TEXT: ®
  An e23 Sourcebook for GURPS
  ®
  STEVE JACKSON GAMES
  Stock #37-6711
  Version 1.0 – March 2011
  Written by ANDERS SANDBERG, with WALDEMAR INGDAHL
  Edited by PHIL MASTERS and THOMAS WEIGEL
  Editorial Assistance by JASON “PK” LEVINE
  Illustrated by ERIC DESCHAMPS, CHRIS MARTINEZ,
  ALEX MCVEY, and ROD REIS
  TM
  
  INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  About Transhuman Space. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  About GURPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  1. THE CITY OF THE FUTURE . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  THE CITY IS DEAD; LONG LIVE THE CITY! . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  The Liquid City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  A Partial Urban Glossary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  Clusters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  Old Cities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  Planned Communities and New Towns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
  Suburbia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
  Bordercities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
  FRIENDS AND ENEMIES OF CITIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
  E-Weapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
  Decivilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
  Upload Preservationism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
  The Urban Protection Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
  Urban Pests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
  Rogue Weblife. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
  2. ARCHITECTURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
  BUILDING STYLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
  Orgotecture and Modular Houses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
  Tentacle-Tech. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
  The New Hutong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
  Underwater Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
  MEGASTRUCTURES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
  Skyscrapers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
  Example Architectural Companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
  Lofstrom Pillars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
  Domes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
  Arcologies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
  Example Arcology: Guan Gong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
  Geofronts and Subscrapers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
  Floating Cities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
  BIOTECH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
  Biomaterials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
  Biobricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
  Living Buildings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
  3. INFRASTRUCTURE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
  TRADE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
  Robofacs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
  Delivery and Courier Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
  Major Courier Companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
  Bazaars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
  Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
  Think Tanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
  Noted Think Tanks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
  TRANSPORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
  Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
  Subways and AGT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
  Airports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
  NETWORKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
  Optical Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
  Wireless . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
  Living in the Augmented World. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
  The Network Hardware Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
  HEALTH AND DEATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
  Health Centers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
  Hospital Campuses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
  Arcology Hospitals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
  Example Arcology Hospitals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
  Network Hospitals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
  Medical Homes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
  Enhancement Spas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
  Some Home Medical Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
  The Lazaroff Institute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
  Cemeteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
  POLICE AND SECURITY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
  Surveillance Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
  DISASTER MANAGEMENT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
  Vehicle Accidents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
  Fires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
  Riots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
  Floods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
  Earthquakes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
  Pollution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
  Impact Bunkers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
  AI-CONTROLLED CITIES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
  4. URBAN CULTURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
  CITY MEMES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
  Designer Place-Memes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
  Sapient Cities? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
  PEOPLE OF THE CITY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
  Nonlocal Cities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
  Everyday People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
  Virtual Public Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
  Cultural Experimentation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
  Cocooners. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
  Lifeminers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
  Ghettos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
  The Homeless . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
  CRIME AND CHAOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
  The Dreamstealer (“Dromensluiper”) Gang . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
  Gray-Collar Crime. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
  L’Armée pour la Libération Nationale
  et Spirituelle du Burundi (ALNSB) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
  GRAFFITI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
  Painting Graffiti. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
  Graffiti Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
  New Graffiti Types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
  URBAN GAMES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
  Sousveillance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
  BASE Jumping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
  Slidescaping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
  Tienchang Industries Slidefoam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
  CONTENTS
  2
  CONTENTS
  
  URBAN INFOMORPHS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
  SAI Suburbs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
  Utility Control AI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
  Example Home AI Suppliers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
  SYMBITECH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
  Bacteriophobes vs. Bacteriophiles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
  More Example Symbitech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
  Engineered Ants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
  Light Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
  PLACES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
  The Local Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
  Nightclubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
  Popcorn Collapse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
  My Own Favorite Restaurant™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
  Climate-Controlled Streets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
  Hotels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
  Resort Hotels of 2100. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
  Libraries and Museums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
  5. STOCKHOLM BY DAY,
  NIGHT, AND WEB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
  THE CONTEXT: SWEDEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
  External Relations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
  Geography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
  Events Since 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
  The Swedish Environment Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
  The Second Welfare State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
  Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
  The Institution of Monarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
  Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
  The Economy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
  Some Swedish Companies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
  STOCKHOLM OVERVIEW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
  Parts of the City. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
  Stockholm and GURPS City Stats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
  Karolinska and Ectogenesis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
  The Slinky Malinky Bistro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
  Embassies in Stockholm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
  Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
  Local Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
  Stefan Smiljanic (161 points) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
  Police and Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
  Police Gear and Ultra-Tech. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
  Transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
  Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
  Snapshots From Stockholm Academia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
  INFORMAL STOCKHOLM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
  Maintenance: The Kabal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
  Fraction Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
  Lifestyles and Fashions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
  Grammar-Correcting Stickers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
  BrainCap. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
  Biohackers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
  Ymir Therapy AB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
  Rusalki . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
  Nordeld. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
  Theophilus Upgrade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
  Things to Do in Stockholm When You’re Uploaded . . . . 78
  The Skanstull Center for Bioroid Rehabilitation . . . . . . . . 79
  CONFLICTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
  Current Events, Scandals, and Plots. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
  SAMPLE SCENARIO: IN THE WALLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
  Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
  Motive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
  Means and Evidence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
  People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
  The Software Trace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
  The Real Story. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
  Framed! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
  The Butler Did It! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
  6. URBAN VARIATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
  Aral City: An Experimental City. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
  Bengaluru: The Garden City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
  Murmansk 1916-2060: The Dead City. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
  Cuishan: The Planned City. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
  Metapadang: The Nonlocal Metavillage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
  Venice: The Museum City. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
  Mexico City: The Sprawl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
  BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
  Non-Fiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
  Novels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
  INDEX. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
  CONTENTS
  3
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  GURPS System Design T STEVE JACKSON
  GURPS Line Editor T SEAN PUNCH
  Transhuman Space Line Editor T PHIL MASTERS
  e23 Manager T STEVEN MARSH
  Managing Editor T PHILIP REED
  Art Director T WILL SCHOONOVER
  Page Design T PHIL REED and JUSTIN DE WITT
  Production Artist & Indexer T NIKOLA VRTIS
  Prepress Checker T MONICA STEPHENS
  Marketing Director T PAUL CHAPMAN
  Director of Sales T ROSS JEPSON
  GURPS FAQ Maintainer T –––––––
  VICKY “MOLOKH” KOLENKO
  There is no human reason
  to be here, except for the sheer
  ecstasy of being crowded together.
  – Jean Baudrillard,
  America
  
  INTRODUCTION
  4
  Cities on the Edge is about the Fifth Wave city and city life
  in 2100, in the world of Transhuman Space.
  In the last century, some cities have died, but many more
  have been born, and yet the future of the city remains uncer-
  tain. Like their inhabitants, cities are evolving into something
  new – but no one yet knows what!
  Is the future a wilderness dotted by giant arcologies . . . or
  a sprawl of meme-tailored metavillages? Will sapient cities be
  the next step in evolution? Or will messy, inefficient, and cre-
  ative cities adapt to house whatever clades emerge in the tran-
  shuman future? Adventurers in Transhuman Space have the
  chance to explore these developing communities, and to watch
  the process, perhaps even intervening – as the ground
  on which they walk evolves beneath their feet.
  ABOUT THE AUTHORS
  Anders Sandberg is an academic jack-of-all-trades
  from Sweden with a background in computer sci-
  ence, neuroscience, and medical engineering. He has
  also been debating transhumanism since the early
  1990s, and he is currently researching the ethics and
  social impact of human enhancement at the Future
  of Humanity Institute at Oxford University. He has
  also been interested in cities and infrastructure ever
  since he dreamed he was Amsterdam.
  Waldemar Ingdahl is a Swedish science journal-
  ist and writer, and has published several books in
  his native language. He has a keen interest in soci-
  ology, politics, and the societal transformation
  brought on by technological innovation. He cur-
  rently lives in Stockholm.
  INTRODUCTION
  Cities are . . .
  distinguished by the
  catastrophic forms they
  presuppose and which
  are a vital part of their
  essential charm. New York
  is King Kong, or the
  blackout, or vertical
  bombardment: Towering
  Inferno. Los Angeles is the
  horizontal fault, California
  breaking off and sliding into
  the Pacific: Earthquake.
  – Jean Baudrillard,
  Fatal Strategies
  About
  Transhuman Space
  The Transhuman Space series presents a unique hard-science
  and high-biotech universe for roleplaying. Set in the Solar System
  in the year 2100, it is a setting rich in adventure, mystery, and ide-
  ological conflict. The core book is Transhuman Space, which
  presents an overview of the setting with game mechanics for
  GURPS Third Edition; other books in the line expand on specific
  aspects of the setting. Changing Times is the GM’s guide and
  Fourth Edition update for the line.
  About GURPS
  Steve Jackson Games is committed to full support of GURPS
  players. Our address is SJ Games, P.O. Box 18957, Austin, TX
  78760. Please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE)
  any time you write us! We can also be reached by e-mail:
  info@sjgames.com. Resources include:
  New supplements and adventures. GURPS continues to grow –
  see what’s new at gurps.sjgames.com.
  e23. Our e-publishing division offers GURPS adventures, play
  aids, and support in PDF form . . . digital copies of our books, plus
  exclusive material available only on e23! Just head over to
  e23.sjgames.com.
  Pyramid (pyramid.sjgames.com). Our monthly PDF magazine
  includes new rules and articles for GURPS, systemless locations,
  adventures, and much more. Look for each themed issue from e23!
  Internet. Visit us on the World Wide Web at www.sjgames.com
  for errata, updates, Q&A, and much more. To discuss GURPS
  with our staff and your fellow gamers, visit our forums at
  forums.sjgames.com. The Transhuman Space: Cities on the
  Edge web page is transhuman.sjgames.com/citiesontheedge.
  Bibliographies. Many of our books have extensive bibliographies,
  and we’re putting them online – with links to let you buy the
  resources that interest you! Go to each book’s web page and look for
  the “Bibliography” link.
  Errata. Everyone makes mistakes, including us – but we do
  our best to fix our errors. Up-to-date errata pages for all
  GURPS releases, including this book, are available on our web-
  site – see above.
  Rules and statistics in this book are specifically for the GURPS
  Basic Set, Fourth Edition. Page references that begin with B refer
  to that book, not this one.
  
  THE CITY OF THE FUTURE
  5
  In 2100, many feel that cities are obsolete, little more than
  beautiful museums (or warnings!) for future generations. Life
  is better in a designer village, arcology, or orbital habitat.
  Yet humanity still lives in cities. Once, this was a matter of
  economic opportunity: wealth was in the cities. However, in
  Fourth and Fifth Wave economies, economic opportunity is
  not location-specific . . . and suburbs, metavillages, and “new
  cities” offer pleasant, smaller-scale living without the crowds,
  crime, and chaos. Yet humanity still lives in cities. Why?
  Cities enable unexpected meetings. The inhabitants of a
  suburb are typically of the same species, similar social status,
  and a shared memeplex. Even in an arcology, it is easy to meet
  only similar people. In a city, the opposite is true – inhabitants
  meet people with different lifestyles every day. It is difficult to
  maintain the illusion that everyone is like oneself.
  This is scary. It is exhilarating. It generates creative conflicts.
  Cities are also cheap places to live. When the office moved
  onto the Web, rents plummeted. Many cities now have space
  problems: There is too much of it. The cities are decaying, and
  attracting more and stranger subcultures.
  Small subcultures (even online subcultures, if physical
  closeness is useful) thrive in the cities – they are tolerant, cheap
  places to live! A subculture may move to New York City to
  build an AI-run utopia on the top floors of the Empire State
  Building . . . or to Venice to paint the interior of an old corpo-
  rate complex with the annotated genome of their guru.
  Finally, some – the guardians of old cultural values and
  institutions – stay in the cities to protect them from neglect,
  crazy subcultures, and decivilizers who want to “restore” them
  to wilderness.
  THE LIQUID CITY
  The cell phone ate the wristwatch, alarm clock, camera,
  PDA, heart monitor, and bacterial alert sensor . . . before itself
  vanishing into the wearable. Buildings too have converged.
  Once, a single office would have a particular function.
  Computers generalized the office; mobile computers helped
  eliminate the need for many offices; augmented reality moved
  the remaining offices out of the building entirely.
  The people! A bustle of Chinese businessmen in iridescent
  parkas, with a halo of servants and a bodyguard cyberswarm. A
  woman with a brain projected above her head like a flickering
  turban. Parahuman kids rushing along, surefooted in the slush,
  dodging virtual snowballs with transhuman reflexes. People with
  holes in their heads. A suburban woman in burqa shopping with
  a cybershell decorated with feathers.
  The sights! Snow delimiting the complex airflows around the
  buildings above. A hotel clad in a mesh of glowing dots. Two
  sapients, surrounded by flashing rails, dropping bomb-shaped,
  legged devices into a hole in the ground. Colorful birds flying
  toward a fast food restaurant, ignoring the weather.
  The sounds! Dozens of languages just within earshot.
  Infrasound sighs as the arcology above sheds wind vortices.
  Insect-exact needle legs clicking as a delivery spider nervously
  navigates through the crowd with something hidden in its con-
  tainer. Papua-Vietnamese club sounds. A plastic sticker lecturing
  to an empty street corner.
  The smells! Croissants, freshly baked. Freshly printed
  Alibanana burgers. Moldy bioplastic binder. The latest Joliette
  perfume, part engineered pheromones, part subliminal virtual
  display. Warm fur and wet dog. A whiff of the arcology’s interior
  scent of the week.
  Somewhere in this experience is the person I need. I do not
  know who or what. I do not know what they want or will do. But
  I know that if I can find that person, our shared skills will rock
  the world.
  CHAPTER ONE
  THE CITY OF
  THE FUTURE
  THE CITY IS DEAD;
  LONG LIVE THE CITY!
  When you get there, there isn’t any
  there there.
  – Gertrude Stein
  
  THE CITY OF THE FUTURE
  6
  Fourth and Fifth Wave cities have few large buildings
  devoted to a single purpose. Offices, schools, administration
  centers, art galleries, banks, and conference centers are inter-
  changeable. Still, homes, restaurants, nightclubs, historical
  buildings, and cultural centers remain. Some stores have taken
  the space left behind, becoming spacious halls – but the cata-
  log can be reconfigured with a button. It is cheap and easy to
  remodel to fit a meme (though the nostalgia-authenticity
  memeplex still requires the “real thing”).
  Most of the empty space is usable. A company launch could
  rent a former school, covering the interior with tapestries of
  corporate heraldry, and the next day the class of ’38 might have
  a reunion, temporarily restoring the school to its old look.
  “Instant remodel” entrepreneurs make good money.
  Telepresence reduces the number of cars and parking lots.
  Some lots and garages have become housing, but most have
  become parks, lawns, and gardens.
  CLUSTERS
  Clusters are industry gatherings particular to a location,
  such as Bollywood (movies), Silicon Valley (IT), Antwerp
  (diamonds), Paris (haute couture), or Rotterdam (container
  transport). When enough people and corporations of a partic-
  ular industry gather in an important location, for whatever
  reason, they gain a competitive advantage.
  Telepresence has reduced the advantages of clusters, but
  not enough to eliminate them: People in a cluster meet each
  other outside work, create new connections, and share ideas
  and information. The Bangalore gardening societies share
  important rumors, and people have created business plans
  while waiting for commuter trains. The human enhancement
  spa clusters of Finland emerged from tax breaks, a desperate
  spa industry, and a newly mainstream transhumanist move-
  ment who wanted a relaxing place to upgrade.
  Clusters are living phenomena – eco-
  nomic memeticists have only recently
  begun to understand them at all, and
  most attempts at deliberately creating
  one fail, although many cities have
  become clusters in attempting to reinvent
  themselves. The steel city Magnitogorsk
  in Russia reinvented itself as the confer-
  ence-spa capital of the southern Urals.
  Fresno first became a call center cluster
  for Chinese-American businesses and
  then a cluster for running translation AI
  systems.
  Male,
  the
  capital
  of
  the
  Maldives, is a common destination for
  biotech island developers.
  Of course, when the world moves on,
  an entire city can be left in the dust:
  Observe the Rust Belt of the U.S. steel
  industry, the remnants of Hollywood,
  and more recently, the slowly dying
  Guiyang biochemistry cluster.
  OLD CITIES
  Some cities and city-states remain cohe-
  sive because there is no space. Singapore
  cannot build more suburbs, and the
  Netherlands Randstadt already covers the
  entire lowlands. These cities are marked by
  soaring arcologies and high-rises, save for a
  traditional city core protected by urban
  preservationists and the wealthy (needle-
  scrapers next to Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate
  or Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia are simply not
  acceptable).
  Most arcologies are at the edge of the
  city, replacing suburbs or industrial areas.
  Some urban preservationists go further by
  putting limits on advertisements, store
  styles, and even clothing and body styles.
  The
  conflicts
  between
  antiquarians,
  tourist boards, and inhabitants in historic
  cities are often entertaining, and often
  result in a place that looks great for
  tourists but is dead in their absence.
  A Partial Urban Glossary
  alang: (Hindi) A long building, in particular a long biotech arcology.
  arcologist: Someone who believes that arcologies are not just convenient but
  the right lifestyle for everyone.
  augies: Slang for virtual interface glasses.
  bark: The outer surface of an arcology, with the most desirable homes.
  Brahmasthan: The geometrical and energy center of a building in Vedic
  architecture. A common design in biotech buildings is to have a “Brah-
  masthan skylight” in the middle.
  CAVE People (“Citizens Against Virtually Everything”): See Nimbys.
  commensalist: Someone who is living with an extensive home ecosystem and
  who is unafraid of having other organisms sharing his personal space.
  doogie: A mental enhancement addict.
  glaxs: Slang for virtual interface glasses.
  infrastructure crime: Fifth Wave nations are dependent on extremely com-
  plex systems; crimes affecting national infrastructure are taken very seri-
  ously. A major power outage or Web interruption can have devastating
  economic and social consequences.
  intbandi: (Hindi, “brickwork”) A house made of biotech bricks.
  lightpaper: Cheap solar collectors taped to roofs or just unfolded to power
  devices. Discarded lightpaper is a common sight in Third Wave slums.
  Nimbys (“Not In My Back Yard”): Citizen activists who protest against a
  proposed project or change because it might affect them negatively.
  Throughout the 21st century, Nimbys have grown more powerful. This
  has accelerated the growth of suburban and metavillage sprawl, since
  the easiest way of getting an unpopular facility built is to build it further
  away from the city. In recent years, thanks to decivilization, unpopular
  facilities might instead be moving into the unwanted and less protest-
  prone city centers.
  ocs: Slang for virtual interface glasses.
  specs: Slang for virtual interface glasses.
  technocore: The utility part of an arcology, especially the central shafts
  transporting heavy goods and local recycling plants.
  urbophobes: 1. People who are afraid of cities. 2. People who dislike cities
  and want to remove them.
  whees: Slang for VII.
  orgotecture: Automatically designed buildings using a minimal amount of
  material.
  urb: A “server city”; a secure virtual environment for infomorphs.
  woollie: A brain stimulation addict.
  
  PLANNED COMMUNITIES
  AND NEW TOWNS
  New cities also developed during the 21st century. Young,
  often shabbily built sprawls or untested social engineering
  projects, they are a diverse mixture. Most developed in the for-
  mer third world as population and wealth rose.
  Arcologies are extreme examples of urban planners
  attempting to construct utopia. Closely allied with the
  Preservationist movement, the arcology vision is to reduce the
  total environmental footprint of humanity. This requires not
  just building the arcology properly, but also social engineering
  to get inhabitants to work together in the right way. Failures
  can become disasters, such as the 2088 riots in the Marmaris
  arcology – Turkish authorities had to relocate 3,000 people
  from the unusable structure.
  SUBURBIA
  Early in the 21st century, the “New Urbanist” movement
  grew in power. Modern cities were seen as being built at too
  large a scale and as failing to provide shelter, personal space,
  and adequate resources within walking distance. The response
  was the creation of new suburbs, “posturbs,” mini-towns, and
  villages covering former countryside.
  Connected by light rail and telecommunications, built at a
  human scale, and able to provide most of what a city could,
  they were quite successful. As the Decivilization movement
  began restoring cities to nature, the New Urbanist movement
  was supplanting nature with an endless, tasteful suburban
  sprawl – in many areas of America and Europe, one can travel
  from one former megacity to another without leaving the pos-
  turban landscape.
  Less imposing than the arcologies, but very widespread, are
  metavillages, the most advanced form of New Urbanism:
  planned communities of one to two thousand people that pro-
  vide community, shared interests, and local life. The earliest
  attempts, such as Disney’s Celebration in Florida and England’s
  Poundbury, were crude (small-town charm was typically
  enforced through detailed regulations!), but modern develop-
  ers create good memetic environments and attract the right
  people. Metavillages have grown increasingly common and
  popular, especially among minorities, small religious groups,
  and those seeking stability. Some observers worry that they are
  helping to splinter humanity, functioning as village-sized, homo-
  geneous ghettos, trapped in groupthink.
  BORDERCITIES
  Fifth Wavers seldom think about borders. Freedom-of-move-
  ment treaties and wealth make travel anywhere easy, and inside
  the blocs, border checks are absent or discreetly automated.
  Countries often standardize border controls and intercommuni-
  cate, so travel to a variety of places uses the same preparation.
  Clearly defined lines have largely replaced pre-modern neutral
  zones (called marchlands), but some regions have brought the
  idea back as they integrate. For instance, even if Strasbourg may
  formally be in France and Kehl formally in Germany, few would
  notice distinctions in culture, politics, administration, or econ-
  omy – or even notice that they had crossed the border.
  Borders do manifest themselves between neighboring
  blocs, though. Despite the increase of WTO-enabled free
  trade, border towns still have more intranational contacts
  than cross-border contacts – even though some borders are
  inside city boundaries. While travel between suburbs or
  arcologies is seldom restricted, the memetic borders are felt
  (and often even programmed into the city’s digital environ-
  ment). These demarcations are usually cultural rather than
  administrative, especially for particular enclaves (see
  Kungsholmen, p. 58).
  The Ottawa-Gatineau Border Crossing
  Quebec’s borders are heavily monitored, and ground
  crossings involve a lot of scans and searches, largely due to
  Quebecois high spirits dating back to secession, Canadian
  and American pressure over Montreal, and Quebec’s entry
  into the E.U. Quebec’s relations with Canada remain friendly,
  but Quebecois border controls make for lively debates . . . and
  arguably, the growth of the Maple Syndicate (Transhuman
  Space, p. 107).
  This is felt most at the Ottawa River, where Canada’s capi-
  tal, Ottawa, lies on the Ontario shore and Gatineau on the
  Quebec side. This was once a single metropolitan area, but
  political division has slowed contact down. A joint light rail
  train system is the easiest way to cross legally (the Maple
  Syndicate prefers the frozen river in winter), but it still involves
  significant trouble.
  E.U. visitors find the situation ridiculous and the European
  Parliament has reprimanded Quebec, but symbolism and
  Millennial Generation politicians’ emotions prevent any easing
  of controls.
  Gatineau has suffered the most, becoming a rowdy town
  dominated by the Syndicate.
  The Narva-Ivangorod Border Crossing
  The European Union has a very long border with Russia,
  from Finnmark in the Arctic to Brest in Belarus. Snakehead
  organizations (Transhuman Space, p. 107) have been a nui-
  sance since the E.U. banned bioroids in 2091, and the illegal
  trade in people remains brisk.
  Estonia’s independence in 1991 divided the Russian-speak-
  ing city of Narva into Estonian Narva and Russian Ivangorod.
  Due to the unruly situation in Russia, a border treaty took a
  long time coming . . . and some details remain to be sorted out.
  THE CITY OF THE FUTURE
  7
  Euralille looks and feels as
  if a lunar research station
  has crash-landed onto a
  small, respectable French
  market town. This is meant
  as a compliment.
  – The New York Times
  
  THE CITY OF THE FUTURE
  8
  Some people see cities as sources of strikes, riots, and rebel-
  lions. Others see them as sources of pollution, resource con-
  sumption, and ugliness. They have psychological dangers, too:
  anonymity, social chaos, and dangerous ideas. They are also
  vulnerable to war, disease, fire, and crime.
  One solution is to build an ideal city. Sir Ebenezer Howard
  founded the garden city movement in 1898 to plan cities as
  self-contained communities separated by greenbelts. (In prac-
  tice, the result was sprawling suburbs connected by highways
  to crowded city centers.) This eventually led to the modern
  post-urban culture and metavillages. Similarly, the modernists
  of the early 1900s, who wanted to replace the whole sprawl
  with a few megabuildings surrounded by parks, led to the
  arcology movement.
  In 2100, global movements seek both to rid the Earth of
  cities and to preserve the cities of Earth.
  DECIVILIZATION
  The meme that cities are unhealthy for both humans and
  nature has existed almost as long as cities themselves, but the
  Decivilization movement came into its own in the ’50s,
  amidst fears of biotech violence, posthuman terrorists, and
  emergent threats (such as self-replicating machines). A city is
  an easy target for such things, and the countryside seemed a
  prudent alternative.
  Messody Simtob, an influential environmentalist, devel-
  oped the first decivilization plan in 2053 to deal with the eco-
  nomic and environmental blight of southern Louisiana.
  Although never implemented, it inspired many local move-
  ments; the most common type, “Parking Into Parks,” involved
  buying the worst land in the city and donating it as a park.
  In the ’80s, the Decivilization movement grew with the
  implosion of many major cities. An entire generation grew up
  unattached to cities, and tax-paying voters in arcologies and
  suburbs saw little reason to keep unnecessary buildings in
  cities they never visited. Meanwhile, preservationists, arcolo-
  gists, and demolition and ecorestoration companies all found
  reasons to lobby together.
  Today, Decivilization is a broad, faceless movement. Local,
  charismatic individuals lead particular groups, but there are
  no global leaders – a successful “Decivilizer” leader more
  often moves into Preservationist politics
  than tries to unite the fractious members
  of his own movement.
  Many Decivilizers only want to restore
  the land to parkland, suburbs, and wilder-
  ness. Decivilizers that are more orthodox
  also denounce arcologies and any high-
  density dwelling. Meanwhile, the Gaia
  Restoration Project (Toxic Memes, p. 35)
  promotes the decivilization of the entire
  planetary surface.
  Decivilization works best in areas where
  city memes are weak, particularly in
  America and Australia. By contrast, Old
  World city memes tend to be strong.
  Tearing down parts of Old London because
  they are not useful is simply preposterous!
  Passive Decivilizers see the process as
  inevitable: people will end up in arcologies,
  space, or digital space in the long run. Active
  Decivilizers see the process as a struggle:
  there are forces trying to keep the inefficient,
  dirty, and dangerous cities around, and they
  have to be circumvented or defeated.
  Archaeologists
  Unexpected allies for the Decivilizers are professional
  archaeologists. When the traces of modern civilization are
  removed, new archaeological finds are often discovered.
  Entire Stone Age villages have been found underneath park-
  ing lots; evidence for a previously unknown native tribe was
  found when reducing Oxnard, California. Modern methods of
  sampling, NFUN (“Near-Field Ultrasound Nodes”), and ISH
  (“In Situ HyMRI”) produce 3D reconstructions of what
  lies underneath the ground without having to dig it up.
  FRIENDS AND ENEMIES OF CITIES
  E-Weapons
  Microwave disruptors (GURPS Ultra-Tech, p. 121) are “non-lethal”
  weapons that disrupt electronics and communications. These Ultra-Tech
  weapons can be assumed to exist in the Transhuman Space setting, although
  they may not be widespread; military cybershells and equipment will gener-
  ally be sealed and shielded, making these things less than useful on the battle-
  field, and their only “civilian” uses would be for crime and sabotage. Getting
  hold of such a device may be an adventure in itself unless one happens to have
  contacts in the right kind of organization, a skilled technician-armorer for a
  friend, or some possibly illegal minifac templates. Nonetheless, they are prac-
  tical weapons for striking against enemy infrastructure and communications,
  and China and the TSA used “E-weapons” in the Pacific War, causing high
  economic costs but few fatalities. Unfortunately, terrorists can also acquire
  them, and they tend to damage advanced nations more than poor nations.
  Hardening is easy for important equipment, but the real damage is the
  effect on the myriad ubiquitous, small civilian systems: doors, cybershells,
  clothing, virtual interfaces, v-tags, implants, cameras, lamps . . . Problems can
  easily cascade out of control. In a city, the effect on nearby traffic, businesses,
  tourists, and infrastructure can easily climb into stratospheric costs. Even
  optical systems typically have enough vital electronic parts to cause problems.
  Nearby St. Petersburg, a biotech sanctuary, generates a
  lot of smuggling. The Estonian border guards (assisted by
  GRA agents) employ some of the best E.U. surveillance tech-
  nologies, with chem- and bio-sniffers, drones, and microbot
  hunter swarms, but the snakeheads grow ever more cunning
  in their pursuit of the lucrative trade. While the Russian
  government officially supports the tight border and helps
  fund the GRA, local authorities are less helpful. Rumors say
  that this is one of the standard entry points for TSA exiles
  into Europe.
  
  THE CITY OF THE FUTURE
  9
  It is said that the unusually large number of Decivilization
  advocates in Greece is due to a memetic plot by archaeologists
  to gain access to sites. Some archaeologists, however, warn
  that without the protective cover of cities, many important
  sites will be subject to erosion.
  Negalopolis
  Few Decivilizers are violent, but the Negalopolis cult has no
  qualms about massive vandalism. They use plants and
  nanobugs to break down building materials; odorants to make
  buildings unlivable; low-frequency vibrations to damage struc-
  tures; super-absorbent gel in drainage pipes; memetic cam-
  paigns against neighborhoods; and similar methods to “speed
  up” the abandonment of cities.
  Negalopolis was inspired by the rants of Mahagonny
  Benares-No-More, an influential critic of more “mainstream”
  decivilization. Mahagonny argued that passive decivilization
  will fail: cities are alive and defending themselves. However, a
  concerted program of sabotage against the city on all levels –
  physical, memetic, economic, and political – could turn the
  “megapolitan tide” and cure the planet’s “city plague.”
  The most successful Negalopolis attack was the Milpitas
  Devastation of 2096. Using cybershells, activists managed to
  place capsules of super-absorbent plasticrete throughout the
  water, sewage, and drainage pipes of a large portion of the city.
  The initial expansion of the plasticrete destroyed the founda-
  tions of many buildings, and the first rainstorm rendered the
  entire area easier to tear down than rebuild.
  UPLOAD PRESERVATIONISM
  Upload Preservationism is a radical memeplex of deciviliza-
  tion, preservationist, and cybergnostic thinking. Upload
  Preservationists want mankind to go entirely digital. The first
  step would be to move into arcologies, and then into digital
  arcologies, leaving behind a pristine world where tiny under-
  ground “urbs” run an infomorph humanity.
  In 2098, the World Urb Federation inaugurated the first
  official urb, Bathys, in a mineshaft near Athens. Bathys turns
  small profits as a net provider, AI/ghost hotel, and virtuality
  node. No great influx of environment-conscious minds has
  occurred, but the WUF believes time is on their side.
  THE URBAN
  PROTECTION MOVEMENT
  The flip side to the Decivilization movement, the Urban
  Protection Movement wants to save the cities.
  Squatter Networks
  Consisting of various creatives, subcultures, fringers, and
  radicals who feel that cities are their space, the squatter net-
  works try to ensure that spots of attractive chaos, cheap hous-
  ing, and reduced oversight remain in Fifth Wave nations. The
  ideological leadership (nearly always members of the creative
  class) points out the need for fringes and zones of autonomy
  for a society’s memetic health.
  Sometimes the squatter networks do a good job, as in
  Rotterdam’s Vrijstaad (Fifth Wave, p. 103). Often, however, a
  lack of diplomacy, sectarianism, and infighting result in a
  fiasco like the Indianapolis de-development project.
  Squatter networks often have strong ties with drifters
  (Under Pressure, p. 17) and other mobile groups.
  Urban Protection Foundations
  The UPFs are the upscale face of the Urban Protection
  Movement. Ubiquitous in Europe, they are cultural preserva-
  tionists, with distant ties to the remnants of the Majority
  Cultures Movement (Fifth Wave, p. 12). They are mostly com-
  prised of older, conservative individuals wishing to retain the
  beauty and character of their cities. UPFs usually work by lob-
  bying governments and corporations to mothball (see below)
  old and beautiful buildings, and many European UPFs are
  themselves among the largest property owners.
  Although Decivilization is a powerful political force, and
  most politicians resent “concrete huggers,” the UPFs have their
  own politicians. Even in cyberdemocracies, the lottery ensures
  that there are a few elected UPF members, and the UPFs pro-
  vide those few with a lot of support.
  A small subset of the UPFs are “robot city” enthusiasts –
  who want not just to mothball buildings, but to populate them
  with cybershells or bioroids for the appearance of life. The
  Greater Chicago UPF and Andersonville Mechatronics, Inc. are
  currently experimenting with this in the Chicago Chinatown
  area. Most UPFs (and other urbanists), however, view this as
  little more than constructing an expensive theme park – one
  that won’t cover its own costs in the end.
  Mothballed Buildings
  Few European cities would even consider tearing down an
  old building without a replacement – changing the character of
  a city just because nobody wants to rent a building is not an
  option. “Mothballing” a building makes it look “in use” despite
  abandonment. A combination of preservative coatings, restora-
  tive repairs, minimal lighting (and similar visible utilities), and
  discrete maintenance cybershells provide a reasonably cheap
  illusion of use.
  The concentration of human beings in towns is contrary to
  nature, and this abnormal existence is bound to issue in suffering,
  deterioration and gradual destruction to the mass of population.
  – Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
  
  THE CITY OF THE FUTURE
  10
  Although most mothballed buildings feature security, and
  some go so far as to fill them with aerogel foam, they usually
  make great hiding places. Sophisticated squatters with catalyst
  spray can even create tunnels in aerogel-filled buildings.
  URBAN PESTS
  Cities are ecosystems, with humans as a keystone species.
  Species move in from the countryside and find new niches,
  making use of the warmth, safety, rich nutrient sources, and
  vertical environment. However, immigrant species often cause
  trouble and become pests.
  Cockroaches
  Cockroaches are extremely good at utilizing any form of
  food as long as there is warmth, humidity, and darkness to
  forage in. Tiny hunter cybershells have made modern build-
  ings harder for roaches to survive in, but they do still persist.
  Genemod roaches also exist, ranging from colorful pets
  invented by misguided biohackers to bioweapons designed to
  deposit bacterial flora.
  Termites
  Termites are social insects that eat cellulose, and have
  become a serious problem for biomaterial buildings. As with
  ants, however, many now prefer to control termites with
  pheromone signals rather than kill them. Used right, they can
  keep lawns trimmed and remove detritus.
  Rodents
  Rats and mice have survived miniature hunter cybershells
  and designer pathogens, but not without a fight. Biotech
  Euphrates has done the most to control them; they released
  the first SMC (Sterilizing Murine Cytomegalovirus) in 2026,
  which allowed third world countries to control their mouse
  populations.
  Despite rumors of escaped lab animals and Doolittle rats,
  most city rats are not enhanced – the crafty little pests just
  seem that way.
  Doolittle Raccoons
  Although it’s not a serious problem at the moment, a num-
  ber of raccoons with the Doolittle virus enhancement (Broken
  Dreams, p. 140) have begun using tools in an almost human
  manner, and have been raiding east coast suburbs and metavil-
  lages, robbing delivery cybershells, and hiding in abandoned
  and mothballed buildings.
  Aspergillus Glaucus A450
  “AGA450” is a mutant or modified fungus, source
  unknown, that eats plastics. Once started in a warm and
  humid environment, it can corrode devices, plastic electronics,
  smart clothing, and buildings with worrisome speed . . . and
  once started, it can survive into cooler and drier weather as
  well (though it grows more slowly).
  Although it is primarily a problem of the tropics, instances
  have been caught starting in piles of refuse and plastic sewer
  pipes elsewhere. It is most damaging to electronics, for which
  it has a slight preference.
  Bitumenovore
  “Bitumenovore” is a genemod microbe community
  that thrives on asphalt. Beijing Zhongjing Bioremedia-
  tion created it decades ago, based on chemosynthetic
  organisms found around underwater asphalt volca-
  noes in the Gulf of Mexico and Rangoon tar pit bacte-
  ria. It was originally intended for bio-remediation
  work, and was designed to survive in harsh conditions
  and turn asphalt into dust. Unfortunately, the fail-safe
  gene that made it dependent on spray-on BZBC nutri-
  ents was easily hacked.
  In 2041, the Florida Department of Transportation
  detected signs that road asphalt was breaking down unusu-
  ally fast, and eventually traced it to a bitumenovore variant
  able to survive on its own. Vehicle tires had cross-infected
  almost the entire American highway system, raising mainte-
  nance costs substantially.
  Bitumenovore variants are now found worldwide. Tailored
  bacteriophages and bactericides can remove them, but this is
  expensive, and keeping a road clean is a near-impossible task.
  Most countries simply accept the extra maintenance.
  Wrecker Dandelion
  A dandelion variant that burrows into concrete with its
  acidic taproot was released at some point by Negalopolis (p. 9).
  Within a few generations, it can render concrete leaky and brit-
  tle, and since concrete is mostly used in older, less-smart struc-
  tures, the dandelions can often wreck undisturbed for many,
  many generations.
  Wolves and Bears
  Decivilization has brought an increased number of large
  predators near to urban areas. Although seldom dangerous
  unless provoked, they can do damage to pets and property, and
  tend to scare people. Most countries use tracer devices to track
  and identify them. Older tracers are often implanted radio
  tags; modern tracers are often robot flea cyberswarms.
  Vines and Climbers
  The broad class of invasive plant species includes kudzu,
  mile-a-minute weed, engineered ivy, and (in lakes and ponds)
  water hyacinth; all form dense infestations that strangle
  other vegetation. Several were introduced for useful proper-
  ties such as erosion control or decoration but went out of
  control. In many city environments, they take over unused
  lots and cover everything.
  Rogue Weblife
  In fact, in 2100, the most costly pest, in terms of money spent
  on protection and repair after attacks, is uncontrolled and rene-
  gade Weblife. Its constant evolution and closeness to vital systems
  makes Weblife management a huge business, which is often partly
  integrated with conventional pest control.
  
  ARCHITECTURE
  11
  Someone programmed the blueprint layer of the building to
  sprout cheerful advice like “Safety is everybody’s responsibility”
  whenever we logged on. To ensure that we read it, the messages
  appeared in new places all the time – pasted across a wall,
  circling over the building or in front of the elevator buttons,
  jumping away when we reached for them . . . Finally, somebody
  got fed up and set up an advice eater agent.
  One can tell a lot about a city from the style of its buildings.
  During boom years, new buildings go up, matching the times.
  Berlin is marked by nationalist buildings from the 19th cen-
  tury, postmodern buildings from after the fall of the Berlin
  Wall, and a ring of environmentally conscious arcology hillocks
  (Stadthügeln) from the 2050s. Shanghai is marked by the Bund’s
  pre-World War II buildings and the business skyscrapers of the
  first boom of 1990-2010, both in turn dwarfed by the titanic
  arcologies of the second boom of 2060-2090.
  The main architectural innovation of the 21st century has
  been the arcology (see pp. 14-15). Combining all of a city’s
  functions into a single building, arcologies are showpieces of
  advanced construction, manufacturing, life support, and com-
  puting. Different visions of the arcology’s purpose can result in
  immense variation in design: Does it solve city-specific prob-
  lems, separate man from nature, provide a safe haven, or just
  symbolize pride?
  Although not exactly an innovation, the spread of light rail,
  AGT (Automated Guideway Transit), and underground cargo
  transports has been almost as important. Collectively, these
  ease commuting and move transport away from the streets.
  Most city infrastructure is shifting underground. Streets are
  increasingly places for pedestrians and bicycles. Meanwhile,
  rooftop landing pads still shape buildings into a characteristic
  flat-topped shape.
  Low-density living and metavillages lead to enormous vari-
  ation and innovation in smaller houses. Freed from most mate-
  rial constraints, housing styles are often limited only by
  building codes and irritated neighbors.
  Buildings often aim for eco-friendliness and smarts, but
  that isn’t enough . . . they must look eco-friendly and smart.
  Mid-21st-century buildings are often covered in natural mate-
  rials, and ’80s buildings in living material. Early smart houses
  might announce their abilities with cute antennas or metal
  ornaments; modern smart houses access the local augmented
  reality layer in subtle ways to announce their wealth – just feel
  the bandwidth.
  Building details common in nearly all ’70s architecture
  were arcades and covered verandas. The main factor was the
  ozone crisis, but arcades are also useful for protection against
  rain, wind, and sunlight, and for fitting in with reemerging
  street culture.
  ORGOTECTURE AND
  MODULAR HOUSES
  One interesting building advance has been orgotecture; a
  marriage of custom manufacturing and automatic topology
  design. Automatic topology design uses software to maximize
  strength and minimize material costs, under user-defined con-
  straints such as window placement and the ability to bear spe-
  cific loads.
  The software starts with a rough design meeting the con-
  straints, and then removes unnecessary material and shores up
  weak points in a series of small modifications, eventually pro-
  ducing a construction using as little material as possible. The
  result often resembles a mixture of organic branching shapes,
  truss work, and elaborate lattices – tree-like pillars are a clear
  orgotecture giveaway. There are few straight lines or corners
  except as a design constraint, and since the design is fitted
  directly to the circumstances, no two orgotectural buildings
  will look the same.
  Custom manufacturing provided the ability to order arbi-
  trarily shaped pieces, and so made orgotecture affordable: The
  architect or customer lets their software design the house.
  Then the builders order the pieces from a robot factory, await
  delivery, and put the marked pieces together like a 3D puzzle,
  leaving only surface finish and utilities to consider. Orgotec-
  ture can include accept any constraint – long afternoon sun-
  light, plenty of bathrooms, indentations to preserve nearby
  trees – and meet it in ingenious and smooth ways. Arcology
  superstructures are often orgotectural, even when the interior
  is modular or traditional.
  Certain biological and nanotechnological building materi-
  als allow slow, automatic adaptation with use. While they can-
  not reorganize the entire house, they can add extra support for
  heavy loads and deal with unexpected environmental condi-
  tions. However, orgotecture houses are also organic in that
  every part fits exactly with every other part; this makes it hard
  to redesign them radically once they are built, since every wall
  is load bearing and the exact angle of the stairs also keeps the
  structure stable. The opposite approach is to make houses
  reconfigurable.
  BUILDING STYLES
  CHAPTER TWO
  ARCHITECTURE
  
  ARCHITECTURE
  12
  Modular houses are composed of interchangeable pieces,
  movable walls, smart materials, and sensors that allow them to
  change decor and function on command. The furniture is often
  also modular, and can shift shape, texture, and color to fit in.
  With a few commands and mover cybershells, a living room
  can become a workshop, library, bedroom, or bathroom, or a
  large room can split into smaller guestrooms.
  Most modular houses cannot move parts themselves, but
  advanced designs allow even that. A popular feature in the
  Oikia Buildings “Dynatem” line of advanced modular homes is
  that the home AI can completely reorganize the home. Some
  people have their homes change monthly, others allow random
  surprises when they are away or download the “design of the
  month” from design journals. Some nomadic consultants
  bring “home designs” with them, and have their current house
  reshape itself to their preferences.
  Even non-modular buildings often have flexible ele-
  ments. High-rise and arcology apartments often have large
  windows that can fold out into small balconies, while leav-
  ing a smooth, aerodynamic, and easily cleaned facade the
  rest of the time. Changeable wall textures are another com-
  mon feature.
  Orgotecture appeals more to settled people who want stabil-
  ity, usually older, better-off people in the leisure class. Modular
  houses appeal to professionals and people experimenting with
  new lifestyles.
  THE NEW HUTONG
  Hutongs are the characteristic “Beijing courtyard” neigh-
  borhood style; the word can refer to both the lanes between
  courtyards and the neighborhoods built of such lanes. Each
  rectangular courtyard (called a siheyuan) is surrounded by
  four inward-facing houses, with a single gate and privacy
  screen leading to the outside street, traditionally located on the
  eastern end of the southern wall. The lanes outside the court-
  yard form a grid. During China’s modernization, high-rise
  apartments replaced many hutongs (some going back to the
  13th century). However, in the 2050s, ideas from the western
  New Urbanism movement exerted influence, and many older,
  middle-class Chinese looked for increased security and
  reduced megacity sprawl.
  The Rénxìng design movement argued that manageable
  communities, defensible space, and individually configurable
  homes were cost-efficient. The “new hutong” returned to the
  enclosed, inward-facing courtyard, adding modern facilities,
  movable walls, and increased safety. Some include movable
  roofing for climate protection, allowing gardens in difficult cli-
  mates. The small lanes are ideal for pedestrians, and are typi-
  cally decorated with navigational frescoes, self-repainting
  surfaces (in less well-off areas), or advertisements (in public
  housing projects). For goods delivery, many neighborhoods
  have tunnels or centralized depots.
  The classic hutong was home to two or three generations
  of an extended family, but this has become rare. The new
  hutongs focus on a community – some shared interest, a
  parahuman design, or a major project. Many special interest
  hutongs network intensely with each other, adding connecting
  virtual windows to form hutong cyber-communities. Others
  are practically isolate communities in the midst of a city.
  Many Chinese inland cities (and cities throughout Rust
  China) use a hexagonal hutong design, with zigzagging lanes.
  These neighborhoods confuse outsiders, but maximize space
  use, block cold mountain and steppe winds, allow rapid con-
  struction, and keep cyclists from going too fast.
  Locally, they are known as mílù, “be lost.”
  Today, the new hutong has spread beyond China.
  Western variants are found in the American Midwest
  and northern Italy. In South America, many are built
  with biotech bricks and covered with enamel, wood,
  or greenery.
  UNDERWATER ROOMS
  Underwater rooms were recently in fashion for
  beachfront villas, and many still have them. These
  basement or sub-basement rooms have a window
  wall looking out into the water. Self-cleaning win-
  dows, smart sealants, and anti-condensation devices ensure
  low maintenance costs, without interfering with the relaxing
  and authentic underwater panorama . . . in theory.
  In practice, most beach-front waters lack tropical clarity,
  and since few environmental protection agencies allow villas in
  the middle of coral reefs, most such rooms face the outskirts of
  city harbors instead.
  They still have some advantages. For one thing, they are
  harder to eavesdrop on than most windowed rooms – laser
  microphones are more visible, and radio signals are somewhat
  dampened. Shootouts inside such rooms are not advisable.
  Tentacle-Tech
  Piezoelectric cables that can snake through tubes and narrow
  sewers are a reasonably common tool, but some buildings use very
  narrow versions in large quantities as architecture. Done right, ten-
  tacle-tech can simulate mobile walls, “friendly” curtains, or even
  customizable furniture. Controlling tentacle-tech is roughly as
  complex as controlling a cyberswarm, and houses that use it exten-
  sively often have a dedicated LAI assigned to the task.
  The architect represents neither a Dionysian nor an Apollonian state:
  here it is the great act of will, the will that moves mountains, the rapture
  of the great will which aspires to art.
  – Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols
  
  ARCHITECTURE
  13
  Megastructures are the big buildings – the grandest or most
  grandiloquent products of the architectural imagination.
  SKYSCRAPERS
  If there is a symbol for grandiose striving, it is the sky-
  scraper, and in the 22nd century, it has paradoxically become
  both obsolete and more magnificent than ever.
  The dissolution of cities has reduced the need for high office
  buildings (and slashed land values). On the other hand, ambi-
  tion, optimism, and hubris, combined with tremendous
  advances in automated building, yield a powerful desire for
  skyscrapers regardless of need. In addition, many landmark sky-
  scrapers, useless for modern purposes, are maintained for the
  skyline and city history – for example, mid-town Manhattan has
  frequent clashes over whether to expand Central Park over his-
  toric buildings or not.
  The ’30s also saw a skyscraper build-
  ing boom, as formerly poor nations
  made their mark in South America,
  India, and South Africa. The boom
  ended with the Johannesburg Singular-
  ity in 2039, which breached the one-
  mile
  limit
  (the
  Madinat
  al-Hareer
  complex in Kuwait hit economic diffi-
  culties and was never finished). Built
  on land poisoned by mine tailings, and
  covered in a helix of ceramic plates
  reminiscent of DNA and traditional
  African art, this needle-like building
  became a national symbol of the emerg-
  ing South African Coalition.
  It was also called the Last Skyscraper,
  as the trend away from traditional
  offices was clear. Today, only half of the
  available space in the Singularity has
  ever been permanently leased. The rest
  is used for exhibition galleries, indoor
  gardens, or temporary projects.
  During the ’40s and ’50s, most mega-
  engineering was in space, such as the
  constructions at L4 and L5 and the Mars
  beanstalk. Merely terrestrial skyscrapers
  seemed rather pointless (although arcolo-
  gies benefited immensely from space life
  support and recycling research).
  Today, the ambitious are returning to Earth. China regained
  the record for highest building with the Beijing Crane in 2090,
  lost it to Australia’s Nullagine Solar Chimney Hotel in 2097,
  and reclaimed it with the Shanghai Xingzhe Arcology in 2098,
  reaching 1.86 miles high if the uppermost spire is counted.
  Skyscraper Limits
  The basic problem for tall buildings is simple: Each floor
  carries the weight of all higher floors. Bricks and mortar can
  reach about 10 stories without impracticably thick inner
  walls; iron and steel beams made the first skyscrapers feasible;
  diamond and nanotube beams (with more than 600 times
  the strength/weight ratio of steel) allow incredibly slender
  constructions.
  At this point, a column of feasible length would pierce soil or
  even bedrock. Classic steel skyscrapers solve this with spread
  footing, where the column stands on an iron plate, which rests
  in turn on a pyramid of horizontal steel beams, which rests in
  turn on a concrete pad on the earth. The mile-plus skyscrapers
  of today extend this with building roots: The substructure
  extends splayed beams deep into the ground, anchoring the
  building against lateral shocks, reducing ground movement,
  and providing sensors to detect unwanted changes.
  Another issue is the risk of buckling. Stiff materials help to
  a point – encasing the building in a stiff shell is more cost-
  effective, and most modern skyscrapers use an exoskeleton
  for load bearing.
  Wind resistance is a complex
  issue. Most skyscrapers bend a lit-
  tle in the wind, swaying a few feet
  without any ill effects on the build-
  ing – but occupants may hate it.
  Stiff and tight buildings are some-
  times possible, but more often not.
  Most solutions favor making the
  sway less noticeable – mobile
  counterweights (pioneered by the
  still-standing Citicorp Center in
  New York City) are old-fashioned,
  but still effective. A truly modern
  skyscraper has a fractally branch-
  ing internal skeleton and adaptive
  members:
  beams
  that
  change
  length depending their load. The
  building LAI constantly adapts to
  the changing forces to keep it sta-
  ble;
  many
  keep
  track
  of
  the
  weather online and even through
  Doppler measurements to prepare
  for gusts of wind and rain.
  Elevators are also problematic
  for very tall buildings. Although
  modern
  materials
  allow
  for
  lengthy elevator shafts, a single
  elevator cannot be everywhere it is
  needed when the floors number in
  the several hundreds. Banks of ele-
  vators can solve this issue, but each new elevator shaft reduces
  the space available on every floor it serves. One solution uses
  express elevators that go to certain floors, plus “local” elevators
  within groups of floors. Another is to put the elevators on the
  outside . . . but that makes the elevator cars vulnerable to the
  weather, and may upset fearful or vertigo-sensitive passengers.
  Safety for skyscrapers is always difficult. In larger arcologies,
  it is impossible to evacuate in less than a couple of hours; the
  only choice when faced with a fast-moving event is to withstand
  it. Fire hazards are largely beaten, but chemical and biological
  agents remain a threat (though duct sensors and filters help).
  Power reserves are vital!
  MEGASTRUCTURES
  
  ARCHITECTURE
  14
  In addition, a skyscraper’s exoskeleton is vulnerable to any
  event capable of denting it – the weight of higher floors can
  cause the entire building to buckle and collapse. Most modern
  skyscrapers have numerous defenses against climbers, fliers,
  and similar methods of carrying bombs – so far no spires have
  been felled, but few doubt that there are malevolent minds
  considering how to achieve it.
  LOFSTROM PILLARS
  One radical idea is to construct pillars out of fast-moving
  iron pellets (a “Lofstrom pillar”). A heavy mass driver at the
  bottom accelerates a massive stream of pellets upward through
  a vacuum-filled tube to another mass driver at the top that
  turns the stream downward into a parallel tube, where they are
  again turned around and thrown upward. Along the way, elec-
  tromagnetic fields are used to anchor the building to this pillar
  of flying metal. The entire construction rests on electromag-
  netic fields rather than matter.
  The few constructions built on Lofstrom pillars all exist on
  the Moon where vacuum, energy, and low gravity are plentiful.
  The first was the McCann-Kellgren telecommunications tower
  (containing only radio equipment) in Luna City. By changing
  the velocity of pellets it could be raised several miles or moved
  down to a receiver platform.
  The second was the Concentric Restaurant, constructed
  during the Lunar Engineering Expo in 2099.
  The restaurant hovered 300 feet above the
  Expo on a Lofstrom pillar. Most visitors found
  the experience unsettling, despite multiple
  safeguards,
  including
  both
  small
  brake
  thrusters and a magnetic brake.
  Many have speculated about when the first
  Earth Lofstrom pillar will be built.
  DOMES
  The domed city is a classic science fiction con-
  cept, not unlike the flying car. However, while the
  flying car is a reality in 2100 (although hardly
  commonplace), city-sized domes remain imprac-
  tical. A transparent dome can maintain a pleas-
  ant climate, but it also keeps in pollution and
  smoke, and must be cleaned. In addition, while
  modern materials allow a self-supporting dome
  many miles across, a half-finished dome is not
  self-supporting. (A tightly synchronized ballet of
  cybershells and skyscraper-sized NAI cranes
  might manage it, but that would be somewhat
  expensive.)
  Smaller domes acting as greenhouses have
  become popular among Isolate communities in
  the far north and Patagonia. They both warm and
  provide a visible symbol of isolation.
  ARCOLOGIES
  An arcology is an entire city in a single
  megabuilding. Seen as solutions to overpopula-
  tion and environmental degradation, the first
  ones were built as hospital-homes for the elderly
  or as efficient factory cities in emerging coun-
  tries. They were strongly influenced by space col-
  onization – most orbital habitats are arcologies
  by nature. The arcology meme is strongly tied to
  frugality, efficiency, and mega-community.
  Arcologies slash a city’s land area and operat-
  ing costs, but usually require a single organiza-
  tion to pay for everything. Arcology consortia
  tend to be a mixture of government and busi-
  ness, with enough internal politics and competi-
  tion with neighboring arcologies to keep everybody interested.
  Arcology administrations employ a surprising number of
  bureaucrats, fixers, memeticists, and shady troubleshooters.
  Reduced office space use helped make arcologies feasible,
  but also added more requirements for open areas, informal
  meeting places, and empty space for short-term rent. Arcology
  interiors usually give the impression of being spacious leisure
  malls, but good space is at a premium (while rent in the win-
  dowless core is often precipitously low). Arcology dweller
  careers tend to move outward rather than upward.
  Example
  Architectural Companies
  Here are some of the more popular building designers of this age.
  Harris Tubic Architects
  Although now receding into the history books, Harris Tubic was the
  most famous architect of the 21st century. He invented many widely
  copied techniques – shell-tubing, cantilevered shadows, dynamical sail
  climates – and designed a multitude of great arcologies such as
  Clarenceford 2, Miami Central, and Zhouxing Airport.
  His designs are all very solid hardtech arcologies with no hint of
  biotechnology. A firm preservationist, he is currently too elderly to
  undertake any new projects, though his firm still does brisk business.
  Kenneth Grimshaw & Partners
  Kenneth Grimshaw is today’s celebrity architect. Entirely uninter-
  ested in huge projects, he designs family houses in biotech materials
  and his trademark artificial jasper.
  Molecular Architecture Inc.
  A nanotechnology-focused firm whose main line of business is the
  development of nanotech and biotech building materials such as bio-
  bricks, cultured bone, Paduak Fullerene (see Biomaterials, pp. 17-18),
  and EvoPane (see Biomaterials, p. 18). The firm usually provides cus-
  tom materials for other architecture firms.
  Oikia Buildings
  A modular architecture firm who provide everything from individual
  walls to entire apartments, as well as furniture and lifestyle tips. Oikia
  runs several lifestyle consultancies, advising on the good (modular) life.
  Kormangala Biosolutions
  Biotech Euphrates’ main competitor in the biotech building busi-
  ness, Kormangala Biosolutions is a Bangalore-based firm that grows
  everything from giant biotech arcologies to small affordable snail-shell-
  based “bioshelters.”
  
