1. Do you think Cassian is likely to head out to New Beijing during our upcoming plot? That is where Riverstone's headquarters is located. Heading out there doesn't mean that he'll be helping Cassius in any way - he may even be going to prevent his fellow Displaced from doing something monumentally stupid. He could also just be using the free trip to check out Riverstone while he's there.
By the way, Riverstone does have some work coming out of New Oslo, but it's definitely not anything significant in nature.
Imagine the number of times we need to backspace either Cassius or Cassian to put the correct dude's name in there. Just imagine that as you read on!
3. A recent theory is that the government is trying to stage the end of the world to cause an influx of able-bodied workers out on the colonies. This theory is supplemented by the recent attack on New Amsterdam, and they posit that DAWN is not … really an AI, but a government plant to hide their overall goals. With this, they've been purposely causing seismic activity all over the globe, but that this could potentially destroy the planet itself.
Another theory is that the AI really do live, and they've been stealing government secrets and letting them loose. That's where the seismic activity comes from: hacking and screwing with government powers. The AI have also been developing monster-like creatures to attack and destroy the planet bit by bit. The "golden eyes" on many of these monsters is - in a very complicated way - proven to be the work of a malicious set of elite AI that specialized in torturing and killing humans back during the Xelkoven War. Needless to say, this one is flimsy and involves many, many leaps of logic.
3b. Nope! While the fault lines have developed from our time to 500 years from now in our hypothetical future, none of them would support the public theory. However, it won't seem like a cover up. Many seismologists are still working to explain what the heck happened out there.
5. Yep, that's fine! Do you want him to be at the stage where he's getting records yet?
6. Once Cassian begins digging, he'll start realizing how utterly … well, incestuous these companies are (at least on a business level). Board members from companies tend to be married to one another. Some people are brought in from other cities to take a job on the board, even if they were brought up in a corporation elsewhere. The corporations of Meadowlark's world are hideously oligarchical in how they practice business.
Yes, there is some competition between them. For instance, Vyonation feels as if they lack power compared to Giles Bell and Pulsar in New Amsterdam and they're seeking to have a larger part of the pot, but most of this seems to be based in greed. Most of the conflicts themselves are based in greed. There are occasions where employees have been poached to help another company get out ahead, but the end result won't immediately be apparent. Typically, this means it got dead ended in the records because it resulted in a government contract or something similar. If Cassian keeps going, he'll find that some of these individuals eventually do become political figures.
Digging far enough back, Cassian will also be able to see how Xelkoven was once one of the world's biggest corporations. While they output a lot of AIs and robotics, they also specialized in a hundred other areas. And then, following the AI war, they were sent into obscurity and ended. It seems as if they weren't just bought out, but … deleted, not unlike the AI themselves. It's as if the wealth and technology they had was unnecessary. Or, perhaps, it was already in the hands of other companies? Yes, given the way these things work, that's likely the case.
Basically, it's a capitalistic nightmare, and there seems to be an undocumented shift of power that happens among the world's corporations. They do seem to respect the territory claimed by other corporations in other cities, with Riverstone allowed the most freedom in where they might be able to set up. There is very little oversight, and there are many surnames that appear on the boards for many generations.
The push and pull of power won't be entirely clear, though. What are they aiming for when they're given so little oversight? What's motivating them? Is it really just greed and making the world rely on them? Well, that's definitely possible. They do seem to have had a major influence in how this specific version of Earth came about, especially with the territorial claims and understanding of those specific boundaries.
6a. This is still under Giles Bell's purview, though it is an exceedingly rare circumstance. Much of that is because most genetic modification happens upon conception, as the people of Meadowlark's world want to avoid potential birth defects. (If you've seen Gattaca, it's almost on that level.) The scientists of the world do a pretty decent job in avoiding them, but they aren't wizards. In addition, children conceived without the guidance of a doctor can still receive modification in the womb, but it may come with higher risks.
In some cases, these cybernetics are temporary. They can act as an organ while one is grown, giving a child a chance at life before they're ready for the transplant. Other times, they're with the child throughout their life, with very little stigma involved.
Finally, these numbers are public! Cassian would find them largely featured in articles and documents covering the risks of genetic modification, as well as what the scientists/doctors are seeking to avoid by helping the child pre-conception and eventually in the womb itself.
