
Careers in Cybercrime
Perhaps “dis-organized” or “self-organized“ crime would be more apropos. Crimes of profit are orchestrated by a distributed AI known as The System. It gathers intelligence on targets, identifies candidates with the requisite skills, and sends the former to the latter via a swarm of anonymous middlemen. The entire conspiracy coalesces like a flash mob, then evaporates into the ether.
Of course, people make plenty of mischief on their own, too. Ciphers and Celebs stage public spectacles for fun and profit. Cryptos dig up other people’s secrets. Cykos pursue individual crusades. Crashers run roughshod over public safety while Creeps try to keep it all under control.
Their only commonality is that they all live and breath information. As such, Datarchy characters shouldn’t waste time on tech-related Traits. Everyone’s a hacker, all the time. Instead, Traits should be based on motivations (like “End Poverty” or “Keep the Fans Happy”) or general proclivities (such as “Social Chameleon,” “Connected,” or “Shoot First & Never Ask Questions”). Worry about the What and the Why, not the How.
Ciphers
The Cipher Movement developed in response to the first wide-spread, public use of facial recognition technology. Civil libertarians began wearing masks in public, both to disguise themselves and to establish a new societal norm: masks aren't just for the guilty. They used sociology to undermine technology.
The stratagem was so successful that it spawned an entire subculture. Ciphers wage ceaseless war against the surveillance society. They stage elaborate pranks to distract and disrupt the media. They broadcast statistical noise to jam the signals of crime and civil disobedience. They encrypt information, launder money, forge identities, and generally make themselves a nuisance to cops and cryptos everywhere.
Cryptos
They surf the sea of information to skim meaningful facts off the foam. They sift through sandstorms of meaningless statistics to aggregate real knowledge. They hunt down secrets and dispel Cipher lies. They are the alchemists of information, the gumshoes and bounty hunters of the digital age.
In the field, cryptos use their mastery of surveillance and data aggregation to literally see through walls. Using anything from cameras to thermostats, they construct composite images of everything around them and superimpose those images over their field of vision. False color imaging highlights concealed weapons, probable threat zones, and anyone who might be watching the watcher.
Celebs
Even the most distributed smart mob has a focal point, whether it’s an abstract cause, a common interest, or a glory-mongering egomaniac. Celebs are that last one. Movies and music videos just don’t cut it anymore; the only way to attract a cult of personality is with a ceaseless stream of stunts, scandals, and public spectacles. Fame is a full-time job. Those who can’t keep up fade into obscurity faster than yesterday’s newsfeed.
Winning the popularity war requires a master manipulator, someone who’s as calculating as they are charismatic. Those whose talent is only skin deep can hire a consultant to compensate, usually a Creep or Cyko. Most also keep a Cipher in their entourage, as few can ride the media wave without breaking laws on a daily basis. Cryptos and Crashers come in handy when dealing with the paparazzi.
Cykos
Cykos are Celebs with an ethos: they devote themselves to a cause and then live off the charity of like-minded others. Some jump from one cause to the next, but fanatical loyalty is considered a virtue. You’ve gotta pick a mission and sink your teeth in. Don’t let go until you taste the marrow.
Most of them are into guerilla journalism, though the most famous ones aren't content to just report the facts. Rather, they stage elaborate sting operations designed to trick their enemies into exposing their own corruption, ignorance, or fallibility. Others go straight for the jugular: sabotaging careers, stealing from the rich, and giving to the poor. Whatever they do, if they want to keep the money coming, they gotta do it big.
Creeps
Deities are a lot like rich folk: they're remote, powerful, and sometimes they bestow favors on their faithful. Creeps, then, are a lot like clerics. Instead of holy symbols, they have badges and access cards. Instead of saying prayers, they make phone calls. Their wrath, however, is decidedly old-school.
Their friends in high places give them access to just about anything: credit, cars, IDs, information, back stage passes, and all the best parties. They're the people you hire to get things when doing it yourself just isn't an option. They're the cleaners, the fixers, the faces of the faceless.
Crashers
No one drives anymore. How could they? Now that cars can fly, streets have been replaced by writhing swarms of high-speed, three dimensional traffic. It takes AI to make sure everyone gets where they're going. Lots of AI. In fact, aircars don't even come with steering wheels anymore.
Sometimes, though, you need to keep your transportation off the grid. Other times, you just can't resist the thrill of the chase. Crash Keys are palm-sized devices that hack into a vehicle's control system; the user steers by pushing, pulling, turning, and twisting the key. It's all very intuitive... and dangerous as hell. They're called Crashers for a reason.
Pick Me Ups
"12:37am. At the feet of Christ the Redeemer." A Crasher, a Cipher, and a Crypto meet at Rio de Janeiro's iconic landmark just in time to watch a sleek, luxury aircar crash into the city's sprawling slums. Suddenly, their HUDs are flooded with newsfeeds about a kidnapped girl... and the gargantuan reward for her safe return. Finding her within the knotted undergrowth of the world's largest slum will require their combined talents, a little luck, and lot of unwarranted trust.
New Bollywood lounges across the Himalayan foothills. Its inhabitants cast their bored gazes down upon the entirety of India, too obsessed with their own vanity to appreciate the beauty beneath them. That's why you and your crew are gonna take 'em down a peg or three. Your targets are all lined up and your cameras are rolling. Narcissistic celebs, greedy venture capitalist, power-mongering politicians... you'll splash their inner ugly across the net for everyone to see!
During the Blackout Wars, Russia loomed large over Eurasia. Its oligarchs controlled every oil well and natural gas reserve on the continent, plus the pipelines that carried fossil fuels out of the Middle East. Now, those empty pipelines and refineries stand as bleak reminders of lost glory and unrestrained greed. A Celeb and her entourage are making a name for themselves by burning them down, one by one, and netcasting the carnage to her ravenous fans!
Next Up: Science-fantasy inspired by Indian myths and religions!