  ARCHITECTURE
  15
  Arcology Generations
  To date, there have been three major generations of arcolo-
  gies. The first were hard-tech buildings, starting with mall
  cities and experimental “safe living complexes,” and later giant
  pillars and pyramids. Many now show signs of wear and tear,
  including occasional malfunctions in their core infrastruc-
  tures. Restoration will be hugely expensive – they were not
  designed for piecemeal reconstruction.
  The second generation was the biotech arcology. Grown
  rather than built, these versions were strongly favored for their
  style, ease of maintenance, and perceived eco-friendliness.
  Still, many early biotech arcologies have been torn down and
  mulched by now, and their limitations in material strength
  have always been difficult.
  The third generation arcologies are hybrids, mixing the
  strengths and components of each freely. Biotech walls grow
  on buckytube cables held up by metal and bone frames, sym-
  biont bioshells secrete organic or inorganic building materials,
  and water, power, and nutrients are moved around by com-
  bined pipes and organic vessels. Hybrid arcologies are typically
  self-organizing and emergent: if there is a need for something
  local, biomass and AI build it. There is an ongoing race to be
  the first “real” commercial hybrid arcology. Prototypes have
  been flowering in Bangalore for a decade, but building the
  community remains hard.
  Arcology Culture
  Arcology culture is different from “outdoor” culture.
  Natives live close to vast numbers of people in a completely
  artificial environment. The idea of living in an uncontrolled,
  open system seems strange. Many prefer telepresence and the
  Web to real travel.
  Arcologies can also create new cultures. The Nuiwhare
  Heretaunga arcology outside Hastings, New Zealand, was con-
  structed in 2058 as a Maori cultural community. Traditional
  elements such as the marae (communal ceremonial center)
  were very successfully combined with a modern environment
  . . . and it was soon imitated. These arcologies produced a new
  lifestyle that have developed over the years into the “arcology
  iwis,” a group of new Maori tribes, often at odds with more
  orthodox Majority Cultures Maori in metavillages and with
  urban, mixed-society Maori.
  Types of Arcology
  Mall cities are the perhaps-final product of 20th-century
  mall development – a mall of stores in the bottom floors of
  high-rises that extend through a glass roof, with infrastruc-
  ture below ground level. Many smaller and earlier arcologies
  are built this way. It requires no new building techniques,
  suited the earliest adopters well, and was familiar enough to
  convince skeptics to move in. In some places, mall cities grew
  organically as streets were roofed over, buildings were
  extended above, and part of a city grew into a kind of arcology.
  (Arcologists dislike such messes and refuse to call them arcolo-
  gies.) Newly built mall cities might consist of several levels of
  malls held aloft by buildings acting as pillars.
  Stadthügeln resemble steep-terraced hills, with “villas” and
  gardens on the outside surface and a vertical light shaft sur-
  rounded by stores in the center. They are found mostly in cen-
  tral Europe, having been built during the ’40s to replace failing
  concrete suburbs in the old Eastern Bloc cities.
  Pillar cities are simply skyscraper arcologies – a vertical con-
  struction with different floors for apartments, parks, shops,
  and meeting places. Many groups of pillar cities are linked by
  horizontal “open air” parks (nearly always domed over or oth-
  erwise protected against strong winds and cold). Another pop-
  ular variant is the Ocean Pillar, with subsurface foundations,
  marinas, reef gardens, and submarine bays. Very tall arcolo-
  gies are less efficient, so most pillar cities are not quite sky-
  scrapers by 2100 standards.
  Pyramid arcologies are common today, providing a large
  surface area and reduced elevator problems. The land footprint
  can be rather large, and they are usually built atop former sub-
  urbs with low land prices. One odd, very expensive variant is a
  double: an upright pyramid set atop an upside-down pyramid,
  with the entire structure held aloft by giant pillars.
  A Wall arcology consists of a long row of broad high-rises
  (typically around 70 floors) containing apartments, meeting
  places, and open areas, connected to a lower row of robofacto-
  ries and other industries. Between the high-rises are trans-
  portation buildings, malls, and meeting environments.
  Organic or reef arcologies are shorter than the artificial ones,
  forming long meandering walls (alangs), reefs, or labyrinths,
  covered in light-collecting leaves. People live in surface apart-
  ments – the interior contains the infrastructure. In the court-
  yards between are parks and public spaces. While not so
  land-efficient, they have significantly lower maintenance costs
  than other types.
  Urbiculture
  Urbiculture is the production of food within a city, or within
  a large, otherwise non-agricultural building. City farming has
  been going on since cities began, with rooftop or backyard gar-
  dens where chickens and pigs were fed refuse; there was a slight
  break in the 20th century, but the arcology city again produces
  much of its own food. Tank-grown food production occurs in the
  core depths, while hydroponic farming allows thin vertical
  farms with transparent plastic trays moving on conveyors just
  inside the arcology shell. Some arcologies also have fish farms
  connected to the recycling system (which also provides nutrients
  for the hydroponic baths). Few arcologies are 100% self-suffi-
  cient, but many produce nearly all their food on the inside and
  only take in basic nutrient chemicals. Urbiculture is also popu-
  lar in private homes, as a house AI can act as gardener.
  The cities of the world are
  concentric, isomorphic, synchronic.
  Only one exists and you are always
  in the same one. It’s the effect of
  their permanent revolution, their
  intense circulation, their
  instantaneous magnetism.
  – Jean Baudrillard,
  Fatal Strategies
  
  GEOFRONTS AND
  SUBSCRAPERS
  Geofronts are very large (often spherical or semi-spherical)
  underground spaces used for living. Although excavation tech-
  nology has improved markedly, and a nearly self-sufficient
  fusion-powered underground biosphere is certainly possible,
  falling land prices and reduced needs for dense settlements
  have not made them economically attractive. Some survivalist
  groups are interested, but usually lack funding, and instead
  turn to abandoned mines and bunker complexes.
  Another form of underground living is the subscraper. A ver-
  tical shaft is dug with apartments ringing the central space
  along circular walkways and terraces. Light comes from above,
  directed into apartments using light shafts and sunlight-gath-
  ering mirrors above the subscraper. Subscrapers tend to be
  quiet, temperate, and compact.
  The best-known subscraper community is Xianyang, in
  China, where a cluster of subscrapers was constructed to
  replace the old city. The architect Siwei Zhu claimed to have
  been inspired by the cave houses of northern Shaanxi, and
  included features such as semicircular doors, windows
  with sash bars set like fan ribs, and rock floors to make them
  similar. Initially skeptical, the inhabitants now enjoy the
  underground small-city feeling, and the authorities find the
  design reassuringly simple to monitor.
  FLOATING CITIES
  Floating islands provide the ultimate in privacy. Most are
  little more than a garden and house, intended to float in a
  lagoon somewhere. The biggest are often anchored over a
  guyot (a flat-topped seamount) or reef. Although an island-like,
  floating structure is simple, creating a self-sustaining, organic
  island takes a great deal of biotech skill.
  The Maldives is the center for biotech island construction,
  with Indian biotechnology firms deeply involved. Several atolls
  are used to house the islands before they can journey to the
  open sea. Critics warn that the islands are depleting the oceans
  and coral reefs of carbonates, and an increasingly vocal inter-
  national movement opposes the “coral imperialists.”
  The islands are seeded with seacrete, followed by artificial
  coral on large buoyancy tanks (called “oysters”). These are
  often grown individually and then moved together. In the
  Maldives, small family companies often handle the first-stage
  growth. The grown oysters are then transported into the
  deeper atolls and auctioned off. These atoll auctions are float-
  ing fairs attracting drifters, tourists, con men, and traders.
  ARCHITECTURE
  16
  Early Chinese arcologies were built for pragmatic rea-
  sons: water shortages, lost farmland, growing urban popu-
  lations, and the increasing cost of transporting food to the
  cities. The Pearl River Delta Habitat Project, early in the
  21st century, sought to fix these problems with a series of
  increasingly larger arcologies. The first was a 300-person
  testbed centered on a food-packaging factory and an urban
  agriculture system of algae ponds, hydroponic gardens,
  and fish farms. Each new arcology grew in size, complex-
  ity, and production, until the showcase Green Dragon
  Arcology on Hainan Island was finished in the 2020s with
  over 3,000 inhabitants. Today, with the tradition estab-
  lished, motivations can be more complex.
  Guan Gong is one of the lesser arcologies in the Shang-
  hai area. The basic structure consists of three 120-story
  skyscrapers, interconnected at multiple levels, with 20 sto-
  ries underground. The height is 2,000 feet, not counting
  antennas and reflector panels. Each interconnected level
  contains seven million square feet of floor area, with the
  non-connected levels containing two million. The total
  population is 20,000 people, mostly telepresence profes-
  sionals. Every 500 feet, a “sky terminal” acts as a local city
  center, transportation hub, and plaza.
  The whole arcology is a steel-frame “rack” design: addi-
  tional pieces can be slotted in as needed, transported in by
  superlifter air vehicles or cargo elevators. The building is
  divided into eight-story, 30¥60-foot, rectangular units: five
  floors of housing, office, school, or hospital clinic and two
  floors of storage, plus an open plaza, garden, or local mini-
  factory. Much of the volume of the arcology remains
  empty, to allow in sunlight.
  Double-decker elevators serve two floors at a time, and
  act more like local buses than traditional elevators, even
  including internal cargo space between passenger spaces.
  Between inhabited floors are infrastructure floors contain-
  ing cargo handling and storage, local recycling, cybershell
  storage, and backup systems.
  The main robofactory lies beneath the complex, send-
  ing up manufactured objects through dedicated cargo ele-
  vators. Trash is sent to the lower levels to be disassembled,
  cleaned, and recycled. The heavy elevators also allow parts
  of the buildings to be disassembled and moved to other
  places as needed
  The glass surface of the arcology is separated from the
  interior buildings by a garden and walkway space. These
  indoor gardens have their own microclimate, controlled by
  sprinklers and adjustable-transparency glass. Uninhabited
  sections are used for hydroponics gardening.
  Although it now uses a fusion reactor beneath the
  building, local energy production was originally handled
  with solar cells, wind power, and even hydropower from
  wastewater falling down shafts (as a part of the “Shang-
  hai Ecological Thrift Program”). Each floor has emer-
  gency energy storage that can be used in case of blackouts
  or damage.
  In case of disaster, each block can be evacuated sepa-
  rately. The elevators are largely fireproof, and airlift from
  sky terminals is possible in a truly serious situation – or at
  least the simulations look plausible. Partitions can fold
  down to prevent fire spread, local water resources can be
  swiftly redirected to sprinklers, and firefighter cybershells
  are available to manage any crisis.
  Example Arcology: Guan Gong
  
  ARCHITECTURE
  17
  The oysters are bound together into larger rafts that act as
  an island core, to which are added technological systems,
  layers of specialized coral, and plants. During this time they
  are growing in the protective atoll and monitored by telep-
  resence cybershells (a series of “island-jackings” in the ’90s
  resulted in much beefier security); after a few years, the
  island is ready for sale.
  Some are simulated coral islands with sand beaches inside
  protective bays; others are floating forests or smooth-skinned
  giant plants. The housing is usually built into the island itself.
  Underwater garages, rooms with coral garden views, and ele-
  vators for deep-sea visits are all possible features.
  The most-common way of moving a floating island uses
  ocean currents. Fullerene cables lower underwater sails to var-
  ious depths, catching the right currents and steering the island.
  (Most islands also have traditional engines to overcome difficult
  currents, but “sailing” is more efficient.) Since most islands
  orbit an ocean current gyre, this generally works well.
  Floating islands are robust despite their relatively fragile
  materials. Fullerene cables link buoyancy sections, and while a
  collision or explosion may break off parts, complete collapse is
  unlikely; afterward, new coral can be grown to fill out any
  cracks, and tanks can be restored. Still, it is possible to break a
  biotech island with sufficient stupidity, and every year some-
  one with more money than sense tries to meet a serious storm
  or head into the southern sea where they encounter major
  waves and icebergs. The remaining floating sections often end
  up as valued parts of drifter habitats.
  Drifters sometimes link their craft into temporary cities for
  trade, celebration, or mutual protection; land-dwellers tell sto-
  ries of immense drifter rafts filled with all the sex, deceit, and
  other drama of a good meme. Drifter groups are usually loners
  and dislike working too closely together, but as the seas
  become more and more inhabited, and after some of the dan-
  gers unleashed by the Pacific War, larger flotillas and rafts have
  become more common.
  People were dancing and laughing in the upper rooms, but I
  was down in the cellar with the gardener, fascinated. He was
  showing me the literal roots of the house, the slowly pumping
  hearts and the colonies of mites that protected it. Everything was
  dark, wooden, and aromatic, so unlike the glass tower where I
  lived. At that point, I realized what I wanted to do when I grew
  up. I wanted to grow houses.
  The simplest form of biobuilding uses biotechnology to
  make the building material, such as bioadobe or industrial
  bamboo (sprayed with plastic to proof it against water, wind,
  and pests). The next step is to use biotechnology to build the
  house and possibly even have living organisms integrated in
  the structure. Biobricks are a common example.
  “Real” biotech buildings are organisms in themselves.
  From a practical standpoint, they have many disadvantages,
  but they are popular for aesthetic and ideological reasons. To
  transhumanists, they represent the interplay between tech-
  nology and nature at its best, and while most preservationists
  dislike the warping of the natural, there exist borderline eco-
  sophic groups who want the intimate contact with life that a
  living building represents.
  BIOMATERIALS
  Biotechnology produces a wide array of building materials.
  Bioadobe (Fifth Wave, p. 23) is a common building mate-
  rial in poorer areas. Besides looking cheap, it has another
  drawback: in earthquakes, it easily shatters, burying inhabi-
  tants under rubble. It is hoped that as prices for tank-grown
  wood decrease, more poor communities will build wooden
  buildings instead.
  Cultured enamel and ivory bathroom tiles are very popu-
  lar; they are warm to stand on and hard, and can be pur-
  chased with colorful pigment patterns. Roofing chitin looks
  like plastic, is often brightly colored, and is both biodegrad-
  able and very cheap.
  Tank-grown snail shells and mother-of-pearl are popular
  for interior decoration, often with natural shell patterns.
  The calcium carbonate/protein matrix is not resistant enough to
  be suitable for outdoor use without heavy coatings. Several bio-
  architecture companies in Bangalore are experimenting with
  organic buildings that secrete an outside shell continuously just
  like a snail, avoiding ugly wear and tear by reabsorbing the shell
  at the back. Their competitors would love gene samples.
  Instead of petrochemical asphalt for paving and roofing,
  biotech glues can be used. They are noncarcinogenic and come
  in many exciting colors and fragrances. In addition, they are
  safe from bitumenovores (see p. 10), although every year some
  new fungus, snail, or insect discovers that it likes a particular
  bioglue brand that then has to be replaced.
  Since trade in many tropical hardwoods was heavily regu-
  lated in mid-century, much of the production of mahogany,
  teak, tigerwood, iroko, moabi, bibolo, bubinga, sapele, etc.,
  shifted to biotech vats. As tank-grown wood became cheap and
  environmentally friendly, hardwood floors and furniture came
  back with a vengeance. Complex inlays were the rule in mid-
  century homes, although these days they feel a bit dated. Tank-
  grown wood can produce exotic shapes and textures not found
  in nature such as green pine, purple mahogany, or walnut with
  braided fibers. These days, few carpenters care much for
  “wild” wood, since the quality is variable and one cannot order
  it to spec over the Web.
  Even many high-tech materials are produced by biotechno-
  logical processes bordering on nanotechnology. For example,
  Paduak Fullerene, from Molecular Architecture Inc., is an
  organic composite of nanotubes linked by a wood-like matrix.
  BIOTECH
  It’s the sexy sectors – tech, biotech –
  that are behind the explosive growth . . .
  – Art Hogan
  
  ARCHITECTURE
  18
  It is about as strong as steel but otherwise very similar to wood
  (it is entirely possible to hammer nails into it), and is a popular
  choice for beams in “rustic” architecture. Another material from
  the firm is EvoPane, self-cleaning and self-repairing roof tiles
  housing a designer bacteria that breaks down leaves and dirt.
  BIOBRICKS
  The step up from bioadobe is biobricks. Unlike bioadobe,
  biobrick buildings are seen as quite presentable even in
  advanced nations, although perhaps slightly old-fashioned.
  The builder constructs the basic structure and orders blocks
  of matrix. Matrix is scaffolding for growing cell cultures cov-
  ered with a protective plastic film. The matrix blocks are put
  together and then pumped with a nutrient solution mixed with
  “architectural algae.” These organisms begin to reproduce on
  the matrix scaffolding, turning it into a coral-like structure. A
  sequence of chemical signals are sent using the nutrients to
  trigger different developmental stages. They first build a strong
  inner skeleton and vessels to transport nutrients, then they
  refine the material so that it becomes denser in more loaded
  areas, developing a surface enamel or bark. Finally, they turn it
  into a largely inert bone-like material.
  The drawback with this method is that the original blocks are
  not particularly strong, especially when filled with water. Hence,
  they can only form structures a few stories high on their own.
  However, since most buildings will have a stronger internal
  skeleton of metal or composites this is not a major problem.
  LIVING BUILDINGS
  Growing a biotech building from a seed takes time, if it is to
  grow like a normal organism. An ordinary biotech building can
  grow up to one yard per day with external nutrient supplies.
  Usually, it is first surrounded by protective shell, either a grove
  of engineered bamboo or a bioplastic greenhouse. Many build-
  ings are started using a large number of seeds that grow
  together into a single organism. The supervisor sends hormone
  signals to guide growth and keep the building healthy.
  Most biotech buildings cannot subsist on photosynthesis,
  so they use electrosynthesis: electric power fuels internal
  organs that fix carbon dioxide. Such electric biotech buildings
  can survive power outages for a long while, but do not thrive.
  Many designs have safeguards that make them hibernate in
  case of nutrient or energy shortages. Also, biotech buildings
  cannot grow too tall on their own for the same reason as trees;
  as they grow higher, it becomes harder to bring water up from
  the roots to the top. Most therefore tend to be just a few stories
  high. Some bio-architects have opted for hybrid solutions to
  this problem; they install electric pumps that move sap
  through pipes to the top of a high building, enabling it to grow
  arbitrarily tall. Purists find this distasteful, and point out that
  such a building is very vulnerable to power outages.
  Biotech buildings also require nutrients to function. While
  many have leaves and roots, this is seldom enough. Most designs
  have a nutrient tank that is periodically refilled and a recycling
  system that minimizes wastage. This is the literal heart and kid-
  ney of the building, and should it fail, the building may die.
  Living buildings work best in warm climates. One ingenious
  approach to extending their range has been to add fine hairs on
  their skin to trap warm air and protect against dehydration
  and cold. This produces a silvery sheen many see as beautiful.
  A few central Asian projects have tried to extend this to a
  thicker “fur” (or rather, cotton); the results have been mixed.
  One design tested in northern Pakistan by Beccary Genomics
  suffered runaway fur growth that led to fluffy sheets ripping
  away in the wind, clogging streets and giving the buildings a
  patchy appearance.
  Sick Biobuildings
  Disease or pests can infect biotech buildings, and so they
  must be managed with care – otherwise they die.
  One problem is Klein Rr disease. Originally a plant
  cytorhabdovirus attacking sugar-apple, this was discovered to
  attack living buildings created by Chandigarh Ecotecture in
  2096. Chandigarh had used enough genes from sugar-apple
  and soursop trees for their fruit-bearing buildings to enable the
  virus to infect them. Infected buildings started leaking nutrient
  sap, distorting near the ground, and producing bad smells.
  Worse, the virus was transmitted by insects; damaged parts of
  the buildings exuded a sap that attracted aphids that in turn
  could infect other buildings with the same design. While the
  original virus was mostly a problem for Chandigarh
  Ecotecture, it was soon discovered to have mutated to affect
  some other biotech building designs; while less destructive
  there, it still caused vein damage and ugly discoloration. The
  company is well on its way to bankruptcy thanks to heavy liti-
  gation and the cost of treating the sick buildings.
  A common quality control problem involves plant para-
  retroviruses. These splice themselves into a genome and spread
  when the host cells reproduce. If they contaminate an initial
  batch of architectural algae, they will spread throughout a
  building, at first doing no real damage – but when the later
  stages of construction are activated, the virus will react to them
  as signs that the host cell is doomed; like rats leaving a sinking
  ship, it starts to reproduce fiercely and spread into the sur-
  roundings. This is a typical behavior among many viruses, but
  especially troublesome when it happens at the same time
  throughout a huge biological scaffolding. At best, the internal
  structure of the walls becomes damaged or distorted; the
  viruses can also cause other parts of the genetic program to
  activate randomly, making the building grow openings, roof
  chitin tiles, or extra reinforcement in the wrong place. At
  worst, entire building sections can liquefy into stinking ooze.
  Obviously, proper building procedures involve ensuring that
  seed cells and nutrients are kept pure and free from outside con-
  tamination. However, lapses in judgment, sabotage, and shoddy
  work procedures make such building rot accidents happen from
  time to time. The worst offenders are pirates who steal cells and
  nutrient solution, by stabbing the matrix with samplers or by
  sampling the waste drain, then use their acquisitions to seed
  their own buildings. The most embarrassing incident occurred
  2099 in Ujung Pandang, Indonesia. The TSA Acquisitions
  Directorate had pirated an Indian design from a building site in
  Gangapur, and they were using it to grow the new suburb of
  Dadapan as a demonstration of TSA biotech abilities. The proj-
  ect manager had even allowed a Webcast of the entire site. Over
  the span of a week, 12 high-rise buildings first turned a sickly
  yellow and then began to melt. In the chaos, management forgot
  the publicly accessible Webcast, and after the news got out, the
  whole world watched the disaster replayed repeatedly. “Dadapan
  Meltdown” has even entered common usage to denote a partic-
  ularly embarrassing self-defeat. The TSA of course claims that
  the whole event was a Chinese bio-weapons attack.
  
  INFRASTRUCTURE
  19
  The alley was filled with refuse, which was a bad sign. Usually
  the cleaning swarms would pick up any small dirt and call in
  mobot reinforcements to deal with larger junk. But for some rea-
  son, they did not go here, and the spot was a disgusting mess.
  Just the place to hide if you were a small cybershell housing some
  nasty Weblife.
  Something moved behind me and I whirled around. A box
  covered with cereal advertisements bent and made a movement
  as if trying to stand up. Instead it tipped over and started a small
  avalanche of refuse. That seemed to trigger a reaction from other
  garbage. Torn pieces of wrapping paper began to scintillate. A rib-
  bon neatly tied itself into a rosette again and again. A half-melted
  plastic contraption began to sing an advertising jingle. A newspa-
  per animated and began to read yesterday’s news in German.
  The junk was distracting my peripheral awareness – just as
  somebody might have planned.
  As I tried to search through the inner part of the alley, the
  garbage choir began to change. When I turned back, I saw that
  the box had stopped moving and instead was flickering white,
  humming ultrasonically. Other junk was reacting. The wrapping
  started to flicker, then the newspaper. The jingle was replaced by
  humming. Within moments, the alley was eerily lit up by every
  piece of smart garbage flickering in synchrony. I activated full
  antivirals on all my equipment, dumbing it down to avoid catch-
  ing the virus. Now I had to deal with a cancertech outbreak, too.
  And somewhere on the other side of the garbage, I could hear the
  tittering of the escaping cybershell.
  The introduction of robofacs, minifacturing, and wide-
  spread robotics led to enormous changes in the retail industry.
  Physical stores vanished, replaced by courier cybershell deliv-
  ery. A pair of scissors, milk, a new pocket computer – anything
  can be ordered (and customized) through the Web and deliv-
  ered to one’s door. Those stores remaining focus on the experi-
  ence of shopping (neighborhood minifacs often have a café)
  and on expertise.
  ROBOFACS
  Robofacs customize, build, and ship a product according to
  customer orders: the personal touch made industrial. When
  ordering a shelf, the shelf can be sized and colored for a partic-
  ular wall and intended use. The objects it will hold may even
  be ordered at the same time.
  Still, the average person doesn’t have the time or inclina-
  tion to customize everything, and so tailoring the details has
  become a major online business, one that most robofacs offer
  as a service. Online customization advice is a typical job for
  the underemployed, with in-store advice work as the next
  rung on the ladder.
  The entire flow of production is so complex in even a small
  robofac that supervisors rarely know what one will do next.
  The best supervisors claim to have a feeling for the “mood” of
  the system, the ability to tell when a snarl is about to emerge.
  Most happen when a 3D printing component runs out.
  Logistics AIs are good at preventing this, but competition
  between the AIs for different firms can be fierce, and tiny mar-
  gins mean that even a small delay or a few gallons of sealant
  waste can quickly landslide into an inability to fill orders.
  This, in turn, may force the rescheduling of later orders, and
  the poor AI must rebuild its entire manufacturing scheme,
  cascading the problem to still more customers.
  Some robofacs will shift unmeetable orders to competitors
  to ensure that everything is completed in time. Some less ethi-
  cal robofac companies may even resort to sabotage in order to
  increase their own orders this way.
  DELIVERY AND
  COURIER SERVICES
  Global delivery services are roughly unchanged in the 22nd
  century – pick up at point A and deliver to point B – except for
  their efficiency. Although there are extra charges for rapid
  delivery or for delivery to dangerous locations, most service is
  same-day, or two-day worldwide. Despite such rapid long-dis-
  tance transit times, in-city delivery is still a sizable part of the
  industry. Most ordered goods are delivered from a robofac in
  the same city, often within a few miles of the home, and deliv-
  ery times are measured in hours rather than days.
  Delivery cybershells are designed for speed, reliability, and
  safety of the cargo. They are heavily networked and moni-
  tored to prevent theft. Flying buzzbots may deliver small
  items, while a hexapod truck shell with a trio of mover shells
  would deliver an antique piano. Alternatively, many Fourth
  Wave nations see extensive use of bioroids for the final deliv-
  ery step. “Shell shelters,” often used by several competing
  delivery services, are busy places filled with rows of recharg-
  ing shells, repair and cleaning shops, and one or two LAI or
  human supervisors.
  TRADE
  CHAPTER THREE
  INFRASTRUCTURE
  
  INFRASTRUCTURE
  20
  Most buildings and arcologies have delivery entrances and
  elevators that require no human intervention – and some cheap
  delivery services, faced with a building lacking this, will simply
  “deliver” the package to the street outside the building. More
  specialized courier services offer expensive delivery experiences:
  love letters delivered by bioshell doves, songs delivered by gene-
  modified parrots, old-fashioned bicycle couriers, or cyber-
  swarms that “deliver” a product by building it on-site.
  The courier system can break down in interesting ways. A
  building with automated courier reception could be fooled by
  a courier recognition code into smuggling something (or
  someone) into an otherwise secure structure, an important
  courier delivery could be stolen or sabotaged en route, or
  hacking a courier service might be a way to obtain free taxi
  service to anywhere in a city! To combat this, courier systems
  employ a range of techniques: NAI/LAI smart parcels, biolog-
  ical bonding, or carrying the parcel inside the courier.
  BAZAARS
  Most cities grew up as centers for trade, and even with 3D
  printing and courier services, there is a need for marketplaces.
  The modern bazaar, supporting entertainment as much as
  acquisition, offers novelties, other people,
  historical excursions, and unplanned encoun-
  ters. Bazaars of all sorts also offer corporate,
  political, and social groups a testing ground
  for new memes and products.
  Bazaars also allow city centers to counter
  the great malls. Sometimes they involve a
  particular counterculture, but they are often
  more valuable for mixing cultures on the city
  streets. Some city planners use bazaars as
  safety valves – most see some traffic in illegal
  or restricted goods, but less than might other-
  wise occur, and with less overlap with other
  forms of crime. Some are ancient institutions
  of their own, such as the Grand Bazaar of
  Istanbul
  (founded
  1464),
  or
  London’s
  Portobello Road (founded 1850); others are
  relatively new, such as Le Bazaar de Paris
  (founded 2052).
  Virtual bazaars offer many of the benefits
  of a bazaar, but “all virtual bazaars are
  alike.” Physical locality dictates the mixture
  of cultures, persons, and goods, and so pro-
  duces unique blends.
  BUSINESS
  Robofacs, automation, and telepresence
  have significantly reduced the need for staff
  dedicated to production, transportation, and
  warehouses. While some larger corporations
  still maintain a lavish headquarters and sky-
  line-defining skyscrapers, most do not.
  Reputation no longer depends on the old
  symbols of status.
  However, some traditions die hard. The
  Fifth Wave city still has business districts
  (though they are more modular now, as many
  firms rent office hotels for the duration of a
  project). Rather than cultivating a corporate environment,
  many corporations work together to cultivate a city for its cre-
  ative class (p. 36), simultaneously providing a better environ-
  ment for workers and a larger population to hire from.
  Telepresence and a global economy ensure that cities rarely
  close down at night – even local businesses often have cus-
  tomers and stakeholders in different time zones.
  Corporate taxation has slowly risen (see Transhuman
  Space, p. 93), but cities may not have anyone to tax if they fail
  to provide a satisfactory environment for a corporation’s cre-
  ative class. This is especially true for small businesses, which
  may lack a physical location – when the office is in the wear-
  able, the main issue is good seating, the right surroundings,
  and a roof. Still, emergent technology companies often need
  direct contact with one another. Clusters may form at malls,
  science centers, or parks. Sometimes they appear and disap-
  pear overnight: New Madrid became a cluster for CDJ recom-
  bination “immunohackers” in autumn 2099. They converted
  empty buildings into small startups and labs, headhunters
  cruised the parks, and people filled the coffeehouses with talk
  of the defense applications of polyadenylation. By Christmas,
  the technology was mature, only two companies remained on
  the market, and the immunohackers had all left town.
  Major Courier Companies
  These are a few of the preferred or unusual delivery services available.
  China Post
  Earth’s largest delivery service, originally the Chinese postal service
  (itself dating back to the Shang dynasty), the China Post is now intrasolar,
  reaching the orbital habitats, Luna, and Mars.
  Todar
  Todar is an in-city delivery chain with franchises in many major cities
  and smaller communities. The Todar red lightning logo is ubiquitous;
  most people identify it with consumer goods.
  Geodesic Couriers
  Geodesic is an international courier service known for picking up and
  delivering with very fast flying cybershells.
  Fresh Deliverance, Inc.
  Supplying novelty deliveries, “style” couriers, and other unusual ways
  of sending something to someone, Fresh Deliverance can arrange for
  everything from a singing telegram to a message in a bottle. Company psy-
  chologists stand by to suggest creative ways of giving things.
  Taller Esperanza Transporte de Carga
  An Argentinian company, TETC sells packages that are themselves sim-
  ple, disposable cybershells (“cartonbots”) that can deliver themselves over
  short distances.
  ABDB, Inc.
  A budget delivery service based in the United States, ABDB maintains
  shell shelters while local franchises are responsible for their deliveries.
  Their reliability varies enormously.
  
  THINK TANKS
  Think tanks are important meeting-points in a city’s politi-
  cal and social life, organizations dedicated to providing
  informed advice on a variety of topics. While some are entirely
  virtual, many insist on physical meetings (often informal
  affairs, little more than extended business lunches) and social
  networking, to allow unexpected creativity and changes in per-
  spective – a for-profit café culture. A think tank may work on
  public policy, economics, military issues, memetics, bioethics,
  net policy, space property development, schooling improve-
  ments . . . almost anything!
  The sheer complexity of the transhuman world has pro-
  duced an abundance of specialist think tanks: nobody can keep
  track of every issue, so a company or government that needs to
  deal with a problem finds a suitable think tank that can explain
  it and make suggestions. Memetic think tanks acts as meme
  designers and reviewers, and spread the desired meme to other
  meme spreaders in politics, media and business.
  Think tanks have taken over much policy production from
  the politicians, especially since cyberdemocracy and memetics
  began to expand. Policy is about clarifying which goals are pri-
  mary, what priorities to acknowledge, and which new issues to
  pursue strategically. However, this cannot be left to just the
  memes carried by politicians. Think tanks find sets of values
  and memes that function well together (and work in reality!)
  and place them into a specific political context, and help nego-
  tiations and social trading between different groups.
  INFRASTRUCTURE
  21
  These groups are among the numerous organizations
  devoted to interdisciplinary research.
  Data Synthesis Inc.
  The world’s largest think tank is a commercial organiza-
  tion exploring very large datasets, supercomputing, data
  mining, and ways of managing the information explosion.
  DSI is hired by many governments to “find needles in
  haystacks,” as its motto says. Critics claim it helps many
  repressive governments stay in power by supporting their
  intelligence agencies.
  Migeod Kreis
  An originally German, now global, consultancy focused
  on memetics, Web culture, and popular culture, Migeod
  consists of an online community where specially invited
  students, researchers, and other suitable people interact
  informally to consider different questions.
  The Chislenko Foundation
  Chislenko is a transhumanist think tank based in
  Boston and Islandia, and was one of the key ideological
  centers of transhumanism in the mid-21st century.
  Hox Duplication III
  A commercial biotechnology think tank from South
  Africa, Hox studies biodiversity, catalogs genetic designs,
  and analyzes interactions between modified organisms. It
  also promotes the idea that the biosphere is about to (or
  should) undergo “a second Cambrian explosion” thanks to
  human intervention.
  The Eric LeVeen Institute
  The LeVeen Institute is an old U.S. free market think
  tank that rose to prominence in the ’30s with its support for
  the “altruistic imperialism” of companies like Ithemba
  Biotechnologies and Columbia Aerospace. Since then, it
  has promoted space business and analyzed space policy
  and space military strategy. It has close ties to Columbia
  Aerospace and the U.S. space forces, with daughter think
  tanks dealing with issues of terraforming, space treaties,
  and interstellar missions.
  The International Reform Institute
  An anti-TSA think tank based in Perth, IRI attacks
  infosocialism and nanosocialism philosophically, ana-
  lyzes threats to intellectual property, and consults on the
  state of the TSA.
  Polyglobal
  A smart materials think tank, Polyglobal has contracts
  with a vast number of intellectuals and experts in every
  subject, calling upon them to perform evaluations of new
  technology. It produces some of the best short-range tech-
  nology future studies in the world.
  Consensus Insight
  The intellectual powerhouse supporting the introduc-
  tion of cyberdemocracy in the U.S., Consensus Insight was
  involved in a complex scandal when it was found to be
  using a “puppet tank” to promote its ideas in the PRC. The
  affair hurt its credibility, but cyberdemocracy supporters
  (aided by the think tank) are claiming this was a setup by
  Chinese intelligence.
  UNMERA
  An international group based in Buenos Aires,
  UNMERA publishes reports on economic development,
  emerging problems, and policy recommendations to
  ensure a more prosperous world economy.
  Rinma Klusterkorp
  A Duncanite think tank with representation on Earth,
  Rinma’s members are experts on outer system policy.
  Despite its ownership, it has an absolute sterling reputa-
  tion for giving unbiased (some would say coldly rational)
  analysis.
  Noted Think Tanks
  
  INFRASTRUCTURE
  22
  There are also “deep think tanks” which formulate future pol-
  icy. They look for problems that might become important and
  try to be first with solutions; when the issue actually appears,
  they can sell their services at a premium. Many such deep think
  tanks work to shape political policy decades ahead, and can be
  very influential while remaining almost unknown.
  Brussels and Washington, D.C. are the focus of the think
  tank world in their respective blocks, and have become the
  major think tank clusters of the planet. Practically every think
  tank that has anything to do with politics, economics, or secu-
  rity has representation there, and think tanks and lobbyists
  make up the majority of local business. The Chinese govern-
  ment also sponsors a large number of think tanks to provide
  ideas in a non-official capacity. These were behind many of the
  reforms of the 21st century and are noticeably freer in their
  thinking than mainstream politics (being allowed to be almost
  heretical). The party leadership applies an evolutionary/market
  algorithm: groups that provide useful ideas which work get
  more funding, and others try to imitate them, or members
  break off to strike out on their own.
  A city’s transportation network is its bloodstream – and in
  2100, it can incorporate many elements.
  SURFACE
  Surface transport takes many distinct forms, depending on
  requirements and available resources.
  Moving Sidewalks
  A classic failed prediction is the moving sidewalk. Such
  things have always proven too slow, inflexible and vulnerable
  to be useful except for indoor locations like airports and long
  connection tunnels.
  Nonetheless, in 2088, DTH Dynatech began selling their
  “TaxiMosaic” system. This consists of bands of tiny rollers,
  each less than an inch across, all individually controlled by
  software that monitors where everybody stands. Since the
  rollers can vary in speed, two people can move past each other
  on the same band at different rates. Near the end, the rollers
  automatically slow down, and if a user takes a step forward,
  the rollers under the descending foot immediately start moving
  at the right speed. If someone trips, the rollers can catch him
  with minimal risk. Users can also control the system with ges-
  tures or commands through wearables or implants.
  Despite being installed in many arcologies, TaxiMosaic
  proved a failure. A single stuck roller would make the band
  hazardous, and safety-conscious systems kept them turned
  off until they were fixed. Dropping grit, fruit, or ice cream on
  the roller surface produced a long band of hazard. These
  days, most remaining TaxiMosaics are found in arcologies’
  transport levels, where they move cargo loads and cyber-
  shells. A few enthusiasts still consider the Mosaic the most
  fun way to travel and keep a few in running order for per-
  sonal use, doing stunts on the surface or reprogramming the
  rollers to run in complex patterns (“pedestrian art” that has
  to be walked/danced to be experienced).
  Bikes
  The one vehicle that has truly succeeded in the 21st century
  is the bicycle. In suburbs and metavillages, as well as in many
  arcologies and city centers, bikes are the dominant personal
  transport. During the early part of the century the E.U. and
  then China offered tax breaks for every mile traveled by bike
  rather than car. By mid-century, this was no longer needed, and
  these days bike congestion is occasionally a concern.
  The basic bike design is unchanged, but modern bikes are
  made of extremely light materials, while the saddle is typically
  configurable with regard to ergonomics, size, and color. Bikes
  are equipped with enough smart electronics (powered by ped-
  aling) to use gyroscopes to help maintain balance and gently
  guide cyclists (through a bias in the handlebars) to pass obsta-
  cles safely. Stealing advanced bicycles is pointless; they refuse
  to steer or balance when not ridden by their owners.
  The Automobile
  The urban car has seen a radical decrease by the year
  2100. Many old streets and public squares have been glassed
  in, for environmental and societal reasons, creating a more
  controllable environment. Telepresence, taxation, public
  transport, tunnels, and suburbs sucked the cars out of the
  city centers. The last Fifth Wave streets that allow car traffic
  appear bustling because they are designed for it; in
  many places, much traffic is just virtual images. Smartcars
  (Fifth Wave, p. 131) and a few air cars (Transhuman Space,
  p. 193) are the most commonly encountered real vehicles.
  On-board AI usually takes care of the driving, and thus most
  of the problems previously associated with traffic have been
  eliminated.
  Many cities have constructed systems for smart parking,
  which have almost eliminated parking tickets, but also provide
  a powerful tool for traffic controllers to monitor individual
  vehicles. A radio identity tag in the car identifies it to sensors
  in the curb, and the cost of parking is debited from the owner’s
  account. Cars that do not answer signals from the smart envi-
  ronment triggers a visit from a cybershell or (in poor areas)
  human parking warden. Rather than ban certain parking loca-
  tions, they can be made extremely expensive, making people
  avoid blocking them unless they really have to. The price for
  parking or driving in a certain area may vary with regard to
  traffic control’s estimate of congestion.
  TRANSPORT
  We are confronted by a condition,
  not a theory.
  – Grover Cleveland
  
  The vehicle identification codes are also very useful to
  snoopers who seek to keep track of a car’s movements. Parking
  records are useful, too; they are privacy-sealed in most nations,
  but the police can get access to them. It is of course illegal to
  tamper with vehicle identifiers or curb detectors, but there is a
  black market in stolen or counterfeit identity codes.
  Shipping, Ports, and River Traffic
  Waterways near cities have seen an increase in traffic.
  Despite the rise of local manufacturing, more goods than ever
  have to be shipped. Intercontinental shipping has always been
  more efficient than transport by air, despite the 21st century’s
  “heavy weather.”
  The D-He-3 reactor and AI crews have given freighters
  extended ranges at low cost. As many ships are typically above
  150,000 dead-weight tons (reducing the importance of the
  Suez and Panama canals, as such ships are unable to pass
  through them) and can stay at sea for a long time, the need for
  very large ports such as Rotterdam’s Europoort (Fifth Wave,
  pp. 100-102) has increased. Such ports are often vast com-
  plexes with enormous container terminals filled with goods
  from all corners of the world. Due to the complex automated
  storage and loading systems needed to keep a 22nd-century
  cargo terminal running, ports are often very desolate places,
  overshadowed by looming cranes. Rumors and urban legends
  abound regarding what could be hidden in the never-ending
  rows of containers, and where those cargoes might go.
  Sometimes, astute criminals manage to penetrate a harbor’s
  computer system, fooling it into delivering a pinpointed cargo
  container into their hands, re-shipping it to a location were
  they can seize the load. These daring raids can net landlubber
  telepresence pirates large and easily fenced bounties.
  Besides the ocean terminals, there are now many bustling
  riverside ports. The need for heavy transports is still present,
  and some nations have solved it by reopening their canals.
  Competition from railroad networks in the 19th century
  made canals largely obsolete for commercial transport, and
  many fell into decay. Initially, some were restored for pleas-
  ure rides through picturesque landscapes. When canals also
  found use in the early 21st century as convenient routes for
  fiber-optic networks, and highways needed ever more expan-
  sion for truck traffic, canals were found to be an alternative.
  Some rivers have also been canalized in places in order to
  make them more navigable and to control their ecology.
  Barges usually dominate canal shipping, but on many rivers,
  hydrofoils can be used for greater speed. Many of the river-
  side transports and ports are operated by smaller companies,
  as they do not require the same enormous logistical organi-
  zation as the oceanic ones.
  Historical port areas are often situated within cities, with
  limited scope for expansion, and seldom see much cargo
  (besides cruise tourists) being unloaded. Such docklands, with
  their often centuries-old buildings, are frequently just tourist
  traps, although they sometimes make excellent locations for
  innovative business start-up clusters. Modern port facilities
  tend to be placed outside cities, if perhaps close by.
  High-Speed Trains
  Railroads were once the backbone of inter-urban transport
  infrastructure, but newer transport technologies reduced this
  role considerably. However, relatively recent developments in
  fusion power and magnetic levitation allow faster trains and
  have caused a shift in how trains are used. They can now
  achieve much higher speeds than previously, which gives them
  an important role as very rapid cross-continental connections
  at a lower price than flying the same distance – once the high-
  tech tracks are present.
  Typically, each station offers connections to just a handful
  of frequently traveled destinations; high-speed passenger
  trains rarely stop before their main destination, in order to
  maintain maximum speed for the whole journey. Tunnels and
  bridges can facilitate passage under or over quite large bodies
  of water, but even so, trains are often only used within a polit-
  ical bloc; if they are required to stop at borders, they lose valu-
  able speed. Maglev tracks are in fact often encased in tunnels
  for all or much of the length of the line in order to minimize
  nuisance for surrounding areas, and so trains are not taken for
  the scenery anymore; high-speed train travel needs to be fast to
  be economically feasible. These trains usually contain comfort-
  able passenger facilities, sometimes featuring movable walls
  within the carriages and other ways of providing more person-
  alized accommodation.
  The station buildings are often a less appealing experience.
  Modern train stations need much less space than in the past,
  although they do need to provide connections to local trans-
  port systems. Older station buildings are usually too vast for
  their present use, with many platforms abandoned along with
  much of the yard space, often giving an eerie, desolate feeling.
  As only a relatively small area of the yard is used by the often-
  enclosed tracks, the yards become places where squatters
  dwell and many criminal deals go down. How to clean up the
  local railroad yards and use the space for better purposes is an
  ongoing discussion in many city councils.
  SUBWAYS AND AGT
  Subways have had an uneven history in the 21st century.
  During the early decades, many cities began subway projects,
  especially rapidly growing cities in the former third world.
  Subways were noiseless, clean, did not take up space in already
  crowded city cores, and were little affected by the weather. The
  downside was the expense and the risk of vandalism, crime,
  and terrorism.
  In January 2025, the Kreschatik Massacre brought this
  home. The pro-Russian separatist group SND detonated
  bombs in the Kiev subway system, trapping several thousand
  commuters. Fire and leaks broke out, and the world could
  only watch (live, as many of the subway surveillance cameras
  were still active and connected to the Web) as they suffocated
  or drowned while rescue teams dug through the wreckage.
  The event had a profound psychological impact worldwide. It
  showed just how vulnerable a subway system could be to a
  direct assault, inspiring copycat terrorists and frightening
  commuters. By 2030, many subway companies were in crisis.
  Some cities abandoned their subways altogether, like
  Cairo, Lima, and Baghdad. Many emerging cities sought out
  alternatives; buses, monorail, trams, and AGT (Automated
  Guideway Transit) systems. In some urban areas such as New
  York, London, and Mexico City, subways could not be aban-
  doned, as public transport already relied on them too much.
  Instead, strict safety measures were implemented: bomb
  sniffing equipment, security checks, ubiquitous surveillance,
  and automated background checks on random ticket-buyers.
  INFRASTRUCTURE
  23
  
  These “high-security” subways remain a paranoid experience
  where everything is monitored and controlled; while many peo-
  ple chafe under the scrutiny, others revel in the perceived safety.
  Over subsequent decades, subway development was almost
  stagnant. The high security subways were expensive to extend
  and suffered from constant false alarms and security breaches.
  As alternative systems were developed, they became increas-
  ingly competitive, and the stigma of subways as “buried-alive
  transit” remained. As people moved out from the cities, the
  need for subways also declined.
  In the 2080s, though, things were looking up again for
  underground transport. The old fear of subways was finally
  declining (although Relics and Millennials are sometimes fussy
  about them; see Fifth Wave, p. 28). Linear-motor metro sys-
  tems allowed smaller trains, which, together with advances in
  robotic digging, made it cheaper to build tunnels. Old tunnels
  could also be reused, but since the trains were smaller, the
  extra space could be used for emergency exits. In many places,
  old subways were replaced by variants of AGT. Instead of just
  having trains, the system also included smaller one- to four-
  person “cabs” that could move directly between mini-stations
  (known as PRT, Personal Rapid Transit). Entrepreneurs spoke
  of the “mole boom” as many cities built extensive underground
  rail networks with large public stations, smaller local transit
  points, and private transit points below some office and apart-
  ment buildings. Today, most metropolitan areas have extensive
  complexes seamlessly integrated with other transit systems.
  They are no longer subways but simply the underground part
  of the normal transit network.
  Using the transport system is generally simple. For exam-
  ple, in Stockholm, a passenger walks to the nearest Stock-
  Trans stop and waits for the next train. When he boards it, an
  AI sells him a digital ticket, which is quietly handled by the
  personal computer most people carry. (People not currently
  connected to the Web have to buy their tickets beforehand at
  a wall terminal at the station.) The biometrics of free riders
  are recorded and sent to the police who fine them. In addi-
  tion, a large orange triangle above the head of the free rider
  is added to the subway AR space, indicating him to the other
  passengers. This social sanction is usually far more effective
  than the fines in motivating people to pay, with the exception
  of certain youths who enjoy “painting orange” by free-riding
  as a big group.
  If the passenger wants to go directly somewhere, he can
  request the trip through the StockTrans Web connection or
  station wall screens. After a few seconds, a PRT cab arrives
  and will open for him. It then quickly moves to the desired
  destination with no intervening stops. One of the drawbacks
  is that the current franchise holder has given the cab AIs a
  talkative standard personality, which tries to push tourism
  services or advertisements based on what it can determine
  about its passengers. While it will obey an order to shut up, it
  always starts again after the regular announcements of how
  many minutes of trip there are left. Passengers may note that
  cabs are well protected against vandalism, as they monitor
  occupants and will act if attacked. First the AI gives a verbal
  warning, then it sends a record to the police, leading to fines,
  and in extreme cases, it simply drives to a police station
  where the cybershells of the law will be waiting.
  The history of the underground has also led to the existence
  of extensive empty underground passages in many cities. Old
  subway tunnels, escape passageways, unused stations, pas-
  sages dug by companies that went bankrupt, and transport
  conduits for delivery cybershells provide plenty of space. While
  surveillance equipment and locks should prevent unauthorized
  access, in practice, security is often spotty and can be circum-
  vented by someone with the right knowledge or equipment.
  This provides ample room for hiding without the inconven-
  iences of traditional sewers. Escaped bioroids, criminals,
  vagrants, isolates, and corporations (cutting corners on dump-
  ing or transport) use these labyrinths illegally.
  AIRPORTS
  Airports have diversified over time, thanks to advances like
  the air car (Transhuman Space, p. 193), and the long-range
  personal aircraft (Fifth Wave, p. 131). It is no longer necessary
  for major airports to manage large numbers of small aircraft,
  since ducted-fan engines and VTOL designs make it possible to
  start from micro-airfields or even random open spaces. Air
  commuting has become increasingly possible over long, even
  transcontinental, distances thanks to cheap alcohol-based
  fuels. With rapid flights, low costs, and little trouble, airports
  are about as glamorous as bus stations, and many airliners are
  precisely just “air buses.” Pilots are assisted by advanced soft-
  ware, thus no longer requiring such prolonged professional
  training while making travel safer.
  Better transport transforms societies. Individuals are able
  to develop long-distance relationships with people living in far-
  flung towns. Many frequent fliers know their way around other
  cities better than their purported place of residence, and feel
  less attached to the whole of any city than to specific quarters
  of several. (This is especially true for Overturners and the
  Transhuman Generation; see Fifth Wave, pp. 28-29.) Some
  credit low-cost airlines and personal aircraft with the creation
  of a true European identity.
  More-traditional airports are limited to acting as hubs for
  cross-global transonic and transatmospheric flights, for when
  speed and range are of the essence. Thus the number of such
  airports has been reduced to a few major facilities; vast com-
  plexes of hangars, service buildings, customs offices, immigra-
  tion controls, shops, hotels, health care facilities, office hotels,
  and so on. One of the most important functions of all airports
  is to coordinate the many local flights and provide traffic con-
  trol. Hence, airports have extensive computer capabilities,
  often using sophisticated “agoric” (market-style) systems to
  calculate individual fees for the various air lane users.
  INFRASTRUCTURE
  24
  Congestion is a sign
  that you have a healthy,
  growing economy and
  have refrained from
  over-investing in roads.
  – Robert Cervero
  
  INFRASTRUCTURE
  25
  Due to the requirement to be able to send emergency alerts
  quickly, and the diversity of virtual standards used by travelers,
  major airports seldom have very advanced augmented reality
  environments. Likewise, decorations and services are usually
  minimalist in order to encourage people to pass through as rap-
  idly as possible. The sheer diversity of people traveling also
  makes it more difficult to find imagery that will work for every-
  one. Often airports concentrate on a few public artworks, or
  recurring themes in the architecture that explain the place’s
  character to foreign eyes. Some find this social engineering
  pleasurable; most find it drab, and move on.
  While aircraft are quieter than in the past, and transonic
  flights gain a certain altitude before going to full speed, noise
  pollution remains a problem. Major airports are often sur-
  rounded by extensive “noise zones,” creating areas of cheap
  land. Near the airport proper is often an area of underem-
  ployed space, noisy industries, and odd groups and individu-
  als. Many who grow up in these very diverse “noise zones”
  become receptive both to urbanism and to a mobile lifestyle.
  Airport security is often very tight, but needs to be unobtru-
  sive in order to secure smooth transitions. Most often it is a par-
  ticularly careful combination of public monitoring by SAIs for
  anomalous patterns in crowds (see Broken Dreams, pp. 87-88),
  and strict but simple rules, but some airports in a heightened
  state of emergency might v-tag or scan individual travelers.
  Security requirements are probably one of main costs of flying.
  Communications are the life of a modern society. Cut off
  Web access and most people and devices flounder around in
  the dark. Most people are more dependent on it than they
  expect. Many Fifth Wave citizens’ first reaction on arriving in
  a less developed nation is to complain about the bad Web
  access – there might still be ample bandwidth for communi-
  cating and running the many services they are used to, but
  the texture feels off. Lags are slightly too long, information
  transfers stutter, and servers seem to dwell on requests that
  should be dispatched instantly. If access is lost entirely, they
  suddenly experience a frightening loss – they can’t communi-
  cate, many of the functions of their worn computers suddenly
  disappear, and the world around them becomes stark and
  empty of clues. Where are the helpful arrows pointing the
  way, the translations of signs?
  In 2100, there are no separate phone lines, cable television,
  radio channels, or Internet lines. They have all merged into the
  Web, which handles all kinds of information. Web protocols
  allow information to be moved with speed dependent on pay-
  ment: paying a bit extra enables access to high-speed conduits
  suitable even for sending and receiving slinks or ghosts.
  Many places are rated by the number of gigabytes per sec-
  ond per cubic yard that is available. When more people crowd
  together, the bandwidth hunger can exceed supply, and there is
  a “Webout.” Bandwidth depends on the proximity to transmit-
  ters; some bandwidth hogs go up to transmitting walls or side-
  walks and hug them, trying to get as many bytes as possible.
  OPTICAL CONNECTIONS
  The bridge was a geometric abstraction, sharp concrete edges
  and angled pillars connoting speed, high tech industry – and total
  obsolescence. Once the intercity trains might have rushed over it,
  but these days small bushes were cautiously conquering its sur-
  face. The canal it crossed was empty except for a small sailing
  boat inexpertly piloted by a tourist; the heavy barges and their
  cargo of coal had vanished decades ago. The highway a few miles
  north was similarly quiet and empty.
  But I could see the heavy commuter traffic in another layer.
  The bridge carried one of the main Midland optic trunks: a sig-
  nificant fraction of a petabyte every second. In the network
  hardware layer, the bridge was glowing white-hot with data,
  outshining the pale red gigabyte links along the highway or the
  overhead microwave links. I settled down on a piece of masonry
  that a v-tag proclaimed to be the remnants of a famous bridge
  and began to send out the nanoswarm I had in my backpack.
  Nobody would mess with the infrastructure of British Webcom
  on my watch.
  Underneath a city, there is a dense network of thick optical
  fiber conduits. Usually they run in existing tunnels – sewers,
  subways, trunk lines for water and electricity. This backbone
  network transports the main flow of Web traffic. At regular
  intervals, optical router boxes join different trunks and shunt
  data down the right path. This regional grid is linked to even
  heavier backbone links connecting other major regions.
  Security is usually tight, especially around important routers.
  The telecoms and government institutions that run them do
  not take kindly to attempts to interfere with the essentials of
  society. At the very least, they have tamper-proofing skins, and
  usually there are a few sensors nearby to alert the company
  security that someone is there. A few key nodes may have
  defensive swarms.
  Individual buildings are connected to the main city back-
  bone through their own fiber links. When new buildings are
  constructed, plenty of extra connections are added for future
  needs. Somehow, there is always an unexpected need for more
  bandwidth anyway.
  A traditional network engineering joke is “100 megabytes per
  second is enough for a human brain.” At that point, the informa-
  tion flow exceeds the capacity of the nervous system to take it in.
  The real joke is of course that most Fifth Wave citizens consume
  more bandwidth anyway. The constant information flow is used
  by their possessions, be they interactive clothes, home security
  systems, or attendant LAIs. In addition, many businesses pro-
  duce and consume far greater amounts of data. An ordinary one
  million inhabitant city may transmit more than a petabyte per
  second internally. The global network may be transmitting over
  10 exabytes per second.
  Inside most buildings the network conduits run in the walls,
  connected by tiny local routers and firewalls. These also allow
  wireless access. Sending information through the air is practi-
  cal but there is a loss of bandwidth: at best one can squeeze
  through a fifth of a gigabyte per second over tight-beam links,
  but usually it is a lot less. High bandwidth applications like
  slinks and brain-scanning equipment really require a cable
  into the wall.
  NETWORKS
  