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1. Do you think Cassian is likely to head out to New Beijing during our upcoming plot? That is where Riverstone's headquarters is located. Heading out there doesn't mean that he'll be helping Cassius in any way - he may even be going to prevent his fellow Displaced from doing something monumentally stupid. He could also just be using the free trip to check out Riverstone while he's there.
By the way, Riverstone does have some work coming out of New Oslo, but it's definitely not anything significant in nature.
Imagine the number of times we need to backspace either Cassius or Cassian to put the correct dude's name in there. Just imagine that as you read on!
3. A recent theory is that the government is trying to stage the end of the world to cause an influx of able-bodied workers out on the colonies. This theory is supplemented by the recent attack on New Amsterdam, and they posit that DAWN is not … really an AI, but a government plant to hide their overall goals. With this, they've been purposely causing seismic activity all over the globe, but that this could potentially destroy the planet itself.
Another theory is that the AI really do live, and they've been stealing government secrets and letting them loose. That's where the seismic activity comes from: hacking and screwing with government powers. The AI have also been developing monster-like creatures to attack and destroy the planet bit by bit. The "golden eyes" on many of these monsters is - in a very complicated way - proven to be the work of a malicious set of elite AI that specialized in torturing and killing humans back during the Xelkoven War. Needless to say, this one is flimsy and involves many, many leaps of logic.
3b. Nope! While the fault lines have developed from our time to 500 years from now in our hypothetical future, none of them would support the public theory. However, it won't seem like a cover up. Many seismologists are still working to explain what the heck happened out there.
5. Yep, that's fine! Do you want him to be at the stage where he's getting records yet?
6. Once Cassian begins digging, he'll start realizing how utterly … well, incestuous these companies are (at least on a business level). Board members from companies tend to be married to one another. Some people are brought in from other cities to take a job on the board, even if they were brought up in a corporation elsewhere. The corporations of Meadowlark's world are hideously oligarchical in how they practice business.
Yes, there is some competition between them. For instance, Vyonation feels as if they lack power compared to Giles Bell and Pulsar in New Amsterdam and they're seeking to have a larger part of the pot, but most of this seems to be based in greed. Most of the conflicts themselves are based in greed. There are occasions where employees have been poached to help another company get out ahead, but the end result won't immediately be apparent. Typically, this means it got dead ended in the records because it resulted in a government contract or something similar. If Cassian keeps going, he'll find that some of these individuals eventually do become political figures.
Digging far enough back, Cassian will also be able to see how Xelkoven was once one of the world's biggest corporations. While they output a lot of AIs and robotics, they also specialized in a hundred other areas. And then, following the AI war, they were sent into obscurity and ended. It seems as if they weren't just bought out, but … deleted, not unlike the AI themselves. It's as if the wealth and technology they had was unnecessary. Or, perhaps, it was already in the hands of other companies? Yes, given the way these things work, that's likely the case.
Basically, it's a capitalistic nightmare, and there seems to be an undocumented shift of power that happens among the world's corporations. They do seem to respect the territory claimed by other corporations in other cities, with Riverstone allowed the most freedom in where they might be able to set up. There is very little oversight, and there are many surnames that appear on the boards for many generations.
The push and pull of power won't be entirely clear, though. What are they aiming for when they're given so little oversight? What's motivating them? Is it really just greed and making the world rely on them? Well, that's definitely possible. They do seem to have had a major influence in how this specific version of Earth came about, especially with the territorial claims and understanding of those specific boundaries.
6a. This is still under Giles Bell's purview, though it is an exceedingly rare circumstance. Much of that is because most genetic modification happens upon conception, as the people of Meadowlark's world want to avoid potential birth defects. (If you've seen Gattaca, it's almost on that level.) The scientists of the world do a pretty decent job in avoiding them, but they aren't wizards. In addition, children conceived without the guidance of a doctor can still receive modification in the womb, but it may come with higher risks.
In some cases, these cybernetics are temporary. They can act as an organ while one is grown, giving a child a chance at life before they're ready for the transplant. Other times, they're with the child throughout their life, with very little stigma involved.
Finally, these numbers are public! Cassian would find them largely featured in articles and documents covering the risks of genetic modification, as well as what the scientists/doctors are seeking to avoid by helping the child pre-conception and eventually in the womb itself.