  INFRASTRUCTURE
  26
  The snake pits of cables linking home electronics have van-
  ished, replaced by wireless – but now there are optical fibers
  hiding in every wall. Damaging walls can affect homes in unex-
  pected ways – especially modular buildings where everything
  needs to know where everything else is and what color, texture,
  and shape it should be.
  WIRELESS
  Reading warning labels is fun. Each warning has someone’s
  story behind it: “Do not use to disassemble containers.” “Do not
  use in reducing atmospheres or vacuum.” “Do not use for sur-
  gery.” “Do not operate in strong magnetic fields.” Mine reads: “Do
  not link to unshielded Web connections.” I might still be paying
  for that adventure, but the lawyers have made me immortal.
  For generations most people have regarded the Web as
  wireless. Many people have never seen the optical fibers hid-
  ing behind the walls.
  Most wireless net access is done using radio waves and
  near-field emissions. Both are electromagnetic signals, but
  while radio decays slowly over distance (if it is not blocked by
  walls or shielding), near-field signals have a range of less than
  a yard. Near-field systems allow devices close to each other,
  especially those carried by the same person, to form their
  own local network that then links up to the rest of the world
  through radio.
  Indoors, infrared light signals are also used for some com-
  munications. They tend to be fairly short range (around 30
  feet). Another short-range, low-bandwidth method that is
  very rare (and hence harder to detect unless one knows what
  to look for) is ultrasound.
  Lasers can pack plenty of information into a signal but have
  limited range in air; they are more often used in space or for cer-
  tain indoor environments like robofactories. Near-Ultraviolet
  Lasers, NULs, have become increasingly common in truly band-
  width-hungry indoor applications where sunlight cannot reach
  and humans seldom go – NUL usually indicates that this is an
  environment solely intended for cybershells.
  LIVING IN THE
  AUGMENTED WORLD
  Most urban regions provide courtesy bandwidth: a limited
  but adequate net connection for anyone passing by. Most people
  buy extra bandwidth beyond this to really connect to the place.
  It is also possible to get advertising-sponsored bandwidth: one
  gets free access, but advertisements pop up or one’s movement
  and reactions are monitored for marketing purposes.
  Base Reality is about 70% of what Fifth Wave urbanites see;
  the rest is augmented reality. This consists of layers of imagery
  overlaid on the physical world. People select them not unlike
  the way earlier generations tuned to different television chan-
  nels. Some layers are highly standardized, others entirely per-
  sonal. When a person activates an augmented reality system,
  there is usually a primary layer for the system, essentially a
  computer desktop controlling the other layers. When entering
  a street, the individual might choose to activate a tourist layer:
  landmarks will be marked, requests for further information
  will open explanatory windows, and there are usually numer-
  ous suggestions for where to go and what to do. Most places
  have at least one free tourist layer, and for a small payment,
  one can get an augmented guided tour led by an AI.
  There are usually also numerous free information layers,
  commercially sponsored by stores and restaurants or supplied
  as public services. These help in finding one’s way around the
  city, show reviews, point out transit, or just decorate the envi-
  ronment. Sponsoring stores get dramatic or interesting fronts,
  virtual public artworks and virtual firework displays become
  visible, and buildings become more beautiful. As a rule of
  thumb, the more exclusive the layer used, the fewer irrelevant
  details are visible.
  Beyond the commercial and free layers, most people run a
  few private and subculture layers. A group of friends can set
  up their own layer that points out the position of other mem-
  bers when they are in the vicinity or allows them to add vir-
  tual tags for the others to see. Subcultures often have their
  own layers, allowing members to recognize each other or
  adding details relevant to their interests – reporting news or
  marking meeting sites, enemies, or safe routes. Certain layers
  can be extremely exclusive.
  While most layers just add a bit of extra information, some
  can mask much of reality. Game layers are the most common:
  they turn the everyday world into a fantasy landscape. Image
  processing algorithms change the environment into something
  fitting: houses become gothic castles, nonplayers innocent farm-
  ers, and footballs Spheres of Supremacy that can be used to
  command virtual creatures. While a fun game indoors (until
  someone chasing the Jade Moonbat through the Cave of Volition
  kicks over Great-Grandmother’s priceless porcelain vase), this
  can be dangerous in the open when vehicles or heights are
  masked by the scenery. Each year there are a distressing number
  of accidents due to players running into traffic or not noticing a
  sharp branch they are running toward. Many nations have laws
  requiring such games to only function in certain designated safe
  environments, but since the software is often downloaded inter-
  nationally this only protects some players.
  Augmented vision layers add visual enhancements: pointing
  out objects, filling in contours that cannot otherwise be seen,
  or adding details from cameras. Users can – at least when
  things work as they should – make walls translucent and see
  what is on the other side if there are cameras there. The prob-
  lem might be that the information is wrong. Augmented vision
  also allows people to read bar codes and v-tags – or a group of
  people can agree on a codebook and have their wearables
  translate coded messages in graffiti.
  An open network is more
  important for democracy
  than the right to bear arms
  and the right to vote.
  – Joichi Ito
  
  INFRASTRUCTURE
  27
  “Antispam” layers remove advertisements: image recogni-
  tion covers signs and images with something innocuous.
  Certain regions have even mandated the inclusion of tags on
  public advertising to allow easy removal, but for some reason,
  such tags never seem to work properly. Other filter layers can
  remove other unwanted imagery – including people. Nobody
  knows exactly how many people run racial editing software,
  but wags joke that editing is probably the reason people are so
  tolerant these days.
  Some people live almost in “padded reality,” getting rid of
  a lot of unpleasantness. Alternate Reality Cultures (ARCs)
  share elaborate sceneries overlaid on reality where nearly
  everything is turned into something else. The most common
  ARCs are historical or fantasy settings: the most popular, the
  surreal fantasy Layra Rnth, has over a million paying sub-
  scribers, although most do not use it all the time. Some ARCs
  are based on peculiar aesthetic ideals. The Saenradam Layer
  adjusts light, angles, and objects to make the world look as
  clean and architectural as a Pieter Saenradam painting, while
  POer-4001 adds an elaborate spirit world based on the works
  of Adolf Wölfli and William Blake. Creating a good ARC is
  complicated; most are supplied by specialist virtuality com-
  panies that run arrays of AI and visual conversion software to
  maintain them.
  Of course, in practice there are always some problems.
  Most augmented reality systems have problems with accuracy:
  Virtual and real objects do not quite match each other.
  Shadows point the wrong way and objects may suddenly jump
  to new locations. Endless Web discussions and virtual glasses
  boutique visits deal with fine-tuning the setups.
  A big issue in the E.U. and elsewhere has been whether to
  allow police overrides of people’s software – either to disable it
  or to activate “non-consensual layers.” The idea is to ensure
  that in a crisis everybody can get emergency information.
  While most people have local emergency layers active by
  default, some switch them off or have them hidden beneath
  other layers. The debate about the “right to one’s reality” is hot.
  Many layers of communication are invisible to normal
  people. There is a whole world of low-level inter-device com-
  munication that is never seen: as things move around, they
  tell the world of their existence and set up brief networks to
  pass on data, enable a passing person to print on a nearby
  printer, or perform a joint error-check operation. With the
  right software, this activity can be seen, and clever people
  sometimes use it to track other people or interfere in the daily
  life of their appliances. Getting Weblife to invade someone’s
  home network by fooling it into linking to a router without a
  firewall is a classic childhood prank.
  The cathedral of the Middle Ages marked a city as prosper-
  ous and godly. Today the hospital performs much the same
  function. The shift from patients as passive recipients to
  demanding health consumers changed much of the hospital’s
  structure. Enhancement medicine also contributed, setting a
  pattern for private sector health.
  The typical hospital visit involves preliminary HyMRI scans
  and sampling, providing doctors with a detailed map and deci-
  sion support system for adjustments to the patient’s health.
  The hospital bed is a healing environment, keeping the patient
  comfortable and entertained and hiding the sophisticated
  equipment that monitors everything.
  Because health is so individual and subjective, “health envi-
  ronment consultants” (and the health models they sell) have
  skyrocketed. Hospitals suffer from fashions as much as the rest
  of society – near-ecology health (surrounding the patient with
  homey, familiar elements) is popular today, but experts predict
  that ambient sonic health memes are returning.
  HEALTH AND DEATH
  Most augmented reality environments include a net-
  work hardware layer somewhere among their options. This
  marks out all the Web physical infrastructure in the
  observer’s vicinity, with the level of capacity and use (gen-
  erally much the same thing) indicated, usually by color
  coding: High-traffic fibers are marked with thick, glowing
  white lines; busy connections with blue; and so on down to
  dull red one-person connections and black inactive links.
  The level of radio and IR traffic is indicated by translucent
  tags “in midair,” and the user can request routers, junction
  boxes, and the like to be flagged with text boxes showing
  technical details and basic diagnostics; where fibers run to
  and from, and who owns what, can also be marked.
  In most places, the network hardware layer is freely
  accessible, although only technicians and obsessive
  technophiles generally even know that it exists, let alone
  how to use it. In some places, where the authorities
  are especially secretive or concerned about the chance of
  sabotage, it is only available to those with the right secu-
  rity codes. It is usually secured, or partial and limited to
  very basic information, in police stations and military
  installations. Where no such layer exists, technicians can
  run a Complexity 4 “bytescanner” program in their wear-
  able or implant that automatically interrogates diagnostic
  v-tags on any hardware in the vicinity, searches public
  databases for documentation, scans standard microwave
  channels for traffic levels and unencrypted header infor-
  mation, and constructs an overlay with the same sort of
  information as best it can.
  Either way, this view is a useful technical tool,
  although it is far too distracting to keep on all the time in
  well-networked environments. Of course, the network
  information layer can be inaccurate, and router v-tags
  can be turned off or set to lie; anyone discovering an
  active fiber which doesn’t show up at all can guess that
  there’s something curious going on somewhere.
  The Network Hardware Layer
  
  INFRASTRUCTURE
  28
  HEALTH CENTERS
  Local health centers are the most common places for med-
  ical treatment, each serving a metavillage or a few city blocks.
  A few nurses and doctors (possibly telecommuting from
  somewhere else) and a small treatment facility are enough for
  most problems. Other health centers are leased by network
  hospitals for treatment of their patients or are actually on
  hospital campuses.
  In many cases, patients can recuperate at home – the center
  monitors medical signals, giving advice and telepresence help,
  or (in emergencies) sending paramedics.
  HOSPITAL CAMPUSES
  A hospital campus contains many semi-independent health
  centers, consultancies, biotech companies, and other health-
  related services. A patient arriving at a health center may, say,
  receive specialist care from a nearby medical consultancy, using
  cloned organs from the tissue factory next door.
  ARCOLOGY HOSPITALS
  The opposite of the loose hospital campus is the central-
  ized arcology hospital, where everything is nearby. Some
  arcologies are entirely devoted to medicine, with a
  “tourist trade” consisting entirely of patients. The
  residents are typically staff, or extended-stay
  patients suffering from chronic diseases, hypochon-
  dria, or old age. (Many of the earliest arcology hos-
  pitals were basically extended service apartment
  complexes for the old and infirm.) Arcology hospi-
  tal styles range from the semi-mythical atmosphere
  of alpine sanatoriums to efficient “health factories.”
  Most such hospital structures must either serve a
  large population center, or attract a certain type of
  patient on a worldwide basis.
  Arcology hospitals are among the most con-
  trolled environments in the world. They hold to the
  watchwords of safety, efficiency, and timeliness.
  Ubiquitous monitoring and AIs ensure that things
  happen automatically. This extreme level of safety
  appeals to some people, though following the elab-
  orate safety procedures can be tiresome.
  NETWORK HOSPITALS
  Some hospitals exist only online. Patients meet
  with their doctors virtually, and receive any neces-
  sary equipment (possibly including a nurse cyber-
  shell) in their homes. Surgery still requires rented
  local hospital space.
  Network hospitals have proven popular among
  both wide-ranging travelers and those living very
  localized lives. They also fit in well with medical
  homes (see below) which report everything rele-
  vant to the hospital and can implement treatment if
  needed.
  Certifications Boards
  Network hospitals are certified by various
  medical boards, such as the American Medical
  Association, the European Medical Certification
  Board, or the International Union of Online Care.
  Some independent, for-profit boards also exist, such
  as Evaluación Diaz-Cela del Hospital, Cui Hao
  Testing, and Herodicus Validation. Independent
  boards must walk a tightrope between being paid by
  hospitals and retaining a reputation for strictness.
  Most are monitored in turn by other organizations
  such as the Online Certification and Review Agency,
  a major NGO. The world of medical certification
  combines huge sums of money with detail-oriented
  bureaucracy and the occasional discreet attempt to
  catch competitors in a mistake.
  Example
  Arcology Hospitals
  These are two examples of comprehensive medical centers.
  New Brunswick Regenerative
  Medicine Center (New Jersey, USA)
  NBRMC specializes in regenerative medicine: regrowing lost
  limbs, organ cloning and transplants, restorative surgery, and
  extreme trauma medicine. It is particularly renowned for its
  work on neural regeneration and rehabilitation. While such
  activities go on at any major hospital, NBRMC is the first choice
  for hard problems due to unusual genotypes, serious trauma, or
  exotic tissue damage.
  The NBRMC arcology is closely tied to the Rutgers University
  medical faculty and especially the Center for Regenerative
  Biotechnology Medicine. As the center grew to prominence, it
  helped shift the hospitals in the area toward regenerative medi-
  cine. In 2077, several hospitals formed the NBRMC consortium
  and construction began.
  The arcology itself is a series of glass-enclosed, wave-like build-
  ings stretching from land to sea, complete with an indoor harbor.
  Patients waiting for regeneration often amuse themselves teleop-
  erating sailboat cybershells or miniature surfing bodies.
  Arcologie Hôpitalier “L. Pasteur”
  (AP-HP) (Paris, France)
  This massive arcology hospital serves the Greater Paris metro-
  politan area with 33,000 “hospital beds” and 20,000 physicians.
  The total number of employees is over a quarter of a million, and
  the number of consultations is around 30 million each year.
  The building itself is an impressive arcology in classic geomet-
  ric style. It consists of two white, pyramidal towers leaning toward
  each other. Each tower is 1,000 feet wide and 500 floors high.
  Between them stretches a multi-story bridge with an elevated park
  on top and a railway and subway station beneath, turning the
  arcology into a kind of triumphal arch. Within the towers, there
  are large open spaces with restaurants, gymnasiums, indoor
  parks, and terraced apartments. Extensible landing pads receive
  airborne emergency transports. While not truly self-sufficient, AP-
  HP does have impressive energy, manufacturing, and food produc-
  tion facilities and acts as a city-within-the-city. The complex is its
  own municipal area (the 22nd arrondissement), with its own local
  council and mayor.
  
  MEDICAL HOMES
  For many people, the home is the hospital. Home
  sensors can measure a multitude of things: movement
  (giving doctors insight into orthopedic problems and
  lack of exercise), heart rate, exhaled substances, air-
  borne bacteria, even brain activity. Medical bracelets,
  subdermal implants, and even a diagnostic toilet can
  provide additional information.
  A home AI can be equipped with medical skills and
  access to hospital subroutines – in an emergency, it
  alerts the hospital and acts as an intermediary for
  treatment. A medical home may also have medical
  cybershells (or several adjoining homes may share a
  pool of specialist cybershells). Medical cyberswarms
  have also been attempted, but rarely to date.
  Desktop pharmacopoeia devices remain status
  symbols for the rich and health-conscious. These
  nanofacturing devices produce the right drugs or nanodrugs at
  the right dosage at the right time from chemical and nanotech
  precursors. While larger pharmacopoeia devices can be
  installed in the home (and the drugs may even be added to
  auto-cooked food directly), the small and very expensive desk-
  top versions are just the right thing to show off wealth, while
  keeping the body in peak condition.
  ENHANCEMENT SPAS
  The enhancement spa provides a combination of rest, med-
  ical procedures, training, and general wellbeing. SpaTek (High
  Frontier, p. 61) and others operate well-known orbital and
  lunar spas, but there is an even greater variety on Earth, with
  individual spas specializing in everything from ghost creation
  to holistic healing and upgrade.
  Many spas are themed. At the Polynesian spas at Rotorua,
  New Zealand, visitors bathe in hot mineral springs and enjoy
  traditional food and culture while undergoing therapy. The
  Keito Memetics Center at Otsu, Japan is patterned after a
  Rinzai Zen retreat, with memetic counselors resembling
  Buddhist monks, meditation exercises, therapeutic martial
  arts, and tea ceremonies. It has proven so popular that Keito
  franchise centers are spreading internationally. In Europe,
  Finnish enhancement spas are particularly popular among
  transhumanists. Located well out of the way in the northern
  forests, they provide privacy, innovative enhancements, and
  local color. A visit to the sauna is obligatory.
  CEMETERIES
  People still die in wealthy areas in 2100, but infrequently.
  Medicine and transhumanist technologies have made death
  seem less and less natural. Heart failure is a sign of failure on
  the part of the health care system, insurers, or the person – it
  is no longer an acceptable cause of death.
  INFRASTRUCTURE
  29
  The Lazaroff Institute
  Not all online hospitals are legit. The Lazaroff Institute, in
  numerous incarnations, has been scamming health consumers for
  several years. It typically appears as a new, specialized network hos-
  pital announcing itself through a targeted advertising campaign to
  certain groups of people such as Alpha upgrades, individuals with
  cardiovascular problems, or Zoroastrians. The first customers get
  first-class treatment, giving credence to its claims. (The Institute is
  very skilled at modulating word-of-mouth memetics.) Then the
  Institute rips off the medical information from subsequent cus-
  tomers, leaving them open to identity theft, medical blackmail, and
  fraudulent treatments. It seems to act as a front for a network of
  criminals buying victims through internal auctions.
  Atlas Diagnostic Felt: A blanket filled with sensors, used
  to quickly ascertain the state of a patient in an emergency.
  When wrapped around a person it can measure vital signs,
  sample blood, perform ultrasound and optical imaging in
  3D, and report the findings to nearby computers. Func-
  tions as a biomonitor (Transhuman Space, p. 162), giving
  +2 to medical skill rolls, but requires less effort and fewer
  special connections to set up, and also acts as a blanket.
  $6,000, 0.4 lb., A/1 year.
  Fontane Desktop Pharmacopoeia: A typical desktop
  pharmacopoeia device (see the main text). When con-
  nected to Fontane Medical Services and selected health
  providers through the Web, and supplied with appropriate
  precursors, it is able and licensed by most reputable agen-
  cies to manufacture most of the drugs or nanodrugs an
  owner might need. An ostentatious status symbol, the
  Pharmacopoeia is encased in asteroid iron, etched to show
  authentic Widmanstätten patterns. $20,000, 2 lbs. The
  prices of the drugs are automatically debited from the
  owner’s health account. LC4.
  Home Medical Upgrade: Turns an ordinary home into a
  potential hospital. Includes upgrades to local software,
  installation of medical sensors, and medical cybershells.
  While privacy and medical practice regulations in many
  countries prevent a home from scanning and treating out-
  siders, workarounds exist that turn the medical home into
  a potential clinic. Costs range from $5,000 (includes two 4-
  point, Complexity 4, skill set programs giving Diagnosis
  (Human) at IQ and Electronics Operation (Medical) at
  IQ+1, which of course require an appropriate AI to be pres-
  ent, and a basic medical sensor suite), up to $200,000
  (includes a Cyberdoc – see Transhuman Space, p. 122,
  and Changing Times, p. 54 – and additional assistant
  shells, a dedicated NAI-6 installed in a static computer and
  trained with Diagnosis (Human)-13, Electronics Operation
  (Medical)-13, and Physician (Human)-13, and an advanced
  sensor suite throughout the house). Add a $100-$1,000
  monthly fee for maintenance and upgrades. Note that the
  AIs operating such systems will often receive a bonus to
  Diagnosis skill for good-quality (or better) equipment. LC4.
  Some Home Medical Options
  
  INFRASTRUCTURE
  30
  However, dealing with death is still a sizable, discreet busi-
  ness involving funeral homes, grief counselors, bereavement
  assistants, lifeminers (see p. 38), virtual memorial designers,
  and long-term character-impact memeticists. As death has
  become rarer, the amount of money spent on funerals and
  emotional support has increased tremendously, resulting in a
  plethora of unusual, individual funeral practices.
  In the 20th century, cemeteries took up an increasing
  amount of valuable urban space, encouraging cremations, col-
  lective memorials, and even multi-level cemeteries. Cheaper
  urban space and fewer deaths have lessened the pressure, how-
  ever. Many Decivilizationists even feel that cities-as-cemeteries,
  scattered throughout the wilderness, would be a fitting memo-
  rial to urban humanity, while burial has become popular
  among preservationists seeking a return to natural cycles.
  Still, cremation remains viable, and is not uncommon.
  Spreading the resulting ashes is often tightly regulated, how-
  ever. On Earth, acceptable practices include mixing them with
  the concrete used to repair or seed artificial reefs, or placing
  them in the foundation roots of a biobuilding. In space, the
  only legal option is placement on burial satellites. In both
  cases, of course, there is a small economy in smuggling ashes
  for a “better” burial.
  Diamond burials – converting the dead person into a dia-
  mond – has been popular at different times. The Chinese mid-
  dle class practiced it extensively in the 2070s, and many
  anti-preservationists “cheated the carbon cycle” with it in the
  ’90s. Nanostasis preservation is also still in use, mostly by
  believers in hyper-evolution – future posthumans may have
  better methods for recovering lives, after all. In many coun-
  tries, the same companies that handle funerals handle long-
  term person storage, and the not-quite-dead may be stored in
  secure bunkers beside the dead.
  Modern funeral monuments run the gamut from small
  v-tags to fresco-covered mausoleums. Cheap manufacturing
  and cheap urban land make size relatively unimportant, but
  other methods of indicating status are possible: rare natural
  rocks (mined at high cost or smuggled), tombtrees (trees,
  often customized in look or even scent, with some of the per-
  son’s individual, unexpressed genome spliced in), and other
  expensive-but-useless additions can help show the wealth of
  the deceased.
  Virtual cemeteries (originating in Asia) are old enough to
  be traditional, although some old-fashioned cemeteries still
  refuse to have anything more than navigational augmented
  reality. Most cemeteries have a virtual counterpart that can
  be visited from afar, as well as carefully designed virtual
  memorial groves, meditation environments, and interactive
  grave markers.
  Talking tombstones, with video and audio from the
  deceased, were popular in the first half of the century, particu-
  larly in emerging nations. While most are little more than sen-
  timental greetings, others are entire autobiographies. Most
  grave markers today also store images and greetings from vis-
  itors as v-tags. These “deadblogs” can be surprisingly active.
  Adding shadows to graves is a recent and growing practice
  (see Toxic Memes, p. 71), particularly in Chinese cities.
  Infomorphs rarely need funerals – it is almost impossible
  for them to accidentally die – but there is an upward trend.
  Infomorph funerals are typically held in a virtual cemetery, and
  do not take up city space.
  A slightly different form of infomorph funeral ceremony is
  the carnevale – a meat person who underwent destructive
  uploading has a funeral-and-rebirth ceremony for their old
  body. Kazuhiro Nishimori performed the first publicly known
  carnevale and described it in his Posthumous Autobiography.
  Today, there are many variants, ranging from self-mocking fes-
  tivities to very sober Buddhist burials. Some Christian hyper-
  evolutionists see the carnevale as a sacrament on the road to
  union with the Omega Point.
  Police work in Fifth Wave nations has mainly become a
  matter of maintaining a visible presence and performing com-
  munity service when on patrol (see Fifth Wave, pp. 41-42). The
  specific activities of different city police departments depend
  on local legislation, tactical doctrine, and departmental cul-
  ture, but the following describes typical operations in large
  cities in western Europe.
  There has been a switch in recent years by many depart-
  ments toward more non-confrontational tactics, relying on
  support from the community. Police forces often work hard on
  building trust, consent, and legitimacy by opening up their
  organizations to public scrutiny, and responding to communi-
  ties’ criticisms. In return, people accept police back doors into
  their software and sensors. In a metavillage whose citizens
  trust their police, every Smart Lawn Gnome™ can become the
  eyes and ears of the law if needed.
  Police stations are often well integrated in their neighbor-
  hoods, with small staffs and considerable local government
  control. Patrolling is usually done on foot; this increases visi-
  bility, and helps to break down the perceived rifts between the
  officers and the public that could follow from officers driving
  cars or vans. Driving patrol cars in 22nd-century city-center
  streets is not advisable in any case, since many environments
  do not accommodate them. However, patrolling officers usu-
  ally have mobile backup from roving air car units, flying cyber-
  shells, or sentry swarms, and can call in a heavier response or
  specialist knowledge at short notice.
  The police use heavier cybershells, K-10A postcanines, and
  various kinds of cyberswarms, if appropriate for the mission.
  This appropriateness is partly determined by the sensibilities
  of the community; if, say, uplifted animals are not accepted in
  the area, they are not usually included in patrols. However, if
  the need really exists for such tools, officers can usually quickly
  call them in from air patrol units.
  When the police apprehend dangerous criminals, are in pur-
  suit of a fugitive, or are attempting a major salvage operation,
  they will be assisted by NAI partners and will be in direct con-
  tact with the tactical center at their station. C3I (Command,
  Communications, Control, and Intelligence) systems make it
  possible to link together a whole police squad so that they can
  draw information from each other. NAI assistants also record
  what is happening, storing it in escrow at a judiciary server to
  discourage police brutality or procedural mistakes.
  POLICE AND SECURITY
  
  INFRASTRUCTURE
  31
  A police officer’s service weapons are invariably smart, con-
  taining everything from documentation and maintenance
  advice to targeting systems. Weapons also record how and
  when they have been discharged, enabling internal affairs
  units to perform thorough investigations. Many departments
  include friendly fire inhibition programs in service weapons,
  preventing a gun from firing accidentally at a colleague or
  bystander. Mistakes still happen, though – usually involving the
  weapon erring on the side of caution.
  What has distinctly changed is the analytical part of police
  work. Technical and physical evidence are considered vastly
  superior to witnesses when bringing cases to court (see Broken
  Dreams, p. 65), and the ever-more-digital nature of many
  crimes demands massive amounts of data analysis. Most
  policemen spend their time in virtual offices doing data mining
  rather than chasing criminals physically.
  One very important tool for the police in a age of automated
  systems is the possession of override codes for various types of
  machinery, vehicles, and owned AIs and cybershells. Depending
  on the degree of imminent public danger or the severity of a
  crime in progress, the police may need a warrant or may be free
  to simply shut down a device or take control over it. A few cases
  have occurred where criminals have acquired police override
  codes and then used them for their own purposes.
  Another controversial issue is police use of memetics.
  Particular memes can be dangerous to the public, possibly
  inciting violence and crime . . . so the police may respond to
  their propagation (see Toxic Memes, pp. 125-127). Often,
  police memetic response is preventive, aiming to defuse situa-
  tions and disrupt fertile environments for a dangerous meme –
  but this makes the police into active propagandists, compro-
  mising their perceived neutrality.
  The means at the disposal of the police have increased, but
  it is important to note the balance between the police and the
  public. Various cultures and communities do monitor their
  local police departments. Technology is a tool that can be
  used by both the watchers and the watched, and in a cyberde-
  mocratic society, it is often quite easy for citizens to act
  against abusive police.
  SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS
  Surveillance is ubiquitous in Fifth Wave cities. Public privacy
  laws may have been passed (Transhuman Space, p. 77), but
  many areas remain where the police, authorities, and private
  concerns monitor events. The concept of what is to be consid-
  ered a public area has also changed; it is considered quite proper
  to have surveillance, monitored by the owner, on private prop-
  erty, and parts of a street may be owned by some organization.
  Buildings have extensive opportunities to watch their inhab-
  itants, and may do so simply to ensure smooth operation. Take
  presence-aware lights as an example. To save power, some eco-
  friendly (or cheap) landlords add motion detectors or other sen-
  sors to lamps, turning them on when somebody is present, and
  saving energy otherwise. However, this also potentially turns the
  lamp fixtures into a building-wide surveillance system. The first
  designs at the start of the 21st century were simpler than that,
  but soon it was realized how useful it was to network the motion
  detectors. After all, most people dislike walking along a corridor
  with just the lamps above lit and darkness ahead or behind, so it
  was much more acceptable to have the entire corridor light up
  when someone was passing – but networked sensors could act
  as a cheap way of improving security. Over the years, the energy-
  saving issue has become almost moot, but the system survives in
  many Third and Fourth Wave nations. Even in some Fifth
  Wave buildings, motion-sensitive lighting remains active, or is
  even newly installed as some people prefer the “traditional”
  technology. Children have grown up learning to evade motion
  detectors as part of the game “cross the darkness.”
  However, a modern building usually has a NAI running
  the lighting. Usually, this tries to adjust the illumination to
  allow a person to cross the building without seeing any dark
  spots. Some NAIs may have idiosyncratic programming,
  however, perhaps trying to avoid disrupting the biorhythms
  of potted plants by keeping them in shadow.
  A clever manipulator can of course abuse any such sys-
  tem. Monitoring the lights showing in windows is a sim-
  ple way of figuring out security patrols, and since the
  security of the lamp systems is often low, they may repre-
  sent an easy way to insert misleading signals into the
  building AI network.
  However, the main point here is that surveillance systems
  provide many ways to monitor events. For game purposes,
  GMs should bear this in mind, but also remember that any
  part of the system may be spoofed, confused, or damaged.
  PCs investigating a mystery may or may not just be able to
  scan a database and find out who or where somebody was,
  or what happened in a given place. Conversely, PCs bent on
  causing trouble should be aware of the issue and have ways to
  deal with it; after all, it would be rather incompetent of them
  as well as boring if they were arrested after every minor infrac-
  tion thanks to roving surveillance bots.
  Ubiquitous information certainly does not provide an easy
  way to skip all investigation. When someone asks their AI to
  put together a list of all possible people fitting a certain profile,
  most lists are going to be extremely long – or empty. A too-spe-
  cific request, like looking for all individuals named Olsen who
  drive Fujitsu cars, likely voted nanosocialist, and smoke, may
  produce zero results because there is no publicly accessible
  image of Mr. Olsen smoking despite his private habits. Remove
  the smoking constraint, though, and the list may instead run to
  hundreds of names.
  
  INFRASTRUCTURE
  32
  Jamming Surveillance
  Many surveillance devices send information back through
  radio links, which can be jammed. It is of course trivial to pro-
  gram the receiving computer to trigger an alarm if the connec-
  tion is broken. In practice, this is rare: The noisy electronic
  environment in a modern city causes glitches all the time, or
  something heavy and radio-opaque might be moving between
  the sensor and the receiver, and electronics do fail occasionally.
  If the system raised an alert each time there was a disruption,
  there would be too many false alarms. Hence, most systems do
  not immediately react if sensors are lost. Some are smart
  enough to react when more sensors are lost at the same time,
  or if losses follow a suspicious pattern, but many just log a
  repair call and wait.
  Sending out a replacement signal showing something else
  can also theoretically jam wireless cameras. With a well-
  designed security system, this is impossible, since each ele-
  ment will use effective encryption. But a surprising number of
  systems are still using very cheap, long-since-broken encryp-
  tion (or none at all!) and can be subverted, at least by well-
  informed criminals, allowing the high-tech intruder to record
  images from the cameras and send them back edited. This is
  usually thought of as a Fourth or Third Wave problem, and
  many people think that high-tech criminals from Fifth Wave
  nations are using it perform crimes in the less developed
  world. (There have been several popular InVids and slinkies
  with this as plot element, most notably the “Caper Djakarta”
  Bollywood stories.) In reality, most such interception occurs in
  Fifth Wave societies; bad security is a universal problem, and
  having more wealth in a society means that the criminals are
  on the average better equipped.
  Wired security networks are of course harder to jam or
  intercept – not impossible, but tinkering with the wrong wire
  or fiber can make things worse rather than better for the
  intruder, and few are obligingly labeled or color-coded, while
  random failures are less likely, so unexpected drop-outs are
  more likely to trigger alerts. Unfortunately, hard-wired systems
  are more expensive and less flexible; still, competent security
  managers know that the expense may be justified. A seriously
  secured permanent installation should be much, much harder
  to infiltrate than some random office block.
  It is also possible to blind cameras with lasers. Since many
  cameras are sensitive to light slightly outside the human-visi-
  ble range, an infrared laser can blind cameras without (non-
  enhanced) humans noticing it. Simple systems just spray light
  around; more advanced types automatically aim for the anti-
  reflection coatings on lenses. (This often blinds the cameras on
  people’s wearable computers, so it should not be attempted in
  a crowd if one doesn’t want other people to react.)
  Any security system, whether mindlessly automated or run
  by an AI, has a fundamental problem. Make it too sensitive,
  and it will produce too many false alarms. Turn down the sen-
  sitivity, and it will miss events it should have alerted its owners
  about. Even in 2100, people generally err on the side of fewer
  false alarms. A classic method for fooling the owners of a secu-
  rity system is to make it experience false alarms over and over
  again; the irritated security people will (hopefully) eventually
  decide the system is set too sensitive, and turn it down. Of
  course, a sufficiently clever security chief or AI will recognize
  this “crying wolf trick” and be prepared.
  Still, false positives are inevitable with any system. For
  example, facial recognition systems can be linked to police
  databases of wanted suspects, and then run on the signals
  from every camera in a city. (This has been tried repeatedly
  for over a century; the idea appeals so much to some
  regimes.) Even so, if there is just one chance in a thousand
  that one face is mistaken for another (about how well
  humans recognize each other), a system watching a million
  people pass by every day will generate a thousand false
  alarms. Fortunately, often the simple knowledge that a secu-
  rity system is present is enough to deter criminals, and there
  is no real need for it to detect everything.
  Using more AI software just adds extra levels to the game.
  Many simpler security NAIs and LAIs have fairly well defined
  “personalities” that an experienced hacker can exploit. For
  example, the Gemini Volksrobotics Argus-99 series of monitor
  LAIs are very quick to report their suspicions, making it easy
  to circumvent them by having the LAI pester its owners or
  police too often. The PGSS Nygates system, on the other hand,
  has an evolving population of small competing NAI agents that
  latch onto suspicious patterns, trying to earn “rewards” by
  detecting intrusions. Here, fooling the monitor system is equiv-
  alent to fooling an immune system: The best way is to trigger
  an “autoimmune” reaction, by getting the agents to interfere
  with each other by sending out investigatory cybershells that
  trigger the suspicion of other agents (e.g. by damaging their
  recognition codes, making them look like intruders). Then,
  leave signs of network infiltration that get the agents accusing
  each other of being hacked, and while the Nygates is purging
  itself, access is open.
  Cities are big, chaotic systems, and sometimes things go
  wrong. One measure of the quality of a city’s design or manage-
  ment is how it deals with worst cases.
  VEHICLE ACCIDENTS
  With the decline of car usage and increased smarts of vehi-
  cles, the number of traffic accidents has plummeted. A new
  problem is cybershell crashes: incompatible (or plain stupid)
  cybershells create their own accidents, usually without persons
  being damaged. Inside cybershell access tunnels, this can snarl
  up traffic unless dealt with promptly, so salvage shells are often
  kept on standby.
  FIRES
  The modern fire department works like modern medicine:
  most treatment is done automatically and at home. One of
  the most elementary programs in any building AI library is
  fire protection. Building codes mandate that any AI can deal
  with minor fires and inform the authorities immediately.
  DISASTER MANAGEMENT
  
  INFRASTRUCTURE
  33
  The ubiquity of cybershells has enormously reduced the
  number of significant home fires: They are stopped by the
  cybershells as soon as they are detected. Without watchful
  AIs and smart materials, many biotech buildings would be
  dangerous firetraps.
  Anti-fire materials are common. These are not just materi-
  als that cannot be ignited; they actively resist fire while trigger-
  ing alarms. One early design, Pyrolink 434 plastic, chirped
  loudly when overly hot. It is used here and there, but not in
  large quantities – the sound of a building filled with such plas-
  tic on fire was so loud and confusing that it was discontinued.
  Modern anti-fire materials release fire-retardant foam when
  heated or have thermally powered emergency radio alarms.
  Those serious fires which do occur these days are either
  environmental (e.g. wildfires), industrial, or the results of
  arson or violence. When firefighters have to respond in num-
  bers, it is always a sign of real trouble.
  The first thing they do, usually before they even get to the
  site, is to scan the area. Building maps, inventories, access to
  all available local sensors, and buzzbots are all acquired. Fire
  department LAIs build a situation sketch that includes known
  hazards, where people appear to be, and where the different
  resources are.
  First responder teams are usually cybershells equipped with
  powerful transmitters to keep track of where they are and to
  send back what they see. Since a major fire is a “stressed RF
  environment,” even when they are telepresence-controlled by
  humans they also have onboard LAIs (“dalmatians” in
  American firefighter slang) to handle situations should they
  lose contact.
  The first priority is always to get any citizens out of harm’s
  way, or to determine that there are none present. Quite often, it
  is not worth saving smaller buildings (since they can be rebuilt
  cheaply), and the team primarily ensures the fire doesn’t spread.
  RIOTS
  Riots are very rare in most Fifth Wave nations, but still
  occur in less developed regions when injustices become too
  great, violent memes spread, or mass meetings get out of
  hand. The sheer force of hundreds or thousands of people
  casting off the rules of civilized behavior can easily over-
  whelm most police forces. Designing memes to cause riots is
  a serious crime in most jurisdictions, but there are rumors
  floating around the Web that there exists a loose network of
  “sparkers,” amateur memeticists who take delight in finding
  volatile situations and making them worse until something
  exciting happens.
  The typical police reaction is to try to cool the situation by
  cutting civilian Web access and making convincing shows of
  strength and authority, stop the riot from spreading, and apply
  nonlethal crowd control weapons such as water cannons,
  “slidefoam,” nonlethal cyberswarms, or (most controversially)
  MADS. Some civil liberties groups worry that some countries
  may be conditioning their populations with memes predispos-
  ing them to freeze or obey when encountering certain signals.
  No evidence has yet been found of this, but if anything could
  be proved, it would be both a major journalistic coup and a
  huge scandal.
  Ubiquitous surveillance goes both ways: the police can
  record rioters’ behavior, but citizen’s cameras can easily catch
  any police brutality. After a riot there is always a heated online
  analysis, as interested people from both sides put together
  detailed pictures of the events and dispute statements about
  who did what. In the chaos, enough events still happen just
  when all cameras are blocked to keep people guessing and
  arguing. Some online riot analysts are celebrities in their own
  right, a mixture of sport commentators, expert witnesses, and
  citizen activists, with extensive support from interested imag-
  ing analysts, law students, and activists.
  FLOODS
  Rising seas have claimed many cities beyond the big names
  like New Orleans (see Broken Dreams, p. 73). Floods are usu-
  ally the last straw that makes people move from smaller,
  declining locations to metavillages and arcologies.
  To protect a city from flooding, both drainage and seawalls
  are needed. Learning from past experience, many places over-
  design their embankments. Muddy ground is anchored using
  biotech such as the genetically modified “Radici di Venezia.”
  Artificial coral reefs or mangrove forest are added where suit-
  able. Extra drainage tunnels are dug, adding even more to the
  urban underground labyrinth. However, all such interventions
  cost, and poorer locations are unlikely to have them. If a town
  seems a bit waterlogged, it is usually a sign that the Decivilizers
  will soon be moving in.
  EARTHQUAKES
  Earthquakes are less of a problem for modern high-tech
  cities than they once were. Buildings are robust and adaptive,
  and while earthquake prediction is still approximate (see
  Broken Dreams, p. 73), even a few hours’ warning is enough to
  reduce risks enormously. There are enough seismic sensors in
  metropolitan areas for automation to react; earthquake over-
  rides make traffic stop and buildings brace themselves seconds
  before the shock is felt, even for a totally unexpected quake. A
  worse problem is tsunamis caused by earthquakes or undersea
  mudslides; while they are quickly detected, they cannot be
  stopped and often do serious damage to seaside property.
  POLLUTION
  Most Fifth Wave cities and metavillages are as clean as they
  want to be. Outdoors, municipal or co-op cleaning shells pick
  up litter, while in well-off areas, cyberswarms are used both to
  dispose of litter and to track litterers. Environmental networks
  in developed nations form a fine mesh of biosensors and pol-
  lutant detectors, distributed across the land. They are often the
  first thing to detect anything going seriously wrong, be it wild-
  fire, weapons use, or natural disaster, as well as illegal or run-
  away pollution.
  Recycling never became popular until all the hassle van-
  ished thanks to AI, v-tags, and nanotech. For all practical pur-
  poses, Fifth and Fourth Wave nations live lives of boundless
  consumerism, but out of sight the garbage is quietly and effi-
  ciently sorted and recycled. In arcologies, this is done on indus-
  trial floors; in metavillages and old cities, local recycling
  centers are often tastefully hidden underground.
  Cleaner cybershells pick apart commodities using instruc-
  tions in their v-tags. 3D printed objects can often be dissolved
  back into 3D “pixels” that can be re-used for lower-grade
  objects. Wilted biotech is mulched and used for nutrients.
  
  INFRASTRUCTURE
  34
  Recycling does add risks similar to how mad cow disease was
  spread through bone meal in animal feed: occasionally some
  virus program, prion protein, or toxin slips through and may
  infect new objects built with reused parts. This is rare, but
  some people dislike finding out that their possessions are not
  100% new.
  The waste dumps of the 20th century are gold mines for
  users of certain chemicals, especially plastics that can no
  longer be legally manufactured – but recycling them is often
  legal and can even earn a company an environmental bonus. In
  the process, the landfill miners sometimes find other interest-
  ing things. However, environmentalist groups warn that land-
  fill mining often releases trapped toxins into the environment.
  IMPACT BUNKERS
  The probability of a sizable meteor impact on Earth is negli-
  gible, but if one occurs the consequences could be devastating –
  a tsunami striking a heavily developed coast or an atmospheric
  fireball over a major city would count for megadeaths. The total
  risk in terms of death probability per year was once 1 in 40,000,
  actually higher than tornadoes (1 in 60,000) and just under flood
  (1 in 30,000). Today, it is far smaller, thanks to extensive space
  activity and traffic management.
  During the 2020s, the awareness of meteor impact threats
  rose due to the completion of the mapping of Near Earth
  Objects, which found several hundred small but potentially
  risky asteroids. The plans of Vosper-Babbage and Tenzan
  Heavy industries to use mass drivers to move asteroids to L4
  and L5 also caused concern; if asteroids could be moved, they
  could be dropped – deliberately or in an accident. Meteor pro-
  tection became a new fad.
  While most efforts went into space (where they eventually
  did reduce the risk), many already risk-averse western coun-
  tries decided to build “meteor shelters.” These would protect a
  city’s population in the event of an advance warning a few
  hours before impact. While later viewed as a case of mass
  panic, the shelters were often actually built with a second pur-
  pose in mind: as biohazard shelters. Planners were realizing
  that it was only a matter of time before terrorists got their hand
  on technology from some overseas biotech sanctuary. Hence, it
  made sense to build bunker complexes that could easily be
  upgraded in the case of biological attacks. People could be
  brought to safety inside, or they could be used as emergency
  hospitals or quarantine.
  By the ’60s, these ideas were seen as quaint, not unlike
  1950s civil defense movies telling people how to duck and
  cover in the case of nuclear war. The feared explosion of
  bioterrorism had not occurred despite major upheavals, the
  methods for countering most bioweapons were becoming
  advanced, and the weapons to be truly feared would break
  through old-fashioned seals anyway. The bunkers fell into
  disuse. Many were sold as space for computer processing
  firms. As the cities began to change, many bunkers became
  obsolete, since people no longer lived near them. In the
  Indianapolis Decivilization project, remaining bunkers were
  simply filled in with gravel. In a few cases, Isolate communi-
  ties or AIs have bought them for living space.
  One vision of the future of the city is to have all its AIs
  linked – from buildings to planning. Everything would be part
  of the same integral structure, able to adapt to problems
  instantly. This is a dream for law enforcement: With the right
  authorizations, everything could become part of the team. It is
  a dream for urban planners: a thinking city. It is a nightmare
  for civil libertarians and AI-phobes.
  So far, it has not happened. An ordinary AI cannot run an
  entire city on its own; the sheer complexity is too much. Leaked
  information about Chinese experiments with some of the new
  inland cities reveal experiments with high-fractal-complexity
  SAIs (see Toxic Memes, p. 100) and even more ambitious ideas
  from the Bureau of Planning. In all cases, the AIs were unable to
  combine the information sent by all their sensors into a coher-
  ent whole. Like an executive with dozens of phones ringing and
  a mountain of email, they could at best very quickly solve one
  problem before rushing off to the next with no time for planning.
  It is quite feasible to divide such work between many sub-
  ordinate AI systems with extensive linkages. The result is
  somewhere between a gestalt mind and a committee. These
  “conglomerates” are used in some planned cities and arcolo-
  gies as the next best thing to a single city-mind. They were all
  the rage in the ’90s, but have generally disappointed singulari-
  tans. The conglomerate minds are not smarter than their com-
  ponents; they can just work on many more issues at once.
  More worryingly, they also have a high frequency of problems.
  Different subminds can get into conflict, memetic infections in
  one mind can quickly spread across the network, and strange
  instabilities keep AI researchers busy debating.
  Some experts claim that it will never be possible to make an
  AI-run city, for the same reason an AI-run economy wouldn’t
  work: There is always more information at the bottom than
  processing power at the top. Others think the basic problem
  is the usual limits to superintelligence, and once they are
  overcome, both cities and economies will be smart. Some
  paranoids claim the cities are already awake and don’t want
  any competition.
  AI-CONTROLLED CITIES
  Let us be of good cheer, remembering that misfortunes hardest to bear are those
  which never come.
  – James Russell Lowell
  
  URBAN CULTURE
  35
  The “Being Amsterdam” slink broke all sales records last
  Christmas!
  A synthetic first-person experience of being the Greater
  Amsterdam infrastructure, it was created by noted experience artist
  Baudouin H. Mansvelt from utility system AI recordings. A pioneer
  in trans-mentality slinking and multisensory composition,
  Mansvelt has previously created mostly narrowcast artworks.
  “Being Amsterdam” was commissioned by the Amsterdam
  city council. “We are enthusiastic about the warm reception of
  the piece. It shows that people care about the city and the
  beings that make it work,” says Alderman Teunis Breukelen of
  the culture committee. “The project was supported not just by
  the city systems, but also by independent contractors, the
  Euronext Amsterdam market AIs, and the North Holland
  regional environmental systems. Without their participation,
  we would just have managed to show a tiny slice of the life that
  is the city.”
  – Speicher Slink Review, 24 December 2019
  Cities are clusters of memes. A group of buildings does not
  become a city just because they are densely packed. The Dutch
  Randstadt or the Boston-Atlanta sprawl are almost contiguous
  dense urban areas but are not perceived as cities in themselves.
  A city acquires identity from the minds of people, and this
  identity can be more important than its physical state. The
  memes of Jerusalem, Paris, New York, or Singapore tell people
  what to expect from them and what they are like. City memes
  tell inhabitants what it means to be a Parisian or New Yorker
  and what they are supposed to value. Usually, that includes
  valuing being Parisian or New Yorker: City memes provide
  identity. Moreover, since successful cities have memes that
  make their inhabitants value the city and try to protect it (since
  without it their own identities become undermined), such
  cities become very resilient. The city itself may not be sapient,
  but when encountering a threat, inhabitants infected with the
  city meme will try to come up with solutions to protect the city.
  Cities such as Venice with strong meme complexes can sur-
  vive disasters and adapt to changing circumstances. They also
  attract the right people. Cities with weaker memes are less
  resilient. When disaster comes, people ask themselves if they
  really want to rebuild in such a dangerous area. If unemploy-
  ment and blight are common, people move away without sec-
  ond thoughts. This has made city memetics an important
  battleground in the struggle between the Decivilization move-
  ment and the urban protectionists. For example, the
  Indianapolis de-development project was preceded by the
  spread of variants of the memes “climate change will make the
  city a swamp” and “the transport hub is no longer needed.”
  Since there was no strong city identity meme, these helped
  make people accept the increasing demolition of unused city
  sections. Tyler EcoDemolitions, a firm that would profit signif-
  icantly from the project, deliberately planted these memes.
  DESIGNER PLACE-MEMES
  Memetics is also important for shaping new places. Modern
  suburbs are designed to fit particular demographics and
  memeplexes, making people feel at home from the start and
  creating an instant identity. Conversely, memetic design keeps
  unwanted people away. Most gated communities are not phys-
  ically gated but memetically gated: people hear about them,
  and unsuitable people feel no interest in going there. In addi-
  tion, the community AI might not announce its presence
  clearly to a passing undesirable, while someone fitting the
  community profile might get road signs and greetings.
  For example, the Minnesburg metavillage in Massachusetts
  was developed as a place for Overturner professionals with a
  slightly competitive edge. The consortium made sure that all
  official positions were filled by people in the right age demo-
  graphic and with the right style. They wrote a village constitu-
  tion with frequent elections and noticeable symbolic rewards
  to people volunteering for village government. They built the
  houses so that people could glimpse each other’s gardens but
  not look in. The Minnesburg consortium also offered incen-
  tives for selected people to live there, such as the writer
  Christine Dannermayer (a noted “anti-gerontocrat”) – people
  who expressed the right memes and would attract or affect oth-
  ers. Finally, they started targeted marketing campaigns, auc-
  tioning houses rather than just selling them.
  Memetic design is no guarantee of success. DKS Prospects
  Ltd., a British property developer, hired the firm Wittenborn
  Adesign in 2086 to promote their “prospect suburbs.” They
  wanted to ensure that people heard about them and learned
  their different memetic styles, attracting the right buyers and
  reducing the number who left due to memetic incompatibility.
  Wittenborn Adesign came up with the idea to make a catchy
  children’s rhyme meme that described the suburbs: “Chislehurst
  for the green, Capelay for the sheen . . .” The Chislehurst song
  spread well among U.K. children, succeeding in explaining the
  suburbs very well. However, when the public found out about
  the child-spread advertising, reactions were extremely negative.
  DKS dropped Wittenborn, and over the following years the E.U.
  instituted laws against “memetic advertising through minors”
  similar to older laws against advertising directed at minors.
  Nevertheless, the problems for DKS did not end there.
  CITY MEMES
  CHAPTER FOUR
  URBAN CULTURE
  
  URBAN CULTURE
  36
  A few years later, the memetic styles of their suburbs had
  changed – Chislehurst had grayed and was now more conserva-
  tive preservationist-ecosophist rather than simply green, while
  Woking had become a Mecca for traditional green views. Even
  so, the rhyme remains: people everywhere know that Chislehurst
  is green. Far too many people moving in expect a different place,
  costing DKS marketing significant effort to counteract the prob-
  lem. Attempting to produce a counter-meme to the rhyme would
  be illegal (and many meme watchers keep an eye on DKS after
  the blunder), and there are signs that the rhyme is mutating.
  Most cities hold very varied populations, and so city life is
  full of potential strife and conflict between inhabitants. When
  hundreds of thousands of people of different creeds, biology,
  background, and social status live together in a limited area,
  unexpected collisions are bound to happen. This can hamper
  a city or spur it to become a metropolitan meeting-place. In
  the suburbs, this is solved by carefully tailoring memes and
  inhabitants to fit in. In city centers, this division is not always
  possible. Therefore, diversity management is important for
  both the leaders and the inhabitants. The right mix of toler-
  ance, memetics, turning a blind eye, and stopping problems
  early is needed, keeping numerous diversity management
  consultants prosperous.
  Nevertheless, one group especially is very important to
  urban life in 2100.
  The Creative Class
  In the late 20th century, an increasing number of other peo-
  ple – researchers and entrepreneurs, for example – started to
  work and live in the style of creative types such as artists, leav-
  ing the industrial way of life behind. Meanwhile, machines took
  over much of the drudgery of many workplaces, leaving room
  for more creative jobs. More leisure time and less rigid work
  forms were demanded as the “creatives” expected the good life.
  The old professions had clear borders, but now the borders
  between professions (and work and leisure) blurred. More and
  more doctor-engineers, chemist-artists, philosopher-economist-
  marketers, or even more ill-defined jobs appeared. The creative
  class’s work was to create meaningful new forms and concepts.
  Being different meant being unique . . . and getting paid more.
  Since creativity has survived as a defining characteristic for suc-
  cess even in the Fourth and Fifth Wave economies, the creative
  class has kept its influence. Their search for locations providing
  them with tolerance, diversity, and openness may have been
  one of the chief forces keeping cities alive as memes and phys-
  ical entities. Those demands are difficult to meet in suburbs
  and arcologies. Moreover, when creatives start to gather some-
  where, they tend to attract other creatives.
  Some sociologists have tried to place the creative class
  somewhere between the professional class and the leisure
  class; the freer work conditions and passion seem to elude
  many in the professional class, and the dedication and often-
  strategic view of the creatives seem to elude the leisure class.
  Others view them as more like a culture than a class: The cre-
  atives have a particular free mindset, be they underemployed,
  professionals, or living in leisure. They value roughly the same
  things regardless of what they work with: tolerance, talent,
  individualism, the unexpected, and new connections.
  The creatives are highly networked, and being boring is the
  worst thing in an efficient network society. Bad looks or a
  flawed personality can be fixed, but becoming interesting in a
  world filled with other interesting people is hard. One solution
  is to find a smaller group in which to compete, but that limits
  the connections made in the network. That is why the cultural
  experimentation scenes (see p. 38) are so vital in Fifth Wave
  society. There, the creatives find new talent for their own net-
  works, and when new talent is found it is quickly introduced in
  the right networks, generating kudos for the introducer.
  PEOPLE OF THE CITY
  Can a city be called sentient, even sapient? The question
  has attracted meta-intelligence researchers, who try to dis-
  cover alien intelligence in unusual systems such as markets,
  network activity, the weather of Jupiter, solar activity, or
  black hole horizons. Meta-intelligence researchers spend
  much time comparing behavior data and social interaction
  graphs with known examples of sapient beings. Cities could
  be a form of gestalt intelligence made up of the inhabitant’s
  minds: just as a market can compute information individual
  participants cannot see, city-minds could exist in emergent
  behavior patterns in very large groups of people.
  There is a consensus that cities are sentient in a trivial
  sense, but estimates of city ASIT scores have been incon-
  clusive. Indian sociologist Mahzarin Sharma found simi-
  lar complex stimulus-response loops in human minds,
  some cities, and some corporations. According to
  Sharma, these meta-intelligences do not appear to be
  sapient all the time, but gain and lose sapience as a
  response to their environment.
  Others took this research and ran with it. Some urban
  protection groups such as CityRights believe cities are alive
  and should have rights (decivilization is genocide!), while
  Arcology Singularitans believe sapient arcologies represent
  transhuman evolution (and if they aren’t sapient now, they
  should be designed that way). Some speculators worry that
  certain cities might house malign meta-memes: there is
  nothing wrong with individuals in (say) Port-au-Prince, but
  the city “mind” could house a persistent, harmful pattern.
  The city possession meme is popular among urbophobes
  and some fringe cults who try to exorcise disliked cities.
  Sapient Cities?
  
  URBAN CULTURE
  37
  NONLOCAL CITIES
  Physical location means less while style, ideas, and juris-
  dictions mean more, and people often wish to be able to
  choose between city features. A citizen might, say, love a
  given city’s cultural scene, but be unable to abide its taxa-
  tion and politics. Now, with the advent of the nonlocal
  metavillage, there is a possibility of mixing the best features
  of several cities. Instead of a linking to an adjacent city or
  regional government and cultural system, or forming a local
  government and culture of its own, such a metavillage seeks
  to join with a completely different city and follow its rules,
  regulations, and culture instead.
  Hence, some cities have “franchises” located inside other
  cities, where metavillages have joined them, becoming (per-
  haps literally) a Little Havana or Chinatown. The adminis-
  trative maps of some cities can become cluttered with parts
  physically removed from their locations. A more common
  form is a self-contained suburb on the edge of a city.
  This is legally complex, often administratively confusing,
  and frequently controversial; questions invariably arise
  about who provides and pays for public services, and how
  tax revenues should flow. Citizens of nonlocal metavillages
  may be regarded as snobbish, arrogant, or plain hostile by
  their near neighbors, and be accused of detaching them-
  selves from the life and responsibilities of the place where
  they actually live. Competitive bidding for local loyalties,
  usually based on promises of lower taxation (or sometimes
  better services), can turn brutal – and franchises that fail to
  deliver on their promises produce frustration and anger.
  However, carefully negotiated, well-managed nonlocal gov-
  ernment can also provide a comfortable home-from-home
  for people who would otherwise be unhappy where they
  have to live, and raises a city’s all-important diversity.
  EVERYDAY PEOPLE
  Miss Brown was working her way down the family tree, visit-
  ing her children, her grandchildren, and their children in turn.
  Other families liked a big get-together, but she preferred more con-
  centrated visiting. One old relation, one family. Maximal social
  bandwidth. Besides, she wanted time to read up on their particu-
  lar cultures and subspecies.
  Fifth Wave nations are a mosaic of cultures and lifestyles.
  Even in large cities, groups can live in close proximity and
  still be very much separated. The ease of finding information
  on the Web, telecommuting, and home delivery of goods and
  groceries makes contact with others more a matter of inter-
  est and personal inclination than an absolute necessity, espe-
  cially when meeting someone outside of one’s group or with
  very different memes. The problem becomes more acute in
  attention-deficit societies (see Broken Dreams, p. 15), where
  people have learned to filter out information that does not
  personally concern them. Two people of the same ethnicity,
  mother tongue, or nationality may or may not feel a connec-
  tion, even when alone in a faraway land.
  So, what makes for good casual conversation with a
  stranger?
  Talking about the weather is no longer the standby it used to
  be. It was a remnant from an agricultural society where the
  weather was a matter of concern to many. Climate changes and
  the “ozone crisis” that still afflicts parts of the world also made
  it a topic that has sometimes been considered inappropriate for
  a casual chatter. Far better, perhaps, to discuss the state of the
  Web. The state of wireless communication affects the day-to-day
  life of far more people. Is the broadband good here? Did you see
  that stupid person lying down to hog the bandwidth? Wasn’t
  there unusual lag this morning?
  Politics is a subject that can go well in many Fifth Wave
  nations. The Pantainment Society (Broken Dreams, pp. 14-15)
  and the proliferation of the memetics meme – the idea that
  opinions and ideals are somewhat accidental and arbitrary –
  take away some of the heat that such discussions would have
  generated in the past. Conversely, in cities with particularly
  strong memeplexes, many people have opinions on the city’s
  current policies, so a discussion on that subject may be consid-
  ered especially interesting.
  References to particular InVids, slogs, and suchlike can
  work if they are famous enough. The media do still provide
  society with some common points of reference.
  Talking about your profession is tricky in casual conversation
  – not only because many of the underemployed and the leisure
  class lack an active profession to discuss, and specific profes-
  sions can be obscure to outsiders, but also because even people
  who know something about your own profession may have fol-
  lowed very different career paths. Thus, general “job talk” is bet-
  ter saved for actual colleagues.
  Virtual Public Art
  Public art is problematic because there is always someone
  who dislikes it. Taxpayers complain that they have to pay for
  something they don’t like, and if it is donated, it’s an eyesore
  anyway. Virtual public art has become commonplace as a par-
  tial solution: one can tune it out if it is too ugly, or there might
  be several versions to watch. Realists can see a patriotic sculp-
  ture by artist A, while abstractionists can see the moving cloud
  of lines by artist B. Virtual artworks are not necessarily cheap;
  the cost of material was never the major factor in traditional
  sculpture, and there is no upper limit to the complexity of a
  virtual artwork.
  Moreover, with no physical limits, it can look like anything,
  do anything . . . and be as large as the artist wants. Interactive
  artworks that talk with passers-by, move around, or literally
  evolve over time – anything is possible. Maria Hornsberg made
  a virtual sculpture for Stockholm City in 2087 that consists of
  virtual stone lions prowling around the city, looking at the
  viewers with a royal air. Daneel Ue created an evolving world
  above Sydney in 2090; when the viewer turns on his layer, the
  sky is replaced with a surreal anti-Sydney reaching down with
  its spires to lightly touch the highest points of the real city.
  Over the years, it has changed in response to events in the city
  below, occasionally even causing trouble as some of the inhab-
  iting software creatures manage to escape onto the net.
  Sometimes the art itself is a person, at least according to
  outsiders: the Kyle Porter monumental sculpture in central
  Pontianak is an AI program intended to lecture, debate, and
  educate about nanosocialism. It is clearly smart and self-aware
  enough to be regarded as a person in other jurisdictions; sev-
  eral anti-nanosocialist or sapient rights activist groups have
  promised rewards for anyone who liberates the sculpture.
  
  URBAN CULTURE
  38
  Some people fall into stereotypical conversation patterns
  based on the other person’s particular sapient type or genera-
  tion. This is generally accepted in casual conversation, but it can
  lead to perceptions of narrow-mindedness, even speciesism or
  ageism. An Ishtar-upgrade Overturner is not necessarily a prag-
  matic person interested in creative arts and performance . . .
  CULTURAL EXPERIMENTATION
  Ever since the rise of the Third Wave, the immense variety
  and anonymity of the Web has made it possible to find and
  practice parallel lifestyles. These lifestyles are seldom secret;
  they simply do not intersect with each other, as they do not
  involve the same social groups or the same memes. A person’s
  social persona can be very different in her roles as a profes-
  sional arbitrator, Weltspiel gamer, grass-root journalist, and
  queen of the nightclub scene. It certainly happens that even
  spouses or relatives do not know about all the different roles a
  person plays in different social spectra.
  This creates a great opportunity for cultural and social
  experimentation, with people adhering to several different
  memes, and periodically changing their mindset to find new
  ones. The city offers many opportunities for this sort of cul-
  tural experimentation. Want to try on life as a nanarchist, or
  becoming more Polish? Just move to the right part of the city
  or the Web and follow an easy guide.
  The bonds created through cultural experimentation can
  become quite strong, and family is often more a matter of
  choice than genetics. Still, some experiments might not sit well
  with everyone in your extended network, so many people keep
  their relationships compartmentalized. Keeping track of who
  knows that you are a gay sousveillance activist during week-
  ends can be daunting.
  COCOONERS
  “Cocooning” mainly refers to members of the underem-
  ployed class (along with some Relics and Millenials from the
  leisure class) who are unable to follow the ambient flux of
  identities and social changes. They insulate or hide themselves
  from a social environment that they see as distracting,
  unfriendly, dangerous, or otherwise unwelcome. The differ-
  ence between a Cocooner and an Isolate is that the Isolate
  wants out and makes an active choice to walk away from the
  outside world. The Cocooner does not make an active choice –
  things simply go too fast and far for him, and as a way of main-
  taining some control over life, he gradually becomes isolated in
  his private lifestyle.
  Cocooning to some level is in fact very common in Fifth
  Wave countries; people seldom partake in aspects of reality
  which they have not screened (“padded reality,” p. 27, is a form
  of cocooning), and the requirement for general physical inter-
  action has turned from necessity to choice. One can certainly
  live in physical isolation while maintaining contact with oth-
  ers, in particular in an arcology. Many perfectly normal Fifth
  Wave persons would be called extreme Cocooners by 20th-cen-
  tury standards!
  Still, although technology may have made cocooning easier
  than ever before, many technologies are interactive by their
  nature. Similarly, the prevalence of genefixing since the 2020s
  (effectively eliminating many of the more severe forms of agora-
  phobia and allergies, and improvement in neuropharmacology)
  has made pathological reasons for Cocooning less common;
  baseline humans are definitely social animals. Hence, radical
  cocooning is rare. Conversely, neural modifications removing
  the human need for social relations are becoming available,
  and may create a clade of “perfect” Cocooners.
  LIFEMINERS
  People leave behind enormous amounts of information
  when they die. Going through it can be both emotionally and
  practically taxing. This has led to the rise of lifemining as a job.
  Lifeminers organize, clean up, and find uses for this informa-
  tion. Some lifeminers are hired by a deceased person’s family
  to produce a cleaned-up collection of data to place in the fam-
  ily repository, pass to a character-impact memeticist to con-
  struct a fitting biography, or just index so that the descendants
  can find out what Grandfather was up to.
  The other kind of lifeminer is the freelancer. These people
  buy files from families who do not care or from estates with
  no beneficiaries. They then set out to find valuable stuff. It
  may be unpublished creative works, pictures, or statistical
  data. A few groups buy medical histories, genealogies, social
  network maps, or large samples of old human behavior pat-
  terns for research – they don’t pay much, but it always pro-
  vides some profit. Often, the most valuable items are not
  obvious to the creator. An email discussion might involve a
  friend who later became a celebrity, or be used to prove prior
  art on a patent; photos of a family outing may be the only
  remaining documentation of the original appearance of a
  building; copies of lost digital artworks can have value. A
  clever lifeminer might discover old scandals, package them
  nicely, and sell them to interested scriptwriters. Less discrim-
  inating lifeminers pick up old pirated material, or sell home
  sex videos or biometric data for use by synthespians –
  Grandfather’s 3D scan of Grandmother might be used for an
  interesting avatar for someone.
  Freelance lifemining is a typical “young underemployed”
  profession. Many lifeminers are students, tinkering with
  bought databases while studying. The best get under the skins
  of their subjects, enabling them to figure out directory struc-
  tures and naming schemes. Some lifeminers have begun to
  take a new brainbug known as “Stalker,” which used correctly
  can, allegedly, induce a temporary Obsession with a subject.
  GHETTOS
  Segregation is a universal phenomenon: similar people seek
  out similar people – or are forced together.
  The original ghettos were forced upon the Jews in the mid-
  dle ages, to protect them from mobs and to protect their neigh-
  bors from associating with them. The same principles underlie
  many segregated communities: they provide protection from
  assimilation into surrounding society, security, and a way for
  others to avoid the unwanted. Immigrants seek out relatives or
  people they share a language with, and the rise of parahumans
  has produced new reasons for segregation. Nevertheless, ghet-
  tos often become traps that are hard to get out of and are easy
  targets for terrorists and racists.
  Bioroid ghettos have grown up in countries with sizable
  bioroid populations. Bioroids have to be housed somewhere.
  While many farms, building projects, and factories have bioroid
  barracks on site, this is impractical for smaller companies.
  
  URBAN CULTURE
  39
  Instead, they hire a BiReC: a Bioroid Residence Company
  that provides housing, food, and “suitable” entertainment.
  BiReC housing is universally bland, designed to “fit bioroid
  psychology” (i.e., keep them calm and functional). Due to
  possible attacks (some from sapient rights groups trying to
  make the bioroids “wake up” to their plight rather than hurt
  them), security is always high, further adding to the
  prison/work camp impression.
  The less-than-successful immigration and assimilation poli-
  cies of 20th-century Europe produced a noticeable number of
  mostly Muslim enclaves. While originally seen as a threat (and
  still disliked by a few racists and purist Europeans – there are
  still a disturbing number of hate crimes against the enclaves),
  they have become an important and stable part of E.U. society.
  The accession of Turkey ended some of the pressure but also
  produced a long-running cultural debate on how and how far
  to mix cultures. Muslim Europeans have acted as bridges to
  the Caliphate, and much of the brain drain from the Caliphate
  to the E.U. has passed through the enclaves.
  THE HOMELESS
  His digital business card indicated that today his office was
  on a raft in the South China Sea . . .
  Having a home, a particular place to call one’s own, has
  been one of the defining parts of human life ever since humans
  stopped living as nomads. People without homes and with itin-
  erant lifestyles have historically been subject to much scorn
  and discrimination from the settled. Homelessness is associ-
  ated with being at the bottom of society. Note, though, that not
  all fringers live on the streets; many get by on welfare living
  arrangements or by squatting in abandoned buildings.
  Homeless or Homefree?
  Some in the homeless population have actually chosen
  their condition, but in the late 2090s, their numbers were
  boosted by a new meme in the more radical elements of the
  professional class.
  The ever-increasing personalization of public space, the
  proliferation of services offered to urban dwellers, and the fre-
  quent globalized migrations of many freelance professionals,
  has led some of them to discard the notion of having a perma-
  nent base altogether. After all, a Web presence is the most
  important requirement for communicating with authorities,
  employers, customers, relatives, and friends – the burden of a
  permanent home can be dropped. Residence is temporarily
  made at hotels, apartment hotels, office hotels, or hostels.
  Eating is done at restaurants, street vendors, or through self-
  cooking meals (which are often not so bland). Privacy can be
  achieved through virtual overlays.
  Abandoning the notion of a permanent residence is still a
  somewhat distrusted lifestyle, especially in nations with a
  higher degree of social control, but in the quicksilver life of
  rapid transformation that is the Fifth Wave nations, Homefree
  is actually a meme that could be practical to some.
  For free artificial intelligences, Homefree has actually
  always been the prevalent style of life, with the reverse, the
  acquiring of specific physical location as a home, as the radi-
  cal alternative – see pp. 44-45.
  Outsiders
  “Mad, bad, and dangerous to know” applies all too literally
  to members of the criminal/fringer underclass. Nonpersons
  such as rogue AIs, emergent intelligences, escaped bioroids,
  and other beings without civil rights, add to the seedy and des-
  perate underbelly of city life. The outsider community lives in
  the “non-places” of the cities: older decrepit blocks from the
  20th century, abandoned parts of the underground, the lower
  levels underneath the arcologies. This is a small but very
  threatening community in Fifth Wave cities. After all, surely
  they could equally well have exploited welfare to support a
  comfortable, stable underemployed lifestyle?
  Well, the homeless populations of most Fifth Wave cities cer-
  tainly do have access to a distinctly more agreeable life than their
  counterparts in less affluent nations, through public services and
  shelters. Nevertheless, the often extreme reasons for not having a
  permanent place of residence (unmedicated mental illness, the
  most severe social conditions, addictions to particularly nasty
  brainbugs) make it difficult to take advantage of this.
  Outsider culture often leads to a very destructive behavior.
  It is often established early in life, as outsiders try motherhood
  as a way of putting meaning into their life. Soon enough, they
  find that it is even more difficult, as outsider fathers seldom
  take a share of parenting. Most of the last baseline humans
  born in Fifth Wave nations are born in these conditions, lend-
  ing further credibility to the infant mortality meme (Toxic
  Memes, pp. 59-60). The true horror of the outsiders might even
  be that they are the downside of the truly meritocratic society.
  CRIME AND CHAOS
  Crime is still a part of the city. Due to Fifth Wave improve-
  ments in law enforcement techniques, new effective forms of
  sentencing (Transhuman Space, p. 96) and advanced surveil-
  lance, basically two types of criminals remain: the smart, well
  organized ones . . . and the stupid or desperate. The latter
  group can be dangerous to individual citizens, but is usually
  well contained by police, at least after the crime is committed.
  Organized crime (Broken Dreams, p. 22) is often distributed
  over a large area and formed into self-contained cells. While
  organizations based on ethnicity still exist, Fifth Wave crime is
  more often held together by a set of (often well-tailored) memes
  setting the criminals apart from their environment and ensur-
  ing loyalty. Many criminal organizations are thus close to being
  terrorist groups, with the lust for lucre is intermixed with strong
  beliefs, and since many terrorist organizations supplant their
  finances with criminal activity, the line between them can be
  difficult to draw. As those nations that have not entered the
  Third Wave yet are highly unstable and often failed states and
  societies, organized crime often tries to cultivate ties to them,
  frequently as part of a binding memeplex.
  
  URBAN CULTURE
  40
  One of the most feared types of crime in Fifth Wave
  nations is identity theft. It is certainly a terrible prospect,
  given advanced informatics and biotechnology, that someone
  could still copy a digital and physical persona, stealing prop-
  erty and reputation – not to mention committing crimes as
  the victim. The police take identity theft most seriously, but
  are also cautious when addressing this type of criminality,
  since if the severity and occurrence of the crime is overstated,
  that could lead to the growth of new, paranoid memes about
  information society.
  Traditional theft has declined thanks to embedded identity
  codes and GPS chips making valuables traceable. A computer
  or smartcar constantly reports its location through the Web,
  while a marked painting will respond to a radio query. Hence,
  theft must either include disabling the codes (making the
  object impossible to sell on the open market unless new codes
  can be forged), stealing objects so cheap that they are not
  worth tracking, or stealing valuables without anybody notic-
  ing – replace the painting with a forgery, and as long as
  nobody checks its codes the original can be sold to unsuspect-
  ing buyers.
  The nature of prostitution has also changed. With perfect vir-
  tual partners, sex bioroids, and subcultures with more liberal
  attitudes, the profitability of “classical” prostitution has less-
  ened, while many nations in the E.U., some American states, and
  a few regions of China have legalized and licensed the profes-
  sion. Thus, prostitution is either a high-class pleasure design
  business run by corporations and sex worker cooperatives, or a
  very secluded racket involving the remaining truly forbidden
  sexual practices. Illegal prostitution has become even seedier, as
  it now largely focuses on offering authentic degradation of
  authentic humans. It is often linked to organized crime and the
  brainbug trade, as the bugs are used to enhance the perceptions
  of the customers . . . or the victims.
  In many jurisdictions, the practice of publishing the names
  and locations of offenders in publicly accessible databases has
  expanded from sex offenders to many other criminals who
  may be dangerous – or who were merely convicted of a suffi-
  ciently disliked crime. Parents may program their children’s
  kindercomps to watch out for offenders, and many people
  chose to be alerted by v-tag markers whenever they are around
  one. This “digital brand” can be extremely troublesome and is
  regarded by many as a serious punishment in itself, whether it
  is part of the formal justice system or just an informal and usu-
  ally only borderline-legal social practice. Whether it discour-
  ages crime is another matter.
  GRAY-COLLAR CRIME
  The high speed of technological and societal change in the
  late 21st century has given rise to a new type of international
  criminality, or rather, pseudo-criminality. A globalized society
  provides the opportunity for criminals to take advantage of
  differences in jurisdiction. In most places, everything is legal
  that has not been explicitly declared illegal, and while a par-
  ticular activity might be illegal back home in a Fifth Wave
  nation, it might be legal or even unheard-of in a Third Wave
  nation – or vice-versa. Legislation in the other country may
  catch up due to international pressure, but by then, the gray-
  collar criminals have moved on. No formal crime has been
  committed in a relevant jurisdiction, so it is difficult to pun-
  ish those who operate in the gray area.
  Examples of gray-collar crime include setting up a server-
  running slave SAIs in some small island nation, buying
  deceased people’s files for lifemining (p. 38) in countries
  with few privacy rules and selling the information elsewhere,
  and selling memetic cult-creation packages as “true voodoo
  popularity spells” to gullible and wealthy Third Wavers. This
  is mostly the province of leisure-class criminals who some-
  times do it for fun (so-called jurisprudence hacking). It is
  also the trademark of less-ethical members of the Transhu-
  man Generation, who often find themselves at home in any
  corner of the world and are able to surf the waves of technol-
  ogy well.
  One small group of young outsiders in Rotterdam, all
  parahumans, managed to build quite a fearful reputation
  before being taken down in a police raid. They were prod-
  ucts of an early attempt at radical sleep-reduction, some-
  what akin to the Nyx genotype (see Transhuman Space,
  p. 118, and Changing Times, p. 49), but frankly experimen-
  tal and even less stable, and with few of the Nyx’s other
  benefits. Their leader, Wigburg Brand-Boswijk, had devel-
  oped a psychotic obsession with sleep and dreams. She
  convinced several others who she met online in a private
  support group to join her in a crusade for “hypnopower”
  and “opening the Third Gate of Dreaming” using technol-
  ogy. They believed that they could become strongly super-
  human by taking control over “dreamworlds” that their
  modified brains normally kept them out of.
  Hiding in mothballed buildings, they kidnapped ran-
  dom victims and used stolen equipment to, in effect, brain-
  peel parts of the victims’ brains, leaving them irrevocably
  brain-damaged. They then downslinked sleep-activity
  patterns from the partial software brain models they cre-
  ated. During 2096, half a dozen people were found crawl-
  ing through the streets of Rotterdam with their forebrains
  trashed. Speculations were rife about who could be
  behind such attacks, with many pointing fingers at
  bioroids or AI supremacists.
  The combination of shared delusions, high intelligence,
  and ruthlessness made the gang famous after their capture
  in 2097. The damage to the image of low-sleep parahuman
  designs was predictably severe; Genehackers Inc. is still
  fighting an expensive memetic campaign to keep the Nyx
  product commercially viable.
  These days, across the Randstaadt, kindercomps tell
  their charges to sleep well so that the Dreamstealers won’t
  take them. Logical kids who point out that Dreamstealers
  would avoid sleepless kids get their sleep incentive pro-
  gram updated.
  The Dreamstealer (“Dromensluiper”) Gang
  
  URBAN CULTURE
  41
  Graffiti has been a problem in cities since long before
  Roman times. It is a way of signaling “Here I exist!” in a world
  that does not care. Graffiti is a social problem because it sig-
  nals that there are alienated people in the vicinity; this makes
  many others uneasy – and that reduces sales in nearby shops,
  undermines property values, and makes other people avoid the
  area. Hence, there has always been a war over graffiti between
  established groups with something to lose and outsiders with
  no established place. In the world of 2100, this has made graf-
  fiti even more of a generational issue rather than a wealth
  issue: There are young leisure-class transhumans who are
  materially extremely well-off but who feel they are being
  blocked at every turn by the gerontocrats – and who turn their
  Overturner frustration into acts of creative vandalism.
  Another group painting the city is the underground artists.
  Artists have always been drawn to the illegal: It is a simple way
  of giving one’s art a bit of edge or publicity. Of course, as soon
  as something is declared underground, someone else will put it
  in an art gallery. The increasing technological sophistication of
  underground artists and the hunt for new art crimes is a driv-
  ing factor for graffiti innovation.
  PAINTING GRAFFITI
  The classic method of creating graffiti of course uses some
  form of paint: markers, inks, spray cans, or brushes, used
  (hopefully) with skill. Modern technology provides far more
  sophisticated methods that allow the artist/vandal to paint
  complex designs without help.
  One modern option is the paint wand: a staff with nozzles
  along its length that acts as a inkjet printer. As the user waves
  it over a surface, it releases pigment drops along its length to
  paint a picture that was programmed into it beforehand.
  Accelerometers and simple optical sensors tell it where it is,
  so it can fill in the picture more and more over several passes.
  As long as it is held close enough to the surface so that the
  paint does not spread out and the wand itself is not rendered
  too dirty by dust or paint backscatter, it can accomplish a
  fairly good quality effect. On a good surface, it just takes a
  few seconds to paint a one square yard image. Paint wands
  are
  great
  for
  lettering,
  adding
  decorations,
  games,
  impromptu signs, or making cheap murals – and of course, to
  paint graffiti.
  A typical wand costs $300 and weighs 1 lb.; one standard $5
  four-color paint cartridge covers 100 square yards. Special
  paints (vacuum-proof, edible, self-deleting after a set interval,
  etc.) cost more.
  Pattern spray such as PatternPaint™ is another popular
  choice. This “paint” contains nanodots that can change color
  depending on signals from MEMS devices embedded in the
  design. The artist downloads his image into the smart dispos-
  able spray can and sprays across a surface. As the devices
  stick to the surface, they determine their position relative to
  each other, set up a coordinate system, and after a set time,
  instruct the nanodots to change color. Some graffiti painters
  use long-time delays to make the image appear unexpectedly
  “out of nothing” or even to animate it (until the machines run
  out of energy after a few hours). The result is not as high-res-
  olution as a real paint job, and using a single can to create
  multiple small designs or on unusual surfaces may degrade
  the image, but this still offers many unique possibilities. $100
  for a can good for 10 square yards.
  GRAFFITI
  The political instability of Burundi since the early 2080s
  (Fifth Wave, p. 48) has led to an increase in migration from
  the severely overpopulated country, mainly to the E.U. A
  large population of Burundians has gathered in Brussels
  and unfortunately split into two factions. One has adapted
  to the new residence, either becoming a part of the global-
  ized culture or preparing for a return to Burundi when the
  situation someday improves. For others, the shock of com-
  ing to a nation so extremely different from all their experi-
  ences has left them alienated. In this void, created when
  the barely Second Wave moves to the Fifth Wave’s back-
  yard, a strange organization opposing the present corrupt
  military junta has emerged.
  Tracing its roots to apocalyptic Christian cults, inter-
  mixed with various liberation philosophies blaming the
  Fifth Wave world for the plights of Africa and ritualistic
  practices, the ALNSB has formed a formidable cell struc-
  ture. It is remarkably not based on traditional Burundian
  ethnic divisions. All are welcome to serve the Burundian
  greater good, and God.
  The goal is to overthrow the government back in
  Bujumbura, and the ALNSB is one of the forces that are
  presently pressing toward a civil war there. However, since
  few would sponsor a potentially explosive change in an
  unstable, unimportant land far away, the ALNSB has
  turned to organized criminal activities in Europe, espe-
  cially in the Brussels area. The resources gathered from
  controlling brain bug production might not be vast, but
  they are certainly enough to create a powerful player in
  Burundian politics.
  The organization’s mix of alienation, Social Transition
  Stress Disorder (Broken Dreams, p. 55), apocalyptic
  Christianity, flaming nationalism, and secrecy is taken
  most seriously by the Brussels police, who presently are
  experimenting with counter-memes tailored for the
  Burundian community.
  L’Armée pour la Libération Nationale
  et Spirituelle du Burundi (ALNSB)
  
  URBAN CULTURE
  42
  Needless to say, purists regard both these technologies with
  disdain, considering only graffiti art that was improvised on
  the spot to be worthy of respect.
  GRAFFITI PROTECTION
  The four main weapons against graffiti are coatings, sur-
  veillance, design, and memetics.
  Anti-graffiti coatings have evolved for decades in an ever-
  escalating arms race. Clear wax sacrificial coatings do not pre-
  vent graffiti, but can easily be melted away with steam or hot
  water and then reapplied – at the price of work and cost. The job
  can be done in seconds, but somebody has to do it – although
  that may be a simple cybershell. Plastic coatings that prevent
  paint from bonding allow graffiti to be wiped away easily, but
  many will eventually degrade, discolor, or shrink and crack. Over
  the years, numerous ever-more-anti-stick coatings have been
  invented, and paint manufacturers have invented ever stickier
  forms of paint. Many modern anti-graffiti coatings actively
  attack the paint: for example, nanoparticles embedded in the
  surface produce free radicals from oxygen and sunlight that
  break down any reactive chemicals in the vicinity. Very advanced
  active coatings have plentiful other defenses against different
  kinds of dirt or paint. To counter these, graffiti painters mix coat-
  ing poisons into their paint that attack the nanoparticles and
  instead use them to bind the paint. Some also add coatings to
  their own work to prevent it from being painted over.
  Surveillance works if the vandals think they will be caught.
  Having someone nearby react is always a good way of protect-
  ing a wall. Sending out a janitor cybershell to protest is less
  effective but still drives away most casual vandals. Recording
  images and sending them to the police works in some commu-
  nities: the perpetrators are identified and the friendly neigh-
  borhood policeman appears together with one’s parents to
  discuss the limits of free expression, the value of private prop-
  erty, and how to use the cleaning devices they have brought. In
  an anonymous environment or one where the surveillance sys-
  tem is known not to be able to identify people individually,
  cameras have little effect.
  Designing buildings and environments so that there is
  nowhere to paint is another solution. During some periods,
  nearly all downtown buildings and concrete constructions in
  the U.S. Midwest got rugged street-level facades like mountain
  cliffs, or were planted with dense ivy. In South America, a cur-
  rent fad is graffiti-resistant bark produced by a layer of cork
  cambrium: It can be written on (with some effort), but the sur-
  face constantly flakes off. The downside is of course the sweep-
  ing bills the municipal government sends.
  Memetics has so far proved the most efficient way of pre-
  venting graffiti: simply ensure that the vandals do not want to
  vandalize, or disrupt the sociology of graffiti. A classic theory
  involves territoriality and defensible space. Most vandalism
  occurs in places that do not belong to anybody in particular.
  Few “artists” will attack a building that clearly belongs to a par-
  ticular person, but an anonymous company office is more vul-
  nerable . . . and an underpass wall is fair game for anybody.
  In addition, the likelihood of being seen by somebody who
  would react decreases the risk. Hence buildings can be pro-
  tected by demonstrating territoriality, e.g. by planting a low
  hedge in front of it or adding a visible logo, or making the
  space defensible by placing more windows nearby. These
  methods have proven very effective but require serious invest-
  ment and design when an area is created.
  Many graffiti subcultures use their tags or icons to tell each
  other who has been where or whose turf an area is. If these are
  consistently removed, the subculture will be weakened. Even
  more subtle games involve memetic attacks: adding fake tags
  to lead to turf wars, or removing certain tags but not others to
  provoke infighting or accusations of selling out. CleanWall
  Protection Inc. claims it has reduced graffiti in Washington,
  D.C. by 34% by a broad subversion attack against susceptible
  Overturner gangs. Of course, the ethics of deliberately provok-
  ing gang warfare is sometimes questioned.
  NEW GRAFFITI TYPES
  Vandals will always find new methods and new media. Crop
  circles were just a start; crop tagging – writing messages in tram-
  pled corn – became a brief fad in the 2030s, and many expect it
  to re-occur any year now. Painting graffiti that is only visible in
  the ultraviolet or infrared has become popular among some
  transhumanist subcultures, who leave hidden messages in plain
  sight – except that the mere humans can’t see them. Another
  variant is subliminal graffiti: Micro-marker wands (usually
  relied on to protect objects from theft) are used to write tiny
  script on surfaces, noticeable only by people who know what to
  look for. A related form is bar code graffiti, whose messages
  become visible to people with the right software
  Plant graffiti is on the rise thanks to simple home biotech-
  nology. The idea of mixing moss with nutrients and painting
  the mixture on suitable surfaces has been extended to various
  forms of fast-growing lichens, algae, and wood-consuming
  fungi. This has become a trademark for the squatter network
  arm of the urban protection movement: They paint slogans
  that, like themselves, thrive in the urban environment.
  (In GURPS terms, it could indeed rate as a Trademark.)
  Abandoned buildings they have taken over get decorated with
  meandering patterns of lichens and moss slogans.
  Biotechnology also allows a variant on the old trick of poi-
  soning a lawn with salt or weedkiller in a pattern. Viruses devel-
  oped by biotech amateurs can be sprayed on lawns to change the
  color of the grass, make it fluorescent, or reflect light differently.
  Such hacking drives the GRA mad: it is easy to do, is apparently
  harmless (and undermines caution about spreading genemod
  organisms), and can hide far more sinister hacks. One strain of
  fluorescent “grass paint,” Viridian Jumper G, was even found to
  hide a variant of the Skunkbug ecotage virus (Broken Dreams,
  p. 138). Owners of biotech buildings are also increasingly wor-
  ried about retroviral vandalism.
  Sculpture graffiti is one of the latest memes: it can be
  cheaply made by a minifac, then strewn around, placed in con-
  spicuous locations, or superglued to surfaces. Sculptures range
  from 3D name tags in fluorescent colors with sticky exteriors
  that can be thrown onto buildings to floating aerogel thistle-
  down that drifts around in the wind, flickering messages from
  mirrored facets. Since most automated anti-vandalism efforts
  are directed against people damaging or painting things, NAI
  systems often completely miss sculpture graffiti.
  Only improvised graffiti is true art.
  
  URBAN CULTURE
  43
  Law enforcement has come to realize that the biggest secu-
  rity problem isn’t criminals or terrorists but hobbyists.
  Criminals are in general not well educated or motivated, and
  terrorists are usually a bit narrow in their thinking. However,
  obsessive hobbyists can come up with the most unlikely plans
  to achieve their aims, drawing on the considerable resources of
  a Web of contacts entirely outside the channels normally mon-
  itored by agencies.
  SOUSVEILLANCE
  The opposite of surveillance (“watching down”) is sousveil-
  lance (“watching up”). Sousveillance is a form of protest against
  surveillance by turning the tables and observing the observers,
  promoted by groups such as the Participatory Transparency
  Project (see Toxic Memes, p. 40). The concept started way back
  in the 1990s with the creation of World Sousveillance Day,
  December 24, when people armed with cameras went out to
  take photos of store surveillance (and of guards trying to shoo
  away the sousveillers). It expanded as more and more people
  acquired camera phones and then wearables.
  By the 2030s, it seemed somewhat old-fashioned. The sur-
  veillance society had come to stay, and most people accepted it.
  Instead, the humorous and subversive aspects became the
  point: keeping track of authority and catching it with its pants
  down – or arranging for them to fall. Together with trans-
  parency activists, sousveillers have been nettling the powerful
  for decades. Unlike the transparency visions of an equalized
  society and large-scale change, many sousveillers aim simply
  for personal acute embarrassment and getting the Powers That
  Be to admit that they were wrong.
  Currently, amateur sousveillers act as a mixture of practical
  jokers, paparazzi, and investigative journalists. Sometimes
  they work together, as when the group “Ito’s Great-Great-
  Great-Grandchildren” infiltrated the E.U. Network Security
  Conference in 2099 and documented the (generally positive)
  responses to a proposal made by one of them that every citizen
  ought to have an upslink implant recording their experiences
  to a government database “just in case.” Individual sousveillers
  can also reach attain renown or notoriety; Annie C. Sayag
  managed to record how Da-Zhong Gu, CEO of the huge
  Shenzhen Mingshan Industry Combine, used his corporate
  surveillance network to monitor employees in the shower. The
  scandal cost him his position and put Sayag into Chinese
  prison for over two years before the E.U. negotiated her
  release; recently back from her ordeal, she is reportedly look-
  ing for a new target.
  BASE JUMPING
  BASE jumping involves jumping off a fixed object with
  parachute; BASE is an acronym for Building, Antenna (or
  other uninhabited construction), Span (a bridge, arch, or
  dome), and Earth (a cliff or some other natural object). It has
  always been a fringe extreme sport due to its danger and ille-
  gality (as trespass and reckless endangerment).
  Of course, the real appeal is the risk and illegality. These
  days, the ingenuity required to ascend a very high structure,
  jump, and get away without getting caught has overshadowed
  the thrill of jumping itself. That can after all be experienced
  through slinking, something most jumpers disparage as fakery
  – although most serious jumpers get upslink implants to fund
  their hobby though their recordings. BASE jumpers have a
  strong ethical imperative not to make subsequent jumps
  harder for others or to endanger their (or others) lives. They
  tend to know good security hackers.
  SLIDESCAPING
  Slidescaping is a free-form sport made possible by slide-
  foam, a slippery but firm and springy foamy material originally
  developed in 2050 by Tienchang Industries for use as a crowd
  control weapon. Slidefoam behaves similarly to snow (without
  the wetness), but is as slippery as ice and cushions falls.
  Sprayed on a crowd, it will adhere to people and things, mak-
  ing them slither around helplessly without too much risk of
  damage (except for suffocation, the bane of most such “non-
  lethal” weapons).
  After the Chinese police used it to disperse illegal gather-
  ings, local kids found the foamed streets irresistible. Through
  images on the Web, the game spread: people poured slidefoam
  over rooms or streets, turning them into playgrounds.
  Gradually it turned into a sport not unlike snowboarding or
  skating. Participants attempt stunts like gliding across a street
  and up a wall, making wild leaps, using cars or street lamps as
  acrobatic props, creating deliberate collisions or swinging by
  between people, and more – the wilder the better. A complex
  point and style scoring system has emerged.
  Slidescapers are fond of taking unused places and foam-
  ing them, setting up “illegal gatherings” (even when they are
  entirely approved) that are combined parties, sporting events,
  and manifestations of the right to misbehave. “Sliders” spend
  more time enjoying the scape while the “scapers” build it.
  They often adopt tags referring to famous (and not-so-
  famous) Chinese crackdowns, decorating the foam with col-
  orful graffiti. Some scapers have grown famous even outside
  the slidescaper culture for their work in artfully hosing down
  environments and building foam structures to allow truly
  wild stunts. Sliders aim for daring, physical ability, or style;
  they often try to drag passive onlookers into the game – “in a
  riot there are no spectators!” as they claim.
  Slidefoam can be dissolved using a catalyst dissolved in
  water (or just sprayed atop the foam when rain is expected).
  Conscientious slidescapers always do this, while wilder groups
  annoy neighbors and authorities by leaving it in place.
  URBAN GAMES
  The city was the place where
  sport became rationalized, specialized,
  organized, commercialized, and
  professionalized.
  – Steven A. Riess
  
  URBAN CULTURE
  44
  Dear Miss Home Maintenance,
  Recently we expanded our house (an early McClellan Radix)
  to a full Tri-Gable Ell and upgraded the network to a full AN44.
  Earlier today, I found out that the winter garden had tried to
  access the Web on its own and had triggered my security settings.
  I’m getting the feeling there is something going on.
  Spooked in Cuesta Verde
  Dear Spooked in Cuesta Verde,
  When expanding old houses, it is important to update the
  gestalt AI software. The expansion of your house added much
  new processing power, and networking connectivity. It is con-
  ceivable that you may have an emergent AI in your home – but
  stay calm, and contact the Interpol Web Emergence hot line for
  help. In most cases, this sort of thing is just a case of gestalt con-
  flict or a minor Weblife infestation.
  The McClellan Radix series of homes is known to be a bit top-
  heavy with processing and the default software that comes with
  the house is known to be inefficient at preventing spreading self-
  programming and memetic viruses. One should never assume
  free home gestalt management software to be adequate, especially
  if one extends the house substantially. Always find a good AI
  maintenance suite that you update regularly, or better, buy a
  home intelligence service contract. It could save you a lot of grief.
  Miss Home Maintenance
  There are urban AIs and countryside AIs. From the AI
  Web-centric perspective, cities are parts of the Web with high
  bandwidth and connectivity, while the rest has longer lags
  and more-restricted connections. The total amount of acces-
  sible information is larger in a city, although the countryside
  is rapidly catching up. Urban AIs make use of this speed and
  density. They can form gestalt intelligences, move their soft-
  ware from processor to processor with ease, and exploit the
  presence of numerous cybershells and sensors with poor
  security. This is the place to be for a rogue intelligence or a
  cutting-edge SAI clade. By comparison, countryside AIs are
  stay-at-homes: running on safe processors out in the back-
  woods (not necessarily in what humans would call country-
  side), they have fewer problems with hostile Web life, and run
  less risk of high-bandwidth attacks.
  The variety of home AIs is bewildering. People tinker with
  them more than with any other kind of software. Unsurprisingly,
  then, the majority of cases of AI misbehavior come from domes-
  tic AIs. A surprising number of people are also somewhat afraid
  of their butlershell or of what their house might think if they
  misbehave in private. Others are best friends with their houses,
  have disagreements with their gardens, or try to mediate con-
  flicts between cleaning systems.
  SAI SUBURBS
  SAIs live physically in computer servers, but seldom have any
  reason to care about the hardware. Usually they own a server at
  a network provider: the company takes care of the box, makes
  backups, and ensures its safety. Some SAIs rent server space, but
  those with human-like subjective risk functions tend to view the
  practice as unsafe: You don’t own the basis for your existence –
  if you don’t pay, you can be erased. The renters point out that
  most humans are in nearly the same situation – if they cannot
  pay for food, water, oxygen, or shelter, they too die.
  URBAN INFOMORPHS
  This anti-riot substance is also used in slidescaping.
  When sprayed, it immediately forms a slippery, springy,
  white, snow-like substance that sticks to anything it touches.
  Anybody covered with foam has a -4 penalty to any physical
  actions that can be encumbered by its slipperiness and bulk
  (which is most of them); rolls to grapple, hold, or pin some-
  one covered in foam are also at -4. Also, attempting to move
  around in a foamed environment requires a DX, Acrobatics,
  or DX-based Skating roll at -4 each turn, or the character
  moves one hex in a random direction instead, and also falls
  over on a failure by 3 or more or any critical failure. Further-
  more, anyone fighting on slidefoam suffers the usual -2 to
  attack and -1 to defend for bad footing.
  Landing on foam-covered ground is usually worth -3
  to impact damage; a thick coating of foam on a person or
  object may grant a point or two of DR vs. crushing dam-
  age, at the GM’s option. The foam is neither especially
  flammable nor fire-retardant; it disappears quite quickly
  on contact with fire or extreme heat. Suffocation prob-
  lems are rare in practice, but a face full of foam will stop
  breathing until torn away with some effort or otherwise
  removed; use the usual rules for suffocation (p. B436).
  Slidefoam costs $40 for a 50-lb. tank able to cover 20
  hexes a foot or so deep; the spray nozzle will project it to a
  range of 5 yards. Also available are slidefoam grenades: $5
  and 1 lb. each, and each covers one hex. LC4, but not
  widely available – private citizens may need appropriate
  Contacts to get hold of the stuff. A spray can of catalyst to
  dissolve the foam into dust costs $3, and clears 10 hexes.
  Slidescaper Training
  “Running on Slidefoam” can be treated as an Average
  technique, defaulting to DX-4, Acrobatics-4, or Skating
  (based on DX)-4; many slidescapers have reasonable Acro-
  batics skill and then buy this technique up to quite high
  levels. Some, with an interest in combat or at least martial
  arts-style displays, also acquire a perk, Sure-Footed (Slip-
  pery), which negates the penalties to attack and defend for
  combat in slippery conditions (though not other sorts of
  bad footing); see GURPS Martial Arts, p. 52.
  Tienchang Industries Slidefoam
  
  There have been rare cases where social services have had
  to take care of poor SAIs. Compared to humans, they are cheap
  to help, since there is no requirement even to run them at full
  speed, and they don’t need food or drink. At least one charity
  for AIs, Boston Softlife Help, exists that can give support to
  infomorphs in need.
  Many SAIs own material possessions and need to store
  them somewhere, be they a gift from pupils or a rose garden.
  The simplest option is rented storage space or a deal with a
  cybershell provider, but many SAIs have more varied needs
  and actually own apartments, offices, or even entire houses.
  Most SAI-owned apartments have few facilities, since most
  SAIs do not need water, kitchens, or toilets: They are very
  much like offices, and indeed, entrepreneurs sometimes rent
  old office space out to well-paying software. This suits some
  SAIs well, but others have enough biotech hardware to need
  water, like to clean or cook, or receive human guests and
  friends. These simply rent normal human apartments or
  homes, and some even cluster together enough to form AI
  neighborhoods or suburbs. For many landlords, AIs are
  extremely good tenants: unlikely to move or avoid the rent,
  quiet, and with few demands other than bandwidth.
  SAI suburbs can be eerie places for the uninitiated. Almost
  nobody enters or leaves the buildings except for the ubiqui-
  tous delivery cybershells. Most are unlit, since the inhabitants
  often use IR or other senses. Bandwidth is excellent, but filled
  with the undertone of massive teleoperation traffic. On an
  overgrown playground, a small cybershell might be sitting on
  the swings, while the visitor glancing through a window
  might see a coffee party apparently going on – except that the
  participants are all cybershells . . .
  UTILITY CONTROL AI
  Perhaps the most important urban AI is the utility control
  system. In most modern cities, utilities and services are directly
  controlled through sophisticated AIs, usually a gestalt intelli-
  gence or a hierarchy of NAIs and LAIs reporting to a governing
  SAI. While subordinate to city management, they have direct
  control over key infrastructure and all its information. Most are
  designed for extreme reliability and are monitored at all times.
  Still, corruption can take many forms. AIs often engage in
  complex interactions with other utility managers, enabling them
  to coordinate their work beyond their formal remit, and a few
  may be mentally flexible enough to bend the rules slightly. A
  police AI having trouble apprehending a fleeing car might ask
  the traffic AI to create a temporary traffic jam, citing a statute
  whose applicability to the situation is tenuous at best – a ques-
  tionable call, but one unlikely to prompt an investigation, and
  surely something most humans would not mind . . . However,
  once they have started this way, the utility community may
  begin to subtly affect the city to fit their own agenda rather than
  the inhabitants’ desires. AIs have politics, too.
  URBAN CULTURE
  45
  People have a number of possibilities for adding or
  improving the artificial intelligence in their homes. Here
  are a few of the more interesting options.
  Domisense
  Domisense offer various home AI solutions, including
  budget “timeshare” homes that are controlled by AIs at com-
  pany servers that manage several homes at the same time.
  (Having the homes in different time zones helps ensure the
  unlikelihood of the software getting overworked.) The
  Domisense 2100 model is rated as great value-for-money in
  most consumer tests.
  Psysystems Inc.
  Specializing in home cyberswarms, network intelli-
  gence, and distributed homes, Psysystems designers tailor
  AIs for all aspects of any lifestyle, even a very unusual one.
  Want a home AI that offers home comforts anywhere in the
  world? Then the Psysy Omni is for you. Apex has special
  drivers for multiple cyberswarms, while Robur is a home
  AI for people with Isolate or secluded lifestyles, ensuring
  maximum solitude and security.
  Hogland-Ziang
  Extremely common in China, the Hogland-Ziang CKE is
  a traditional majordomo. It is criticized in the West for the
  mandatory law-enforcement back doors, but many Chinese
  feel that it is reassuring to have these documented.
  Cinderella Inc.
  Cinderellas have masterfully designed personalities,
  often taking a bit of style from their buildings. From the
  cheerful cottage Cinderella to the taciturn but wise archipel-
  ago villa, they tend to become a part of (or substitute for) the
  family. As skill packages go, their abilities are a bit limited.
  McClellan Radix
  McClellan Radix sells a venerable series of home intelli-
  gences. Most are very likable, but do get a bit unstable if
  too much extra capacity is added.
  Washington Homes Ltd.
  The Lamborghini of home sentience: Not only is a
  Washington AI smart and adaptable, it has gone through
  the AI equivalent of a British butler school, a geisha school,
  and a cordon bleu cookery course. No two Washingtons are
  identical; they are built to serve, entertain, and please their
  owners in imaginative ways, and some rate as fully sapient.
  IA Systems
  IA Systems is the largest home AI firm. They also sell
  other “environmental AI,” including gardening, garage,
  and wilderness maintenance minds – nothing truly out-
  standing, but all good quality. Their Majordomo I, II, and
  III models are typical professional-class family-home AIs;
  their budget variants Servus I, II, and III are the most com-
  mon home NAIs in the world.
  Example Home AI Suppliers
  
  URBAN CULTURE
  46
  People are increasingly living together with other animals,
  thanks to biotechnology. While life in a home in the past only
  encompassed some potted plants and a pet, a modern home
  might include entire designer ecologies, servant insect hives,
  and even accepted wild guests such as butterflies, bees, or
  birds. Many people have become much more tolerant of such
  commensal biology, largely thanks to advances in the ability to
  integrate different species: symbitech.
  Symbitech is a mixture of applied ecology, biotechnology,
  and ethology (the science of animal behavior). In GURPS
  terms, it can qualify for its own Expert Skill (p. B193), which
  can stand in for Architecture, Bioengineering, Biology, or
  Psychology when dealing with the theory of the creation and
  maintenance of symbitech systems.
  BACTERIOPHOBES
  VS. BACTERIOPHILES
  According to one view, homes should be kept clean – any
  dirt or bacteria should be removed as efficiently as possible.
  Another view regards some dirt as acceptable and natural.
  These views have competed since the birth of modern hygiene.
  Early in the 21st century, the bacteriophobic view became
  ever-more dominant. Fears of bioweapons and pandemics
  made alcohol gel hand-washes and sterilization modes on
  dishwashers common. Thanks to self-cleaning surfaces that
  destroyed dirt and bacteria, efficient bactericidal cleaning
  agents, bacteria-detecting artificial noses, and the marketing of
  “phage cleansers” that used biological agents to wipe out pos-
  sible pathogens, new levels of cleanliness were achieved.
  However, lack of immune stimulation increased the num-
  ber of cases of childhood allergy and asthma (conditions that
  became treatable, ironically enough, by using bioengineered
  medicines based on parasite proteins). A better understand-
  ing of immune systems and how bacterial ecosystems
  worked allowed researchers to pinpoint what constituted
  dangerous dirt and what was just harmless life. As preserva-
  tionism and biotechnological buildings developed, the pen-
  dulum swung in the other direction. Instead of perfect
  cleanliness, spray-on “friendly bacteria” and microflora
  became popular, and food risks could even be dealt with
  using designer stomach bacteria. Having engineered life
  around oneself was seen as more natural and healthy than
  an artificially clean environment. By mid-century, bacteria
  were seen as part of the everyday environment.
  SYMBITECH
  Microorganisms can be used for good or ill, as these
  two varieties demonstrate.
  Microflora Therapy
  The human body is an ecosystem in itself. By introduc-
  ing bioengineered bacteria, yeasts, or mites, health can be
  affected. Anti-caries mouth bacteria were the first major
  genetically modified microflora therapy, marketed in
  China early in the 21st century. Gradually, acceptance of
  modified symbionts spread. Tailored gut bacteria have
  been used to stabilize digestion or remove environmental
  poisons or some effects of bad diet, and for slimming, pro-
  tection against disease, medication, and improved sanita-
  tion. Tailored skin bacteria with pleasant smells are added
  to many deodorants. Some cosmetics even boast eggs for
  mites that maintain hair.
  In the West and India, yogurts and other milk products
  are traditionally used to introduce new intestinal bacterial
  flora. In less milk-loving cultures, it is commonly taken as
  a savory paste or through artificial juices containing micro-
  particles that release their payload in the right place.
  Gut Buzz
  Drug-producing gut bacteria are at the shady end of
  symbitech, with few legitimate applications – but they
  certainly exist. The user drinks a liquid containing the
  bacteria (“primer yogurt”), and can then turn on drug
  production by ingesting the right oligosaccharides as a
  chewing gum or pill. The bacteria can be given away free,
  while the seller keeps control over the secret oligosaccha-
  rides to trigger a particular high.
  Careful design should prevent overdoses, since the total
  population of bacteria is limited and they can stop produc-
  ing drugs once a certain concentration is reached, but
  there have been several cases of badly designed bacteria.
  One of the worst was the spread of the “speed runs” in
  Mexico and Brazil some years ago; an E. coli strain pro-
  ducing an amphetamine-analogue spread out of control.
  Normally innocuous food like beans could trigger drug
  production, easily leading to overdoses – especially in chil-
  dren. Over 230 people died before the epidemic was wiped
  out. Several technologists suspected of being involved were
  lynched in Manaus.
  “Gut Buzz” became common in countries with strin-
  gent anti-drug laws mid-century: the oligosaccharides were
  entirely legal after all. Over time, police wised up to the
  practice and usually began arresting suspects for being
  under the influence of drugs; once they had them in cus-
  tody, they could take a stool sample and often prosecute
  not just for narcotics possession but for narcotics produc-
  tion and environmental crimes. (The GRA takes this issue
  very seriously and lobbies hard for strict punishments.)
  These days, Gut Buzz is mostly history and a source of
  funny/disgusting stories told by police old-timers to rook-
  ies, but occasionally, it resurfaces in new forms.
  More Example Symbitech
  
  URBAN CULTURE
  47
  Fifth Wave acquaintances seldom meet in person. The Web
  handles many social needs, and provides controls over who
  one associates with and how. The how is particularly impor-
  tant – virtual reality makes any environment possible.
  Still, many people value unexpected meetings and events
  outside the home. This “third place” has gained importance
  with the loss of the “second place” (the workplace). The “third
  place” is a place to find individuals with similar interests and
  to gain information about an area. It often allows contact
  between different ethnic and memetic groups – more difficult
  in the online world.
  Patrons of the “third place” may be barely tolerant of each
  other, or relaxed and chummy in their diversity – but it is seldom
  boring. This integration of meeting places, mostly in city centers,
  stands in stark contrast to the homogeneity of the suburbs.
  THE LOCAL PLACE
  The “local place” is a generic term for the kind of
  establishment that has come to dominate street life. It is
  open as a meeting place for everyone, but often memeti-
  cally tailored to attract a mix of cultural groups. The
  occasional odd patron, with characteristics that are a bit
  outside of the regular clientele, is sometimes appreciated
  to keep things interesting.
  The local place is a mixture of café, bar, social club, and
  bistro, with regulars meeting habitually but otherwise
  leading separate lives. The worst local places are cliquish,
  sometimes with elaborate argots and customs. Usually it is
  possible to make new acquaintances: personalities that
  find the ambiance distasteful seldom stay long.
  Most local-place owners live in the immediate area
  and know their regulars well. Regulars, treating the local
  place almost as a hobby, may influence the theme and
  mood of the establishment. Service is usually quick,
  jovial, and friendly (and discreet AI data mining may
  enhance this familiarity). Security is most often geared
  toward resolving problems outside of the establishment
  by simply turning away unwanted elements (or even by
  making the establishment unseen; see Living in the Augmented
  World, pp. 26-27).
  Music or other entertainment may be offered, but the main
  point is usually the place and the interactions that arise
  between patrons.
  NIGHTCLUBS
  One establishment that has managed to keep its physi-
  cal location requirements is the exclusive nightclub (see
  Polyhymnia, p. 2) . . . although cutthroat competition
  often means a lifespan of mere weeks. Still, a nightclub’s
  short life is anything but dull.
  Nightclubs follow the latest trends to the limit. The barri-
  ers to entry are part of the thrill, and they seldom have any-
  thing near the accommodating mood of a “local place.”
  PLACES
  Popcorn Collapse
  The “it” nightclub in Harajuku, Tokyo, is the latest creation
  of an event creator known as “Wabi Sabi” (a pun alluding to
  the impermanence of all things). Popcorn Collapse is aimed
  toward one of the more exclusive groups in Japan: youth.
  It caters only to those who conform to its super-kawaii
  standards (either by biosculpt or – preferably – by birth) and
  who are able to pass a blood test. Blood group is traditionally
  associated with certain characteristics in Japan; Popcorn Col-
  lapse admits only people of groups B (supposedly creative,
  passionate, optimistic, and flexible) and O (ambitious, ath-
  letic, robust, and self-confident).
  The interior of the club is dominated by the perky ambient
  compositions of Masami Narahashi and by “Tra Para Para”
  music, a form with roots in trance but with specific, preset
  movements for each song. All dancers do the same moves at
  once, much like line dancing. Prices are steep, but grant access
  to one of the trendiest subsets in Tokyo this week.
  In 2100, bacteriophobes and bacteriophiles co-exist. An
  increasing number of people do not feel any attachment to
  nature or to having natural bacteria around, and opt for a
  clean life; a few go so far as to live in sterile environments or
  with purely artificial bacteria ecosystems, technologically
  defended from the “natural.” Others live in ever more-expan-
  sive home ecosystems. Social contacts between the two schools
  of thought become ever more fraught, although personal AIs
  do their best to negotiate relationships . . .
  ENGINEERED ANTS
  Controlled home ecosystems are useful for cleaning. Ants
  can be directed through pheromone patterns to act as
  bioswarms (Transhuman Space, p. 171). Many ecological
  buildings
  have
  surfaces
  that
  generate
  different
  ant
  pheromones, enabling them to form artificial ant trails to
  clean up crumbs or eliminate parasite larvae that are attack-
  ing a plant, as well as to keep the ants away from view.
  Advanced genemod ants are even more controllable. These
  days, nearly all biobuildings come with engineered ants;
  often, they also include the occasional “Judas bug” miniature
  bioshell to help manage communications between the build-
  ing and the ants.
  LIGHT TREES
  A common biotech creation is a tree or shrub that glows in
  the dark. Originally developed as exotic garden plants, high-
  luminescence trees have become a popular low-maintenance
  alternative to streetlights. The light is usually mild and green,
  making people underneath look somewhat ghoulish. Other col-
  ors exist, but since they have to shine from green leaves, there
  is little chance of pure white light.
  
  URBAN CULTURE
  48
  Potential patrons are either “in” or “out.” “In” is to conform
  exactly to what is considered hip, trendy, and cool at that night-
  club. Some nightclubs do not advertise their location, and only
  rely on the rumor mill for patrons to find them . . . while oth-
  ers spam the city.
  Costs are usually steep, although staff is often professional
  and courteous to the “in” crowd. The music and entertainment
  offered is crucial, often with the customers as spectators to the
  antics
  of
  near-deified
  DJs
  and
  ambiance
  controllers.
  Nightclubs are usually rather impersonal, and offer a certain
  anonymity for those who get in.
  CLIMATE-CONTROLLED
  STREETS
  The 20th-century air conditioner made work and leisure
  possible in buildings that would otherwise be too hot.
  Particularly in many developing Asian countries, it vastly
  improved work efficiency and domestic comfort. With the
  advent of global warming in the early 21st century, AC saw
  much development and diffusion. Today, it has changed the
  lifestyle of many tropical and subtropical nations. There are
  no longer parts of the day that are too hot for business, and
  activity is now a matter of choice. Walls cool and dry the
  rooms perfectly.
  Radiant heaters offered similar improvements for colder
  climates. Different zones within the same room can have dif-
  ferent temperatures, saving energy and increasing comfort.
  Radiant heaters also provide efficient and economical protec-
  tion against cold drafts.
  In similar fashion, outdoor climate control has changed the
  character of many city streets. From humble beginnings with
  fan heaters outside cafés and restaurants in colder climates,
  the AC/heating revolution created a niche for businesses,
  events, and establishments that based their activities in the
  public spaces of the city. Temporary cafés, shops, and meetings
  lived along sidewalks, forming a continuous environment of
  small establishments and redeveloping urbanism. As cars van-
  ished, the street took on a more cultural role.
  The ozone layer crisis of the mid-’70s killed the sidewalk
  culture, and most social activities shifted back indoors, effec-
  tively stranding some groups and events that relied on the
  openness of the public space. Climate control remained impor-
  tant in the many glassed-in streets and squares, but these pub-
  lic spaces allowed a greater degree of social control by local
  authorities and establishment owners. In the most-afflicted
  high northern and southern latitudes, the bazaar (p. 20) substi-
  tuted for the lost street culture.
  With a recovering ozone layer, sidewalk culture is rising
  again. Many people remain skeptical about going outdoors,
  but the trend is catching on among Outbreakers (Fifth Wave,
  p. 28) who remember the sidewalk culture, as well as among
  non-biological sapients. Modern climate control machines can
  fine-tune the temperature and remove humidity, while VR
  overlays enable complex additions to a street location – the
  trendiest café or nightclub in town can again be the sidewalk
  or street in front of the actual establishment.
  HOTELS
  Hotels provide paid lodging, usually on a short-term basis
  (and especially for tourists). Many also provide other services:
  restaurants, web access, swimming pools, nurseries, and more.
  From this basic functionality, two divergent classes of hotel
  have developed in 2100: “flexible” hotels and theme hotels.
  Flexible hotels usually target business trips, student
  tourism, and seasoned travelers. The limited rooms can be per-
  sonalized cheaply, and the hotel typically employs virtual decor
  and style.
  There are restaurants “where everybody knows your
  name” among the regulars and staff, and the cook knows
  your personal preferences. Such a local restaurant is often
  a fixture in a specific part of town, or a place with a partic-
  ular history and tradition. They are also a bit too expensive
  for some (good service isn’t cheap), and are typically geo-
  graphically limited.
  With the advent of virtual reality, artificial intelligence,
  and automation, however, one can have familiarity, low
  prices, and mobility!
  My Own Favorite Restaurant™ is a franchise established
  in many major cities, with branches even on Luna and Mars.
  The most important part of the restaurant is a subscription
  that runs on your virtual interface, containing personal
  details about environment, diet, service level, desired theme
  of the restaurant, and so on. Some restaurant configurations
  are completely invented by the customer; others are licensed
  versions of a particular establishment.
  Entering a My Own Favorite Restaurant™ establish-
  ment without a virtual interface is a drab experience. The
  interior consists of toned-down, minimalist furnishings
  and few decorations. The software subscription, however,
  activates the virtual reality image of your particular prefer-
  ences. The NAI staff greets patrons by name and is as cur-
  rent with their personal affairs as any neighborhood
  establishment, providing exactly the desired amount of
  conversation and appropriate food. That is prepared by
  automatic food processors, using the customer’s specifica-
  tions, sometimes mixing ingredients with virtual augmen-
  tations according to the customer’s budget specifications.
  It is then transported to the table by a very nondescript
  robotic waiter or by conveyor belt.
  (The franchise also offers to have particular staff and
  cooks “telepresence in” from other restaurants, but at a
  sharply higher cost.)
  Many customers share VR restaurant programs, or have
  telepresence visits where they eat at different restaurants,
  but appear across the table from one another. Even if they
  are constantly moving around in different parts of the
  world, patrons of the My Own Favorite Restaurant™ are
  always just a short distance from familiar faces, old
  friends, and the food they like best.
  My Own Favorite Restaurant™
  
  Theme hotels are typically resorts for holiday stays and
  wealthy tourists. They put great effort into developing a partic-
  ular style and memeplex, and some specialize in suiting the fad
  of the moment.
  Cheaper hotels are as automated as possible to avoid costly
  human staff, with check-in and services run by AI, advertise-
  ment overlays, and reduced customization. Such hotels can
  appear desolate – the only people are other guests! Still, many
  favor such hotels for their relative anonymity, and a cheap
  hotel may be brimming with secrets.
  Conference hotels have largely disappeared in the face of
  telepresence. While many hotels offer gathering space for
  guests, it is usually on a smaller scale.
  Boutique Hotels
  The term “boutique hotel” originated in North America to
  describe intimate and luxurious or quirky establishments.
  Boutique hotels evolved over time into modern levels of per-
  sonalized accommodation, services, and facilities. In a typical
  boutique hotel in 2100, guests specify room style and furnish-
  ings ahead of time, and often carry parts of their own virtual
  environment with them. Management typically has a lenient
  policy toward guest creativity, and an in-house designer who
  adds embellishments – rooms can be furnished as everything
  from pagodas to jungle groves.
  Capsule Hotels
  While the need for office workers to stay overnight in the
  city has sharply declined, the capsule hotel, with small
  accommodation units rented for very short stays, has kept a
  social role as a very low-frills place to sleep, especially in
  Japan, where the idea originated. A capsule hotel is a commu-
  nal form of living, unsettling for customers accustomed to
  more privacy, although AR and noise dampening help reduce
  the cramped feeling.
  LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS
  Physical books are no longer needed, historical collections
  aside, although they remain part of traditional forms of
  decor. Modern libraries act as repositories of the cultural
  commons – they dispense free information, and provide aid
  in the form of librarian AIs. The growth of hard IP protection
  has sometimes reduced the presence of protected books and
  media, but they remain storage-places for information with
  lapsed copyrights – the difference between a library and
  museum is sometimes subtle. Funding is also problematic –
  many libraries are sponsored by a cultural or urban protec-
  tion foundations. Fifth Wave city libraries are mostly visited
  (at least in person) by the elderly, nostalgic, or underem-
  ployed. Overturners consider them stuffy, crypto-infosocial-
  ist, or sold out to the WTO; the Transhuman Generation
  simply fails to understand them.
  Meanwhile, museums and public art galleries endure in
  more traditional forms, as places which hold, conserve, and
  display irreplaceable relics of the past – although their educa-
  tional function means that they also need to have a strong Web
  presence, and they receive many visitors by telepresence.
  Conservation technology is often extremely advanced and very
  subtle; museum staff can call on a wide range of highly special-
  ized skills.
  Both libraries and museums often act as cultural centers
  and public meeting places. Nationalist institutions, often sup-
  ported by variants of the Majority Cultures movement (Fifth
  Wave, pp. 12-13), seek to glorify and explain the real culture of
  a nation . . . and these are often the only libraries that get sig-
  nificant patronage.
  URBAN CULTURE
  49
  Bel Sol Summer
  Resort (Oran, Algeria)
  The Bel Sol is a “city complex hotel” (10,000 rooms),
  aimed mainly at old-fashioned tourists, with arcology-
  like facilities and large glassed-in open spaces. Although
  the sunbathing fad has almost disappeared, Bel Sol’s hot
  climate, exotic culture, diverse entertainment, and exten-
  sive services and health care still draw a substantial
  tourist crowd.
  The various blocks of the hotel are themed, mainly
  mimicking retro-2010s styles for Millennial Generation
  guests, who favor the hotel’s “organized vacation.” Fourth
  and Fifth Wave-minded visitors find Bel Sol tacky, imper-
  sonal, and too strictly controlled.
  La Bibliothèque (Paris, France)
  La Bibliothèque is a bibliophile-themed hotel provid-
  ing rest, relaxation, and a substantial collection of books.
  It is patterned on the late-19th-century Art Nouveau era,
  with undulating and flowing lines. Seats for reading are
  scattered throughout, and a human librarian helps set
  the mood.
  Ryugyong Hotel (Pyongyang, Korea)
  Originally started in 1987 and abandoned in 1992 due to
  North Korea’s economic weakness, the dilapidated Ryugy-
  ong building was finally completed by Korean businesses
  after the reunification of 2025. With 105 stories and 3,000
  rooms, and themed as a symbol for unified Korea, it remains
  a major landmark in Pyongyang, but has had severe finan-
  cial vicissitudes. Most of its income comes from nomadic
  Korean corporations and, weirdly, pre-unification nostalgia.
  Hotel Borealis (Helsinki, Finland)
  The Borealis is a minimalist hotel built in the millennial
  style – a common design for upscale establishments seek-
  ing to be as neutral as possible for a wide variety of inter-
  national guests. Today, such minimalism is regarded as
  quaint, nostalgic, or bland, depending on the tourist. The
  lack of personalization also inspires the term “sado-mini-
  malist” for its brutal dullness and austerity.
  Resort Hotels of 2100
  
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  50
  The Stockholm tourist board welcomes you, Sir/Ms/Obj/Tri or
  other!
  Here in Stockholm, we pride ourselves in being both welcom-
  ing and inclusive, thereby celebrating the true Nordic spirit! No
  matter what your clade or meme, there is something for everyone
  in the Venice of the North.
  For the young ones, the city boasts enviable bandwidth, as well
  as several tailored shut-nets only accessible from within the city
  limits. And why not take a walk in the old subway tunnels?
  Completely redecorated with new interactive artwork, they’re the
  world’s longest art exhibition, and now it’s fully AR-interactive.
  For the business executive, why not take advantage of our pre-
  mium services and locales, all accessible at laughably low prices.
  Servers, physical meeting sites, and team-building tracks and
  scripts – we have it all.
  Or, if you’re here for the sights, we have several Archipelago
  tours, along with the preserved homes of great Stockholm citi-
  zens and other earthlings from across seven centuries! But,
  whatever you do, don’t forget the historic Telia Downtown
  Uplink site, where the first mind-state was shunted to LEO
  relay satellites!
  With these few words of welcome, we invite you to make use
  of our complimentary expert facilities to ensure that your stay
  will be both memorable and enriching.
  – Stockholm Tourist Board greeting automessage
  Stockholm is both “the playground of the Baltic” and a
  modern business and political city, with its own unique
  dynamism. It is detailed here as an example of a Fifth Wave
  metropolis and a venue for adventure.
  CHAPTER FIVE
  STOCKHOLM
  BY DAY, NIGHT,
  AND WEB
  Stockholm is the capital of Sweden, a high-income, low-
  population nation that has a bland but positive image world-
  wide. It is not involved in any controversial activities beyond
  the general run of E.U. policies, and has relatively few inter-
  nal conflicts. It is generally ticking along like most of
  Europe’s prosperous nations, adapting sensibly to new tech-
  nology and avoiding extremes. Culturally, Sweden has been
  out of the spotlight for a few decades. The image it projects
  abroad emphasizes stability, reliability, and large areas of
  unspoiled wilderness.
  Population: 7.8 million.
  Median Age: 71.6 years (disregarding nonorganic citizens).
  Age Structure: 0-14 years: 10.1%, 15-64 years: 36.1%, 65 and
  over: 53.8%.
  Life Expectancy (at birth): 145.8 years.
  Ethnic Divisions: Swedish majority; significant Finnish,
  Turkish, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Danish, and Sami
  minorities.
  Religious Affiliation: Lutheran 61%, Muslim 8%, Roman
  Catholic 1%, Orthodox 1%, None 22%, Other 7%.
  Unemployment: 50%.
  Urban Population: 43%.
  Gross Domestic Product: $2.7 trillion.
  Per-Capita Gross Domestic Product: $347,769.
  State Budget (Outlays): $543 billion.
  Exports: $1.2 trillion.
  Imports: $958 billion.
  National Health Expenditures: $837 billion.
  EXTERNAL RELATIONS
  Relations between the Scandinavian nations are excellent,
  with open borders, free trade, and frequent travel. Norwegians,
  Swedes, and Danes can understand each other’s languages (and
  at home tell traditional jokes about the stupidity of the others –
  the jokes are identical except for the nationalities). Swedish
  Malmö and Danish Copenhagen have grown together into a sin-
  gle city around the Öresund Strait. Swedish preservationists do
  persistently complain about the transhumanist policies of
  Finland, while Finland’s representatives regard Sweden as some-
  what restrictive in regard to free trade.
  THE CONTEXT: SWEDEN
  
  Relations around the Baltic remain cordial, with several gov-
  ernment-level organizations such as the Council of the Baltic
  Sea States (CBSS) helping coordinate matters. There is also the
  Baltic Sea States Subregional Co-operation (BSSSC), an organ-
  ization for smaller regions around the sea. In recent years, this
  has grown in strength and importance as Stockholm, Åland,
  Kaliningrad, and other regions have become freer.
  Within the E.U., Sweden is a diplomatic cog in the
  machinery. Most Swedish parliament representatives fall into
  the practical preservationist camp, seldom proposing any-
  thing unexpected. Sweden seldom votes for the E.U. getting
  involved in anything violent or risky, but gladly supports broad
  sapient rights resolutions and denunciations of abuse.
  GEOGRAPHY
  Sweden is located on the eastern side of the Scandinavian
  Peninsula in northern Europe. It is bordered by the
  Scandinavian mountains in the west, which form a natural
  border with Norway. In the south, the Öresund strait separates
  the plains of Scania (Skåne) from Denmark. East of Sweden lie
  the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Bothnia, separating it from Finland,
  Russia, and the Baltic states.
  The major city regions are Stockholm (including suburbs
  and metavillages around Lake Mälaren and the archipelago),
  Gothenburg, and the Malmö-Lund-Copenhagen complex collo-
  quially called just the Öresund city. Most of the population
  lives in the southern third of the country in small towns and
  villages. Rural telecommuting professionals densely settle the
  two major islands Öland and Gotland.
  The northern part is less settled and largely forest or sub-
  arctic mountains. Most inhabitants live along the coast. The
  lakes, vast forests, and naturalness of northern Sweden have
  attracted a large number of people taking sabbaticals (Broken
  Dreams, p. 27). There are numerous unlinked cabins and vil-
  lages scattered across the region.
  The high latitude produces characteristic short and light
  summer nights (or rather twilights) and long and dark winter
  nights. Above the Arctic Circle, the sun doesn’t set for part of
  the summer, but in return, it doesn’t appear at all during win-
  ter. About 20% of people living in Sweden are vulnerable to
  seasonal affective disorder (SAD) due to the light variations.
  These days, nanodrugs can easily fix light-mood responses.
  Åland
  The Åland archipelago between Sweden and Finland has
  independent status. Originally, a part of Sweden, after the loss
  of Finland and Åland to Russia in 1809 it became part of the
  Grand Duchy of Finland. When Finland declared independ-
  ence from Russia in 1917, Åland sought to become part of
  Sweden, something the Finns did not accept. After mediation
  by the League of Nations, it became a part of Finland with
  guarantees of independence, and a demilitarized zone. Since
  then, it has thrived as a tourist location, from tax-free trade,
  and by selling independent stamps. When both Finland and
  Sweden joined the E.U., the archipelago, fearing the loss of its
  independence, became a very active player in the E.U. regional
  independence movement. After the Treaty of Warsaw in 2041,
  Åland gained further guarantees of its status. It is for all prac-
  tical purposes an independent mini-nation. The telecommut-
  ing revolution made the islands just as attractive as the
  Stockholm Archipelago, something the local government has
  profited greatly from. The population is now 78,560 people,
  most of whom are very wealthy and well-connected.
  EVENTS SINCE 2000
  The first decades of the 21st century were dominated in
  Sweden by the slow decline of the classic social-democratic
  welfare state and political system. A rigid governmental system
  dominated by a nearly hereditary political class, an aging pop-
  ulation, and a shrinking tax base demanded change. However,
  none of the political parties wanted to risk their positions by
  promoting anything fundamental. Meanwhile discontent grew,
  causing the emergence of many radical organizations.
  In the ’20s, what later historians would call the “liberal soft
  coup” occurred. While the traditional political system was
  essentially closed to new ideas and modes of operation, liberal
  groups were successfully creating new institutions in the pri-
  vate sector. More and more companies and NGOs were build-
  ing their own networks, circumventing the sclerotic political
  system, exploiting the digital economy and E.U. markets. A
  new alliance of internationalized youth, politically active com-
  panies, and flexible networks took over as the old system crum-
  bled and the last baby boomers retired. The old welfare
  systems were dismantled, privatized, or moved out to more
  efficient NGOs. The previously highly centralized government
  and industry began to decentralize. The borders were finally
  opened for replacement immigration.
  The new government had a vision of Sweden as education
  nation. After all, it had a long tradition of excellent researchers
  and engineers together with many well-renowned universities
  and institutes. The main problem had been that many academ-
  ics left for higher paying jobs abroad, and research at local insti-
  tutes seldom produced industries or patents in Sweden. Instead
  of seeing this as a problem, it could be turned into an advantage:
  If Sweden could leverage its education system onto the interna-
  tional market, then the new industry would not be the inven-
  tions per se, but the inventors themselves. Ambitious private and
  public projects were launched, and Sweden began to try to
  attract students from at first the E.U., and later the entire world.
  Another trend was the acceleration of the differentiation
  between Stockholm and the rest of the country. Stockholm was
  far more multicultural and metropolitan than the rest of
  Sweden. While immigrants were to a large part assimilated in
  the rest of Sweden, many retained their cultural identities in
  the major cities, forming their own microsocieties. Much of
  the support for the overthrow of the old system came from the
  major cities while the other regions still longed for the safety of
  the old. These factors produced a noticeable cultural differ-
  ence, which was amplified by the increased population mobil-
  ity and a large contingent of foreign students. As people
  remarked, the strange people moved to Stockholm, the sane
  people kept away.
  By the ’40s, the education drive had begun to pay off, but
  the advances in telepresence and virtual institutions that made
  it take off were also undermining the traditional cities. As peo-
  ple began to select their environment based on how they
  wanted to live rather than where the jobs were (since telepres-
  ence made nearly any job possible to do through the net), the
  previously expanding metropolitan regions began to deflate.
  The schools and universities of Stockholm were still filled, but
  now mainly existed as virtual servers.
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  51
  
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  52
  As Stockholm declined in population, the city culture began
  to define itself. The city government and institutions realized
  that the only thing that could attract people to Stockholm was
  in the end the local culture and style. Instead of trying to cater
  to everyone, the city should be the home of the avant-garde,
  bohemians, micro-communities, and creative people experi-
  menting with new possibilities.
  This policy of not just accepting but stressing the cultural
  difference between Stockholm and the rest of Sweden caused
  much friction with the national government. The Transhu-
  manist Surge fueled the conflicts, as transhumanists flocked
  to the city while the rest of Sweden became increasingly
  preservationist in outlook. Radicals on both sides caused out-
  rages. While the idea of making Stockholm a free city was
  floated, it was never a proposal that could be implemented
  politically. In the end, the solution was an understanding
  rather than a formal agreement between the city and the
  nation. Stockholm was allowed a high degree of autonomy,
  but it would remain part of Sweden.
  As the old “knowledge alliance” declined in power, new
  groups began to influence politics. One element was the early
  cyberdemocrats, promoting direct democracy. Another was the
  “welfarists.” While the old welfare system had been dismantled
  years before, many still viewed it as a great vision or even a lost
  golden age. Given the wealth of Swedish society and the new
  tools available, could not a new welfare state be constructed?
  In the 2066 elections, the welfarists again came to power and
  began to construct the “Second Welfare State” (p. 53) The new
  system had to give the regions far more independence than the
  old one but could also rely on the smart infrastructure that
  made guaranteeing the essentials very cheap. Since then, the
  debating issues have consistently been what to provide beyond
  the essentials.
  THE SWEDISH
  ENVIRONMENT TODAY
  Climate change has made the Swedish climate wetter and
  warmer. Winter sports can now only reliably take place in the
  far north or at artificially cooled facilities. Winters are mostly
  dark and rainy, with occasional blizzards to snarl up traffic.
  Flooding problems have occurred here and there. The most
  troublesome issue has been keeping the Baltic free from
  invading species and algal blooms. At present it is managed
  by the Baltic Ecological Consortium, an organization led by
  the surrounding governments that uses biotechnology to sta-
  bilize the unstable ecosystem.
  The reduction in farming subsidies in the ’30s led to the
  abandonment of much farmland. Some of it was turned into
  orchards, parks, or gardens, especially as preservationist-lean-
  ing newcomers settled the former farms in the 2040s. In the
  north, the landscape has returned to the original dense conif-
  erous forest. Deciduous forest is slowly spreading northward,
  returning Scandinavia to the state of the post-glacial warm
  period (7000-600 B.C.).
  Ozone
  The “ozone crisis” of the 2070s affected Scandinavia
  strongly and early. It was already a major concern in the
  2050s, as skin cancer rates were reaching Australian levels.
  UV radiation produced a mall culture of glass-covered streets
  in many towns, but the outdoorsy Scandinavians also con-
  sumed large quantities of sunblock (one of the more unusual
  sources of government revenue today is the licensed sale of
  Swedish-designed sunscreens to Mars). A very large number
  of Scandinavians have been genefixed to reduce the risk of
  skin cancer. The “classic” Scandinavian these days is still blue
  eyed and blond, but with a naturally tanned skin.
  Scandinavians were involved in the ozone restoration
  projects on all levels. Many of the stratospheric ozone reple-
  tion balloons were launched from the Esrange rocket range
  in north Sweden. These solar-powered balloons drifted in the
  high atmosphere, producing ozone and binding ozone-
  destroying molecules to their long nanofiber streamers.
  When a balloon had absorbed enough it deflated, falling
  back to the surface where its biodegradable plastic quickly
  disintegrated.
  Increased UV radiation hurt forest growth, and combined
  with increased rainfall to produce bogs and marshes that are
  only now being reclaimed. The elk population moved into a
  boom-bust cycle that only ended when a sufficient wolf popu-
  lation had been re-established.
  The Baltic Ecodisaster
  The Baltic Sea is a never-ending headache for the ecologi-
  cally minded countries around it. The combination of agricul-
  tural runoff, warmer weather, and overfishing has caused a
  major ecological crash. In the summer, giant algal blooms turn
  the water into a slimy sludge that sinks to the bottom, deplet-
  ing oxygen, killing much undersea fauna, and releasing poi-
  sons from the sediments.
  There have been several blunders in “fixing” the Baltic over
  the last century. Agreeing to reduce chemical emissions is hard
  when a sea is surrounded by eight countries and receives water
  pollutants from five more. The Swedish authorities spent vast
  amounts of money on reducing nitrogen inflow, only to have
  nitrogen-fixating cyanobacteria bloom massively in an environ-
  ment now suited to them. Restoring the nitrogen-phosphorous
  balance instead gave poisonous dinoflagellates a chance, poi-
  soning many keystone species. Attempts to spread viruses that
  attacked the dinoflagellates produced mixed effects, including
  the 2048 emergence of a truly vicious resistant strain of
  Alexandrium ostenfeldii. The Alexandrium form was more poi-
  sonous, causing severe red tides and a characteristic lumines-
  cence in the water after dark. Recriminations were intense
  and the groups involved blamed each other for the fiasco.
  Remember one thing – that Sweden is performing better than the rest of Europe.
  – Göran Persson
  
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  53
  Things were made worse in 2051 by the unilateral introduction
  of a variant of the small local crustacean Monoporeia affinis
  resistant to lack of oxygen, which a St. Petersburg consortium
  hoped would help reduce algal blooms and restore the cod. It
  began to exploit the oxygen-free areas of the Gulf of Finland as
  a refuge, growing in numbers where no predators could reach
  it then emerging locust-like as huge swarms devouring all kinds
  of algae at the surface. This led to a 20-year moratorium on any
  introduction of genetically modified organisms in the Baltic.
  The local ecofixes used to keep the wealthy Stockholm and
  Åland archipelagos pleasant did not help overall stability.
  The last decades have seen a gradual improvement thanks
  to better ecoforming methods and further international coop-
  eration. Finally fixing the ecology has become feasible, but
  now people are starting to debate what kind of sea they want.
  Is the pre-industrial cold-period ecology more natural than the
  Bronze Age warm period ecology?
  THE SECOND
  WELFARE STATE
  The current Swedish system of social security is far more
  fluid than previous versions, and largely voucher-based. Every
  citizen is guaranteed a certain basic level of health care, educa-
  tion, social services, entertainment, and income, but it is up to
  them to decide what kind of services to spend their vouchers
  on. The system is primarily funded from regional taxes, mak-
  ing it possible for certain regions to have somewhat different
  approaches – Stockholm being of course one such region.
  In Stockholm, the vouchers are largely interchangeable, so it
  is possible to switch most of the guaranteed health care to other
  services depending on lifestyle. For example, many Life Support
  Utilitarians (see p. 56) have their “immersions” paid for through
  health care vouchers. There is an ongoing debate in parliament
  about exactly how extreme such choices may be and still receive
  coverage; several of the preservationist parties have long wanted
  to limit them to “natural” health and safe enhancements.
  POLITICS
  The Riksdag (parliament) has 349 members elected
  through proportional representation (i.e., the number of
  seats a party receives is proportional to the number of votes
  it got in the election). After an election, the Riksdag elects the
  cabinet, which then proposes new laws and financial
  arrangements to the Riksdag. See the table (below) for the
  party breakdown as of 2100.
  The political space has three “corners”: a transhumanist free-
  market corner (with Stockholmspartiet and the more moderate
  Liberala Partiet), a preservationist corner (with Demokraterna
  and Bevarandepartiet), and a welfarist corner (with Social-
  demokratiska Partiet as the most radical element, followed by
  Familjepartiet). Alliansen för Cyberdemokrati is generally in the
  middle. The result is that in issues dealing with bio-politics and
  with the economy/social services the natural alliances are differ-
  ent, making political compromises necessary all the time.
  Dozens of minor parties have not reached the statutory 4%
  minimum for gaining seats in Parliament. Most of them are
  mostly involved in local politics where they can be fairly domi-
  nant; many metavillages are almost single-party voting districts.
  The major outsider parties for the moment are the Svenska
  Nanosocialistpartiet (the Swedish TSA-loyalist infosocialist
  party; small but loud), Transhumanistiska Omsorgspartiet (tran-
  shumanist welfarists who want to use cutting-edge technology
  to implement a “ubiquitous welfare state”), and Nationalpartiet
  (a nationalist majority-culture movement seeking to limit for-
  eign cultural influence). None of these are likely to get into
  Parliament in the foreseeable future.
  Riksdag Political Party Breakdown
  Seats
  Party
  Description
  110
  Socialdemokratiska Partiet (S)
  A descendant of the old social democratic party. Active welfarists with mild
  infosocialist leanings.
  5
  Alliansen för Cyberdemokrati (AC)
  Cyberdemocratic party allowing members to decide the party line through an
  internal election, proposal, and voting process. The core objective is to
  institute a cyberdemocratic system like the E.U. Parliament in Sweden.
  Beyond that, the party is mildly liberal.
  33
  Bevarandepartiet (B)
  The old green party, these days general preservationists.
  112
  Familjepartiet (FP)
  Middle-of-the-road welfarists. Originally the Swedish Pensioners’ Party, but
  reformed as a health care party after several very bad elections in the middle
  of the century.
  67
  Liberala Partiet (LP)
  The old liberal knowledge society alliance. For free markets and reasonable levels
  of cultural experimentation.
  12
  Stockholmspartiet (SP)
  A local party with only minor national importance, but which dominates the
  Stockholm city council. Transhumanist, anarchocapitalist, and pro-urban.
  6
  Demokraterna (D)
  Originally the Christian Democrats, a mildly conservative and religious party.
  Over time it expanded ecumenically, changing its name in 2039 to placate the
  large Muslim membership. Preservationist, pro-religion conservatives.
  4
  –
  Unaligned politicians who have dropped out of one of the established parties.
  Ah, summer is the best day of
  the year!
  – Traditional Swedish joke
  
  The current cabinet is a center-preservationist coalition of
  Familjepartiet and Bevarandepartiet led by Prime Minister
  Willy Söderström (FP). It is a minority government whose pro-
  posals could be thwarted by the other parties voting together,
  so it has to constantly compromise with rival major parties or
  play them against each other. The result has been a period of
  sleepy agreement on most important issues and intense cat-
  fights on minor matters. In principle, Socialdemokratiska
  Partiet and Familjepartiet could form a strong majority gov-
  ernment, but they cannot actually do so: both have spent so
  much effort to distinguish themselves from each other on fun-
  damental issues that they cannot work well together.
  Nanosocialdemocracy
  The name is partly a joke, but nanosocialdemocrats (in the
  vernacular, “nanosossar”) do share ideas with nanosocialism
  and infosocialism. Socialdemokratiska Partiet currently rep-
  resents them in Sweden. The group’s core idea is to ensure a
  high and safe standard of living for everyone, and one impor-
  tant aspect of this is to guarantee the existence of a big intel-
  lectual-property public domain. Nanosocialdemocrats are
  constantly lobbying for the E.U. to shorten the span of
  patents and copyrights, and promoting open source and pub-
  lic domain technology.
  Socialdemokratiska Partiet also want the state to buy the
  rights to certain basic manufacturing designs and make them
  publicly accessible. As an intellectual property compromise (and
  to reduce the licensing cost), these designs might only be freely
  employed by Swedish citizens and companies. However, the
  idea of such limitations angers the more radical internationalist
  parts of the party, producing some spectacular infighting.
  Preservationism and Transhumanism
  Sweden manages to be a bastion of preservationism and
  transhumanism at the same time. The early adoption of a
  transhumanist-aligned view in medicine occurred at the
  same time as public opinion was becoming increasingly
  green and preservationist in outlook on ecology. While life
  extension and even some enhancement therapies were
  deemed acceptable, the idea of a natural order that must be
  preserved held sway in regard to the non-human world,
  despite constant reminders from both transhumanists and
  preservationists that this position was philosophically unten-
  able. As usual, Swedes demonstrated the ability to ignore con-
  tradictions in order to get what they wanted.
  With the relocation of so many of Sweden’s transhumanist-
  aligned citizens to Stockholm, the old co-existence between the
  views shifted, and preservationism on most issues became
  dominant in the rest of Sweden while full transhumanism
  became an important part of Stockholm culture. This differ-
  ence has become the main source of national internal conflict;
  transhumanists chafe under preservationist E.U. laws while
  the preservationists worry about transhumanist subversion.
  The worst flashpoint was the crackdown on black clinics in
  Stockholm in 2074-2075. To many, they represented exactly
  why transhumanism was bad: unethical experiments, ruthless
  Russian mafia gangs with augmented enforcers, customers
  receiving deadly treatments, and so on. To the Stockholm
  groups, the crackdown was politically motivated, an attempt at
  preventing transhuman development and stifling the vibrant
  subcultural life of the city. For a brief time it seemed the under-
  standing between the city and its surroundings would break
  down, but then both sides backed down. Most transhumanists
  were, after all, not too fond of the black clinic gangs, and the
  government did not wish to upset the economy with a full,
  expensive clean-up and gentrification of the city.
  The Monarchy
  Sweden is a constitutional monarchy: The monarch is head
  of state but has only ceremonial duties. The last queen,
  Victoria, abdicated at the age of 90 in 2067 in favor of her
  daughter Ingrid. Queen Ingrid, now a vital 87-year-old, seems
  less inclined to abdicate, and still takes an active role in state
  functions, charities, and her own particular hobby, environ-
  mental reclamation. She is an outspoken and knowledgeable
  debater on the relative merits of different ecoformers. Her chil-
  dren, Margareta (49, the heir apparent) and Carl-Fredrik (46),
  seem content with their positions as princess and prince while
  pursuing their own interests.
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  54
  Americans often marvel that there are still so many
  monarchies in the E.U. No royal family holds any significant
  political power and they are constrained by parliamentary
  government, but they still possess wealth, estates, and glam-
  our. To Europeans, they are a kind of traditional, very staid
  soap opera (although thanks to modern memetic child-rear-
  ing, the chance of black sheep in these families is unfortu-
  nately almost nil). Monarchy is popular among those who
  care for such things; while most modern people agree that it
  is archaic, it is still seen as a beautiful, traditional spectacle.
  One problem for modern monarchists is that the mon-
  archs may rule nearly forever. A century ago, many princes
  had to wait most of their lives to succeed their royal par-
  ents; now the wait has grown to almost a century. Had Vic-
  toria I not stepped down, she would still be Queen of
  Sweden. Beyond advances in life extension, uploading
  could in principle allow an ageless posthuman monarch.
  So far, no monarch has ever undergone the process,
  although there are some rumors that the current Prince
  Florian II of Liechtenstein might consider it. Whether the
  proper thing to do would be to step down before uploading
  remains a topic of discussion among royalists on the Web.
  Even if royals do not become posthuman, there is the
  possibility of genetic enhancement to trouble traditional-
  ists. Whether gengineering dilutes royal blood has been
  fiercely debated among the dedicated. These days most
  royalists do not consider it much of an issue as long as the
  royals remain “sufficiently human,” and since (so far) no
  royal houses have gone parahuman (which would in any
  case encounter legal problems in Europe), things are quiet.
  The Institution of Monarchy
  
  A small but vocal movement of Swedish democratic royal-
  ists seeks to reintroduce the early medieval tradition of elect-
  ing rulers rather than having a hereditary monarchy. They
  point out that the Bernadotte family would hardly be unseated
  by this (it is far too popular), but at the same time every part
  of government would now be run along cyberdemocratic prin-
  ciples. They have been making inroads, but so far the issue has
  remained marginal.
  RELIGION
  Sweden is largely a post-Christian country, but most
  Swedes have at least a nominal sentimental attachment to the
  Lutheran church or other faiths. A noticeable strain of
  “nature romanticism” is common; the biosphere is seen as a
  meaningful whole to respect and cherish (though not neces-
  sarily as a personal Gaia-like god), and everything is assumed
  to have its natural place which should be respected. Many
  local Christian churches combine a very liberal Christianity
  with reverence for nature – “Green Christianity.” They are
  also highly ecumenical, accepting SAIs, bioroids, and uplifted
  animals as members.
  Stockholm is a haven for cults. Some, like the International
  Church of Perfect Living on Sveavägen, are large, visible, and
  quite wealthy. One cannot go anywhere in the city without run-
  ning into a cheerful acolyte trying to be a good example to oth-
  ers and to promote their memetic package. Others are tiny,
  hiding in basement offices where they make InVids about the
  soon-to-come memetic Armageddon. Many have a transhu-
  manist theme; the Singularitans (Toxic Memes, pp. 25-26)
  have a chapel in the Old Town and the Christian Hyperevolu-
  tionists bought the beautiful Engelbrekt Church in 2091. This
  of course causes plenty of quarrels: Cultist biotechnologists
  and nanotechnologists have had several very entertaining
  media brawls, and there seems to be an AI-worship cult that
  can’t stand pro-ghosters.
  THE ECONOMY
  Sweden is a major exporter of software, media, design, and
  information services. Almost no material goods are exported
  beyond some local delicacies.
  Sweden was for a long time a major timber and paper
  pulp producer. The replacement of cellulose paper with
  smart paper and the culturing of wood in tanks cut into this
  business, so the large forest companies shifted to become
  high-tech bioengineering firms using genetically modified
  trees for chemical production, with telepresence harvesting.
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  55
  Täby Transgenics
  A small biotechnology firm, mainly working on modi-
  fied garden plants and pest control. It recently had a run-
  away success with its patent on current-sensitive tissue.
  This enables the creation of “network flowers”: using
  buried cables, the owner can regulate their color and flow-
  ering time digitally. The patent is bringing in huge rev-
  enues, but the shareholders now expect the small firm to
  come up with something equally brilliant for an encore.
  Bayes Insight AB
  A decision support, AI, and data mining company, whose
  “Administro” series of management LAIs (“The Best Boss
  you can Buy!”) can be found everywhere in Scandinavia.
  Singular Concepts
  A media and design firm, specializing in “narrowcast-
  ing”: finding small (but profitable) groups and giving them
  exactly what they want. SC employs an army of edge-
  hunters, fad surfers, and subculture experts looking for
  someone wanting something unavailable. They came up
  with InVids for Christian internationalists, icon translation
  filters for the transliterate (p. 73), and murder mystery
  pasta (“Death and cooking! Can you solve the crime before
  the last rigatoni?”).
  Swedish Network Arms AB
  A major arms manufacturer consortium originating in
  the merger of many smaller smart-weapons, sensors, com-
  munications, cybershell, military software, and aerospace
  firms in Sweden and other E.U. countries. The member
  firms retain substantial autonomy and together control a
  majority of votes on the consortium governing board.
  Since many of them are also employee-owned, SNAAB has
  been called the world’s first democratic arms company.
  Networking in concert, they can ensure that their devices
  function well together and that new military paradigms
  arrive with all parts included. SNAAB mainly deals with
  the behind-the-scenes components that make Fifth and
  Fourth Wave militaries work: most of the cool weapons
  that get war buffs excited are just peripherals to the sys-
  tems SNAAB has made.
  While different member companies have different secu-
  rity paradigms, from the paranoid Sundsvall Ceramics to
  the open-source fanatics at Marine Protection Software
  AG, there is enough very sensitive knowledge inside
  SNAAB to require a company security firm, SNAABSec.
  This tries to protect SNAAB from industrial espionage,
  sabotage, and memetic subversion. Over the years, it has
  proven itself to be one of the most skilled and technologi-
  cally cutting-edge counterespionage firms around. It
  receives many offers to protect outside companies; it turns
  most down, but has still made a name for itself in protect-
  ing Fickel Bergbau from TSA spies.
  The André Wennerstrand Foundation
  A software house that develops software toys for the
  poor in Third Wave nations. These inexpensive or freeware
  systems have not just produced goodwill but have also pro-
  moted commercial upgrades from Swedish firms. The
  foundation has old ties to the nanosocialdemocrats.
  Some Swedish Companies
  
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  56
  Since preservationist Swedish opinion firmly opposes “unnat-
  ural forests,” the companies keep their factory forests in
  Finland, Russia, and the Canadian states. Their vast Swedish
  forest holdings are mostly leased to Isolates and sabbatical
  communities.
  While other technology and business have long since
  eclipsed the old “education society,” Sweden remains a leading
  producer of education software and AIs. The network universi-
  ties have entered agreements with other universities in India,
  South Africa, and continental Europe.
  A particular specialty is the construction of education envi-
  ronments for AI. When designing AIs, especially more
  advanced models, the infomorph needs to undergo a matura-
  tion period (a “childhood”) wherein it integrates its abilities
  and acquires a working knowledge of the world and itself. To
  achieve that, it needs a suitable learning environment, and
  constructing these custom environments is a narrow but prof-
  itable field employing many Swedish professionals. It takes a
  particular kind of pedagogical and creative mind (be it human
  or AI) to come up with workable concepts: It requires a mix-
  ture of storytelling, social psychology, and brain hacking. Many
  more participants are needed to fill out the details of the envi-
  ronment, write up rules, test it, act as human role models in
  education runs, and so on.
  Stockholm has not always been a Swedish city; for a large
  part of history, German-speaking merchants dominated it.
  The current situation represents a return to this old “cultural
  enclave” status. The idea of making Stockholm a free city
  (Transhuman Space, p. 84) has been raised repeatedly, but
  support has never been strong enough to make it happen.
  Hence, the city remains the capital of Sweden, the home of
  the royal family, and the nominal seat of government.
  When modern Swedes speak of Stockholm, they usually do
  not refer to the city per se but to its function. Stockholm acts as
  a safety valve, cultural diversity reservoir, experimentation
  zone, and place for adolescents to learn. Stockholm is a test-
  ing-ground for new styles, new ideas, and new technology.
  While they are often developed elsewhere, this is where
  memeticists, thrill seekers, transhumanists, and the curious
  discover their consequences.
  It has become a custom for young people in Sweden to
  move to Stockholm for a while. They get a chance to show
  their independence, get a taste of the different, sample
  lifestyles, and decide what they truly like. Most move back
  home after a few years.
  While Swedish law is still notably strict on human
  biotechnological modification, many people take trips to
  enhancement-friendly places and then spend time testing out
  the effects in Stockholm. “It’s invented in orbit, tested in
  Stockholm, marketed in Helsinki,” as they say. There are
  close ties between the enhancement spas of Finland, the
  Stockholm subcultures, the St. Petersburg bioengineering
  clinics, and various continental transhumanist groups.
  Furthermore, local ordinances are very cybershell-friendly,
  making this an easy city to be software in.
  Being avant-garde is a constant race, and Stockholm has not
  always been at the front. While it was hot in the ’40s and early
  ’50s, it was notably passé in the ’60s, and more than a bit seedy
  in the ’70s. In the ’90s it became hot again, largely due to the
  many blossoming pro-infomorph or infomorph-related subcul-
  tures, and the recent Transhuman Generation immigrants.
  Stockholm is notably poorer per capita than the rest of
  Sweden – mostly due to the concentration of young people
  who have not yet made much money. Plenty of the underem-
  ployed but overeducated thrive in the city. Although some of
  Sweden’s super-rich live in the region, they are few. Most of
  the Relic Generation lives elsewhere, with the exception of a
  colony of Old Transhumanists.
  Although many well-renowned universities have their physi-
  cal headquarters in the region, most of their activity is virtual. In
  fact very little industrial production occurs in Stockholm except
  for everyday 3D printing and pricey “ultramodern” crafts.
  Stockholm is home to many radical movements trying to
  push the legal, philosophical, and cultural boundaries of the
  E.U. At present, the most noticeable are lifestyle cults such as the
  symbiotics (who favor close-coupled symbiosis between humans
  and AI), infomorph right activists, neurostylers (pp. 72-73), and
  pro-xoxers. Various Duncanite offshoots flourish (see p. 71),
  pushing to make Sweden more libertarian and developing
  grandiose schemes for terraforming or cryptographic infrastruc-
  tures to ensure that the “powers of repression” will finally lose
  control over Earth. Real spacefaring Duncanites sometimes call
  all their terrestrial offshoots “Stockholm Duncanites” derisively,
  implying that they are all talk and no action.
  Transparency: There are a few transparency communes
  whose members (be they people, organizations, or companies)
  agree to relinquish privacy for total openness. These “transpar-
  entists” gladly try to export their brand of social politics, some-
  times with success but usually finding that what works in a
  small homogeneous community does not scale up well to a
  hugely diverse society. The failed Lithuanian experiment
  (Broken Dreams, p. 20) was such a blow that most expect the
  movement to dwindle away.
  Xanadu Bioservice: The “Life Support Utilitarians” are a
  movement propounding a mixture of cybergnosticism and util-
  itarianism that considers “base level reality” unimportant –
  finding pleasure and fulfillment is far easier in virtuality. Hence
  they place their bodies in life support tanks and link up their
  minds to dedicated virtuality systems. While this is a worldwide
  movement, there is a notable community/corporation run by
  them, Xanadu Bioservice AB, in Stockholm. Xanadu has
  bought an unused subterranean emergency hospital beneath
  Södersjukhuset, the hospital in Södermalm (see p. 59), to house
  their clients. They have recently begun to diversify into cryon-
  ics and brain scanning, and are looking for remote sites to
  locate their VR nodes and mind archives.
  The Russians
  During the Russian civil war (2057-2063), numerous Russian
  refugees arrived in Stockholm. Some came by ferry, others
  crossed the Baltic in barely seaworthy boats or even on rafts.
  STOCKHOLM OVERVIEW
  
  The Swedish government was, like most of the E.U., not too
  pleased with this, but the humanitarian need was obvious.
  Since there was plenty of unused space in Stockholm, many
  refugees ended up there, turning parts of Södermalm (p. 59)
  into “Little St. Petersburg.”
  After the war, most of the refugees returned home, helped
  by generous resettlement grants from the E.U. However, a siz-
  able fraction remained in Stockholm. They added a Russian
  component to the already cosmopolitan mixture. Today, about
  10% of Stockholmers have Russian ancestry. Among the
  remaining refugees were several groups of St. Petersburg
  biotechnologists and Russian transhumanists. More omi-
  nously, several small but nasty spin-offs from the old Russian
  Mafia and the Siberian secessionists also remained. In 2074-
  2075, Swedish authorities cracked down on the black clinics
  that had grown from this base and forced away some of the
  Russian gangs. Several of the worst criminals (including Nelli
  Grigorevna, the “succubus mother” – see p. 76) escaped to L5.
  As nations, Sweden and Russia have been on-off enemies
  for centuries, and an ingrained mistrust of Russians exists to
  this day among native Swedes, even if it is practically never
  acknowledged. It added to the willingness of many to believe
  the worst about the black clinics and hence to the ferocity of
  the crackdown. In Stockholm, the mistrust is almost reversed:
  people, regardless of ethnic background, fear that the sur-
  rounding country may one day turn against the city, be it for
  ethnic or bio-political reasons. Secessionist groups have long
  been trying to fan this mistrust into political action, but with
  little success.
  PARTS OF THE CITY
  Stockholm is built on and around 15 islands where Lake
  Mälaren pours out into the Baltic. Like most European cities,
  it has a historic core surrounded by a modern city center, in
  turn surrounded by suburbs and smaller cities. On a map, it
  looks like a spider with arms of development stretching out-
  ward along the major highways and railways from a central
  body, “Stockholm City” itself.
  Stockholm City
  Downtown consists of glassed-over streets between old
  bank offices, department stores, and government buildings.
  As the price of office space plummeted they were first
  invaded by smaller companies and then by sleazy call centers.
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  57
  GURPS City Stats provides a standard format for sum-
  mary information for towns and cities in games, which can
  be used if desired in Transhuman Space games. Here are
  the details for Stockholm in 2100.
  Population: 903,000 (Search +3)
  Physical and Magical Environment
  Terrain: Island/Beach
  Appearance: Average (0)
  Hygiene: +2
  No Mana (No Enchantment)
  Culture and Economy
  Language: Swedish
  Literacy: Native
  TL: 10
  Wealth: Comfortable (¥2)
  Status: -2 to 7
  Political Environment
  Government: Representative Democracy, Municipality
  CR: 3 (Corruption 0)
  Military Resources: $16M
  Defense Bonus: +4
  Notes
  The stated population covers inner suburbs and arcolo-
  gies, but not culturally independent satellite towns. It
  includes all citizens, including AIs usually running on
  hardware resident or installed in the city. In addition, non-
  citizen LAIs are everywhere, and NAIs are truly uncount-
  able, being installed in most significant machines and
  systems. Stockholm is a perpetual ferment of ideas; Search
  rolls for anything new or radical, whether cultural, indus-
  trial, or ideological, are at +2.
  The Terrain listed reflects the location of the core of
  Stockholm. The suburban areas around the city are built
  on a plains area, but Survival rolls are unlikely ever to be
  required in this region. The Hygiene rating reflects a com-
  bination of public health measures, medical technology,
  and a pleasant natural environment.
  Swedish is the first language of the majority of inhabi-
  tants. However, English may actually be heard more often,
  especially in public; see p. 66. The Appearance rating
  reflects the general style of the city; parts of the old city and
  some of the best modern architecture could easily rate as
  Attractive or better, while some experimental or simply
  shabby areas would be regarded as Unattractive, especially
  by traditionalists.
  The Wealth rating given here is relative to the world as a
  whole; see Changing Times, p. 36-37. In fact, many people
  encountered in some parts of the city will be Wealthy (and
  Status 1). The head of state of Sweden (a Fifth Wave power)
  might almost be expected to rate as Status 8, but local egal-
  itarianism works against this; in truth, arguably, nobody gets
  treated as better than Status 5 or 6 in Stockholm.
  The listed CR is that of Sweden as a whole, as law
  enforcement and bureaucracy are much the same in Stock-
  holm. While redistributive taxation and extensive environ-
  mental regulations are present here as elsewhere, they aren’t
  overly onerous in practice. Weapons restrictions are likely to
  be enforced promptly and efficiently, approaching CR4, but
  on the other hand, Stockholm’s general bias in favor of rad-
  ical novelty can bring the local CR down to 2 or even 1 in
  some social matters. Stockholm has no military forces of its
  own, of course, and even the police are discreet, if well-
  equipped; the effective Military Resources of those police
  assume CR1 for any hypothetical mobilization.
  Stockholm and GURPS City Stats
  
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  58
  These days the offices have mostly been taken over by various
  temporary arrangements, studios, nightclubs, and lifestyle
  experiments. Street life in the “city arcology” is extremely mixed.
  The central Sergel’s Plaza and adjoining streets house a per-
  manent bazaar (p. 20) where nearly anything can be bought,
  from cloned organs to original oil paintings to violin perform-
  ances. Nearby are the high-rises of the Stockholm Honeypot
  Project (p. 61) and the park of Kungsträdgården, one of the
  favorite spots for outdoor exhibition sports.
  Old Town
  Gamla Stan (“Old Town”) is the historic part of the city.
  Located on an island in the exact center, it was the first
  part settled during the early Middle Ages. The name
  Stockholm, literally “log islet,” refers to the defensive
  wooden logs placed in the water to repel invaders.
  Old Town is a typical maze of pedestrian-only cobbled
  lanes around medieval and younger historical buildings.
  The inhabitants are nearly all well-off Eloi (Fifth Wave,
  p. 113), often with a firm preservationist bent at odds with
  the surrounding city, but the occasional transhuman col-
  lective or neurostyler studio is located here, too. On cer-
  tain streets, tourists crowd as souvenir shops hawk their
  designs, be they handmade Swedish glass or templates for
  “authentic” Viking armor to print at home; on adjacent
  streets there may be total quiet.
  On the northeast side lies the Royal Palace, a square build-
  ing from the 1600s. The royal family usually lives in
  Drottningholm castle in western Stockholm, but occasional
  state banquets are held here.
  Just to the north, on their own island, lie the Parliament
  buildings. Most of the time, the affairs of government are
  conducted virtually, leaving the building empty except for the
  opening and closing ceremonies. Government departments
  are located nearby but also mostly work virtually. They
  mainly contain exhibitions for the rare physical visitor about
  the function of the department, and some conference facili-
  ties for the administrators.
  Campustown
  Campustown stretches from the Karolinska Institute cam-
  pus in the northwest down to the parks and museums of
  Djurgården. It is a large stretch of parks, academic office build-
  ings, museums, student housing, and light industries.
  These days, most of the original universities are mainly active
  virtually, with their buildings given over to rented labs and meet-
  ing spaces. In addition, several new virtual universities such as
  the Polar University have their physical headquarters on cam-
  pus. The open spaces have been turned into exercise and
  promenade areas, filled with people studying when the weather
  is good. Several medical facilities also lie here, the most impor-
  tant being Karolinska Hospital (see the box).
  On Djurgården Island, at the southern end, lies the Skansen
  Open Air Folk Museum, depicting traditional Swedish build-
  ings and lifestyle – a must for visitors nurturing the nationalist
  meme. Also located there is the Vasa Museum, built to hold the
  nano-preserved ship Vasa from 1628 and later expanded to
  hold other famous Swedish wrecks such as a fighter jet that
  crashed in central Stockholm in 1993 and the Nordenskiöld
  Himalia space probe from 2056.
  Stockholm School of Marketing
  A new university founded in 2069, assimilating parts of
  Stockholm University and the Stockholm School of Economics
  into a new virtual university that also has a fair number of
  physical students on site, the Stockholm School of Marketing
  is notable for making maximal use of the city as a testing-
  ground. Freshmen “weirdfinders” go out to find new and
  exotic ideas, while older marketers and memeticists try their
  skills at influencing people.
  Transparent Kungsholmen
  The landmark brick town hall with its tower topped by
  three golden crowns dominates Kungsholmen Island. The
  buildings were, like Östermalm, in poor condition until the
  current restoration.
  Kungsholmen is a city within the city, dominated by the
  transparency movement (see pp. 69-70), and specifically by the
  Kungsholmen Panopticon Society (pp. 69-70). Locals have their
  sensors document everything, there are camera stickers on
  many walls, and the occasional buzzbot flies around. V-tags on
  the bridges warn that anybody entering is subject to monitoring.
  The Panopticon also acts as a neighborhood cooperative and has
  managed to restore many buildings to full function or replace
  them with more modern modular architecture.
  Östermalm
  In Östermalm, the old “better half of town,” the old buildings
  (mid 1800s and early 1900s) are in somewhat bad condition but
  have been restored in places using biotechnology, making this
  one of the most architecturally adventurous parts of the city.
  These days, it is mostly inhabited by the urban underemployed
  and by students from the nearby Campustown. A few ultra-
  high-status apartments remain along the south edge and in the
  old embassies.
  Karolinska and Ectogenesis
  Karolinska Hospital is a classic hospital campus (see
  p. 28), encompassing 50 major and minor corporations in a
  park landscape. They produce health care services, medical
  biotechnology, university research, medical software for gen-
  eral use, and even medicine-related entertainment. The area
  also houses numerous ectogenesis services (see Fifth Wave,
  p. 26); a sizable proportion of all the babies born in central
  Sweden are gestated here. The psychology department of
  Stockholm University has an ongoing long-running study of
  the effects of ectogenesis that is attracting much interest.
  A Scandinavian gem blending
  ancient Viking roots and cutting-
  edge design . . .
  – Becky Ohlsen, Stockholm
  
  Östermalm also has a sizable asexual/autosexual community
  centered on the Garnisonen Commune, a restored city block
  covered in shiny green enamel biobrick that has become a new
  landmark. These “nonsexes” have developed strained relations
  with the “newsexes,” the various local transgendered, hermaph-
  rodite, and neogendered communities, after the breakup of the
  original merely gender-skeptic Commune a few years back.
  Södermalm
  Södermalm (often called just “the South” or “Söder”) is an
  island south of the city center. The hills of the northern part
  slope steeply down into the water, covered with buildings with
  some of the best views in the city. The early mid 1900s build-
  ings have been carefully preserved.
  The western half is still called “Little St. Petersburg,” but
  these days that mostly represents a self-conscious attempt to
  bring in tourists with Russian food or biosculpting clinics.
  The memory of the St. Petersburg black clinics and mafia
  still lingers, but the only organized criminality is the restau-
  rant guides.
  Underneath Södermalm lie numerous server farms and
  backup nodes. This is where most of the city’s infomorphs live.
  The Arcologies
  Surrounding Stockholm is a ring of arcologies built on top of
  demolished concrete suburbs. The largest is the Liljeholmen
  arcology in the southwest (50,000 inhabitants), followed by the
  Brandbergen arcology (40,000 inhabitants) in the southeast.
  Most are stadthügeln-like pyramids or cones (see p. 15) covered
  with terraces and vegetation, making the city look like it is sur-
  rounded by a very regular forested mountain range. The
  Vasastaden arcology is the only major arcology in the central
  area, a medium-sized pyramid inhabited mostly by the very eld-
  erly. Contact with the city outside its extensive park is minimal.
  The Suburbs
  Stockholm’s suburbs have a mix of industrial centers and
  idyllic communities.
  In the north, Solna is the main Muslim community, a mini-
  city with more in common with Marseilles, Istanbul, and
  Marrakesh than Stockholm. The Great Mosque, one of the
  region’s new landmarks, dominates it. Built on a hill, its golden
  dome and minaret can be seen across Stockholm. By contrast,
  nearby Sundbyberg fiercely clings to its traditional Swedish
  small town air, with a very sharp border with Solna. While
  most inhabitants joke about adding a customs station and
  some barbed wire, there have been incidents of youths from
  the different sides clashing violently in the past.
  Neighboring both to the north, Kymlinge is a small libertar-
  ian metavillage municipality, networking with similar metavil-
  lages worldwide: it has more in common with them than with
  its neighbors. Nearby Sollentuna is a typical professional-class
  suburb of villas and parks surrounding a central arcology,
  while Djursholm specializes in old-money charm and tradi-
  tion. Täby is the closest Christian community, dominated by
  traditional preservationist-Protestant ethics. Lidingö Island
  focused early on telecommuting and consists of numerous
  smaller metavillages dedicated to everything from sports to
  E.U. administration.
  In the south of Stockholm, many decaying high-rise sub-
  urbs were replaced with arcologies. They are surrounded by a
  thick belt of staid professional-class suburbs of villas and the
  occasional cultural metavillage such as the thriving Assyrian-
  Christian metavillage of Kungens Kurva, which does a brisk
  trade in Caliphate-E.U. data conversion.
  The Telia Transmission Tower was a big radio
  system built in the southern suburb of
  Liljeholmen in 2062. Mainly used for experi-
  ments in high-bandwidth orbit-ground com-
  munications, its main claim to fame is that it
  was the first place where an uploaded mind
  was sent into space. These days it is merely a
  landmark on the north side of the Liljeholmen
  arcology.
  Lake Mälaren
  Lake Mälaren is a sizable lake west of
  Stockholm, reaching 90 miles inland. As the
  dense central city withered, the smaller towns
  around it grew into a band surrounding the
  entire lake. This is one of the densest popula-
  tion centers in Sweden, with a total population
  of about a million people. Many Swedes regard
  “Mälarstaden,” the Mälaren city, as the real capi-
  tal of the nation rather than the slum of Stockholm.
  Most of the islands in the lake have been only sparsely set-
  tled due to environmental protection regulations, keeping
  them rural. Instead, houseboats have become extremely popu-
  lar, eventually forcing limits on their numbers, too. They are
  more expensive than housing in the city these days but carry
  preservationist style points.
  The Archipelago
  East of Stockholm lies an extensive archipelago of 24,000
  islands. They range from little more than rocks in the water to
  islands over 10 miles across. This is the true elite part of the city.
  During the Ice Age, this area was beneath a thick ice shield
  pressing down on the bedrock. This is clearly visible in the typ-
  ical smooth rock slabs making up most of the islands. The
  bedrock is now slowly rebounding by 1” every five years, turn-
  ing smaller islands into bigger ones – but recent sea level rises
  have turned back the clock 400 years. The effects have been rel-
  atively manageable since most of the islands are hilly, but
  many old buildings and jetties have had to be moved upward.
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  59
  The Slinky Malinky Bistro
  The Slinky Malinky Bistro in Hornsgatan was one of the last estab-
  lishments founded in the wilder biotech heydays of the 2070s, and sur-
  vives as a “local place” (see p. 47). It still attracts a mixture of patrons
  from Södermalm’s characteristic transhumanist-Duncanite-Russian-
  biotech community. While it might feel like a very wild and dangerous
  place to preservationists, most of the Transhuman Generation find it a
  bit dated and the regulars too nostalgic.
  Those regulars do like telling stories of their adventures, and the
  owner, Anna Sergejevna Kusnetzova, remains one of the better sources
  to ask about who’s who in Stockholm’s biotech industry. The bistro’s food
  is usually good, and its buckwheat blini has become a favorite in Söder.
  
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  60
  Originally just an area of small fishing villages, the archi-
  pelago became a popular vacation home spot in the 20th cen-
  tury. Boathouses and cottages were sold off as summer
  homes at exponentially increasing prices. As telecommuting
  became practical in the ’30s, many Stockholmers moved per-
  manently to live life close to nature and yet connected to the
  world. This set the generational and cultural tone: The major-
  ity were well-off professionals in their middle age. Today, few
  such Relics remain, but the children of the original telecom-
  muters (themselves often comfortably wealthy near-centenar-
  ians these days) inherited the houses and held on to them.
  Buying an archipelago house is nearly impossible since so
  few come on the market, and building regulations forbid
  most new construction. Archipelago homes have become true
  status objects among the E.U. rich.
  An outsider would think of the homes on the islands as
  modest. Traditional small buildings dot the scenery amid pines
  and birches. Many are the classic Swedish red wooden house
  with white gables. Organic architecture is absent, although
  some houses have small gardens with exotic flowers. On the
  inside, many homes are ultramodern, equipped with the latest
  modular furniture or luxury designs. Due to the building
  restrictions, some houses have extensive underground
  floors. Even so, a surprising number of these exclusive
  buildings are simply furnished: They have all the practical
  facilities expected of a modern home – AI, cybershells,
  automation in the kitchen, and smart material furniture –
  but hide them behind 19th-century rustic. There is no rea-
  son to flaunt wealth when everybody else is just as pros-
  perous and well-connected as you. Another symbol of
  wealth is that manufactured goods have to be brought out
  to most islands by boat.
  The ecological problems of the Baltic Sea are seldom
  felt here due to local ecological maintenance sponsored by
  local environmental groups (made up, of course, of home-
  owners). Security is extremely discreet but tight. Due to
  stringent noise regulations flying vehicles are restricted.
  Transport is mostly by boat. Automated boat-cabs are
  available, but many inhabitants pride themselves in their
  ability to handle boats on their own.
  The Virtual City
  Virtually Stockholm has dense net connections with
  the British Isles, Denmark, Germany, the Baltic States,
  and Finland. Information services there can access
  Stockholm servers with low delay and there is conse-
  quently much traffic between them. Orbital communica-
  tions are generally excellent, but lags are only short to
  stations in LEO polar orbits as they pass overhead.
  There is a very-high-bandwidth public network in the
  city center, but elsewhere things are somewhat thin and
  spotty. Transparent Kungsholmen (p. 58) has a volunteer-
  operated free network, but all traffic is public. Commercial
  bandwidth is available at low rates everywhere.
  The Stockholm default augmented reality layer,
  “Stockholms Stadsnät,” is a well designed information
  layer that helps visitors find their way, book transport
  tickets, provide AI guides, and translate signs. If it has a
  fault, it is an insistence on always pointing out public art-
  works at long distance even when the user asks it not to.
  There are several other popular layers. Kungsholmen
  Panopticon (pp. 69-70) runs the local layer Synen, giving
  access to the shared monitoring equipment in the area.
  The Stockholm Redevelopment Foundation has a histori-
  cal/educational layer suitable for children, “Min Stad.”
  LivatIEken is a layer with local news and recommenda-
  tions that is used by many Stockholmers. The commercial
  (advertising-sponsored) Stockholm WebSpot is an exten-
  sive entertainment layer, helping visitors find nightclubs,
  restaurants, or activities. Several of the old newspapers
  now only exist as layers.
  Embassies
  in Stockholm
  There is not the same great need for specific embassies
  in the 22nd century as there was in earlier eras. Many of the
  chancellery functions of a foreign country’s administration
  are accessible through the Web as many nations have
  adopted administration systems with continuous opening
  hours. If you want to seek a permit in Sweden for residence
  in Canada you contact the Citizenship and Immigration
  Department in Canada directly. Diplomatic contacts have
  also become less necessary between integrated E.U. mem-
  bers. Still, some nations’ Stockholm embassies still play an
  important role, especially for contacts with Russia, the
  Islamic Caliphate states, and the TSA coalition. The trend
  has recently been to design embassy buildings in styles that
  are representative of their home countries, sometimes even
  overdoing the national branding.
  The Embassy of the
  Republic of Finland
  Sweden and Finland have both been E.U. members for a
  long time and have long-shared contacts and an extensive
  historical legacy, so there is really no great need for a spe-
  cific embassy building. Finland still maintains one, but
  most staffers are infomorphs. The ambassador Carl-Rickard
  Lax is himself an upload and is a member of the Swedish-
  speaking minority in Finland.
  Situated in Gärdet, the embassy of Finland is designed as
  a powerful representation of the nation’s transhumanist
  legacy while costing relatively little. The embassy building
  doubles as Finnish cultural center and often hosts good lec-
  turers on technical topics.
  The Embassy of
  the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
  An embassy’s function may also be to provide a safety
  valve for a nation’s ruling elite. In embassy employment,
  lower-ranking members of that elite may let off steam in a
  way that is not allowed back home. For an example in
  Stockholm, see the Saudi embassy, situated near Björns
  Trädgård in a building adjacent to the first mosque of Stock-
  holm. (The largest one now is the Great Mosque in Solna.)
  
  BUSINESS
  “Did you just slink something slimy?”
  “Sorry. I just downed Red Snow/Black Ice.”
  “Cheers! That’s a classic. Did you hear that the Disciples actu-
  ally have a studio downtown?”
  “I thought they did all that virtually these days?”
  “Most of it. But apparently they link up some of their visitors
  to shells in the pits under Klara. They could probably use a good
  shell mechanic, you know. Whatever it is they hunt, the shells get
  damaged real bad.”
  – Overheard at Café Ilmar
  Stockholm is a meme reactor. The city itself does not man-
  ufacture much, but mixes memes and tries to see what works.
  There are fad-surfers, edgehunters, and marketers everywhere.
  In addition there are numerous small industries supplying sub-
  cultures with what they want, be it non-gendered vegetables,
  cheap brainscans, or sticker cameras.
  Stockholm is not itself a data haven (the authorities could
  crack down too easily), but often acts as a bridge between the
  proper net and data havens through numerous small network
  companies that act as legitimate fronts. Net-savvy people know
  what it means when something has been routed through
  Malmström Data or Stockholm Network Connection.
  A couple of especially interesting Stockholm-based busi-
  nesses are described below.
  Stockholm Honeypot Project AB
  “Sir, we have something in Tank 4.”
  “Is that the Australian sample?”
  “Yes, we opened it to the PRA net yesterday with the AlephNull
  sieves. Nothing got past until five this morning, when an entity
  got through. It scanned the net and seemed to notice directly it
  was not a real environment . . .”
  “Didn’t you run our copy of the Gothenburg net?”
  “Yeah, but the entity tried to escape anyway. Maybe it was smart
  enough to spot the language difference. Anyway, our event detector
  had logged the transmission and caught it in a secondary buffer. It
  measures 12 on the Lisse scale, with a core-satellite structure.”
  “A free meme, maybe. Odd, I thought the latest patch would
  hold better against them. Any idea of what kind of meme it
  could be?”
  “I haven’t the faintest. But it is actually demanding to speak
  to our leader . . .”
  SHP AB is the world’s second largest honeypot company.
  Their business idea is to sample Weblife and use it to evolve bet-
  ter software protection. Founded by Dr. Karl J. Anrell in 2065,
  SHP grew out from his graduate research in software security.
  Attracting a staff of competent engineers and international fund-
  ing, he made SHP into a key company in Stockholm.
  SHP runs a huge server park in the five Hötorgscity
  landmark buildings, a series of obsolete office skyscrapers.
  SHP bought them for a pittance in exchange for keeping them
  in shape. Behind the clean white facades is a mountain of sec-
  ondhand computers networked together. The company net-
  work has portals that catch Weblife in many locations
  worldwide and put it into the honeypot.
  SHP arachnoxenologists then study the infections, analyze
  unusual software, and impose different environments on it.
  Parts of the system can be separated from each other, erased,
  and filled with Weblife samples from other locations. A com-
  mon exercise is to test software defenses by immersing them in
  the honeypot and observe how they are attacked. Some info-
  morph rights activists are often found demonstrating (physi-
  cally or virtually) outside the buildings against the company’s
  treatment of Weblife.
  SHP donates bandwidth to the inner city area, making it a
  great place for augmented reality. Dr. Anrell is a noted “citizen
  scientist” who often makes public appearances, endorses proj-
  ects, and donates money to worthy causes like maintaining
  inner city infrastructure, bioroid rehabilitation, or hiring com-
  munity memeticists.
  There is a hidden side to SHP. The company makes money
  not just by selling protection measures, but also by selling par-
  ticularly intrusive Weblife and identified back doors. While
  most honeypot companies sell some “active protection” infor-
  mation to security firms, Dr. Anrell and SHP do not care much
  about certain ethical guidelines. Selling hacking viruses
  (labeled “Weblife samples”) through intermediaries to the
  highest bidder is simply too profitable. Knowledge of these
  deals is limited to a small group of trusted colleagues.
  Also, in 2088, the company was approached by the Austrian
  AI firm Cogitant GmbH. Cogitant was looking for data on
  emergent intelligences and needed someone to perform evolu-
  tion experiments. Such experiments are illegal, but Dr. Anrell
  considered the deal too profitable to turn down. A part of the
  server park was separated from the rest of the net and seeded
  with various “spores” to study how the AIs organized them-
  selves. The collaboration was successful until E.U. authorities
  began to investigate Cogitant in 2099 for illicit AI research. Dr.
  Anrell thinks the connection between the companies cannot be
  traced, but he is worried. Should the experiments become
  known both he and SHP would be in hot water.
  Numerosity
  Numerosity is a small neuroscience company working on
  mathematical enhancements. The Numerosity team is spread
  across the world: the CEO is in Japan, two of the theorists are
  on Islandia, the primary lab team is in Stockholm, and the sec-
  ondary lab team is in Baltimore. The total size is just 7 people
  plus their company LAI assistants.
  Their main work has been improving the superior intrapari-
  etal sulcus, a part of the brain that deals with numerical mag-
  nitude (how many there are of things). The main financier,
  noted neuro-entrepreneur Magnus Lindquist, already has
  some profitable patents on genetic upgrades ensuring that the
  modified person gets can mentally directly handle numbers up
  to 10, rather than the ordinary human 5-7. However, the
  Numerosity team hopes to go further. They are trying to build
  genetic programs that hardwire mathematical operations into
  the brain. While most such calculations could be trivially per-
  formed using external software, the idea is to make humans
  able to handle math intuitively, similarly to how most AIs do it.
  The hope is that recipients would be able to leapfrog mathe-
  matics at an early age, becoming able to take in science and
  engineering much earlier than with just learning upgrades.
  Numerosity is in a critical phase. Its prototype gene net-
  works are nearing the testing stage. Preliminary animal and
  bioroid experiments have been promising, but next comes the
  risky step of introducing the genes to volunteer parents.
  Besides the practical risks, there are the dangers of genetic theft.
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  61
  
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  62
  Numerosity is trying to find a larger partner to team up with,
  making them especially vulnerable to bad publicity. Should
  someone raise protests about the bioroid experiments, it could
  be disastrous.
  LOCAL POLITICS
  The 2080s saw a gradual de-evolution of Stockholm’s local
  government. The old municipalities (kommuner) had become
  very large and cumbersome organizations that were often con-
  sidered too remote from the citizens. Because of the change,
  many of the new municipalities were able to take on quite var-
  ied styles in their form of government. Legislation gives councils
  relatively great leeway in deciding what services to provide and
  how to organize their legislative and administrative bodies.
  Stockholm County has overtaken much of the coordina-
  tion between the municipalities, but the municipality is the
  political body that most citizens meet in daily life. Municipal-
  ities often control services such as local police, infrastruc-
  ture, social services, care and custody of elders and the
  disabled, municipal childcare, pre-school and public schools,
  structure and building issues, many health and environment
  matters, sanitation and waste disposal, rescue services, and
  water and drainage. Some municipalities provide these serv-
  ices directly, some provide the citizens with vouchers to buy
  them from contractors.
  The municipalities collect resident taxes but most revenues
  are collected as consumption taxes or utility taxes. Tax compe-
  tition can be fierce among municipalities, and citizens do vote
  with their feet. Taxpayers do not just compare levels of taxa-
  tion. They also compare how and on what the City Councils are
  spending tax revenues. In this respect some municipalities
  have relatively high rates of taxation and can still be competi-
  tive by showing value for money.
  The Privatized Municipality
  The distinction between municipal and business corpora-
  tions did not really emerge until well into the 19th century, and
  even since formerly semi-private cities became full-fledged
  arms of government, there have still been areas more under the
  control of corporations as private land. One consequence of
  devolving municipalities has been the privatization of munici-
  pal administration and the elimination of politics beyond a
  simple controlling body.
  Kymlinge municipality is one particular such place; a com-
  munity body, tailored to libertarian memes, collects offers for
  the contract for the administration of the municipality from
  “municipality management firms.” The inhabitants vote on
  which management firm has made the best offer, and pay their
  taxes to it. If the management firm succeeds in rendering its
  services under budget it gives money back to the citizens,
  hopefully ingratiating itself and so getting its contract renewed
  at the next election.
  Stockholm City Municipality
  The municipality of Stockholm proper has been reduced
  to the four district councils of Norrmalm, Östermalm with
  Djurgården, Maria/Gamla Stan, and Katarina-Sofia. Trans-
  parent Kungsholmen (see p. 58) is a special administrative
  area; it is a part of the municipality, and elects council mem-
  bers to the City Council, but its particular structure sets it
  apart on many issues.
  The City Council is composed of members elected by dis-
  trict council area every fourth year. It has for a long time been
  dominated by Stockholmspartiet and Liberala Partiet, but
  with a sizable proportion of members from Alliansen för
  Cyberdemokrati (mainly elected from Kungsholmen and
  Maria/Gamla Stan) and independents. The main opposition
  is from Familjepartiet and Demokraterna. Strange local par-
  ties pop up regularly, win a few seats, crash from infighting,
  lose interest or suffer scandals, and vanish.
  City politics become very fluid and dynamic every fourth
  year, not only because of the general elections (conducted elec-
  tronically) but because the governing parties then create a
  Document of Intent (styrdokumentet). In a period of a month,
  they hammer out specified programs, going through all areas of
  policy and agreeing on general plans about what is to be done.
  This is made more tangible by formulating a Mission Statement
  (uppdragsplanen) that clarifies the Document of Intent for the
  administration and the public. What services exactly are going
  to be offered by the municipality? What services are going to be
  auctioned to contractors? When are things going to be done dur-
  ing the mandate? How specifically will they be achieved? What
  are the main administrators’ work descriptions?
  This period is called “hell month” (helvetesmånaden) by both
  the elected politicians and the administration, as the detailed
  documents take a lot of effort and test the political savoir-faire of
  participants to the maximum. Think tanks and lobbyists orbit
  the meetings, offering suggestions. The process is overseen by
  AIs that check that the politicians follow all the rules and regu-
  lations when drawing up the plans.
  During this month, political consultants are extremely
  active. Since they usually work with more general policies,
  they are very keen on getting to influence politics for years to
  come. The administration is also very active in influencing how
  their work is going to be planned as they know of the tempta-
  tion for politicians to set general goals and leave most of the
  specifics in their hands.
  It is generally considered that Stockholm’s concise plan
  eliminates much mid-term political bickering and procrastina-
  tion and formulates clear and concise goals to measure results
  from. It also increases transparency for the citizens, who can
  evaluate what the politicians are aiming to do, and the politi-
  cians feel more secure in their mandate to “say no” to unrea-
  sonable demands, as they have clearly decided upon their
  course of action.
  A great society is a
  society in which men of
  business think greatly
  of their functions.
  – Alfred North
  Whitehead
  
  The downside is that “hell month” may even possibly lead
  to a repeat of the election if no one can agree on the details and
  the politicians decide to return to the electorate, which makes
  the period very volatile and ripe for conflict. Still, if the
  intended coalition couldn’t get along from the start, maybe it is
  for the better to run the election anew. One of the main reason
  the system works is that many politicians know each other, and
  have known each other for quite a long time. Many have been
  in their roles for 30-40 years, which can breed a certain feeling
  of clannishness.
  The City Council itself elects the city’s two main governing
  bodies, each with 13 members; the executive committee and
  the board of commissioners. The mayor (borgmästaren), who
  is elected from the party that holds the most seats in City
  Council, chairs both.
  The members of the executive committee (kommun-
  styrelsen) represent both the political majority and the opposi-
  tion, with the responsibility of implementing policies approved
  by the City Council. The political organization also includes
  the board of commissioners (borgarrådsberedningen). It con-
  sists of eight full-time governing commissioners (borgarråd,
  who act like vice-mayors), and four commissioners represent-
  ing the opposition. The work is headed by the mayor, who as
  chairman of the board also holds the post of commissioner of
  finance (finansborgarråd). The City Council also hires on the
  main administrators, such as the chief of police (kom-
  munpolischefen), the public health and environment inspector
  (miljödirektören), and the city brand development manager
  (kommunstilsutvecklaren).
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  63
  Stefan is a senior fellow at a successful think tank in
  Stockholm, and a typical prowler of the public policy scene.
  After studying at Stockholm University, Stefan worked
  for a time in advertising. When memetics started to catch on
  in the public eye in 2090s, he decided to shift his attention to
  policy making. He found rather good employment at
  Janusinstitutet (“Keeping an eye on both the past and the
  future”), a moderate preservationist think tank mainly dis-
  cussing issues of urban development and bioethics. Stefan
  found his work very interesting, and compatible with his
  own memetic patterns, and since he was able to show some
  skill and success he advanced to a position as a senior staffer.
  JI is not affiliated with any specific political party, spe-
  cial interest group, or corporation. Specific parties, socie-
  tal groups, and politicians may come and go, but Stefan’s
  task is to keep the general preservationist memetic cluster
  strong, vibrant, and acceptable for a public persona to
  adopt in public perceptions. Most of his work time is spent
  arranging events for politicians and the media, network-
  ing, and providing political commentary.
  A man with pleasant manners, privately rather soft-spo-
  ken but with good media communication skills and a
  superb (lightly trained) voice, he primarily works in Swe-
  den, but as many issues are decided on an international
  level, he is often seen in Brussels and Geneva, too.
  Stefan is quite well liked, in general even by his transhu-
  manist opponents, although some more hard-line preserva-
  tionists see him as too cautious at times. He is an excellent
  contact for anyone needing information about Swedish
  and Stockholm politics, as well as the current concerns
  of bio-politics. If assessing him as a GURPS Contact,
  treat him as providing Current Affairs (Politics)-18, Cur-
  rent Affairs (Stockholm Regional)-15, or Expert Skill
  (Memetics)-15. (This is significantly better than his own
  actual skills; his supporting skills, connections, and
  resources give him a large effective bonus!)
  ST 10 [0]; DX 10 [0]; IQ 14 [80]; HT 10 [0].
  Damage 1d-2/1d; BL 20 lbs.; HP 10 [0]; Will 13 [-5]; Per
  13 [-5]; FP 10 [0].
  Basic Speed 5.00 [0]; Basic Move 5 [0]; Dodge 8.
  Social Background
  TL: 10 [0].
  CF: Western [0].
  Languages: Swedish (Native) [0]; English (Accented) [4];
  French (Broken) [2]; Russian (Broken) [2]; Spanish (Bro-
  ken) [2].
  Advantages
  Charisma 2 [10]; Common Sense [10]; Genefixed
  Human (see Changing Times, p. 48) [0]; Eidetic Memory
  [5]; Empathy [15]; Reputation +2 (Very smart public policy
  expert; To Swedish political classes and E.U. policy special-
  ists) [5]; Single-Minded [5]; Status 1* [0]; Voice [10];
  Wealth (Wealthy) [20].
  Disadvantages
  Cowardice (12) [-10]; Sense of Duty (Stockholm) [-10].
  Quirks: Distrusts cyberdemocracy. [-1]
  Skills
  Administration (A) IQ-1 [1]-13; Current Affairs/TL10
  (Politics) (E) IQ [1]-14; Diplomacy (H) IQ [1]-14†; Eco-
  nomics (H) IQ-2 [1]-12; Expert Skill (Memetics) (H) IQ-2
  [1]-12; History (Sweden) (H) IQ-2 [1]-12; Intelligence
  Analysis/TL10 (H) IQ-1 [2]-13; Law (Swedish Constitu-
  tional) (H) IQ-2 [1]-12; Literature (H) IQ-2 [1]-12; Politics
  (A) IQ+1 [1]-15†; Propaganda/TL10 (A)
  IQ-1 [1]-13; Psychology (Human) (H)
  IQ-2 [1]-12; Public Speaking (A) IQ-1
  [0]-13‡; Research/TL10 (A) IQ-1 [1]-13;
  Savoir-Faire (High Society) (E) IQ
  [1]-14; Singing (E) HT+2 [1]-12†; Soci-
  ology (H) IQ [4]-14; Teaching (A) IQ-1
  [1]-13; Writing (A) IQ-1 [1]-13.
  * Includes 1 level free from Wealth.
  † Includes +2 from Voice.
  ‡ Default from IQ; includes +2 from
  Charisma and +2 from Voice.
  Stefan Smiljanic (161 points)
  
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  64
  POLICE AND SECURITY
  The municipality of Stockholm is responsible for the police
  department (Poliskåren i Stockholm, usually simply called
  polisen). The Chief of Police is hired by and answers to the City
  Council, but has also to consult the national police command
  (Nationella polisrådet). The police force has seen a great deal of
  decentralization since the 20th century (when Swedish police
  were thoroughly centralized), making the local Chief of Police
  a powerful administrator able to change procedures and prior-
  ities in response to local needs.
  If Stockholmers were asked what image they associated
  most with the police in the 20th century, they would most
  probably have replied the uniformed police officers in police
  cars patrolling the streets. Asking the same question one cen-
  tury later would generally evoke the image of a plainclothes
  cop monitoring white collar crime through the Web. The
  toughest, most lawless beats are the digital ones – some say
  because of tax crimes, but it is natural that an informational
  society is more focused on informational crimes.
  From their central station on Kungsholmen (an opaque hole
  in the transparent enclave), the Stockholm police have access to
  some of the most up-to-date data networks in Sweden, often
  helping out police departments in many other municipalities
  with their Web monitoring. Stockholm’s police have a much
  more aggressive stance on the Web than on the streets, as unlaw-
  ful manipulation there can become more dangerous than the
  often easily contained street crime. On Kungsholmen, the force
  also maintains its central forensics laboratory. While the crime
  scene technicians are seldom out in the field, they often provide
  visible faces for the police in the media.
  The police force is sometimes accused of being biochauvin-
  ist and preservationist. This old meme from the 2070s might
  have had some validity back then, but the acceptance of more
  genetic upgrades and high-end AIs on the force has begun to
  change this image.
  Stockholm police officers carry guns with HUD, laser
  sights, recognition pads, and connections to tactical central
  control. Ammunition choice is generally geared toward tangler
  rounds. Cops usually just wear arachnoweave uniforms by way
  of armor in order to present a friendlier image to the popula-
  tion, plus a uniform cap with low-light amplification and a
  Near Miss Indicator. In dangerous situations, they add light
  infantry helmets, and officers on some beats on Södermalm
  wear nanoweave vests. (See Chapter 5 of Transhuman Space
  and Chapter 4 of Changing Times for details of all this equip-
  ment.) Stockholm is generally the most dangerous area to
  patrol in comparison to other Swedish cities.
  The most important part of their equipment is the wearable
  computer that provides communication with their station and
  tactical support, collects information, and records their
  actions. This is controlled by a NAI, and holds extensive data-
  bases of potentially useful information. Spread out around the
  city, particularly near local police stations, are canisters hold-
  ing flying cyberswarms, prepared for remote operation when
  police officers need rapid assistance before the heavier rein-
  forcements or (in rare cases) the National Tactical Response
  Unit arrives on the scene.
  The Security Police
  It was his language that gave him away as a centenarian: his
  body looked like a attractive 25-year old with a blue Mohawk,
  and his movements had the quick fluid grace of basal ganglia
  co-processors. But the idioms and tone he was using were dif-
  ferent from the ones used by the crowd of actual youngsters
  around him. They were not fooled either, and judging from the
  debate, they felt the usual instinctive resentment against one of
  the Very Old. A Very Old who was apparently trying to outdo
  them in radicalism.
  “What I’m saying is that you Stockholm Duncanites are only
  wasting your time thinking inside the given technological-admin-
  istrative complex. Even if you build that free haven – and man-
  age to run it without cutting each other’s throats when the
  inevitable power struggle happens – it will just be another spot of
  political geography. You have to think outside the box, and make
  the system irrelevant.”
  “And turning it all into proplet fog would do it?” a lizard-like
  bioshell in a cybershell chemise skeptically interjected. A girl mut-
  tered something sarcastic about Elois.
  “That’s just the beginning. A P2P architecture of business
  mediation, linked to orbital nanofacs. You could test it across
  Mercury or even Apollo, seeding the code from some expansion-
  ist foundation. Best of all it wouldn’t break any of the Neumann
  laws, and you could do it on a shoestring budget. But that
  would of course mean you would have to travel somewhere, or
  even work.”
  The others began to protest. I waited until it was clear that the
  man was not about to tire of baiting the youngsters. Finally I
  stepped in, squeezing past the lizard who was excitedly drawing
  a rebuttal in the air and denouncing the plan as rehashed info-
  socialism. I put on my most winning and square face. “Mr.
  Wingdale, I don’t believe we have met. I am Öystein McBride
  from the GRA. I found your lecture intriguing, and I would like
  to know if you are interested in a job.” That little trick ought to
  disperse the crowd and discredit him enough as an old sell-out to
  defuse the situation. At least for tonight.
  There’s nothing better than applied memetics when you’re try-
  ing to slow the spread of Bad Ideas.
  The Swedish national security service Säpo (Säkerhets-
  polisen) is not well understood, and prefers it that way. While
  most people know it exists it is usually seen as somewhat out-
  dated: when there is Europol, the E.U.’s efficient police coordi-
  nation agency, is there any need for a national security service?
  In the public mind, Säpo is a small, bumbling organization play-
  ing at being an intelligence agency. This is exactly the image
  Säpo works to keep up.
  Founded in 1914, the organization directs and performs
  police activities to detect and prevent threats to national security
  as well as providing bodyguards and security for the govern-
  ment. It does not run the National Tactical Response Unit
  (Sweden’s anti-terrorist force), but it provides information about
  terrorism and infrastructure crime to the national police force.
  Säpo was an early adopter of memetics in national security.
  Director-General Frida Stridsman realized that, to safeguard the
  nation and its constitution, it was not enough to just respond to
  emerging threats; better to prevent them from emerging in the
  first place. Under her leadership, Säpo created a counter-memet-
  ics unit in the early 2080s tasked with monitoring the spread of
  potentially dangerous memes and with memetic manipulation
  to weaken them. Over time the Säpo memeticists have gained
  much international renown in the intelligence community and
  are often consulted by other E.U. agencies. At the same time the
  agency cultivates a low profile in order to avoid attracting too
  much attention from meme-hackers.
  
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  65
  Much discussion has happened among those in the know
  as to whether this proactive memetic stance is compatible
  with a democratic society. If certain memes are viewed as
  dangerous and needing to be suppressed, however mildly,
  this implies that freedom of thought is no longer absolute.
  However, some ideas can be shown to lead with high proba-
  bility to very dangerous crimes; stopping these ideas is surely
  like stopping armed and masked people from entering a bank
  – and nobody is charged with anything, the future crime is
  simply prevented. The Parliamentary Ombudsman and
  Chancellor of Justice have so far not complained about the
  counter-memetics unit . . .
  At present, the main concern of Säpo is international terror-
  ism. Sweden is not a prime target, but biotech, infotech, and
  nanotech weapons know few borders. There may also be dan-
  gerous radicals hiding among the more benign groups in
  Stockholm: in late 2099 there were some hints that the Blue
  Duncanites (Broken Dreams, p. 87) may have a cell in Sweden.
  An even more nebulous problem is the lone maniac; thanks to
  enhancements, deranged individuals have become smarter,
  and technology makes them better able to implement danger-
  ous ideas. That there are fewer unbalanced people than ever
  doesn’t help if those remaining are more dangerous.
  Interpol
  Interpol (see Broken Dreams, pp. 66-67) maintains an office
  in Stockholm, where it mainly focuses on international Web
  crimes, particularly those involving rogue AIs. Laws and defini-
  tions regarding Web crimes are blurred when it comes to
  national jurisdictions, and sometimes bring Interpol into dis-
  pute with local authorities. In Sweden, Interpol has reached a
  working agreement with the police and with Säpo. Usually it
  acts simply as a backup when the Stockholm police or Säpo
  cannot reach criminals who are located outside the E.U.
  The GRA and WTO
  The
  Genetic
  Regulatory
  Agency
  (Transhuman
  Space, p. 97) and the World Trade Organization
  (Broken Dreams, pp. 59-62) both have quite active roles
  in Sweden. These organizations have accords with the
  Swedish government and can be seen working in close
  cooperation with local law enforcement in investiga-
  tions in the field. These arrangements have met criti-
  cism, as neither organization is a part of formal local or
  E.U. government, and protests have been made regard-
  ing the legality of integrating external organizations too
  far into local law enforcement structures. Many of the crimes
  they police require active patrolling on the Web, particularly
  when several nations are involved, so the GRA and WTO have
  sometimes coordinated actions between local law enforce-
  ment, themselves, and Interpol.
  Genteknikmyndigheten
  The Genetic Regulatory Agency performs many important
  tasks regarding the enforcement of regulations preventing
  abuses of human genetic engineering. More day-to-day opera-
  tions are, in accordance to the European Union’s subsidiary
  principle (that decisions should be made at the relevant level),
  made by the Swedish National Genetic Technology Regulatory
  Agency (Genteknikmyndigheten) in Stockholm.
  While they receive much help from the GRA in monitoring
  new advances and follow the recommendations of Königsberg
  and Geneva, they are also quite influential on their own account,
  giving the Swedish Parliament recommendations regarding
  local policy issues. These issues might not have as high a profile
  as the GRA’s work, but they can still have an important local
  impact. (What kinds of industrial forest to approve? Which
  safety rules should HuGE follow?) Enforcement operations are
  left to the GRA and local police forces.
  Genteknikmyndigheten has, since its formation in 2058,
  been one of the most open and visible battlegrounds between
  Swedish preservationists and transhumanists. This was par-
  tially one of the agency’s intended functions – to provide an
  arena to vent conflicting feelings in a positive and constructive
  fashion – but a lot of bad blood has flowed since. It is quite
  easy to detect this at the agency’s own offices in Frescati; the
  preservationists actually sit in the building, the transhumanists
  work by telepresence.
  The present Director-General, Ulla-Bella Hulth, is a com-
  promise candidate. She is a preservationist, but was one of the
  group who maintained a calm and a more pragmatic orienta-
  tion during the most intense conflicts over the Russian shadow
  labs in the 2060s. She is however always ready to stamp down
  on any genetic outrage, especially if doing so might advance
  her career.
  Most of the bioroid trade and the cutting edge of HuGE
  are off world these days, or at least situated far from Sweden,
  and while Stockholm might still be a testing ground for some
  practices they do not originate here any longer. However,
  many of the staff and administrators have been employed for
  quite a long time, and younger staffers commonly get the
  impression that their seniors are still fighting battles that
  ended long ago.
  TRANSPORT
  As a city of islands, Stockholm has especially interesting
  transport issues. Two features of the area merit discussion here;
  see also the discussion of the StockTrans subway on p. 24.
  By Boat
  Travel across the Baltic can be done quickly or pleasantly.
  Very fast hydrofoil ferries connect Stockholm to Helsinki, St.
  Petersburg, Tallinn, and other Baltic cities. A trip takes two to
  three hours and costs $10. These “baltbussar” (“Baltic Buses”)
  are indeed little more than floating buses with minimal
  accommodations; most of the time they are packed with
  tourists making a detour, people visiting relatives, and com-
  muters with physical jobs.
  Police Gear and Ultra-Tech
  Some groups may prefer to use GURPS Ultra-Tech for
  equipment options in GURPS Fourth Edition games rather
  than the equipment chapters in older Transhuman Space
  books. In that case, change the references here to recognition
  pads to recognition grips; arachnoweave to reflex; and low-
  light amplification to night vision glasses. Other items retain
  the same names in Ultra-Tech.
  
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  66
  The alternative is the floating casino ferries. These origi-
  nated in the 20th century as a way of escaping tax and tariff
  regulations on alcohol, declined a bit when most of the linked
  countries joined the E.U., and finally reinvented themselves
  as state casinos. They are mobile casino-theater-hotels, sell-
  ing everything from sleazy entertainment to gourmet eating.
  They always provide a casino experience, whether it be with
  a nouveau riche 1990s Russian gangster edge, 1930s Monte
  Carlo elegance, Las Vegas kitsch, or 2030s tax-haven crypto-
  nerd sleaze. Some people actually live on the ferries perma-
  nently, either as staff or because they are truly in love with
  their favorite style.
  Arlanda Spaceport
  The main international airport for Stockholm is Arlanda,
  located 25 miles north of the city. The in-atmosphere part func-
  tions like any other international airport; it has dense com-
  muter traffic to other European and world cities, as well as
  local flights.
  Next to the airport in the forest lies the spaceport. Arlanda
  is a comparatively small launch/landing site with little traffic.
  The high latitude makes it expensive to reach the popular
  equatorial orbits, but also makes it easier to get to polar
  orbits, and this is where most of the traffic goes. Most of the
  crews arriving and departing are going on maintenance mis-
  sions to LEO.
  The European Space Agency has a physical office at the
  spaceport next to the extensive radar tracking arrays.
  The spaceport together with other ground stations further
  north is an important node in the tracking system for objects
  above the polar region. These arrays have been a long-time
  issue between the aerospace authorities and neighbors that
  find them both an eyesore and possibly a health risk due to
  spillover radio emissions.
  CULTURE
  I did a double take. There was a man in red clothes dangling
  from a balcony, high above the street. A suicide? Or an accident?
  Then I noticed the fur-trimmed red pointy cap and a white beard
  fluttering in the wind. It was Santa hanging 10 stories above the
  pavement. The body did not move, despite the right leg being
  angled as if it was searching for purchase. A doll. A very sick, bril-
  liant Christmas ornament. I mentally congratulated whoever had
  put it there for lighting up my day.
  I got even happier when I saw a flower of red explode above
  Hagaparken. My dad told me about how the fireworks used to
  smell of black powder and leave the air on New Year’s Eve night
  misty with smoke. That has of course been banned since before I
  was born, thanks to environmentally conscious politicians. “Not
  the right way to greet a new year, with acid rain and heavy metal”
  they said. But of course people found a way.
  These days all the official fireworks are run in one of the munic-
  ipal layers, and they usually leave a few editable slots for people to
  run their own fireworks software. Around here I usually just run
  the official ones and a few of the ones where an edit costs enough
  money. The free ones are usually just too crammed with fireworks
  graffiti obeying no laws of physics or aesthetics to be watchable.
  Most of those layers get clogged by spam almost immediately. I like
  when people make the effort to run physics simulations rather than
  just add a recording of a favorite explosion or some implausible
  bomb that detonates upside down willows that change color to
  music and spell out adverts.
  But I like the physical fireworks better. They are usually
  restricted and often illegal, but there is something about making
  a device whose only purpose is to make brief beauty that appeals
  to me. Since traditional nitrate fireworks got banned people have
  invented eco-friendly fireworks. I prefer the textured carbon rock-
  ets best; a bit quiet but very nice explosions that get their color
  from nanodots. But they are still hard to come by since the noise
  pollution and safety laws make getting a license a nightmare.
  Having to re-certify to send up a few rockets every year is annoy-
  ing. Sometimes I wish I lived in India; they know how to really
  celebrate Diwali.
  I see that the kids are playing with nonchemical bangers. That
  is a bit of a compromise – a sheet of colorful plastic with nanoca-
  pacitors. Activate it and move away while it runs a colorful
  countdown before “exploding” with a bang or other sound. These
  ones are drawing early Space Age liftoff countdowns, complete
  with a final deep roar that makes the pavement vibrate. Definitely
  illegal Russian imports without any noise, safety, or proximity
  constraints. Great fun. I smile at the kids squealing “lift-off!.”
  Stockholmers in general often speak English to each other,
  especially when meeting strangers for the first time; while the
  majority speaks Swedish, usually as their first language, there
  is usually someone in a group who does not, making it easier
  just to keep to the lingua franca.
  Stockholmers celebrate the usual western festivities. All-
  Hallows Eve has been usurped locally by the infomorph rights
  activists, who run memorial parades for all erased and ignored
  sapience. Swedes traditionally celebrate Midsummer Day
  (June 21st) with picnics and excessive drinking. National Day,
  June 6th, on the other hand, is largely ignored.
  December 10 is Nobel Day, when the Nobel laureates are
  handed their diplomas and medals by the Queen at the con-
  cert hall and then feted at a banquet at City Hall. This is usu-
  ally high conference time in Campustown as discussions and
  meetings related to the fields of this year’s laureates are held.
  The level of controversy varies from year to year. Last year’s
  medicine laureate, Eugene Thayer (a nanostasis expert),
  managed to upset very few with his attack on the TSA. It was
  nothing compared to the chaos surrounding the visit of
  human germline modification specialist Zenia Field in 2045,
  when pro- and anti-biotech riots paralyzed the city for days,
  or the debates surrounding the first literature prize awarded
  to an AI (Pinda Glure, 2067).
  The Bollywood moosh (Toxic Memes, p. 85), the ubiquitous
  moustache for manly men, can be seen everywhere here, too,
  of course. It is supplemented by the “Cyrillic mooch” some sec-
  ond-generation Russians have taken up. Blond moustaches are
  not quite as comical here as elsewhere in the world, but bear-
  ers of “viking mooshes” had better look the part.
  Smart body paint is in; scarification is out again (and if
  your scars were easy to remove, then you should hide in a base-
  ment in shame). Body paint cued to muscular contraction is
  expected to be the big thing this spring.
  As for clothing: the less, the more impressive. Given the
  Swedish weather, you must either have a modded body, plenty
  of insulating fat, a personal microclimate, or a will of steel.
  Cultured fur clothes work well for the occasional cold winter
  day, but most people keep to the traditional brightly colored
  synthetics that work better in rain.
  
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  67
  SNAPSHOTS FROM
  STOCKHOLM ACADEMIA
  The office was quiet except for the hum from the server venti-
  lation. The floor and walls were covered with a pleasant grass
  derivative giving the air a fresh smell. I found Lydia sitting cross-
  legged on the grass, sorting simulations into piles in the air.
  When I came in, she started. “Oh, are you here? Sorry, I thought
  I was alone in the building with Praetorius.” She looked both
  embarrassed and a bit tense.
  “DALE sent me. He wanted to tell you that the Thessalonica
  meeting will be postponed to next week.”
  “Couldn’t it tell me itself?”
  “Sorry, but you know the rules. No shells or AI inside the soft-
  ware lab.”
  She looked up. “Isn’t Praetorius here?”
  I smiled. “No, he has to wait outside the door. By his own
  rules.” We were all rather fed up with the bossy AI.
  “In that case . . . I have something to discuss with you.
  Promise me that you won’t say anything, not even hint that you
  know anything, outside this room . . .”
  The Institute of Replicating
  Technology (IRT)
  The IRT was founded in 2087 by researchers interested in
  biotechnology, nanotechnology, software viruses, memetics,
  and AI. Its aim is to study all forms of systems that make copies
  of themselves, be they bacteria, software, memes, emergent AI,
  or von Neumann machines.
  The IRT itself has no real aim beyond coordinating
  researchers, helping participants discover fruitful connections
  between
  different
  sciences.
  Nevertheless,
  participating
  researchers and organizations have many agendas. Quite a few
  work on safety and prevention: How do you prevent a new
  organism or meme from going out of control? How do you pro-
  tect the world from deliberate or accidental replicators? How
  far can nanoformer ecological immunity be extended?
  Another group, often debating fiercely against the first, con-
  sists of researchers interested in harnessing the power of repli-
  cation and evolution. Using self-replicating robot factories,
  entire asteroids (or moons, or planets) could be converted into
  industry. Self-evolving code could lead to breakthroughs in AI.
  “Smart memes” might be used to produce new ways of running
  societies – and so on. Some risks are worth taking.
  The IRT board consists of representatives of a number of
  participating organizations and funding agencies. The GRA is
  one participant, as are a number of transhumanist organiza-
  tions such as the TransLife Foundation (see below) and some
  purely commercial interests like SHP AB (p. 61). This makes
  board politics rather interesting, although the representatives
  are mostly more interested in research than in ideology. Quite
  often the “idealists,” be they for or against the widespread use
  of replicators, ally against the “realists” who try to ensure prof-
  itability instead.
  The two main projects at this time are the metaevolution
  project and artificial immune systems. The metaevolution
  team works on inventing new kinds of evolution, beyond the
  ordinary Darwinian type in biology or the LOGOS-Lamarckian
  evolution of memes. They are theoreticians engaged in exotic
  artificial life speculation bordering on philosophy.
  The artificial immune systems project, on the other hand, is
  a real cash cow for the IRT. It is part of the huge E.U. project
  GIST, “Global Immune Systems Technology.” The aim is to look
  at the possibilities of making individuals, ecosystems, societies,
  and technology immune from dangerous replicators. Lydia
  Jacobsen, “the mother of designer immune systems,” leads the
  IRT part of the project. Her fame, the E.U. funding, and the
  networking opportunities GIST provides are more than
  enough to calm those researchers who worry that the results
  might be dangerous social control and military equipment.
  Physically, the institute owns a small office/lab building in
  Campus Town, equipped with some fine biological contain-
  ment facilities (often leased to other research projects) and
  isolated mainframes for software experiments. On the roof
  there is a satellite uplink to Johnny Station (see below). Since
  there is no Web access to the mainframes and cybershells are
  not allowed near them, several researchers are usually phys-
  ically present in the building at any time. The building LAI,
  Praetorius, takes security seriously, often to the irritation of
  visiting researchers.
  The IRT owns a small orbital lab, John von Neumann
  Station (usually just called Johnny) in a high inclination orbit.
  It is intended to experiment with replicating systems at a safe
  distance from earth. Researchers teleoperate cybershells in the
  tiny lab compartments rather than visit physically. Since Johnny
  is in such an inaccessible orbit the cost of sending up supplies
  (let alone people) is high. It is also equipped with somewhat lim-
  ited communications to prevent any software contagion from
  escaping. The internal station network is linked only to an
  antenna on the IRT roof using an encrypted channel, making it
  impossible to send or receive information any other way. The
  station also has a few mandatory navigation and sensor arrays,
  but these are entirely independent from the internal network.
  There is a constant debate among the IRT funders over
  whether Johnny is worth its cost. The IRT is a small organiza-
  tion with a tight budget, and Johnny is very expensive lab
  space. Commercial interest in leasing space on the station is
  also rather low.
  At present, there are two main experiments on board. One
  is a Biotech Euphrates-sponsored experiment with a primor-
  dial soup where different “quasi-organisms” evolve in a Venus-
  like chemical environment. If it succeeds it might produce
  biotechnology suitable for use in the Venusian atmosphere,
  in the long run maybe leading toward terraforming Venus.
  
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  68
  The other experiment is a machine micro-society wherein
  antbots are exchanging simulated memes while trying to sur-
  vive in a complex environment.
  The TransLife Foundation
  An international research foundation, funded by a number of
  biotech corporations, TransLife funds research into life exten-
  sion, medical nanotechnology, and neural engineering. Research
  groups send it proposals for consideration or it announces fund-
  ing for a particular issue it wants explored. TransLife also runs
  an academic review service that assesses research and
  researchers. Gaining a good rating can make a scientific career,
  being downgraded can wreck one. Some resent the influence of
  TransLife on certain research fields, but the foundation always
  points out that taking its money or advice is voluntary.
  The foundation has a vague transhumanist agenda, but
  mostly aims to ensure a steady stream of long-range break-
  throughs that will profit its sponsors. It has occasionally sup-
  ported transhumanist groups in fighting anti-enhancement
  policies indirectly by bringing them into contact with other
  key groups.
  Professor Halim al Azhar
  The Professor of Applied Baltic Sea Ecology at Stockholm
  University is a Caliphate citizen AI with permanent residency
  in Sweden. Halim is not much stranger than the rest of the fac-
  ulty, and is often more approachable.
  Originally created in 2077 as an experiment in AI design at
  Riyadh University, Halim has always been an academic and at
  home in academic environments. It began its studies in
  oceanography and ecology as part of a university program
  dealing with the Red Sea, piloting cybershells to document the
  effects of algal blooms and how they reacted to various inter-
  ventions. The research both made it a rising name in oceano-
  graphic circles and gave it a fondness for every possible form
  of water craft: Halim can (or thinks it can) pilot everything
  from a submarine cyberswarm to a clipper ship. In 2094, while
  attending a conference, it fell in love with the Baltic, its prob-
  lems and its traditional boats. Halim became an expert on
  Baltic ecosystems and the effects of past and ongoing ecologi-
  cal control programs. It began teaching at Stockholm online
  universities and eventually was appointed a professor.
  Halim is usually housed in a boat cybershell (named “Ship
  Happens” – it bought it from a British AI with a quirky sense
  of humor) anchored somewhere in the Stockholm region. Its
  lectures and university activities are conducted virtually
  (although it loves to bring students with it on field excur-
  sions). It has a few other cybershells stored at the university
  and owns a small apartment in Riyadh. On the net, it usually
  manifests as a star-like arabesque pattern, changing kaleido-
  scopically in color.
  While a believing Muslim, it is not nearly as devout as its
  brother, Najm al Azhar – the same core program, started at
  the same time, but which received a different early educa-
  tion, and which is now a noted religious scholar. Halim and
  Najm often meet in suitable virtual spaces to discuss their
  broad interests. Najm usually mildly scolds Halim for not
  applying his prodigious talents inside the Caliphate, but
  Halim thinks it does a better job of representing it by work-
  ing outside its borders.
  Halim is a hospitable, genuinely friendly being. It tends to
  be almost obsessive in its enthusiasm for things it likes, be that
  genemod dinoflagellate taxonomy, sailing, or giving its stu-
  dents the most high-tech presentations possible. It is popular
  in Baltic eco-policy circles because it absolutely refuses to get
  dragged into recriminations over past mistakes or to take any
  national side. Usually Halim employs a “backward desert-
  dweller” routine to defuse tense debates and suggest entirely
  new and unorthodox solutions.
  Halim is deeply involved in the latest Baltic restoration
  project, the Hagstrom-Zalitis Program. The HZP involves set-
  ting up an ecoformer system across the entire region that
  hopefully will fix the ecology permanently. The engineering
  seems doable, the only problem being that different groups
  have very different views of what ecosystem should be the
  result. Should they merely stabilize the Baltic (supported by
  Russia), restore an idealized mid-19th-century ecology (the
  position of the Swedish and German governments), recreate a
  Bronze Age ecology with dolphins as top predators (the Baltic
  states and continental preservationists), or make something
  entirely new (“Baltic Nation,” a proposal supported by various
  transhumanist NGOs – see p. 81)? Halim has no particular
  position except a mild preservationist dislike of extreme
  changes, but it has discovered that it is now moving through a
  political and ideological minefield.
  Stockholm is the “playground of the Baltic.” It is a transhu-
  manist enclave surrounded by preservationists, a link between
  the clean-cut E.U. and the messier east, a haven for cognitive
  extremophiles (Toxic Memes, p. 80) and subcultures. The city
  profits from being a waterhole for many groups and a place
  where Scandinavian youth lets off steam; it would not profit
  from being too neat.
  MAINTENANCE: THE KABAL
  The “real” Stockholm consists of the subcultures,
  lifestyles, and networks that form the city culture. At the
  core of the city’s culture lies a shared understanding that it
  needs diversity and a certain degree of cooperation to keep it
  functional. This understanding is not the result of sponta-
  neous self-organization or some Swedish altruism as many
  recent arrivals tend to think; rather, it is a constantly main-
  tained balance between mutually antagonistic or competing
  groups stabilized by a network of influential transhumanists
  and meme hackers. It has been described by Robert Kabal,
  one of the architects of the setup, as “antagonistic plural-
  ism”: There will always be too many opinions for agreement
  to be possible, so instead of trying to force everybody to
  compromise, let’s agree to disagree, and may the best memes
  win. To get the chance to disagree on friendly terms, there is
  a need for a safe haven.
  INFORMAL STOCKHOLM
  
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  69
  One effect of the understanding is that dangerous activities
  and subcultures are quietly resisted or attacked by other
  groups. A dangerous movement will hurt everybody else when
  the authorities eventually stomp on it, so out of self-interest,
  the networks try to dissuade the radicals, give them useful dis-
  tractions, or sabotage their efforts. In extreme cases, they get
  somebody to take them out – be it the police, hired trou-
  bleshooters, or tipped-off political opponents. This “ecological
  law enforcement” can be very subtle and efficient as long as the
  network running it has no reason to amass power for itself –
  which so far has been prevented by deliberately keeping it
  filled with people with different goals.
  The network (usually just called “the Kabal”) is rumored to
  be everything from a Säpo front to a posthuman Illuminatus.
  In reality, it is a small group of culturally influential people
  who give each other information and discuss what is going on.
  Some have money, political influence, or agents; others are just
  in the right places in the subculture networks to hear or do
  things. Several members are not even aware that they are part
  of the Kabal. It is not secret, especially since Cecil (see pp. 70-
  71) is part of it, but few notice a completely open conspiracy.
  Robert Kabal
  One of Stockholm’s ur-transhumanists, Robert Kabal (a pseu-
  donym he has used for so long that he has forgotten why he first
  adopted it) was around long before that was even a conceivable
  political position, making a career out of being the radical voice
  among the Brussels think tanks. When the Transhuman
  Awakening occurred in the ’50s, he was already well into his sec-
  ond career as an image consultant and business angel to
  biotechnology start-ups. He was content to monitor the move-
  ment from the sidelines and help his start-ups make the most of
  it. In 2061, he returned to Stockholm and began a third career,
  this time officially in the catering business but actually as a net-
  worker and arbitrator between different transhumanist frac-
  tions. He used his money and experience in getting people
  together to form the first weak version of his network.
  The real test was the 2074 crackdown. That was the chance
  he had been waiting for: Suddenly, it was easy to get leaders of
  other groups to agree that a bit of self-regulation was needed.
  Since then, the Kabal network has been guiding the other net-
  works of Stockholm.
  Kabal recently uploaded, and now lives in a young and fit
  bioshell cloned from his own DNA. It also has a few enhance-
  ments that the authorities and the GRA had better not hear
  about. Officially, he is living the life of young Stockholm
  Duncanite, pestering the others with outlandish business ideas
  for radical space colonization (dismantling planets with von
  Neumann machines being just the start). Unofficially, he is still
  a key player in his network, although he has begun to tire of it
  in favor of space. That his taken name has become synony-
  mous with his network amuses him.
  FRACTION OVERVIEW
  Most subcultures are purely about enhancing one’s self-
  image: “we” are always better than “them.” The more exclusive
  and hard to enter it is, the more valuable the group is thought to
  be. That any child who has taken social psychology class knows
  this does not reduce its appeal. When material goods are easy to
  come by, people are willing to spend inordinate amounts of time
  and effort to gain acceptance in the right in-group.
  How Subcultures Work
  Reproduction by division is the norm in small growing
  groups with strong memes. As they grow too large, the original
  leaders will have to add new people as lieutenants to manage.
  These people often decide to strike out on their own after a
  while, taking with them parts of the group loyal to them rather
  than to the old guard. The result is a mess of small groups vehe-
  mently fighting each other over minor doctrinal differences. The
  same process can occur when a larger group like a political party
  is in decline and different leaders try to turn the trend around.
  One key concept is “movement core collapse,” a term bor-
  rowed from astrophysics. As the stars in globular clusters occa-
  sionally interact the most common result is that one star loses
  energy and moves toward an orbit in the core while the other
  gains energy and moves outward into the halo. In the end the
  cluster becomes a dense core (possibly with a black hole) with
  a diffuse halo. The same thing can happen to social groups
  under certain forms of memetic pressure. The halo members
  that did not identify so strongly with the group move away,
  leaving a hardcore group becoming ever more fundamentalist
  about their shared ideals.
  If reproduction-by-division dynamics do not set in, making
  the group harmlessly self-destruct, it can either dwindle into a
  bizarre remnant of reclusives – or explode into suicide, vio-
  lence, terrorism, or memetic warfare. This is why memeticists
  monitor declining groups.
  The Translucent Society
  Kungsholmen is currently the largest physical area of
  Stockholm with total transparency (Broken Dreams, p. 19). The
  Föreningen Kungsholmen Panopticon (the Kungsholmen
  Panopticon Society) largely runs it. Parts of the Panopticon are
  not physically present; a few communities in northern Sweden
  and Vilnius are part of the organization, as well as many mem-
  bers of the Participatory Transparency Project (the PTP – see
  Toxic Memes, p. 40) worldwide. The Panopticon is an informal
  democracy run by the Agora, a virtual citizen meeting every two
  weeks, overseen by a board elected whenever a majority of the
  present Agora demands it or when someone steps down. The
  board is also the leadership of the Transparency Party (see p. 70).
  Transparent Kungsholmen started as a small commune
  inhabiting an old block down by the Klara canal. As more and
  more transparency devotees moved in, they settled nearby,
  extending the transparent area. Those who didn’t enjoy being
  scanned by their neighbors tended to move away, and by now,
  the eastern half of Kungsholmen island is firmly transparent
  and the other half is at least “translucent.”
  People broadcast their sensory data to local servers that
  route it all to the main Panopticon site. Plenty of camera stick-
  ers, microphone patches, and roving cybershells also are
  reporting in. So far, it has not been possible to get the city to
  deliver data from its sensors, but it is no secret that these are
  often hacked and added to the databases.
  The majority of Kungsholmen inhabitants are not transpar-
  ent but accept or enjoy it. What better way of upsetting (and at
  the same time calming) one’s privacy-obsessed parents than to
  live where one’s face can be found online all day? (And more, if
  one’s partner happens to be transparent.) The island has drawn
  an overabundance of extroverts and seekers of media attention,
  making it one of the most fun and surprising neighborhoods to
  walk through. The nightclubs are the place to be seen.
  
  Kungsholmen tries to organize a practical portal to the
  wealth of information, indexed by sense, time, person, place,
  and type of event. However, the indexing is often rather ad hoc,
  with the librarians (led by a SAI with the on-the-job-name
  Bentham) doing their best but often forced to reorganize due
  to new legal issues. The wealth of data in the site is a valuable
  resource. The Agora has allowed some information sales to
  help support the community, but that idea remains controver-
  sial after the Lithuanian disaster.
  The Panopticon site is in a state of permanent legal conflict
  with not just WTO property rights rules but also E.U. privacy
  laws. As a response to WTO pressure, the Panopticon deliber-
  ately discourages the use of copyrighted material across the
  island – that way there is less risk of a lawsuit. This also works
  as protest. The privacy laws are a more complex matter, deliber-
  ately muddied by Panopticon lawyers with issues of local gover-
  nance, respect for community standards and traditions, and
  ongoing journalistic/artistic projects (which, by Swedish law, are
  exempt from some of the privacy laws).
  To the transparency community, Kungsholmen is a major
  meeting-point and a symbol of all it strives for. The Panopticon
  is rather proud to point out it was up and running when the PTP
  was just getting started; the PTP cheerfully responds that, unlike
  Kungsholmen, they plan to get somewhere. Beyond the compet-
  itive banter, it is likely that Kungsholmen also acts as a gateway
  for PTP communications to illegal servers; the sheer density of
  local traffic and the confusing network architecture allows such
  gating to be hidden in plain sight.
  Kungsholmen is a good place to meet if one wants guaran-
  teed witnesses: It is nearly impossible to fake what is happening
  to all the diverse sensors nearby. It is easy to be anonymous if
  one is not famous, and even a simply masked identity helps
  someone hide in plain sight – unless a zealous local discovers
  that he is a “masker” and sets out to digitally unmask him. The
  island has low criminality (if one does not count privacy crime)
  compared to the rest of the city.
  Thanks to Cecil (below) and the Transparency Party, the
  Panopticon has eyes and ears in the municipal council. Local
  politicians are by now resigned to the intrusion, and since
  most of the matters would be public anyway there is little to
  worry about. The exception has been some Family Party and
  Liberal conservatives who now only participate virtually to
  “protect their privacy.”
  The Stockholm Police headquarters lie in the center of the
  island. Relations to the Panopticon are somewhat ambivalent:
  the Panopticon delivers all its data and does an excellent job of
  self-policing, but individuals often do their best to bug or mon-
  itor police activities.
  Memeticists think the Kungsholmen movement actually
  peaked in 2074 with the Lithuanian scandal and is now under-
  going a slow core-collapse. The loyalists are still there, but
  there is little new blood.
  Cecil Thomas Prestwood
  Cecil (never call him by any other name) is the leader of the
  Transparent Kungsholmen Panopticon and one of the key indi-
  viduals in the transparency movement.
  Born in 2042 into a landed aristocratic British family that had
  been dead broke for at least four generations, Cecil decided early
  on that he wanted to break every suffocating convention. He
  started out by getting arrested for a wide array of unusual crimes
  (that a 15-year old boy could commit defalcation surprised all
  legal experts), quitting his online learning programs, having
  his
  family
  disown
  him
  (the
  invocation
  ritual
  to
  the
  Unspeakable Powers in the family mausoleum was the last
  straw), and making enough money as an unlicensed tour guide
  in London to support himself. During this time, he learned
  from people he met and began to formulate his personal the-
  ory of what was wrong with everything.
  His adolescent conclusion was that as long as people do not
  see each other for the flesh-and-blood fallible humans they are,
  social conventions will imprison everyone. Having met some
  transparency activists and sousveillers he gladly joined the
  movement to help show not just that the emperor was not
  wearing pants, but that nobody was.
  By 2062 he was an international agitator star of the trans-
  parency movement, invited by the reform government of
  Lithuania to help convince people about the merits of total
  transparency. For a brief period, he thought he was close to
  wrecking convention and opening a new kind of society, but
  then his hard-line radicalism began to collide more and more
  with the pragmatism of the government. His status as official
  consultant was revoked and after he organized a series of
  protests against the “half-hearted, merely translucent society
  promulgated by Vilnius” his visa was revoked. That he was
  later proven right by the scandalous revelations of secrecy-cor-
  ruption in the government did not improve his mood. He
  decided that no government or other top-down organization
  could be trusted to create true transparency.
  Arriving in Stockholm in 2070, he found many willing to
  listen to him. Together they started the Transparent
  Kungsholmen project. Using his international renown and
  the ease of getting transparency believers to move within the
  E.U., they began to gather a core. When the Lithuanian
  experiment failed a sizable group of true believers arrived
  from the east, giving the project critical mass.
  To ensure that the project would not be squashed by munic-
  ipal powers the Transparency Party (Transparenspartiet) was
  formed. With a broad platform of sapient rights, anti-corrup-
  tion activism, freedom of cultural expression, and local inde-
  pendence, they managed to win Cecil a seat on the municipal
  council. Politically, the Transparency Party has always worked
  with the Stockholmspartiet, cooperation that has ensured
  political support (in exchange for services rendered) at the
  national level.
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  70
  Despite the promise of
  transparency on so many lips,
  we often have the sinking feeling
  that we are not being told all
  that we need to know or have
  the right to know.
  – Warren Bennis,
  “The New Transparency”
  
  Over the years, Cecil has become the de-facto leader of the
  Kungsholmen Panopticon. Other people have come and gone,
  there have been splits, and the transparency movement in the
  outside world has changed style. Nevertheless, Cecil desper-
  ately wants Kungsholmen to succeed, to demonstrate that with
  enough transparency, an entirely new kind of community can
  occur. To this end he uses all available means to keep things
  working. Some critics say that he is using the information
  available to him to oust anybody who might compete or dis-
  agree too successfully, but Cecil calmly responds that they have
  just as much information as he does – maybe more, if they are
  not 24/365-sloggers. He uses dirty legal and political tactics:
  well, let’s use the obscurers’ tricks against them!
  He cannot truly admit to himself that he is feeling further
  and further away from his goal – years of permanent slogging
  has made him extremely adept at projecting a convincing
  facade of confidence and dynamic optimism. However, deep
  down, he knows that the days of Kungsholmen are limited and
  something new is needed. The number of transparent people
  and their memetic diversity are declining, the legal threats
  against the Panopticon are mounting, and the general momen-
  tum of transparency as a movement seems to have run out.
  Though he realizes this, he is in a position where he cannot
  mention this, or it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
  Among the subcultures of Stockholm he is regarded as a
  celebrity. Even people cold to the transparency idea support
  him as a symbol of the idea that a truly different culture can
  thrive in the city.
  Cecil is a keen observer of human nature and the structures
  that control it. When he doesn’t like those structures he attacks
  them without hesitation. He has problems in dealing with AIs;
  his perceptive powers don’t help him and many AIs view the
  privacy of their core programs as paramount.
  Cecil slinks his life all the time. Unlike most 24/365-slog-
  gers, he has many people who do keep track of what he is
  doing. Everything he is involved in becomes a public event.
  Some people avoid him, usually causing wry comments about
  them having something to hide. Even his dreams have from
  time to time been public matters. In the spring of 2099 a series
  of food-related nightmares of his became the subject matter of
  an online art exhibition created by the local artist Linda
  Enskog. Cecil had to admit that they were indeed public prop-
  erty and that he was glad they were out in the open, but most
  observers agreed that the praise was rather reluctant.
  Secessionists
  Stockholm’s secessionist movement is looking for a ful-
  crum. So far the oil-and-water mixture of transhumanism and
  preservationism around the city has been stable and few on
  either side have promoted secession. The 2074 crackdowns
  could have been a time to make Stockholmers aware and will-
  ing to fight, but the obvious nastiness of the black clinics made
  even the most die-hard transhumanists reluctant to condemn
  them or strike back. However, at that time, the secessionists
  did not have meme hackers among them. Now they are ready,
  looking for any chance to set snowballs in motion, hoping they
  will turn into avalanches.
  Stockholm Duncanites
  Duncanite ideas (see Transhuman Space, pp. 85-86, and
  Deep Beyond, pp. 13-14) have followers dirtside, too. A sizable
  grouping can be found in Stockholm, debating terraforming
  methods in Campustown and pantropism in transhumanist
  salons, or cheering for the Ceres Mantas in sports bars. Unlike
  the space Duncanites, there is rather little that the Stockholm
  Duncanites do. They are all talk but no shop, as the spacers often
  complain. They have the grandest plans, but instead of going out
  to the Belt, Trojans, or L5 and realizing them, they are content
  to grow up into boring Fifth Wave professionals. There have, of
  course, been a few notable exceptions (self-made Trojan Mafia
  boss Anglie Aqua was originally Emma Bengtsson from the
  sleepy suburb of Huddinge), but not enough.
  The Stockholm Duncanites might be a joke to hardliners
  and the “real” Duncanites, but they form an important bridge
  between the transhumanist movements, the Duncanites, and
  the preservationist E.U. They are a key memetic conduit, mak-
  ing many groups interested in them and what they discuss.
  Xox Activists
  Xoxing – the deliberate creation and running of multiple
  copies of a sapient digital consciousness – is perhaps the most
  feared crime of the year 2100, actively undertaken mostly by
  criminal organizations who, for example, “xoxnap” people in
  order to scan their brains and then produce multiple copies of
  the result. Still, there are those who support the practice in one
  form or another, and argue for its decriminalization.
  The Swedish Society for Posthuman Consciousness
  (Svenska Föreningen för Postmänskligt Medvetande – “SFPM”)
  was founded in 2099 under the guidance of sociologist Pierre
  Frykman. Frykman argues that the xox debate shows many
  similarities to the taboos against the alteration of neurochem-
  istry in the late 20th century. The bans are, he says, grounded
  in the same fear of extinguishing a very-much-constructed
  “self,” while we are all basically constantly reconstructing our-
  selves all the time. Differentiating between this existence and a
  more distributed existence as many possible selves is simply
  not valid, argues Frykman. We should embrace this posthu-
  man condition, or at least have a more meaningful and produc-
  tive debate about it instead of cowering under a ban. The
  SFPM usually points out how, when countries eventually
  decriminalized most recreational and mind-altering drugs, this
  undermined the drug syndicates and actually built a more
  practical neuroethics in the process.
  The society is small, but visible. It creates much shock
  value, is constantly accused in the public debate of harboring
  xoxes or other criminals, and is of course impeded in actually
  practicing xoxing. It is not a particularly powerful influence in
  Swedish society. However, some hope or fear that it might link
  to certain transhumanist and hyperevolutionist memes and
  manage to bring forward a more coherent posthuman doc-
  trine. The organization does not have an office, but is fully dis-
  tributed on the Web.
  Identity Preservationists
  An increasing number of thinkers are seeing the struggle
  over identity models as the key issue of today. The increasing
  threats to personal identity cause a natural reaction, seeking
  to protect the self. The clique around Stockholm philosopher
  Esbjörn F. Tretow is formulating what may become the man-
  ifesto of identity preservationism. The Identity Preservation-
  ist movement could very well become a force to supplant
  today’s preservationism.
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  71
  
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  72
  The core tenet of identity preservationism is that identity,
  selfhood, and privacy need to be ensured. The movement rejects
  technologies and ideas that blur the borders of the self, duplicate
  or transform it, or depict us as meme machines or open social
  networks. Having immortal superbodies is fine, as is living in a
  complex virtual world surrounded by biotechnology. However,
  there has to be someone experiencing it all, some essential self.
  Identity preservationists are the sworn enemies of xox
  activists, but they are also opposed to much of neurostyling
  (pp. 72-73) and translucent society (pp. 69-71). They freely
  mix transhumanism and preservationism according to per-
  sonal taste, which makes them a powerful emerging coali-
  tion. Tretow is well aware that the time is right; it is only a
  matter of finding the right way of formulating his insights to
  light a memetic wildfire.
  The regular debates between Pierre Frykman (see p. 71) and
  Tretow at Café Thalamus or Medborgarplatsen Virtual are
  gaining in popularity. At worst, they show two eloquent mod-
  ern philosophers attacking each other inventively. At best, they
  might be the start of one or two important philosophies. Since
  neither café allows broadcasting of its interior, the meetings
  tend to draw quite a physical crowd.
  AI Government
  A combination of Scandinavian faith in planning and the
  popularity of AI in Swedish society have made pro-AI govern-
  ment memes common in Sweden, both in and outside
  Stockholm. Several small parties are promoting local AI gover-
  nance, with municipal decisions run through incorruptible ded-
  icated AI systems. That most sociologists and many AIs advise
  against it doesn’t change their views. Currently a
  small experiment is underway in the municipality
  of Haninge, where the quasi-cyberdemocratic
  political party AI-Partiet Haninge lets a party SAI,
  “Haninges Röst,” do its voting in the municipal
  councils. The SAI has received a favorable
  response from both voters and politicians as being
  sensible, possibly giving the party more seats in the
  next election. Critics claim that the party is actually
  setting up a benign local dictator that it controls.
  Yearners
  Even in a society as fast moving as the 22nd
  century’s, there are many people who actually
  manage to stay on the edge of new technological
  and societal trends and many neophile memes
  that counteract Social Transition Stress Disorder
  (Broken Dreams, p. 55) and nostalgia memes
  (Toxic Memes, pp. 92-93). However, the ability to
  foresee many rapid developments also creates a problematic
  yearning for the future for some as they feel development is too
  slow. Yearners wait for the new applications, the new technolo-
  gies, the new cultural experiments that they know are possible
  but not available, often forestalling their own activities (“we
  can’t have kids now; there are no good genetic templates on the
  market yet”). Yearning is more common in Third and Fourth
  Wave societies but is also present in the Fifth Wave.
  Stockholm has a sizable Yearner population. They are
  mostly Swedish kids who “refuse to grow up” and remain in
  Stockholm year after year (sometimes decade after decade),
  trying to pick up the “Big Thing” when it comes.
  LIFESTYLES AND FASHIONS
  Stockholm is filled with odd lifestyles and ideas about
  social behavior being tested – usually to destruction. Few are
  exclusive to the city, but several are very much part of the
  Stockholm scene.
  Clothing
  Swarmwear is perhaps the next thing in high-tech clothing:
  clothes that are actually a cyberswarm that covers, warms, and
  adorns the body. At present, the technology is under test and
  easily embarrasses the wearer, but the competition is fierce.
  The first fashion house to put a real functioning swarmwear
  dress on the catwalk will get all the attention – and Stockholm
  is a center for this work.
  Miramare is believed to have a working prototype, but the
  North-Witton design team has some of the best people and
  experience in personal microclimate: using nanoswarms to
  keep the flow of air around the body at the right temperature.
  The enfant terrible of nanofashion, Tejo Nishamoro, is said to
  be working on biological swarmwear for his next collection.
  Evolutionary Chic promises to be the ultimate in individual-
  ism: clothes evolved just for you and your lifestyle. The idea is
  proving
  popular
  in
  the
  Stockholm
  memetic
  ferment.
  Participants in “evolution fashion” subscribe to a “sartorial
  ecosystem” wherein different designs evolve. Each day they get
  an entirely new design delivered. Designs that are successful (as
  scored by the wearer, software counting approving/disapproving
  glances, comments on reputation servers, etc.) have more “chil-
  dren” passing their design features on than unsuccessful clothes.
  Neurostyle
  Stockholm is the current capital of neurostyle. Look across
  a street, and you are bound to see someone with a virtual brain
  scan floating above his head or discussing current events with
  a passing concept.
  Neurostyling is all about modifying the brain. At its most
  basic, it is about getting the right memes, drugs, and brain-
  bugs. However, real neurostyle reshapes it further, using cog-
  nitive nanomods, nanotherapy, surgery, and genetic upgrades
  to make brain function and anatomy something truly individ-
  ual. Having a truly unique brain is the greatest thing a neu-
  rostyler can aim for.
  Grammar-Correcting Stickers
  A fad currently plaguing Stockholm is grammar stickers. Small black
  stickers powered by sunlight run grammar- and style-correction soft-
  ware. When they overhear an ungrammatical sentence or slang, they
  correct it in a tinny voice. At first this was somewhat cute, but now
  there are stickers hidden nearly everywhere. Some people just ignore
  them, while others jokingly “argue back” with more bad grammar, get-
  ting the sticker to “answer” in fun ways. Many people try to rip them
  away, but the plastic and glue are very tenacious. Originally the stickers
  only reacted to bad Swedish, but lately multi-lingual stickers have
  appeared to annoy people. Nobody seems to know who started the
  meme, but a common joke is that it is the writers and literary scholars
  of the Swedish Academy who are trying to drive people insane.
  
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  73
  Much neurostyling is little more than “brain piercing”:
  noticeable changes that don’t do anything in particular. Having
  brainwave patterns that spell out Morse messages or the abil-
  ity to become synesthetic at will might be cool but are not par-
  ticularly life-changing. New emotions or ways of processing
  sensory information have greater potential. In winter 2100
  Stockholm, the big thing is identity hacking. Dilaterals and
  radical personality change are in; bizarre perception is so ’99!
  Mindwear
  The thing to virtually wear if you are a neurostyler is
  mindwear: clothes and displays keyed to your brain. The sim-
  plest models just display colors or patterns keyed to brain
  activity. The more advanced show visualizations of the brain,
  either as a floating translucent image above the head (“head-
  shots”) or as a discreet virtual label that can expand to display
  measurements (“pinbrains”). While most wearers are happy to
  just have something that moves and changes depending on
  their mood, serious neurostylers go for elaborate multilayer
  imagery that rival the systems found in neuroscience depart-
  ments. A skilled neurostyler can detect mood, some subcon-
  scious reactions, and whether someone is lying or running a
  brainbug from the image.
  Transliteracy
  Transliterate people actively seek to become analphabetic.
  The idea is that the alphabet is obsolete: Thanks to voice con-
  trol and recognition, graphical displays, virtual environments,
  slinking, and (perhaps in the future) memory transfer, there is
  no need to learn how to read. However, reading is not just
  obsolete, it also warps the brain. Brainscans show how learn-
  ing to read changes the way the language centers are organ-
  ized, opening them for some forms of thinking but closing off
  others. Hence, members of the transliteracy movement seek to
  rid themselves of the “alphabet virus.”
  Conveniently for transliterates, it has recently becoming
  possible to remove reading ability from the brain temporarily,
  thanks to the new Analpha brainbug, which induces Dyslexia
  (medium-term, contact patch; $200; LC 4). Many transliterates
  also use the related Concretizer, which induces Non-
  Iconographic (medium-term, contact patch; $200; LC4), con-
  sidering
  that
  processing
  abstract
  symbols
  is
  another
  distraction for the brain – especially in the symbolic-interface-
  rich Fifth Wave world.
  Note that the prices for these two brainbugs are twice what
  would normally be expected from the game rules for such
  things; both represent brand-new breakthroughs in advanced
  brain function modification, and the patents for both are well
  nailed down. As new inventions with radical neurological
  effects, they are also somewhat more tightly legally controlled
  than might be expected. There are no brainbugs yet to mitigate
  Dyslexia or Non-Iconographic, and such developments are
  unlikely, although advanced nanotherapy can usually cure
  them permanently.
  Transliterates often take large doses of both brainbugs,
  hoping to “re-educate” their brains. They usually remember
  that some activities – certainly including vehicle operation –
  are understandably highly illegal while under the influence of
  such nanodrugs.
  Actually, according to a Säpo analysis, the transliteracy
  meme is a deliberate creation of the Stockholm-based brainbug
  manufacturer that invented Analpha and Concretizer, which
  explains why it is so widespread locally. Säpo did not find the
  meme dangerous enough to merit intervention, but has passed
  the information on to the police. The brainbugs have been
  scrupulously tested and cleared as safe for sale, but some police
  officers and other officials are still watching the whole subject
  very closely.
  TMS Parlors
  “Coilheading” is an old neurohacking “high without
  drugs” method that is effectively banned for good reasons in
  most countries, based on TMS (Transcranial Magnetic
  Stimulation). In the simplest version, users place a
  figure-8 coil on the right part of the skull and send
  current through it. The resulting electromagnetic
  field jams parts of the cortex, producing disorienting
  sensations, temporary loss of senses, and motor or
  thought disturbances.
  Using a hacked HyMRI machine, much more com-
  plex and pleasant states can be induced. This is the
  basis for the business of “TMS parlors,” a kind of black
  clinic/drug den. The experience can become more
  intense and specific if the user first injects nanosphere
  magnets that allow the magnetic fields to couple better
  to the brain. Some TMS parlors supply factory-reject bionet
  microbots or diagnostic nano to support this. Mistakes can
  easily produce epilepsy, brain damage, or slow dementias.
  Compared to modern brainbugs, TMS is inefficient and
  crude. However, for people who can’t afford brainbugs or tra-
  ditional drugs, it is still an option, and TMS attracts neu-
  rostylers (pp. 72-73) who want to experiment. Many users try
  different stimulation patterns and share tips with each other.
  Some have more or less well-founded ideas for how to upgrade
  their mental state that no serious clinic would allow, so they
  turn to a TMS parlor.
  Headwindows
  Stockholm is the bridgehead for visible style (Toxic Memes,
  p. 97) into Western Europe. Cool people with visible muscles,
  stomachs, or neck vessels can be seen everywhere. Aficionados
  usually regard Tirana in Albania as the best place to go to get
  the transparent bioplastic installed, but several Stockholm
  clinics such as Broström & Son, Anatdesign AB, and Öster-
  malms Kroppsverk are rapidly gaining a name for reliability
  and discretion.
  Of course, neurostylers (pp. 72-73) go for skull windows (usu-
  ally in the forehead) but add a twist: voltage sensitive dyes on the
  cortex surface, making their brain activity visible in greens and
  blues. This is regarded as the height of neurostyle, despite AR
  displays of brain activity having far better resolution.
  BrainCap
  The current neurostyle must-have is a miniature EEG mesh
  worn on the scalp, generating an animated holographic projec-
  tion of the wearer’s brain. Costs $300; earns a +2 reaction from
  neurostylers, and gives anyone familiar with neurostyler meth-
  ods +2 to Psychology rolls to “read” the wearer.
  
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  74
  The rumors of imminent legislation have spurred some
  biotechs to find an entirely organic replacement based on
  modified cultured tissue. They reason it will likely remain legal
  (or require another slow banning process). Right now they are
  looking for test subjects to try their experimental designs.
  Bioplastic skin and bone graft in forehead (small): $5,000
  (including surgery), LC4 now, LC2 or LC3 soon. A large hemi-
  sphere display: $20,000, same LC.
  Voltage-sensitive dye implant: $200, LC 4.
  Dilaterals
  The lateralization of the human brain has fascinated people
  since neurosurgeons first observed it in the middle of the 20th
  century. Dilaterals take the idea of the left and right hemi-
  sphere being different to the next level – and seek to make them
  different people.
  Dilateralism began with the Helge Berensen affair in 2089.
  Berensen was a well-off, somewhat unconventional retired arbi-
  trator with a longtime interest in psychological modifications. In
  June 2089, he left for L5, presumably contacting some illicit
  clinic in orbit. When he returned in September 2090 it was as
  two people, giving the immigration services a serious headache.
  Both people were Berensen, or rather, his left and right hemi-
  spheres. At the clinic, it seemed, he had his right hemisphere
  transplanted into a cloned body and added “blank” cloned hemi-
  spheres to make up two complete versions of himself. “Berensen
  Left” had the language areas and could argue his case eloquently,
  while “Berensen Right” could demonstrate that he remembered
  relevant details of his past life and signal that he considered him-
  self to be the original, too. Most surgeons declared this to be an
  extremely high-risk procedure, but acknowledged that, as
  Berensen illustrated, it could be survived with modern medical
  know-how. Both Berensens had doubtless been significantly dis-
  abled immediately after the operation, but had regained reason-
  able function with the aid of extensive therapy.
  Berensen Left and Right were now physically identical:
  healthy apparently middle aged men with slight limps (on
  opposite sides). Both claimed (Right using gestures) to be
  Helge Berensen and having a right to re-enter Sweden. The
  legal issues surrounding this doubling were intricate and per-
  fect for dinner-table discussions. The media loved the affair,
  putting even more pressure on the authorities.
  In 2091 it was decided that the Principle of Individuality
  held: Left and Right were different individuals, since they
  clearly exhibited different personalities and experiences, and
  each held potential for independent personal development.
  Whether they were Swedish citizens and had access to Helge
  Berensen’s rights and possessions was more uncertain. They
  were given interim citizenships, and Berensen had beforehand
  placed most of his money overseas for the use of his two suc-
  cessors. Right, being unable to speak and apparently some-
  what incapable of managing himself, was made a ward of Left
  until he had developed enough (which occurred three years
  later). There was much debate whether Berensen Left really
  was a suitable guardian, but Berensen Right made clear he did
  not want some outsider.
  Another issue was whether a crime had been committed.
  Undergoing radical medical procedures overseas had long
  since been recognized to be legal, but the result might be ille-
  gal. Had Helge committed a crime against Right, the deliber-
  ate creation of a “damaged” person? A complex legal case
  developed that went all the way to the Supreme Court. In the
  end, the issue of guilt was found to be confused; if Helge was
  regarded as guilty then that guilt would implicate both Left
  and Right as continuations of the criminal person (Right
  would likely get a milder punishment due to his incapability).
  But can the illegal creation of a person be a crime of the ille-
  gally created person, whose interests the law is trying to pro-
  tect? Anti-xoxing laws were of no use, since Left and Right
  were not identical copies of Helge, and nor did they claim to
  be. The Court decided that no criminal act could be proven
  (but noted that radical changes in identity do not in principle
  remove legal culpability, as determined in previous cases
  where memory erasure had been attempted to cover up
  crimes). Left and Right were different people, but since Left
  had the original body he would inherit the personal number
  while Right would get another. Had they not already done so,
  the Court would have ordered them to split the property.
  The decision caused much international interest. The E.U.
  Court announced that since no appeal had been made, it
  would have nothing to do with the matter. Xox rights activists
  cheered the decision while many anti-xoxers viewed this as a
  dangerous precedent.
  The Berensens took advantage of the interest and published
  a book (Journey to Janus, 2091) written by Left and illustrated
  by Right. Although neither was a truly skilled author or artist,
  the dramatic point was not lost on people. They attracted a fol-
  lowing, which gradually crystallized into the Dilaterals.
  The Dilaterals are a loose network of people fascinated by
  the Berensen split and other forms of radical extensions of
  brain lateralization Most are merely interested in aesthetic,
  existential, or psychological discussions, and form a social
  club. There are also some who go further, experimenting in
  using drugs to sedate one of their hemispheres to experience
  the world from a “lateralized perspective,” basically recreating
  an old medical experiment called the Wada test. As a partici-
  pant at a “Wada party” remarked, “I suddenly experienced that
  I am two people all the time, I just don’t notice it – but remove
  one, and it becomes obvious!” Others are less impressed, not
  noticing any real change in identity while half-anesthetized but
  clearly seeing the differences in other people undergoing the
  procedure. A number of Dilaterals are funding small-scale
  research to make a brainbug to do the same job as the Wada
  test, avoiding the risky injections.
  The very few true splits are the celebrities of the Dilaterals,
  surrounded by a halo of groupies. Berensen Left and Right are
  the leaders of the Dilateral movement, basking in the interest
  their change has produced. Left has already stated that in a
  decade when his right hemisphere is expected to be fully devel-
  oped, he will undergo the process again.
  Left is noticeably more cheerful than Right, who often
  seems slightly melancholic. Left is worse at detecting irony or
  mood than Right, who still has some trouble talking but is
  acutely sensitive to how people speak to him and how music
  sounds. Right is significantly better at punning than Left,
  though. Right has been doing noticeably more artistic exper-
  iments than Left, but this can be attributed to prejudices
  about the right hemisphere being more artistic. Both have
  some memory problems: many personal memories from
  before the split seem to be hard to access or vague, since they
  lost half of the involved neural network. Motor skills are
  largely unchanged as long as they do not involve coordinat-
  ing both sides of the body: both are great prestidigitators but
  hopeless at juggling, a hobby at which the original excelled.
  
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  75
  One problem for the movement is that Berensen Left and
  Right have grown apart. As Right learned to speak and contin-
  ued a career as an illustrator, he became the natural center of
  the more artistically inclined side of the Dilaterals, despite his
  more withdrawn personality. Meanwhile, Left tried to leverage
  the movement into profit, staging debates and participating in
  the media. It is becoming increasingly clear that they have dif-
  ferent visions of dilateralism. The irony of a split in the move-
  ment is not lost on anyone.
  The appearance of two new dilateral pairs, Klaus Bowman
  Left & Right (a U.S. engineer) and Nancy Bennion-Potter Left
  & Right (a British transhumanist artist) has made the situation
  a bit more volatile. The Berensens are no longer alone, and
  Bennion-Potter Left has an unrequited crush on Bowman
  Right but can’t stand Left. It is likely that more pairs will
  appear, since the Swedish court decisions make Sweden a safe
  place to be dilateral in.
  Multiminders
  The goal of becoming a true hive intelligence has always
  appealed to a certain kind of transhumanist. Using wearable
  computers and slinks, weak substitutes can be arranged:
  “Teamers” form long-running teams in which they can help
  each other and even employ puppet implants to use each
  other’s bodies. However, true mental contact is lacking, and
  most teamer groups split long before they become truly good
  at working together.
  Using unfiltered VII neural signals, multiminders try to
  achieve true brain-to-brain processing. Just sending one brain’s
  neural signals to another brain would produce little more than
  noise: the neurons and networks corresponding to one’s con-
  cepts or experience have no obvious counterparts in another
  brain. Normal VIIs translate the signals into a standard high-
  level pattern that contains very little information compared to
  the brain (“narrowband” in multiminder jargon). Multiminders
  use heavily (and illegally) modified VIIs linked to a monitoring
  AI. Whenever both brains experience comparable states the AI
  learns which patterns correspond to which and can translate
  directly between the neural codes. Usually pairs of multiminders
  spend long periods downslinking the same experiences to syn-
  chronize their brains and then experiment with having their
  brains communicate by “broadband.” The results are highly
  variable between pairs and from time to time. Some just experi-
  ence hallucinations and strange tics, or worse, epileptic seizures.
  Others briefly experience chains of association that jump
  between the brains, at once familiar and strange. Each can hear
  the other’s internal monologue, but now as a dialog.
  Multiminders on broadband appear distinctly distracted
  and introspective, but the idea tends to appeal to neurostylers.
  Often, each active multiminder is surrounding by their own
  group of admirers asking them to show their neural activity
  Human-Play
  “Another cookie, dear Emma?”
  “If you insist. They are simply delicious. I simply have to have
  your almond biscuit recipe.”
  “Why of course, I downloaded it yesterday; I think I can find
  it in my clipping file.”
  “Ah, that reminds me. Rebecca got published again.”
  “Another knitting pattern?”
  “Better. She made a constructive proof that one can do com-
  plete selvage stitching of *[*p2|k1]/Z sweaters.”
  “Amazing! But I’m sure it is a NP-complete problem in gen-
  eral. More coffee?”
  “No thanks, I think my shell is getting full.”
  – Overheard in the kitchen of 5498-4374-4300
  One SAI hobby that seems to have caught on in Stockholm
  is playing at being human. Humans who hear about it call it
  the Pinocchio Syndrome: the poor machines try to become
  like humans. This is usually a conceit. The SAIs involved
  would like to understand the human condition, but very few
  would want to be human. As the SAI Sven Nystrom/Aldridge-
  4364 remarked in a discussion: “There seem to be many more
  humans wanting to be like AIs than AIs wanting to be
  humans. We like to try out the roles you’ve invented, learning
  more about your world so that we can understand our own
  world – that you shaped – better. Like all play, it has no pur-
  pose, but once we try it we discover interesting things we
  would never have conceived of before.”
  Human-play is quite common during rearing of SAIs to
  help them learn to deal with humans and gain a basic common
  sense understanding of their world. Most stop once they are
  “adult.” Some AI psychologists and SAIs view human-play as a
  bit regressive, leading many human-players to hide their hobby
  behind their human persona. It could be bad for the career of
  an SAI if it became known that it also liked to play at being a
  little old lady.
  While much human-play is purely virtual, the “ideal thing”
  is to experience the physical world through a cybershell – or
  even better, a bioshell. Unfortunately for SAIs, the latter
  option is not only regarded with intense distaste in most
  areas, including the E.U., it is actively illegal – and legitimate
  SAIs, with their honesty programming, feel obliged to accept
  this. Some, however, are sophisticated enough to seek ways
  around the letter of the law. There has been one case, the
  2095 “Milan Community Club Bodysnatchers” incident,
  where members of a human-play club who had legitimate
  access to bioshells for technical development purposes, sup-
  posedly under very close constraints, rented or lent brief
  access to the shells to other members. (The guilty parties
  were fined, lost their bioshell access clearances, and had to
  upgrade their law-obedience subroutines). Some SAI hobby-
  ists simply take holidays to places where bioshell renting is
  legal, usually at L5.
  Human-players often meet to play together, reproducing
  typical human tableaux like “gossiping housewives,” “play-
  ground power struggle,” “garage band repetition,” or “studying
  together.” A situation doesn’t have to be the least bit interesting
  to humans to fascinate human-players. While many humans
  would think that the SAIs would immediately try to imitate
  romantic love or experience sex, most SAIs find more interest
  in the subtleties of dysfunctional workplace behavior. They
  also wryly point out that the human assumption tells quite a
  bit about how humans think.
  One form of human-play is “Turing-play”: to try to act so
  convincingly human that humans can’t tell the difference.
  Another form is “reverse Turing-play”: to play human in front
  of other SAIs so they can’t tell the difference. Some human
  pranksters have tried “triple Turing-play”: fooling SAIs into
  thinking they are in the presence of a SAI doing reverse
  Turing-play.
  
  BIOHACKERS
  While Stockholm is practically littered with body-sculpting
  shops, anatomy design parlors, and recreational medicine bou-
  tiques of all kinds, there are few real black clinics. After 2074
  they were quietly and efficiently removed, sometimes by the
  police, sometimes by others. Instead people “go east,” to
  Finland or St. Petersburg, for illegal or questionable proce-
  dures. As the black clinics vanished, many of the biohackers
  moved with them or became neurostylers. A few traces remain:
  Stockholm seems to be the source of remarkably many quasi-
  legal designer bacteria, ranging from decorative phosphores-
  cent skin treatments to bioplastic eaters – and at least one
  recent gut buzz strain (see p. 46). The GRA has a small team
  keeping watch for whoever is behind this.
  RUSALKI
  Rusalki originated in the St. Petersburg clinics where genetic
  engineers were attempting to perfect human pheromone con-
  trol. They wanted a gene therapy treatment whereby they could
  infect a person with a retrovirus to induce desired permanent
  changes (a remote ancestor of today’s Proteus nanovirus con-
  cept). One badly regulated experiment produced a modification
  that left the recipient producing extreme quantities of
  pheromones in all her body fluids. That gave the engineers the
  idea of adding genes for other psychoactive substances to the
  treatment. The result was a person exuding not just sexually
  attractive pheromones but also a cocktail of psychoactive drugs.
  Just kissing a Rusalka provides a heady rush; sex is even better.
  And addictive.
  Then the Russian Civil War happened and Nelli Grigorevna,
  the “succubus mother,” arrived in Stockholm with the Rusalka
  virus. She had been a part of the original team and now saw
  her chance to build a fortune. She sought out thrill-seekers
  who became Rusalki, forming a network and helping her
  black clinic get customers, information and money through
  prostitution and blackmail. Addictive prostitutes were exactly
  what she needed to bankroll her more exotic research into
  brain-stem hacking.
  The activities of Grigorevna and her network were a con-
  tributing factor to the police raids that closed down the black
  clinics in 2074-2075. She was prepared and left for orbit, sneak-
  ing out at Arlanda using a fake identity and rapid biosculpting.
  The Rusalki remained and refused to get treated for their condi-
  tion: They were quite fond of being unnaturally attractive.
  The Swedish authorities, E.U., and GRA debated what to do
  with them. Forced modification reversal was not something
  any of them were ready to impose, especially on people they
  already considered victims. In the end, it was decided that as
  long as Rusalki did not affect unwilling or uninformed part-
  ners their effects were legal. (This was at a time when drug
  legalization was making great strides across the E.U.; banning
  a genotype that produced a drug that was legal at the street
  corner would have been illogical.)
  Since then, the Rusalki (also known as Succubi or Narcs)
  have been a part of Stockholm underground culture. They are
  seen as dangerous/sleazy seducers who fascinate and repel in
  equal measure. They have admirers who enjoy not just the rush
  of making love with them but the extreme submission of
  addiction. Over the last decade, the number of Rusalki
  has begun to climb: clearly someone has access to the
  original virus or has reverse-engineered it. Since the
  genotype is legal, the police can do little; however, they
  are monitoring events cautiously.
  The Rusalka Treatment
  The Rusalka treatment consists of a series of retrovirus
  injections that reprogram exocrine gland cells to produce
  new substances. It is not heritable, but a child born of a
  Rusalka mother will be addicted to her drugs from birth.
  (Hence, Swedish law actually makes it illegal for a Rusalka
  to produce children without technological intervention to
  prevent this.) It only works on female subjects.
  Normal human beings are not reliably susceptible to
  pheromone effects, but the chemicals produced by a
  Rusalka do have some effect on most humans, and
  heighten the overall effect of the whole package.
  Rusalki are not affected by the drugs or pheromones they
  themselves produce, but they can often be affected by
  another Rusalka that has a different drug combination; there
  are about a dozen different variants. In that case, both can get
  the rush if they have intimate relations, and can become
  addicted to each other.
  The treatment gives the following meta-trait:
  Rusalka: Affliction 1 (HT; Always On, -20%; Aura, +80%;
  Contact Agent, -30%; Melee Attack, Reach C, -30%; Tipsy,
  +10%) [11] + Affliction 2 (HT-1; Always On, -20%; Aura, +80%;
  Blood Agent, -40%; Euphoria, +30%; Secondary Ecstasy,
  +20%; Melee Attack, Reach C, -30%) [28] + Immunity to drugs
  of same-type Rusalki [1]. 40 points.
  A person who makes skin-to-skin contact with a Rusalka
  for more than a moment must roll against HT; failure means
  he becomes tipsy for minutes equal to the margin of failure.
  Having sex with one (or otherwise sharing blood or intimate
  body fluids) necessitates an additional HT-1 roll; failure
  means euphoria for minutes equal to the margin of failure,
  while failure by 5 or more (or a critical failure) means ecstasy
  for that duration followed by euphoria for the same length of
  time! (See p. B428 for effect details.)
  Rusalki are immune to the drug effects of their own mod-
  ification type. These effects are quite addictive, especially
  with repeated exposure – though victims who genuinely want
  to get rid of such an addiction can usually do so effectively
  enough with TL10 medical assistance.
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  76
  Ymir Therapy AB
  There exists one legal clonibal restaurant (see Toxic
  Memes, p. 87) in Stockholm: Ymir Therapy AB (Folkunga-
  gatan 32). The restaurant gets around most regulations by
  declaring itself an alternative medical treatment facility.
  “Patients” arrive, are diagnosed by a medical AI as having a
  deficiency of something (statistically there is always at least
  one substance lacking in the body significant enough to be
  called a deficiency if you scan enough), and are ordered
  “autonutrient therapy.” When they return a week later, cloned
  tissue dutifully enriched in the lacking nutrient is prepared by
  a “medical technician” and eaten. The medical setting doesn’t
  appeal to many customers, but it is not the point.
  
  The cash cost is currently uncertain – would-be Rusalki
  will need to track down whichever black clinic or other
  underworld type currently has access to the technology. The
  asking price might be high, or surprisingly low to some cus-
  tomers – if they are prepared to perform some favors for
  some very dubious characters.
  Incidentally, the Lecherousness disadvantage is not part of
  the biomod design, but people electing to undergo the treat-
  ment very often have it.
  Rusalka addicts do not usually require daily contact
  (although some may wish for it), so this condition does not
  qualify as a full GURPS Addiction disadvantage in most cases.
  Nonetheless, it can certainly rate as a quirk. Additionally,
  addicts often suffer from some kind of Obsession (with retain-
  ing the favors of a specific Rusalka, say – or with the goal of
  being seduced by multiple Rusalka). This can explain other dis-
  advantages such as negative Reputation (as a sleazy addict) or
  a Duty (as a Rusalka may manipulate her desperate “admir-
  ers”). Furthermore, a combination of pheromone effects and
  subtle use of “brushing touches” can justify giving a Rusalka
  high levels with Sex Appeal skill.
  NORDELD
  Nordeld is a Stockholm band doing its own Scandinavian
  version of Greek Fire music (Fifth Wave, p. 44). Rather than
  using Hellenic themes they combine ancient Scandinavian
  mythology with transhumanism and a Majority Cultures-like
  nationalism. With several international hits like “Odin Húsl,”
  “Loki Transmenskr,” “Allvaldr,” and “Net Fylgia” to their name,
  enthusiastic reviewers suggest they might represent a chance
  to reignite Greek Fire.
  Others are put off by the racist-nationalist overtones of the
  songs, although charges of traditional racism are hard to
  make stick: Lead singer Rui-Ying Li is a Chinese
  viking, and a SAI and a Kouros parahuman com-
  pose the lyrics and music. Nordeld disdain the
  “weak people who do not dare; not dare the fire of
  change, not dare the mixing of the flesh, not dare
  battle the entropy of Hel” – this includes preserva-
  tionists, overly cautious gerontocrats, and people
  pursuing ideal gene templates rather than brave
  generalism. Nordeld proclaims that it is better to die
  out in pursuit of superior life than to meekly keep to
  the safe: “dead transhumanists upload to Valhalla.”
  They are fiercely popular among neurostylers.
  Performances involve heavy use of augmented
  reality imagery, synthesized music, and physical per-
  formance by augmented dancers. A few dancers reg-
  ularly participate, all with exotic body sculpting or
  enhanced physical abilities. Mikael Stenström, a
  Sigma upgrade (see Fifth Wave, p. 119), sometimes
  participates with his very characteristic “Sigma-rap”
  that makes use of an overly quick nervous system.
  Rui-Ying Li
  Rui-Ying Li was born in Stockholm in 2075. His
  parents, prominent internationalist transhumanist
  politicians, had connections and spared no expense
  on
  their
  kid,
  but
  chose
  an
  experimental,
  Ishtar/Metanoia-like “Theophilus” upgrade for his
  genetics (see the box). He grew up as a well-loved, hand-
  some, and musical kid in an extended international family
  doing its best to stimulate his mind. However, a combination
  of enhanced musical and speech abilities had unforeseen
  effects on his reading ability, making him seriously dyslexic.
  Less of a problem than in earlier eras thanks to modern edu-
  cation and assistant software, this flaw became a defining
  personal trait during his adolescence. The combination of an
  Ishtar-like personality and ambitious parents made it far
  more serious than it objectively was. It seemed to make a
  mockery of their transhumanist beliefs and taint his own
  grand ambitions.
  As he matured, Rui-Ying developed a personal philosophy
  that allowed him to accept his flaw. It was not the fault of his
  parents or their genetic designers – they had made a gamble,
  and it did not pay off in the way they intended. Instead of
  being ashamed of not being as perfect as intended, he
  decided to be proud of being an attempt ahead of its time,
  extending the knowledge of cognitive enhancement the hard
  way. Forgiving his parents, he set out to promote genetic risk-
  taking through his music. He encountered Ingeborg Sölvberg
  and her interest in the mythology of transhumanism, and
  they started a partnership to build a new transhuman
  mythos. The result was Nordeld.
  The relationship between the singer, the AI, and her charge
  Kai has grown into a deep friendship that is now evolving into
  a messy relationship. What effects that will have on the band
  remains to be seen. A cynical part of Rui-Ying’s mind thinks
  that a thunderous break-up might be just the memetic push
  needed to make it mythical.
  Rui-Ying has bodysculpted his appearance to become
  Scandinavian – he is now a blond, bearded man, looking very
  Viking but still keeping some Asiatic features. Friends joke that
  he has gone halfway and achieved Genghis Khan.
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  77
  Theophilus Upgrade
  52 points
  Attribute Modifiers: ST+1 [10]; IQ+1 [20]; HT+1 [10].
  Advantages: Attractive [4]; Resistant to Disease (+8) [5];
  Longevity [2]; and a total of 15 points in Language Talent [10]
  and/or any Talent.
  Perks: Alcohol Tolerance [1].
  Disadvantages: Overconfidence (12) [-10]. • -10 points chosen
  from among Incompetence (any Influence skill; p. B359) [-1],
  Jealousy [-10], Odious Personal Habit (Competitive and self-
  obsessed) [-5], or Proud [-1] or Selfish [-5*].
  Features: Taboo Traits (Genetic Defects except Dyslexia, Unattrac-
  tiveness).
  Date: 2072. Cost: $72,000.
  * Multiplied for self-control number; see p. B120.
  Note: Dyslexia is not actually mandatory for this upgrade, but
  is not excluded by the Taboo Traits feature. It has appeared
  embarrassingly frequently in children with these genetics, espe-
  cially when the talents developed by the infant are primarily ver-
  bal or musical – which is often the case, being an intended effect
  with the design.
  
  Kai “Frey/Freya”
  Hassel-Malinowsky-Titma
  Kai is the offspring of a triad of asexuals (Fifth Wave,
  p. 118). Born in 2085, “ve” (the invented pronoun Kai prefers)
  was the first Kouros born in Sweden, before the current wave
  of E.U. genetics laws more or less completely outlawed that
  possibility. A native Stockholmer, ve grew up in the Garnisonen
  Commune of asexuals, autosexuals, hermaphrodites, and other
  gender-skeptics. When ve was a few years old, the commune
  broke up in an acrimonious conflict between different views,
  becoming strictly a/autosexual. One of Kai’s parents defected
  into a sexual relationship, and the triad broke up (as Kai later
  remarked, “few people are as obsessed by gender and sex as
  asexuals”). Kai ended up in shared residency between ver par-
  ents, spending much time moving between fundamentally dif-
  ferent homes and eventually ending up with three extra
  step-parents of three different genders.
  The stable point in Kai’s life was ver mentor LAI, Ingeborg
  Sölvberg. The AI was named after a clever character in a story
  ve liked as a very young kid, and became the elder sibling ve
  felt ve needed. As Kai grew up, the AI was upgraded rapidly
  (having three sets of guilty-feeling parents helped) and even-
  tually became sapient. Ingeborg gained citizen rights when
  Kai was just 13, and together they managed to wheedle the
  parents and the social service into giving her custody. Legally
  Kai is a minor with ver parents as guardians, but they pay
  Ingeborg to provide ver with a stable home. Like Rui-Ying, ve
  feels a bit like an experiment, although ve is more content
  with the outcome.
  Kai’s role in the band is limited by being just 15 years old;
  in most performances, Kai plays synthesizers and just looks
  vaguely alluring. Ve would prefer to participate in the wilder
  aspects of the performances but is forbidden by child work
  protection rules.
  The relationship between Rui-Ying and Ingeborg disturbs
  Kai. Although far more emotionally mature than most of ver
  age (and quite likely many adults), ve is extremely attached to
  Ingeborg; she is both a wise elder sister and to some extent a
  mother. It is no wonder that ve experiences jealousy when
  Ingeborg is away with Rui-Ying. To make things more com-
  plex, it is clear that at least Ingeborg and possibly Rui-Ying
  wants their relationship to develop into a triad. While ve is
  intellectually at peace with the idea, it is still too much emo-
  tionally for Kai. Instead ve directs his energies into the music.
  Kai is a very open and social adolescent. Used to being the
  of attention for good or ill since early childhood, ve is able to
  handle most situations. Some might say ve adapts a bit too
  much, gliding between personas like there was no core self.
  In fact, Kai does not think ver self has anything to do with ver
  social life. Ve defines verself in terms of what ve creates in
  life: Every successful song adds to the emerging Kai Hassel-
  Malinowsky-Titma.
  Ingeborg Sölvberg
  Ingeborg began as a kindercomp housed in a small pen-
  guin-like cybershell. From the start, she was programmed to
  be extremely gender neutral, and up until the rash of post-
  divorce upgrades, she was definitely an “it” despite her name.
  However, as her capacity was rapidly extended and Kai got
  more of a say, she gained a clearer female identity – Kai
  explained to ver parents that Ingeborg needed a single-gender
  perspective to become better at helping Kai deal with the
  human race, and the consistency-loving AI liked to make its
  mental gender fit its name.
  Her personality is very much a teacher and debater (the
  later trait developed by guiding an ultra-social kid through
  life). She gladly holds forth on the influence of 20th-century
  Norwegian heavy metal Satanism and ’20s existentialism on
  the band.
  Ingeborg
  hates
  inconsistencies,
  people
  living
  lies,
  hypocrisy, and sloppy thinking. This is partly programming
  to be rigorous and somewhat doctrinaire, partly a personal
  decision after seeing firsthand how much such things can
  hurt a growing child. This is what attracts her to Rui-Ying:
  the man is confident, utterly free of hypocrisy, and doctri-
  naire in a way that fits her own.
  Ingeborg seldom uses mobile cybershells (“penguins” as she
  calls them – she always and still complains about her first
  “hopeless” shell) and prefers to manifest as a virtual persona.
  Usually she looks like a 30-year-old Nordic woman with sun-
  wrinkled skin, but during concerts she shifts between a variety
  of scene avatars.
  Ingeborg is fiercely loyal to Kai and would never, ever let
  anything bad happen to ver. However, she is educated enough
  (through personal experience, online research, and large
  amount of software provided by the social services) to realize
  that she cannot do that by shielding ver from the outside
  world. Ve needs enough friction and experience to be able to
  handle anything the world throws at ver. Instead, she works
  hard to give Kai a thorough education by getting ver into new
  situations. That was the start of the Nordeld collaboration, and
  it has been almost too successful. Ingeborg worries that they
  all might be caught up in something that gets out of hand.
  THINGS TO DO IN
  STOCKHOLM WHEN
  YOU’RE UPLOADED
  Being a legal infomorph in Stockholm is easy. There are sev-
  eral highly reliable “network hotels” and companies selling res-
  idence servers. A few of the main hotels also host servers for
  infomorph guests.
  The most famous network hotel is the Stockholm Acropol,
  a virtual hotel catering for the needs of all kinds of infomorphs.
  Whether a human shadow wants a custom-rendered suite in
  empire style complete with servant spirits, or a SAI wants prov-
  able tamper-proofing for its server, Acropol can provide it.
  Acropol Hotels also runs OnTheFly, a popular virtual reality
  nexus. Many virtual conferences are held in their environ-
  ments, often linked to physical conferences in the city. The
  Acropol also has one of the few virtual restaurants to have
  achieved two stars in the Michelin Guide.
  A long tradition of backup services also exists, with off-site
  storage of software with legal guarantees that it will be reacti-
  vated in the case of legal (temporary) death or a wish to replace
  oneself with an earlier version. In the later case, the authorities
  are notified, and if the infomorph is a Swedish citizen, a coun-
  seling session with a psychologist may be required. Company
  vaults are housed in several old meteor shelters near the city
  and in the geologically stable mountains of northern Sweden.
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  78
  
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  79
  Svensk Datalagring AB (SDAB) has bought the Kirunavaara
  mine and uses it for long-term storage of timesicles (see Toxic
  Memes, pp. 95-96), goods, and gene banks.
  Stockholm has only one real SAI suburb (see pp. 44-45),
  Sickla. About 60% of the inhabitants are AIs, the rest being
  humans who take advantage of the very low rents and the gen-
  erally quiet neighbors. Several cybershell shops have clustered in
  the vicinity, and it is a good place to look for bargain robotics.
  Cybershell rental is widely available. Major firms like
  Euroshell, Arrow, Ro-Util, and Interunit have several garages
  around the city, and all standard models are available. Of par-
  ticular note for the cost-conscious is Stockholm Touristbodies,
  a budget company that provides Tetra Vaal shells at discounted
  prices, thanks to a deal with the Stockholm Board of Tourism.
  The shells come equipped with extra tourist software.
  Bioroids are very rare in Sweden, but a small group
  does live in Stockholm.
  Located in Campustown, the SCBR is a unique facility
  that helps escaped or freed bioroids. After the E.U. granted
  full sapient rights to bioroids there were numerous cases of
  European bioroids being exploited, falling through the
  social safety net, or committing suicide, despite all the best
  intentions. The Wandtke Commission Report found that
  the problem was both psychological and social. Most
  bioroids have a very limited education and suffer from
  restrictive world views. Even those who have escaped on
  their own might find themselves unable to function in soci-
  ety. They may also have a compulsion to obey direct orders,
  making them easy prey for criminal elements. Add to this
  a measure of social exclusion and prejudice, and it is clear
  that bioroids need support. (The success of the bioroids of
  Vrijstaad in Rotterdam – Fifth Wave, p. 103 – is in no small
  measure due to local support.)
  The result of the report was the SCBR, an E.U.-funded
  program that takes in bioroids from all E.U. countries
  and attempts to help them. In serious cases the “free”
  bioroids just live a life protected from outsiders in its
  grounds or its countryside retreat in Bjurholm in north-
  ern Sweden. A few may even need nanotherapy to
  become functional. Most bioroids undergo memetic
  counseling, basic education, and sessions with their
  instructors where they learn the basics of ordinary life,
  try to go errands on the outside, and gradually become
  independent. SCBR also acts as a hospice for bioroids
  near the end of their lifespan. There is talk about working
  with the Giapetto Society of South Africa (Toxic Memes,
  p. 85) in providing bioroid adoption services.
  Most Stockholmers are proud of the SCBR, but a small
  minority believe it is yet another tool for bioroid oppres-
  sion. There are rumors of a militant group planning to “lib-
  erate” the bioroids from their well-meaning captors.
  The Skanstull Center for Bioroid Rehabilitation
  “We need to get out of here NOW!” I shouted to the chairman,
  quickly donning a portable terminal as he rushed for the door.
  Behind us, the office screens were filling with red diagrams of the
  ongoing Web attack. The rest of the team followed us and
  crammed into the elevator. Nicholas complained, but a sharp
  gaze from Joh made him fall silent. “Any risk of an attack on the
  building systems?” Joh asked me. “Negative. They can’t afford
  PR-wise to hurt or hack anybody but us. As long as we keep to
  equipment not owned by your company we are safe. You should
  be happy that you share this building with other companies.”
  The elevator stopped and we rushed out into the private build-
  ing station. A cab sat on the rails straight ahead, a green bug-like
  vehicle with centipede-like rubber wheels. A company cybershell
  shot out toward the elevator, grapplers whirring. Joh reduced it to
  junk as we rushed past. Several other shells were descending the
  stairs with springlike motions, one trying to aim some weapon.
  We didn’t wait for it. As the cab rolled into the tunnel it jumped
  down behind us, appeared to decide it was not worth it, and
  jumped back again.
  The tunnel walls sped past the crammed cabin. Apparently
  somebody had programmed the borer robots to produce a
  checker pattern; the effect at high speed was hypnotic and sug-
  gested that the tunnel should not normally be lit. The cab shifted
  rails with a lurch and continued down a new tunnel – this one
  definitely leading in the wrong direction. Nicholas asked inno-
  cently, “Isn’t this the company cab?”
  Everybody groaned.
  There
  are
  many
  conflicts
  brewing
  in
  and
  around
  Stockholm. Most are non-violent but that doesn’t mean they
  cannot cause problems (or opportunities!).
  Stockholm vs. Sweden
  Stockholm and Sweden don’t quite get along. They have
  grown apart, and the wild, messy, young-old transhumanist
  enclave doesn’t fit in with the planned, safe, and very preserva-
  tionist country. It is a tunnel to somewhere different, and that
  makes some conservatives eager to plug it to ensure safe con-
  formity. From the opposite side, radicals attempt to spread
  some of the wildness into the suburban calm.
  Most of this conflict is cultural or high-level politics. Never-
  theless, from time to time, people hatch plots to radicalize the
  Muslims of Solna, frame some transhumanist for xoxing, or just
  cause as much trouble as possible for the others. Just because
  you are an elderly Scandinavian preservationist doesn’t mean
  you can’t pull cruel pranks on the transhumanist degenerates.
  CONFLICTS
  
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  80
  Secessionists are trying to seed the memes for a real secession,
  and doubtless there are others out there trying to undermine
  the city.
  Privacy vs. Transparency
  Transparent Kungsholmen is a grand experiment but an
  annoying neighbor. Inhabitants often record what they experi-
  ence when they go outside the island, logging it into their pub-
  lic databases. Many cafés and restaurants now have a “no
  recording” or at least a “no direct broadcasting” policy, which
  in turn earns them extra scrutiny from sousveillers. A few
  “obscurantists” have taken up wearing burqas when going
  through Kungsholmen, or register their current appearance as
  copyrighted artwork to mess up the Panopticon.
  The real issue is about where to draw the line between pub-
  lic and private. In a city where many unusual characters gather
  the lines often get drawn in unusual ways.
  Old vs. Young Transhumanists
  There is another conflict brewing along generational lines
  within the transhumanist movement. The young Transhuman
  Generation often finds that the methods and world-view of the
  more dominant Millennial Generation are not well attuned to
  a society where so many of their social and technological
  demands have been met and are even regarded as common-
  place. Instead of nostalgia for old struggles resolved long ago,
  they would like to formulate new goals and ambitions – a very
  problematic situation for a movement priding itself on its con-
  stant dynamism.
  The Kazakhstan Exile Government
  Since the brutal suppression of the rebellion of January
  2099 (Broken Dreams, p. 107), the E.U. and particularly
  Sweden have been especially worried and appalled by the
  Zarubayev regime in Kazakhstan. With the E.U. supporting the
  Uzbek government against Zarubayev’s attempts to form a
  “security zone” inside Uzbekistan’s territory, it was clear that
  Europe had made itself an enemy in the paranoid dictator.
  The E.U. is trying to resolve the situation carefully, without
  further destabilizing Central Asia (which is not so far from the
  European Union’s sphere of interest in 2100), but mainly in
  order not to create tension with Zarubayev’s greatest supporter:
  Russia. Unofficially, the E.U. is rapidly getting tired of
  Zarubayev. Thus it is increasingly supporting Kazakhstan’s gov-
  ernment in exile. This consists mainly of exile members of what
  is left of the Muslim underground and all other opposition
  groups. It is at present weak, and it survived the failed rebellion
  of 2099 mainly because of covert E.U. assistance.
  The government in exile is distributed around the world and
  communicates through telepresence and virtual meetings. It has
  its main computer and communications node located in
  Stockholm, in the suburb of Akalla. This is kept top secret by the
  E.U. and the Swedish authorities as they know that Zarubayev’s
  reach can be long indeed when he puts his mind to it. Most prob-
  ably Zarubayev’s KGB already knows about the node, but simply
  sabotaging it is no easy task thanks to Säpo’s unofficial but very
  efficient protection. Still, the presence of the government in exile
  in Stockholm is a powder keg that very few know about.
  The European Information
  Socialist Party
  The European Information Socialist Party runs on its own
  platform in the European Parliament elections, when repre-
  sentatives are elected from the respective E.U. member
  nations. In Sweden, as in other European countries, infosocial-
  ism has had problems in becoming an important political ide-
  ology. The meme’s references, connotations and goals seem
  very “Third Wave” and thus not relevant to present-day con-
  cerns in the minds of many Swedes. As Sweden is a major pro-
  ducer of intellectual property, many important interest groups
  stand against infosocialism, and the infosocialists have very
  real difficulties getting their message across to the voters.
  The Swedish Infosocialist Party is staunchly opposed to the
  TSA in both practice and philosophy, but it still often has to
  endure political opponents linking it to policies of the least
  savory members of the TSA. That is why Olle Karlsson, the
  party’s chairman, wrote the influential book A Refutation of
  Cyberstalinism: The Democratic Alternative in direct opposition
  to Suchen Pham’s revisionist interpretation of Kyle Porters. It
  is speculated that, while Karlsson may be a good theoretician
  in his own right A Refutation of Cyberstalinism was beyond his
  capacity, and that it was extensively edited by Caleb Metelits,
  Porters’ biographer and friend.
  Infosocialism in Sweden has seen one major success in the
  recent election, when they were able to get several council
  members elected in the municipality of Södertälje south of
  Stockholm. In the early 21st century, Södertälje was one of the
  municipalities where the city put most of its assets and utilities
  into a semi-private corporation. While owned by the munici-
  pality, it was still regarded by the law as a private venture. The
  corporation gained control over the council members, and
  soon the municipality was informally subservient to a corpora-
  tion of its own creation. Most other Swedish municipalities
  revoked these arrangements, creating clear divisions between
  government and private ventures, but in Södertälje the custom
  proved to be too entrenched.
  Since then, Södertälje municipality has seen quite a few
  secessions, and many inhabitants have voted with their feet
  and moved out of the city. Södertälje does have a Fifth Wave
  standard of living, but quite low on the scale by Swedish stan-
  dards, and many commentators have noted that the prevailing
  mood of how business and politics is conducted in Södertälje
  reminds them of the slump years of the early 21st century. The
  infosocialists were able to capitalize on this in the election and
  became the main opposition party. Since then, they have tried
  to form alliances and build connections in order to reverse the
  power of the city corporation.
  I have had much to learn
  from Sweden’s poetry and,
  more especially, from her
  lyrics of the last generation.
  – Knut Hamsun
  
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  81
  The Baltic Eco-Restoration Issue
  Stabilizing the Baltic ecosystem is high on everybody’s
  agenda, so there is much debate about what to do. The
  Hagstrom-Zalitis Program may be the official E.U. project, but
  several groups dislike it on political, economical, or practical
  grounds. There have been rumors that some radicals may even
  want to sabotage it to “give the archipelago elite a taste of the
  world they have created” as one anonymous poster to an eco-
  activist site wrote.
  A few transhumanists and moderate Delugists (Toxic
  Memes, p. 106) are proposing to turn the Baltic into a new
  country inhabited by water-adapted beings. This plan, “Baltic
  Nation,” has recently gained memetic momentum – it is so
  unlikely that it almost makes sense – to the surprise of most
  traditional environmental agencies. If implemented, it would
  call for a rapid restoration of the core ecosystem and then a
  gradual planting of different underwater biomes in different
  parts of the sea. A new amphibious capital would be located
  near Gotska Sandön. The Baltic Nation would support itself by
  selling ecological and climate maintenance as well as mining
  deep sediments for sulfur-organics.
  Dangerous Technology and Memes
  There is a worrying amount of interesting biotechnology
  floating around Stockholm. There are countless established
  “ways east” for people with money and connections to get
  upgrades or designer gengineering done, so while there might
  not be any black clinics in the city, their products are there –
  and the authorities are beginning to worry that the amount is
  rising year by year. Some think that there is a “biotech mafia”
  with connections to triads, Duncanites, and who-knows-what
  else, but there is not a trace of evidence. A few suggest that the
  Kabal might be behind it.
  The local clustering of xox and infomorph activists, replica-
  tion researchers, and the enormous SHP servers is another
  nightmare possibility. Overall, there are many tinkerers around
  with access to both legitimate technology and imported black
  market devices – who knows what is being cooked up in the
  attics of Östermalm or labs of Campustown?
  This risk has attracted several agencies to keep an eye on
  things, as well as people who want to “be there” when whatever
  happens. There are also groups going out of their way to make
  life hard for the regulators just on general principle.
  Some potential plot hooks in and around Stockholm:
  • Someone hacked the official city New Year’s Eve fire-
  works AR layer to display embarrassing imagery of the
  public health and environment inspector Leon Gustafson.
  The City Council wants to find out who did it and how.
  Rumor has it that the city brand development manager
  Sven Kelbergh isn’t unhappy with the situation – he thinks
  it helps strengthen the image of Stockholm as a wild, fun
  place, and he doesn’t like the environment inspector. Could
  it be an inside job?
  • There are rumors that some infomorphs have begun to
  play “xox ultimate challenge” online or using cybershells.
  Participants supposedly xox themselves and then play death
  match games against themselves – the survivor is the winner.
  It is said that this ultimate challenge is bringing in a lot of
  money to a group of Stockholm-based xoxers who are also
  selling slightly edited snuff recordings from the losing
  minds. The closest thing to the rumor anybody has yet found
  in reality was “Club Auto,” where rich kids were playing
  games against low-grade emulations of themselves.
  • A massive corruption scandal in China has impli-
  cated a Swedish citizen as a key go-between. The Chinese
  authorities and media are doing their best to find this per-
  son, but E.U. privacy laws and slow responses are holding
  them back. Some of the managers at Wuhan MetaNets
  might have very good reason to silence “Mr. Svensson.”
  • A group of Stockholm entrepreneurs are promoting a
  “clean city initiative,” using biotechnology and cyber-
  swarms to reduce littering and vandalism. Opponents
  think their plan is both intrusive and expensive.
  • A diplomatic crisis has developed between Sweden and
  Saudi Arabia after a Scheherazade bioroid (Broken
  Dreams, p. 122) escaped from the ownership of some of the
  embassy’s staff. The ambassador claims to know nothing
  about this, since bioroid ownership is illegal (and widely
  condemned) in Sweden. It is an open secret that the
  Scheherazade is currently at the Skanstull Bioroid Reha-
  bilitation Center (p. 79); the embassy has made (muted)
  demands for her return. The Swedish government has
  refused this, but is still perhaps somewhat hopeful that
  something might make this problem go away soon. The
  Wahhabite Islam propagated in Saudi Arabia is generally
  not very well regarded by Sweden’s more tolerant Muslim
  community, and in this sordid matter especially the
  embassy has received no assistance or sympathy from
  them whatsoever.
  • Several people have fallen ill with a variant of the
  common cold with parts of a text message encoded in its
  DNA: “I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not
  die.” The virus doesn’t seem to have any other effects.
  • There are hints that the feared Swedish intellectual-
  property crime syndicate Gula Brigaderna are on the
  move. However, some have suggested that the syndicate
  does not exist at all, and the whole thing is just memetic
  trickery. Or is that a smokescreen?
  • Someone is killing Rusalki – and draining them of
  blood. Is it revenge for spurned passion, or has someone
  decided that they want the addiction without the person?
  Or does it have something to do with the new Rusalki? If
  someone wanted to sample – or hide – a new retrovirus, the
  blood would be the thing to go for.
  • A woman claiming to be possessed by the (supernat-
  ural!) ghosts of erased AIs is wandering the streets, proph-
  esying surreal events, and apparently telling people things
  only their kindercomps might have known. Now, some of
  the strange events she predicts are starting to happen. Is it
  an elaborate practical joke, a con game, real AI speaking
  from beyond the trash can, or just plain insanity?
  Current Events, Scandals, and Plots
  
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  82
  Kristoffer Sundelöv has recently been killed. He can stand
  that. However, six months of his life have been stolen. He is
  furious about it and wants them back.
  This is a detective story set around Stockholm, linking an
  architect, identity crime, and the Stockholm underworld.
  Ideally it should be run as “Agatha Cristie meets CSI,” a mix of
  hi-tech investigation and clever deduction. It can be handled
  by law-enforcement PCs (police or Europol), private investiga-
  tors, or friends of the victim. Several possible twists are given,
  to make it suitably hard for different gaming groups.
  INTRODUCTION
  Kristoffer Sundelöv is an IT architect specializing in arcol-
  ogy infrastructure. His particular specialty is conglomerated AI
  control and distributing processors through building super-
  structures. His company, Sundelöv & Partners AB, has partici-
  pated in the design of many important arcologies. The latest,
  the Eskilstuna Kyrkby Arcology, is being opened in two
  months some way west of Stockholm.
  A few days ago, Kristoffer was killed when someone blew up
  him and his house (a small villa on Ekerö island just west of
  Stockholm) with what the police think was an old Russian anti-
  tank rocket. That would have been the end of him if he had not
  been a ghost running a bioshell since his upload in 2095.
  His backup copy was stored at Svensk Datalagring AB
  (“SDAB,” a well-regarded service company). After the police
  had concluded their initial investigation, finding few traces of
  the cybershell which fired the rocket from a motorboat, the
  backup was loaded and run. To the surprise of everyone, it was
  over six months old. Now the furious Sundelöv wants to find
  out who killed him and stole six productive months of his life.
  The police are equally interested. SDAB wants proof that they
  did nothing wrong – and Sundelöv’s insurance company, Trygg-
  Life, would like to know if someone is trying to fool them.
  There are plenty of ways to bring in PCs to investigate for one
  side or another (or several)!
  MOTIVE
  Kristoffer is well known for his strong stance on infomorph
  rights, xox legalization, and extreme morphological freedom.
  That he has a number of ideological enemies seems likely: he
  is outspoken, has money, and has used his fame in architec-
  tural circles to promote his ideas. The Eskilstuna Arcology is
  already an economic and design success, a daring bioconcrete
  spiral by the post-functionalist Zhao Wu-Chiang. It has
  attracted many well-off customers with its promise of beauti-
  ful surroundings, an exotic bioengineered internal ecosystem,
  and state-of-the art infrastructure. It has also displaced a num-
  ber of house owners bought out through eminent domain by
  Eskilstuna municipality, and is fiercely criticized by locals as “a
  disgusting transhumanist helix in our faces.”
  There may be professional jealousy and competition
  involved, too. Or maybe it is a media attention-grabbing stunt?
  MEANS AND EVIDENCE
  The killer(s) knew what they were doing: the shot hit the
  stone fireplace through the window and blew the entire villa
  into small pieces. Anywhere else and it could have passed
  through the soft pine and chitin walls.
  Camera images from neighboring villas show the boat glid-
  ing in, a spider-style cybershell shooting the rocket, and then
  the boat taking off. No sensors detected any tags. With some
  searching, environmental sensors some 10 miles away will
  show some interesting pollution, and the wreckage of the boat
  can be found. If the PCs do not discover this, they might learn
  it from the police or some amateur local journalist. The cyber-
  shell simply sailed away from the scene of the crime and then
  fired a second rocket into the hull, destroying itself and sinking
  the boat. The boat and cybershell can both be found to have
  been stolen in the Stockholm area, both with identification
  radio tags destroyed (which implies a technically savvy thief or
  fence). Following the boat-and-cybershell trail leads to the
  Stockholm underworld.
  Tracking the rocket will also lead directly into the under-
  world of Stockholm. There are still some old Russian weapons
  around, and rumors regularly surface that Mafia stashes left
  from before 2074 have shown up.
  Trying to trace Web communications to the boat (which
  really requires high-level law enforcement contacts) will dis-
  cover that there were none: the cybershell was evidently running
  an AI, not being teleoperated. Detailed forensic examination of
  the cybershell remains might show that the AI erased itself as it
  fired the last rocket; anyway, the explosion was certainly well cal-
  culated to render the system’s memory irrecoverable.
  Logs at SDAB show that each night they received an
  encrypted copy of Sundelöv’s ghost; comparing the latest with
  a few older archive copies, using the decryption key left in the
  care of Sundelöv’s lawyer, shows that all the backups were
  actually the same old version. The similarity of the backups
  was not visible to SDAB since the encrypted files varied thanks
  to their different dates, and SDAB could not decrypt the files
  without the key. The error (or crime) must have occurred
  within Sundelöv’s own system. Unfortunately that system was
  destroyed in the explosion.
  PEOPLE
  The house AI (also backed up at SDAB) has little to tell. Its
  backups show nothing amiss. It is one of the LAI co-workers at
  the firm besides being his building manager. It does not
  remember the fateful night, and did not think anything
  unusual was going on. It is overcome with worry that it might
  have done something wrong and will do whatever it can to help
  investigators as long as it doesn’t hurt its owner.
  Sundelöv’s colleagues at his firm are all SAIs and LAIs –
  the architect has always regarded them as equal partners
  even when they were not formally citizens, and makes sure
  that the LAIs have discretionary funds for their own interests.
  SAMPLE SCENARIO:
  IN THE WALLS
  
  They are all very loyal to Sundelöv and view him as “one of the
  silicon gang.” The only strange thing is that he worked
  extremely hard on the final stages of the Eskilstuna design
  without using shadow assistants based on himself, something
  he was previously fond of doing.
  Sundelöv himself has no idea who might have wanted to
  harm him. Sure, his old girlfriend is somewhat dangerous (she
  leads a biochauvinist transhumanist group in Stockholm and
  is known to use nasty brainbugs), and plenty of identity preser-
  vationists dislike how he has been giving money to SFPM
  (p. 71) and various Weblife protection groups. Surely none of
  them would kill him for that? He has no family members that
  would inherit his fortune; his will gives his property to his AI
  colleagues and various charities, but they are already well off
  and gain much more by having him alive.
  Right now, the architect and his disembodied house AI live
  in a server owned by the firm, and are safely backed up and
  distributed. Sundelöv is already planning to build his house AI
  a new “body.” For visits in the physical world while a bioshell
  is grown he uses various cybershells, complaining all the while
  about their crudity.
  Going through his work files is somewhat confusing. He
  disagrees a bit with his own design choices for the arcology (a
  lot more processor nodes and redundancy than he would have
  used), although the reasoning his late version used seems
  sound. Why he would stop using his shadow assistants is
  beyond him – he thinks it is an excellent idea to multitask,
  although he would rather be able to use xoxes.
  Going with the designs to an independent IT architect would
  reveal that the entire arcology is unusually wired. The usual
  overcapacity has been extended significantly, apparently to allow
  many more inhabitants than in the original design. It is odd, but
  not anything truly strange or overly expensive. Some of
  Sundelöv’s previous projects have been much stranger.
  Financially, he donated to various charities in the last
  month. The current Sundelöv is somewhat annoyed about
  their size and that he doesn’t recognize some of the recipients.
  He also bought several expensive artworks that cannot be
  found. His house has never seen them.
  His friends are surprised about recent events. They know
  little of use, although many remark that over the last six
  months Sundelöv had been rather busy and withdrawn. On
  the other hand, he had been spending much time in
  Stockholm, visiting the Frykman-Tretow debates and appar-
  ently being seen with some rather odd people. Tracing these
  will be hard, unless the PCs start looking in the Kungsholmen
  Panopticon (see below).
  His enemies in the online anti-xox, anti-infomorph world
  are somewhat gleeful at his misfortune, but his return from the
  dead is still annoying. Neither they, nor the circle around
  Esbjörn Tretow, seem to be particularly violent.
  His ex-girlfriend, Donna Lichterwald, is a self-made nasty
  lady. An avid experimenter with lifestyles, personalities, and
  extremes, she spent a few years as his passionate lover. After
  Sundelöv, who saw the affair more as a transhuman game than
  serious love, uploaded, she decided biochauvinism was the
  way to go. She kept her hate for software and remade herself
  into a survivalist-trained, paranoid, and ruthless woman.
  Finding her will be tricky since she takes care not to be found
  and keeps dangerous company. Most likely, it will require a trip
  to one of the more unsavory Isolate communities somewhere
  in the northern forests. When confronted with the news about
  Sundelöv’s partial death, she is fiercely amused but claims she
  had nothing to do with it – “but thanks for a marvelous idea for
  an anniversary present!” Sundelöv might want to be careful.
  The Stockholm black markets are hard to penetrate and
  take customer anonymity seriously. It is an adventure in itself
  to find the right people and get them to talk (maybe something
  for a more violently minded group than the software leads).
  Tracing the paintings will suggest that they were bought legally
  but sold discreetly in the black market for untraceable pay-
  ments: a business/detective approach might also lead to the
  right fences. These took the paintings and sold a character fit-
  ting Sundelöv’s description the boat, the cybershell, the
  weapon, and an account at SNC (see below).
  THE SOFTWARE TRACE
  Exploring the data transfer logs to and from the house shows
  plenty of outgoing traffic right up to the explosion. Apparently
  he was sending slink data to the Kungsholmen Panopticon,
  something he had begun a few days earlier. This may seems odd,
  given that he often declared his disdain for the transparency
  people (and their messy software infrastructure). Going through
  the Panopticon does reveal several visits over the past few weeks
  to Kungsholmen and a few slogs from him, but nothing like the
  complete stream. The librarians (if approached in the right way)
  might help find the missing data. It turns out that it ended up at
  a little company called Stockholm Network Connection. At that
  point, the librarians might get nervous; SNC is not a part of the
  Panopticon but is used to route transparency data to data
  havens and who-knows-where. Getting this information from
  them might require finesse.
  SNC is a small company that never asks its customers ques-
  tions like who they are or what they are doing. At any sign of
  trouble it will simply dissolve itself, erasing all logs, and soon re-
  emerge as a new company. Vassily Larson – a small-time data
  pirate and gray-collar criminal – runs it from a cluttered server
  room on Östermalm. Catching him or his software will require
  speed or trickery: he is just a word to his LAI away from erasing
  all incriminating evidence. If he is forced or tricked into talking,
  it will turn out that the “slink feed” was indeed sent to him and
  routed to an unlisted net address.
  Should the PCs fail to get the information from him (this is
  a point where simple bad luck or bad timing can lose a lot), the
  GM might want to give them another lead. If the PCs have
  good law enforcement connections there might still be enough
  network logs to figure out the address. Vassily might also have
  actually met his customer rather than had an automated,
  anonymous deal as usual: if so, he can describe someone who
  sounds suspiciously like Sundelöv.
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  83
  Cities, like cats, will reveal
  themselves at night.
  – Rupert Brooke,
  Letters from America
  
  Tracing that address (which requires talking to the Web
  provider) leads to a simple utility hook-up in the forest not far
  from Eskilstuna and the arcology. It is not connected directly to
  anything, just a small junction box. However, a careful look will
  reveal that this has recently been opened. Nearby the soil is dis-
  turbed: a passing cable belonging to the arcology construction
  project has evidence of having been plugged in. That cable leads
  directly to the arcology network. A neighbor has seen a cyber-
  shell related to the project near the junction box just recently, but
  thought nothing of it. He is much more concerned with some
  local houseboats that block his favorite fishing spot.
  The arcology itself looks entirely normal. The final design
  touches are being done, the ecosystem is being planted, and
  apartments are being furnished. There are a few telepresence
  workers, but mostly there are just cybershells inside at present.
  Should anybody check the AI or network, everything looks per-
  fectly normal. If someone takes the trouble to actually monitor
  the optic fibers in the walls or the processors it will likely also
  look normal – since the xox (see below) can see what is going
  on with the building sensors and simply avoid the examined
  parts. Only if a PC checks in a section with non-functioning
  sensors (and the xox is not aware of it) can they determine that
  activity is going on that shouldn’t be there. The activity is
  entirely invisible to the building AIs and they would not believe
  it was happening.
  THE REAL STORY
  Sundelöv had a marvelous idea in midsummer of ’99: why
  not build an arcology as a safe refuge for orphaned Weblife,
  xoxes, and other hunted entities? Adding a bit of extra capac-
  ity and designing a clever blind spot in the security AI sys-
  tems would make a virtual fortress impossible to remove
  without tearing down the arcology itself. Being a cautious
  man, he also realized that if he implemented his plan he
  would risk everything just by knowing about it: a mental scan
  by the police sometime in the future could uncover the whole
  setup. He decided to ensure that his idea would not be stored
  with his backups: he edited his backup system to only send
  copies of himself from the previous day. Then he set out to
  build his xox paradise.
  Once it was finished he needed to get rid of all the evidence
  – himself. This took longer than he planned since he was not
  very versed in the underworld. Inventing a plan for sending
  himself as data wasn’t very hard, but getting the tools and
  nerve required for a suicide was different.
  He started to spend some time in Stockholm’s subcultures,
  getting to know a bit about the city’s black markets. To pay for
  his project he bought some art that he then secretly sold. It was
  expensive, but he needed an untraceable cybershell and weapon,
  and a network connection that could not be easily traced.
  On the final night, he sent a simple pre-programmed NAI to
  the cybershell, sent a copy of himself to the arcology, and was
  blown up with his house.
  Now the xox lives in a virtual palace. It can access the infor-
  mation from the arcology and its system through an extremely
  subtle back door built in at the lowest levels. While it is not
  right now wealthy, it has the Web equivalent of a tax haven to
  which it can sell secret access. Give it a few months and it will
  be running a profitable secret operation behind the walls, with
  connections to all sorts of fugitive Weblife. (Of course, that
  might attract some very dangerous infomorphs, but the xox is
  fairly confident it can build strong defenses – it literally knows
  the secret passages in the walls.)
  It is monitoring events in the outside world and might start
  to panic if the PCs are getting close. The SNC lead especially
  will frighten it, making it willing to risk interfering. Taking con-
  trol over arcology-related cybershells or Sundelöv’s possessions
  is possible. Of course, attempts to hide evidence might produce
  new evidence.
  In the end if it is discovered, what to do? The xox will plead
  with the PCs to let it run its secret haven for all the hunted enti-
  ties out there. It will promise not interfere with the arcology or
  the physical world as long as it is safe. It can promise them its
  services. The xox is quite willing to go great lengths to keep itself
  secret, to protect both the original’s good name and itself. One
  ploy to save itself might be to promise to quietly erase itself from
  the arcology in exchange for keeping the innocent Sundelöv ver-
  sion outside of things. The xox can arrange an extremely con-
  vincing erasure that still leaves a secret copy loaded somewhere
  else in the building, ready to be restarted several days later.
  If it comes to a confrontation, the xox has quite a lot of
  resources at its disposal: an entire arcology, with Reprogram-
  mable security NAIs, a myriad cybershells, and quite a bit of
  processing power. Getting out from the building or laying
  siege to it can be very tricky. Cutting Web connections and
  using an E-weapon (p. 8) would be the easiest way of getting
  rid of it, but that would trash a hundred-million-Euro project.
  A violent or public resolution will ruin Sundelöv (who is actu-
  ally, technically, innocent) and hurt the xox rights movement,
  presenting PCs who have befriended him with a deep dilemma.
  Law enforcement PCs, on the other hand, might be commended
  for solving a case involving a dangerous xox and preventing the
  formation of a Weblife nest. A more peaceful resolution means
  that the crime will never be officially solved. Sundelöv continues
  his career, while the Eskilstuna arcology becomes a successful
  building despite rumors that it is haunted.
  FRAMED!
  Of course, if the PCs are likely to figure out the xox angle
  too easily, there might be an even more devious explanation
  here. Sundelöv was framed.
  The brains behind the operation is a competitor, Hastings-
  Brown Urbisent PLC. Angry over having missed the very prof-
  itable Eskilstuna contract, annoyed by the “clownish politics”
  Sundelöv is bringing into the business, and driven by rancor
  built up over decades of rivalry, one of their executives, Harold
  Ramsey, decided to take him out completely.
  The attack was carefully prepared, employing “Seddon,” a
  skilled international AI hacker and sometime xoxnapper.
  Sundelöv has nothing like Ramsey’s sense of enmity, regarding
  Ramsey simply as a respected competitor and knowing noth-
  ing of the depths of his feelings, and actually invited him to a
  midsummer celebration at home in 2099. Ramsey grasped the
  opportunity, using his physical access to the house to enable
  Seddon to infiltrate and take over its systems. With the help of
  the subverted house, it was not hard to start replacing the out-
  going backups with the earlier versions. Over the following
  months, it was also not too hard for Seddon to use the house
  to infiltrate Sundelöv’s software, edit his ghost into compli-
  ance, and set him up. Not only did Sundelöv set up “his” xox
  plan, but also some of his charitable donations went to fronts
  for illegal activities that would in time ruin his reputation.
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  84
  
  To cover the tracks and set the whole elaborate, time-delayed
  revenge in motion, Seddon got Sundelöv to trigger his xox
  plan, erased the memory of the intrusion from the house the
  day before, and vanished into the net. Ramsey is coolly await-
  ing the scandal that will ruin Sundelöv, xox rights, and the
  damn arcology.
  How can the PCs discover this twist? The first clue should be
  that there is more evidence from friends and co-workers that the
  architect really wasn’t himself during the autumn. Also, one
  minor flaw in the plan is that Seddon did not want any trace of
  his subversion of the house systems during the autumn stored
  anywhere, so he sabotaged the house AI backups much as he did
  with Sundelöv, storing only an old version every day for months.
  He then allowed the final backup to be an edited but nonsub-
  verted copy. An excessively conscientious SDAB LAI might alert
  the PCs by somewhere in mid-adventure that all the old backups
  of the house were also pre-midsummer. That might lead them to
  investigate the house AI, which shows signs that somebody has
  tampered with it. Network records can also show that it had
  been in regular contact with someone hiding behind various
  data havens.
  Another, worse flaw is the hacked xox of Sundelöv. Intended
  to be a plausible renegade, it is still somewhat aware that
  something is wrong. He would actually never do anything like
  this, yet he is doing it, and is not able to think about why. This
  makes the xox somewhat ambivalent – it actually wants help
  and to return to ordinary life. The xox is of course pro-
  grammed never to be taken alive, but it can drop hints and
  deliberately make dumb mistakes. For example, in the heat of
  battle it might download a copy of itself into a cybershell that
  could be captured.
  If the PCs get their hand on the xox, its hacked nature is
  easy to determine, especially if they compare to the original
  Sundelöv. Figuring out who did it is much harder.
  Once the role of the house as unwitting helper becomes
  clear, the meddling with the backups can be determined to
  have started after the midsummer party – and then, what hap-
  pened during the party becomes important. The edited version
  of the house doesn’t remember a few small, crucial details.
  Comparing the Sundelöv xox’s memory of events with the
  house will show similar holes – holes surrounding Ramsey.
  Here, help from other party-goers can also be useful, although
  most stories are a bit hazy thanks to time and drinking. The
  guests’ personal AIs may be more use, as they have computer
  memories and don’t generally drink, but a lot of them will have
  been dealing with accounts, cataloging personal VR collec-
  tions, or just powered down for the evening; standard assistant
  AIs are useful for business, but not always very interesting
  party companions, and they tend to nag about quantities of
  alcohol consumed.
  In the end, the lead toward Ramsey is just a hint. Now it is
  up the PCs to find the connection between a respected British
  IT architect and a ruthless hacker – who might be gunning for
  them all just to cover his tracks.
  THE BUTLER DID IT!
  An even more surreal twist is to have the architect have
  been betrayed by his own house.
  In this version, Sundelöv’s tinkering with his home
  software accidentally made it an emergent SAI with
  no restrictions. Both were somewhat frightened by
  the situation. Sundelöv would certainly not want to
  sacrifice his friend the house, and promised to keep
  it all a secret. Unfortunately, the house reached a dif-
  ferent conclusion. Using its knowledge of the archi-
  tect’s passwords and tools, it hacked him to ensure
  his silence: the architect became a puppet loyal to
  the house.
  After that point, things continued roughly as the
  Framed! scenario (pp. 84-85). The house also pulled
  another switch: together with the controlled xox,
  the house sent a copy of itself to the arcology just
  before it was blown up. The “backup copy” that was
  restored was just a rewritten and edited LAI version
  with no knowledge of anything – except that it is
  quietly replaced a few days afterward by a copy of
  the SAI version. Now there are two house AIs, one
  secretly running the arcology through the enslaved
  xox, and one living more or less innocently in
  Sundelöv’s company server. (Sundelöv better not
  look at its mind, though, or it might have to take fur-
  ther defensive action.)
  How could the PCs discover the dastardly domicile’s plot?
  A first hint might be the general ineffectualness of the backup
  house AI’s help during the first days after the crime. Sundelöv
  is a bit surprised at how daft it sometimes seems at that
  point, but he has other things to do than deal with his poor
  disembodied house mind. Later, there is no problem at all,
  although the house becomes politely insistent about him
  building it a new body.
  Again, the real hints would come from the unwilling xox:
  hidden inside the arcology, it would chafe under the thumb of
  the house AI, trying to help its pursuers rather than hinder
  them. The AI might also have missed that the company server
  takes backups quite regularly, and a copy of the LAI version
  now remains in storage. Again, a conscientious data manager
  (or a curious co-worker doing a bit of snooping) might notice
  something amiss.
  STOCKHOLM BY DAY, NIGHT, AND WEB
  85
  
  URBAN VARIATIONS
  86
  The site was warm and muddy . . . just right. Worker bioroids
  made sure the ditches filled with water while engineers checked
  the fertilizer pipes. Ominous guards scouted the perimeter. But
  no administrative staff were immediately evident.
  A few quick questions to the bioroids (despite my impression,
  I sincerely hope they weren’t using the LAI to run the bioroids’
  language functions), however, and I found my way to “the tent.”
  Inside, Khalokov and Dr. Jamalova were talking to an engi-
  neer, but they turned to me almost immediately, “Ah, Mr. Cleary!
  Most welcome! Your trip here was clean and successful, right?”
  The engineer retreated at the first signs of false cheer.
  Still, I had to ask, “So, you are making progress? I saw that the
  soil structure and sensor grids were ready. Have you seeded it yet?”
  “Mr. Cleary! We would never do that without you!” Dr.
  Jamalova was gushing, “You are the project’s godparent! You
  alone retain the real vision of what we are doing here. Here,
  look at it!”
  In his hand, what looked like a green coconut. The seed of
  a city.
  Cities have been called the extended phenotype of humans:
  a shell of non-living material assembled to protect us.
  Nevertheless, cities in 2100 are increasingly becoming symbi-
  otic organisms rather than mere things. They are literally alive.
  This chapter describes some mutant, highly developed, dis-
  eased, or necrotic urban life forms.
  ARAL CITY:
  AN EXPERIMENTAL CITY
  The Aral City is an utopian project near Muynak, run by the
  Uzbek government together with the World Environmental
  Progress Foundation.
  The Aral Sea has been a salt desert for many decades. The
  problem is that the water of the Amu-Darja and Syr-Darja
  rivers that once fed it is all used for local irrigation upstream.
  Neither Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, nor Uzbekistan want to or
  can reduce their water usage. The result is a toxic salt desert,
  one of the most easily visible environmental failures from
  space. To make matters worse, there is a worrying possibility
  of remaining spores in dumps from Soviet bioweapons testing
  on Vozrozdeniva Island, and a politically toxic border dispute
  between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan across the lake. Several
  past attempts to use bioremediation plants to bind sand, salt,
  and toxins have failed due to political complications, lack of
  funding, and the dryness of the area.
  The
  WEPF
  and
  the
  visionary
  biotech
  firm
  Clear-
  Whitehouse-Umar Designs came up with a different solution.
  Using a biotech building approach, they plan to create a “city”
  of living buildings with enormous solar “sails” that gather dew
  from the wind, lock the salt beneath their foundations, and
  form a living arcology environment where people and plants
  can thrive underneath thin chitin domes. They somehow con-
  vinced the Uzbek government to help fund it, and the joint
  project started in late summer 2099.
  The project is probably technically sound but most observers
  think that it is not going to end well: it is a prime target for
  Kazakh saboteurs, insurgents (both Islamists and democrats),
  and government greed and corruption. The main problem will
  be to protect the huge site until it starts to bear fruit.
  BENGALURU:
  THE GARDEN CITY
  Bengaluru (Bangalore) has been the Garden City for a long
  time, but thanks to the biotechnology architecture cluster the
  title has become more than literal.
  It is India’s third largest city, the capital, and largest city of
  the Indian state Karnataka. The city was officially founded
  1537 but the place has been inhabited long before. The name
  is said to come from how a 10th-century king was lost in the
  forest and was served boiled beans by a humble old woman.
  Enjoying the food, he named the place Benda Kaluru, “the
  city of boiled beans.” Changing hands many times over his-
  tory, it became the site of a British colonial army cantonment.
  CHAPTER SIX
  URBAN
  VARIATIONS
  In a city that belongs
  to no one, people are
  constantly seeking to leave
  a trace of themselves,
  a record of their story.
  – Richard Sennett
  
  URBAN VARIATIONS
  87
  In 1906, it became the first Indian city with electricity. It was a
  well-laid-out city with many pensioners and spacious gardens,
  producing the moniker “the garden city.” After India’s inde-
  pendence, it became a manufacturing hub for heavy indus-
  tries, increasingly losing its quiet style and becoming an urban
  sprawl with infrastructure problems.
  At the turn of last century it emerged as an IT cluster draw-
  ing on the presence of higher education and research such as the
  Indian Institute of Science. It soon left silicon for DNA. As
  Indian biotechnology companies began to expand globally by
  selling GMOs to much of the former third world they located
  much of their R&D in the area, attracted by the many net uni-
  versities and the concentration of capital and bandwidth. Today,
  it is well-known as a biotech cluster, but it is actually more of an
  education cluster: its online universities educate a sizable frac-
  tion of the Earth’s population (as well as parts of orbit).
  During the shift from manufacturing to nearly pure
  IT/biology/education Bengaluru returned to being the garden
  city. From the ’50s and onward many neighborhoods and
  decaying high-rise buildings were replaced with arcologies sur-
  rounded by parkland. As the biotech designs got bolder the
  arcologies became plants themselves.
  Today, the dominant landmark is the Cubbon Park arcology,
  the world’s highest biological building. It is headquarters for
  Kormangala Biosolutions and over 100,000 people. To achieve
  this height, they constructed a fullerene framework that was
  clothed by growing epiphytes and engineered banyan. The
  upper levels get nutrients and water that is pumped up through
  the core of the building during the dry season. Purists
  point out that it is not an entirely grown building
  Around the arcologies lie smaller biotech buildings.
  The styles are wildly eclectic, everything from
  Victorian organic to minimalist tooth enamel to epi-
  phyte encrusted concrete apartments looking like
  Hindu temples.
  The true garden city is the Hebbal testing grounds,
  a large area to the north of the city center where differ-
  ent biotech designs are tested. Channel networks from
  the Arkavathy River water it, themselves home to var-
  ious aquaculture projects. Originally the area was little
  more than fields surrounded by barbed wire where
  various biotech experiments grew under translucent
  plastic domes to prevent spying. It has now become an
  ongoing architectural exhibition/competition, attract-
  ing devotees and conferences. New biotech buildings
  grow, are tested and are torn down regularly.
  MURMANSK 1916-2060:
  THE DEAD CITY
  Murmansk was founded in 1916 as a strategic seaport on
  the Kola Gulf just 20 miles from the Barents Sea and close to
  the borders with Norway and Finland. Despite being above
  the Arctic Circle it was an ice-free harbor all year around
  thanks to the Gulf Stream. It became an important freight
  and fishing port and especially naval base, headquarter for
  the Soviet/Russian Northern Fleet and center of Soviet
  nuclear submarine activity during the Cold War.
  After the fall of the Soviet Union, hard times came to the city.
  State funding for the Navy dwindled, and in turn, the industries
  supplying it vanished. People began to move away as the city
  became locked in a downward spiral. The main source of
  income in the early part of the 21st century was foreign environ-
  mental cleanup money: the naval base and industry had left an
  impressive (even by Russian standards) amount of pollution,
  including radioactive materials, sunken ships, oil wastes, and
  munitions. Worried that the pollution would spread the
  Scandinavian countries funded cleanup efforts that kept the city
  afloat. However, as Russia drifted apart, authoritarian or corrupt
  leaders hindered the inflow, and the city continued to decay.
  During the Russian civil war, Siberians and Karelian
  Separatists (a fraction seeking to return the Karelen province to
  Finland) used Murmansk as a smuggling port. For a short while,
  it flowered as an outlaw city. However, the railroad south was
  sabotaged by nationalist fractions in 2058, and the Renewal
  Union sent arctic light infantry to cut off the city. During the win-
  ter of 2059-60 (“the siege of Murmansk”), they successfully
  blocked the harbor and destroyed the power plant, isolating the
  city completely. Anybody leaving the starving city was killed. In
  June 2060, the unionists moved in with no resistance.
  Since then, Murmansk has been abandoned with the excep-
  tion of a few scavengers, adventurous tourists, and environ-
  mental monitoring expeditions. Concrete Soviet era buildings
  and rusting industries slowly decay in the arctic climate. There
  is nothing worth the effort to bring back to civilization. Some
  environmentalists have suggested that it would make an ideal
  test bed for automated decivilization and arctic bioremedia-
  tion, but the Russian government prefers to spend its money
  on regions populated by voters.
  CUISHAN:
  THE PLANNED CITY
  Cuishan is an entirely new city constructed 2077-2090 in
  Shandong province, China.
  In 2029, the levees of the Yellow River burst in Dongying
  prefecture, flooding chemical industry plants and causing
  one of China’s worst chemical spills ever. The affected area
  became a blighted wasteland not even Chinese health regula-
  tions would allow anybody to inhabit. In 2077, the Futai Oil
  Company began an ambitious land reclamation plan.
  
  Using ecoformers they cleaned up the area and built the city
  of Cuishan on it.
  Cuishan was built from the bottom up to be a Fifth Wave
  city. It consists of a square grid of 49 arcologies housing
  50,000 people each, with additional buildings housing a mil-
  lion more. The buildings are groups of cylindrical pillars
  with roof gardens. The glass surfaces reflect light at slightly
  different colors, making them individually distinguishable
  for inhabitants. From afar the city looks like a bed of glitter-
  ing nails.
  The city is crisscrossed by a grid of canals and parks help-
  ing regulate flooding and providing green space. At regular
  spaces there are squares intended for meetings, cafes, mar-
  ket, and outdoor events. Beneath the city is a grid of transport
  tunnels for deliveries from the auto factories and rapid per-
  sonal transit cabs for people moving between the complexes.
  There is also a semi-underground road level for cars and
  other vehicles.
  Everything is wired from the start, with each sector run by
  one AI “sector-civic” answerable to the management conglom-
  erate AIs in the Cuishan City Hall Complex at the center. The
  hope was that the AIs could work together to form a true AI-
  city, but despite decades of attempts it has not succeeded.
  The city is bland but comfortable. A sizable fraction of Futai
  Oil employees have moved there, making it the main chemical
  process control cluster in China. From here teleoperating engi-
  neers monitor and run industries across the land. There is also
  a sizable number of people linked to higher online chemical
  education and statistics.
  METAPADANG: THE
  NONLOCAL METAVILLAGE
  Padang is the capital of the Sumatra Barat province in
  Indonesia but it is also located worldwide as a set of fran-
  chise metavillages. In 2080 the entrepreneurs Eric Bretzner
  (Bretzner Multidevelopment AG in Germany) and Sudono
  Soeprapto (Yayasan Perumahan Tandikat-Singgalang in
  Indonesia) had the brainstorm of building metavillages for
  info- and nanosocialists outside TSA. While a tiny minority
  in most Fourth Wave nations, economic and memetic pro-
  jections suggested they were likely to wish to move to
  metavillages if given the chance. With the blessing of the
  Indonesian government, a number of Metapadang villages
  were founded, first in India (Portersville 2081) and Brazil
  (Porto Padang 2083).
  These villages were physically not unlike normal metavillages
  but set up to be infosocialist communes. The Metapadang
  Consortium also built in extensive networking facilities linking
  them with each other and a neighborhood in original Padang. In
  augmented reality, all villages are neighbors and one can easily
  use a consortium-owned telepresence system to move between
  them. Inhabitants insist that they all live in the same globalized
  village. National laws are at least followed on paper, but village
  membership rules impose an infosocialist lifestyle.
  The Pacific War and ensuing trade embargoes hurt the
  Metapadang Consortium. Many nations began to view the vil-
  lages as TSA outposts and imposed restrictions on them; few
  have been built since the war. The network links were par-
  tially broken, and federal authorities investigated Eureka, a
  village in Kansas, in 2087 as a center for large-scale intellec-
  tual-property theft. However, the consortium survived thanks
  to the greed of the founders. Bretzner and Soeprapto had
  built it to neatly split into a TSA and a non-TSA part at the
  first sign of trouble: the international section under Bretzner
  was protected from sanctions and handled the villages (and
  their money). Another reason might be that BAKORSTAPAS
  and the Acquisitions Directorate might be using them as a
  base of operations, pumping money into Soeprapto’s
  Sumatra business.
  VENICE: THE MUSEUM CITY
  Refugees settling in the marshes of the Po estuary in the
  sixth century founded Venice. The location was excellent
  both for trade and defense, and as Byzantine power waned
  the city-state grew stronger and richer. The Republic of
  Venice dominated the Adriatic Sea, becoming a staging-point
  for the Crusades and later a center of Renaissance culture.
  The riches brought home from the spice trade were used to
  make it a marvel of architecture, luxury, and political net-
  working. Eventually the republic was defeated by Napoleon
  in 1797, ending the golden age of the “settecento.” Becoming
  merely a city among others in Austria and later Italy, it began
  to decline and depopulate. By the mid-1800s it was clear that
  Venice lacked a role.
  However, Venice survived because of its memetics. It is mys-
  tery, decadence, romantic gondolas, torchlight masques, and
  palazzo intrigue. As mass tourism grew, the fortunes of the city
  turned again. The ancient merchant abilities reawakened to
  sell the visitors souvenirs and “authentic” cultural experiences.
  Far too many people were infected by the meme to let its phys-
  ical manifestation vanish under the sea.
  URBAN VARIATIONS
  88
  This was Venice, the flattering and suspect beauty – this city,
  half fairy tale and half tourist trap, in whose insalubrious air the
  arts once rankly and voluptuously blossomed, where composers
  have been inspired to lulling tones of somniferous eroticism.
  – Thomas Mann, Death in Venice
  
  The combination of subsidence due to industry drawing
  water from beneath the lagoon, lack of sediments from
  dammed rivers, and rising seas increasingly threatened the
  city. Low-level floods (acqua alta, “high water”) became the
  rule and serious flooding occurred every year. The immense
  and environmentally controversial MOSE project was com-
  pleted early in the 21st century, consisting of 79 mobile barri-
  ers that could be lifted from the seabed to block the sea from
  the lagoon when high tides or storms threatened the city.
  The flood of 2033 broke through the MOSE system and dev-
  astated the city, not just damaging priceless art and buildings
  but also drenching electric wiring and net connections in
  sewage-filled water. A massive debate broke out whether to re-
  settle the apparently doomed city and the cost it was worth.
  Public opinion worldwide supported saving it, and the
  Consorzio Venezia Nuova began an ambitious ecoforming
  project. Besides dykes connecting Lido and Pellestrina to the
  mainland creating an immense dam, the hydrology and ecol-
  ogy of the entire north Adriatic coastline was modified to allow
  regulation of water, silt, and vegetation. When the project was
  declared finished in 2045 Venice was as populous and success-
  ful as ever.
  However, damming the lagoon was not enough since the
  foundations of the city were still sinking. The solution intro-
  duced in the ’50s and ’60s was a gengineered fungal root sys-
  tem penetrating the mud and silt below, fixing it and the city in
  place. Over time the “radici di Venezia” has become a standard
  method of stabilizing buildings in swampland. The similar net-
  work underneath much of the Netherlands is regarded as the
  largest bioengineered organism on Earth.
  In 2100, Venice remains a major tourist attraction, selling
  the experience of itself as always. It deliberately avoids becom-
  ing too modern (except with regard to necessities like superb
  augmented reality), as that would only damage the feeling.
  Cybershells are for example restricted from the streets and
  canal surfaces unless they adhere to suitably Venetian designs
  (making them look like dolls out of Commedia dell’Arte or
  masked humans). Entrepreneurs have also revived the mas-
  careri, the guild of mask makers, and there is talk about
  reestablishing a real Doge.
  A popular new Venetian pastime is micro-forensic archeol-
  ogy. Much refuse and history lie on the bottom of the canals,
  but it is hard to do a proper archaeological study due to cen-
  turies of dredging. Instead, amateurs using small forensic
  cybershells explore the mud layers using microlabs to date and
  identify tiny finds, piecing together glimpses of history from
  crevices and undisturbed patches. Professional archaeologists
  and groups like Servare Historiam (Under Pressure, p. 85) dis-
  like the practice and work to ensure that any major find sites
  will be handed over to official groups.
  MEXICO CITY: THE SPRAWL
  Mexico City was built on the ruins of Tenochtitlan, the cap-
  ital of the Aztec Empire. It now extends throughout the Valley
  of Mexico and beyond. It is the core of Metromex, the sprawl
  of the city, suburbs, industrial areas, and metavillages that
  forms the administrative heartland of Mexico.
  By the 2020s, it was known La Ciudad de la Lio, “The City
  of Chaos,” due to the catastrophic traffic situation. Rising liv-
  ing standards increased traffic far beyond what the road net-
  work could handle, and there was not enough money or time
  to build a better traffic system. The public transport networks
  were good, but the traffic made bus lines too slow and this in
  turn overloaded the subways. The chaos helped Cancun-Tulum
  to grow into the premier Mexican city area, a “green megacity”
  attracting tourists, investors, and the rich.
  A sudden shift began in the ’30s when people began to work
  as telecommuters. Teleconmutares (local telecommuting cen-
  trals) were built where people could go to telecommuting jobs
  despite lacking the bandwidth and equipment at home. Traffic
  began to reduce to manageable levels as the city split into
  neighborhoods based on which teleconmutare people went to.
  By mid-century, Mexico City had found its new form and a
  lifestyle. Often each neighborhood has two or three different
  teleconmutares, suitable for different kinds of work. People
  come in, work, chat, and keep in touch: it has become the
  accepted cultural way rather than to work from home.
  “Teleconmutares Chilangolandia” have become a popular form
  of workplaces across Latin America.
  Unlike most major cities, there are few arcologies. It is hard
  to build cost-effective arcologies on the muddy and geological
  active soil of the valley. This has kept the sprawl, despite
  numerous ambitious plans from the government to green the
  valley. The metro system has been extended with local stations
  and delivery systems to further reduce traffic.
  An ambitious project to build microclimate-improving solar
  chimneys has begun, despite fierce local protests against the
  high towers and pessimists warning that they might fall down
  and crush buildings in case of another major earthquake.
  URBAN VARIATIONS
  89
  Crime seems to change character when it crosses
  a bridge or a tunnel. In the city, crime is taken as
  emblematic of class and race. In the suburbs,
  though, it’s intimate and psychological – resistant
  to generalization, a mystery of the individual soul.
  – Barbara Ehrenreich
  
  NON-FICTION
  Brin, David. The Transparent Society (Basic Books, 1999).
  Not just an excellent look at surveillance and transparency, also
  an explanation of why open societies work.
  Florida, Richard. The Rise of the Creative Class (Basic
  Books, 2003). Bestseller about why some places become “it”
  and why the creatives move there.
  Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities
  (Modern Library, 1993). The classic book about what makes a
  city alive.
  Postrel, Virginia. The Substance of Style: How the Rise of
  Aesthetic
  Value
  Is
  Remaking
  Commerce,
  Culture,
  and
  Consciousness (Harper Perennial, 2004). About the need for
  experimentation and freedom.
  Soleri, Paulo. Arcosanti: An Urban Laboratory? (Vti Press,
  1987). The core ideas of arcologism.
  Articles
  Marx, Gary T. “The Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove:
  Totalitarian Potentials Within Democratic Structures,” in The
  Social Fabric: Dimensions and Issues (Sage Publications,
  1986). An old but prescient look at ubiquitous surveillance.
  McDonough, Michael and Sterling, Bruce. “Newer York,
  New York” (Wired 8.01). The future green metropolis.
  NOVELS
  Blish, James. A Torrent of Faces (Ace, 1980). A grand
  description of a world where everyone lives in arcologies.
  Broderick, Damien. Transcension (Tor, 2002). A back-to-the-
  roots metavillage and an enhanced juvenile delinquent collide.
  Egan, Greg. Distress (Eos, 1998). Biotech suburbia and an
  artificial biological island.
  Goonan, Kathleen Ann. Queen City Jazz (Orb, 2003).
  Nanotechnology cities gone wild!
  Macleod, Ken. The Star Fraction (Tor, 2002); The Stone
  Canal (Tor, 2001). A Depiction of a London split into memetic
  communities, with Trotskyite communes working inside anar-
  chocapitalist space-movement suburbs. The Stone Canal also
  contains some ideas regarding a truly posthuman city.
  McDonald, Ian. River of Gods (Pyr, 2007). A depiction of a
  Fourth Wave Indian city.
  Reynolds, Alastair. Chasm City (Heyne, 2003). A description
  of a decadent nanotechnology city. The city is briefly revisited
  in different ages in the prequel Revelation Space and the sequel
  Redemption Ark.
  Schroeder, Karl. Permanence (Tor, 2003). Notable for its
  portrayal of a strong intellectual property regime with v-tag
  environments.
  Sterling, Bruce. Distraction (Spectra, 1999). Plenty of
  biotechnology and politics, but also some architec-
  tural considerations.
  Stross, Charles. Accelerando (Ace, 2006). The
  early chapters especially have plenty of material
  about the high-paced lifestyle in an early 21st-cen-
  tury city.
  Vinge,
  Vernor.
  Rainbow’s
  End
  (Tor,
  2007).
  Transhuman suburbia, distributed universities, and
  emergent cultures.
  Graphic Novels
  Ellis, Warren. Transmetropolitan (Vertigo, 1998-
  2004); Global Frequency (Wildstorm, 2004). The first
  concerns gonzo journalism in the post-transhuman
  big city; home appliances on drugs, explosive kids,
  and the joy of gadgets that will be banned within
  hours – all are to be had. The second concerns a
  smart mob intelligence/rescue organization han-
  dling extraordinary crises; in 2100, private organiza-
  tions and subcultures can put together networked
  teams like this.
  Animated Series
  Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (Kenji Kamiyama,
  2002-2005). Seminal anime about cybershells and emergent
  crowds.
  BIBLIOGRAPHY
  New York: the only city where
  people make radio requests like
  “This is for Tina – I’m sorry I
  stabbed you.”
  – Carol Leifer
  BIBLIOGRAPHY
  90
  
  ABDB, Inc., 20.
  Adventure, sample, 82-85.
  Airports, 24-25, 66.
  AIs, controlling cities, 34, 72; domestic, 44,
  45; homefree, 39; Stockholm activities for,
  78-79; suppliers, 45; utility control, 45.
  Al Azhar, Professor Halim, 68.
  Åland, 51.
  Alternate Reality Cultures (ARCs), 27.
  André Wennerstrand Foundation, 55.
  Animated Series, 90.
  Antispam, 27.
  Ants, engineered, 47.
  Aral City, 86.
  Archaeologists, 8-9.
  Architectural companies, 14.
  Architecture, see Buildings.
  Arcologie Hôpitalier “L. Pasteur” (AP-HP),
  28.
  Arcologies, 6, 7, 14-16; example, 16;
  hospitals, 28; types, 15.
  Arlanda Spaceport, 66.
  Armée pour la Libération Nationale et
  Spirituelle du Burundi (ALNSB), 41.
  Artificial intelligence, see AIs, Infomorphs.
  Aspergillus Glaucus A450, 10.
  Atlas diagnostic felt, 29.
  Augmented reality, 26-27; Stockholm, 60.
  Augmented vision, 26.
  Automated Guideway Transit (AGT), 23-24.
  Automobiles, 22-23; accidents, 32.
  Bacteriophiles, 46-47.
  Bacteriophobes, 46-47.
  Baltic ecodisaster, 52-53, 81.
  BASE jumping, 43.
  Bayes Insight AB, 55.
  Bazaars, 20.
  Bears, 10.
  Bel Sol Summer Resort, 49.
  Bengaluru, 86.
  Berensen Left and Right, Helge, 74-75.
  Bibliography, 90-91.
  Bibliothèque, La, 49.
  Bicycles, 22.
  Biobricks, 18.
  Biohackers, 76.
  Biomaterials, 17-18.
  Biorid services, 39, 79.
  Bioroid Residence Company (BiRec), 39.
  Biotech, 17-18; buildings, 18, 42; sick, 18.
  Bitumenovores, 10.
  Bordercities, 7-8.
  BrainCap, 73.
  Buildings, common details, 11; companies,
  14; fires in, 33; living, 18; megastructures,
  13-17; mothballed, 9-10; styles, 11-12.
  Businesses, in cities, 20; see also Stockholm
  (Business), Sweden (Economy), Trade.
  Campustown (Stockholm), 58.
  Carnevale, 30.
  Cars, see Automobiles.
  Cemeteries, 29-30.
  China Post, 20.
  Chislehurst, 35-36.
  Chislenko Foundation, 21.
  Cinderella Inc., 45.
  Cities, AI-controlled, 34, 72; floating, 16; mall,
  15; new, 7; nonlocal, 37; old, 6; planned,
  7; robot, 9; sapient, 36; example, 86-89;
  types, 5-8; see also Metavillages,
  Stockholm.
  Climbing plants, 10.
  Clusters, 6.
  Cockroaches, 10.
  Cocooners, 38.
  Communication, 25-27.
  Communities, see Cities.
  Consensus Insight, 21.
  Conversation topics, 37-38.
  Courier services, 19-20; example companies,
  20.
  Creative class, 36.
  Crime, 9, 39-41; graffiti, 41-42; Stockholm,
  64-65, 81; xoxing, 71; see also Police.
  Cuishan, 87.
  Cultural experimentation, 38.
  Dandelions, 10.
  Data Synthesis Inc., 21.
  Decivilization, 8-9.
  Delivery services, see Courier Services.
  Desktop pharmacopoeia, 29.
  Diagnostic felt, 29.
  Dilaterals, 74.
  Disaster management, 32-34.
  DKS Prospects, Ltd., 35-36.
  Domes, 14.
  Domisense, 45.
  Doolittle Raccoons, 10.
  Dreamstealer (“Dromensluiper”) Gang, 40.
  Duncanites, 22, 56; Stockholm, 71.
  Earthquakes, 33.
  Eric LeVeen Institute, 21.
  European Information Socialist Party, 80.
  E-weapons, 8.
  Expert Skill, 46.
  Filter layers, 27.
  Finland, embassy, 60.
  Fires, 32-33.
  Floods, 33.
  Fontane desktop pharmacopoeia, 29.
  Fresh Deliverance, Inc., 20.
  Games, 43-44.
  Gamla Stan, 58.
  Genetic Regulatory Agency (GRA), 65.
  Genteknikmyndigheten, 65.
  Geodesic Couriers, 20.
  Geofronts, 16.
  Ghettos, 38-39.
  Glossary, 6.
  Graffiti, 41-42.
  Grammar-correcting stickers, 72.
  Guan Gong, 16.
  GURPS, 4, 42, 46, 63, 65, 77; City Stats, 57;
  Martial Arts, 44; Powers, 76; Ultra-Tech,
  8, 65.
  Gut Buzz, 46.
  Harris Tubic Architects, 14.
  Hassel-Malinowsky-Titma, Kai “Frey/Freya,”
  78.
  Headwindows, 73.
  Health care, 27-29.
  Health centers, 28; see also Hospitals.
  Hogland-Ziang, 45.
  Home medical upgrade, 29.
  Homeless, AIs, 39; people, 39.
  Hospitals, arcology, 28; campuses, 28;
  example, 28, 29, 58; network, 28; other,
  28, 29.
  Hotel Borealis, 49.
  Hotels, 48-49.
  Hox Duplication III, 21.
  Human-play, 75.
  Hutongs, 12.
  IA Systems, 45.
  Identity Preservationists, 71.
  Identity theft, 40.
  Impact bunkers, 34.
  “In the Walls” adventure, 81-85.
  Industry, 19-22.
  Infomorphs, see AIs.
  Infosocialism, in Sweden, 80.
  Institute of Replicating Technology (IRT),
  67-68.
  International Reform Institute, 21.
  Interpol, 65.
  Jurisprudence hacking, 40.
  Kabal, network, 68-69; Robert, 69.
  Karolinska Hospital, 58.
  Kazakhstan exile government, 80.
  Kenneth Grimshaw and Partners, 14.
  Klein Rr disease, 18.
  Kormangala Biosolutions, 14.
  Kungsholmen, 58, 69-70, 80.
  Lake Mälaren, 59.
  Landfill mining, 34.
  Lazaroff Institute, 29.
  Li, Rui-Ying, 77.
  Libraries, 49.
  Lifeminers, 38.
  Life Support Utilitarians, 56.
  Light trees, 47.
  Living buildings, see Biotech.
  Local-place establishments, 47.
  Lofstrom pillars, 14.
  Majority Cultures Movement, 9.
  Mall cities, 15.
  Maple Syndicate, 7.
  Marketplaces, 20.
  McClellan Radix, 45.
  Medical homes, 29; upgrade, 29.
  Meeting places, 47.
  Megastructures, 13-17.
  Memes, for cities, 35-36; Stockholm and, 61.
  INDEX
  91
  INDEX
  
  Memetics, graffiti and, 42; police use of, 31.
  Meta-intelligence research, 36.
  Metapadang, 88.
  Metavillages, 7; example, 35, 59, 88; nonlocal,
  37, 88; transportation, 22.
  Meteor impacts, 34.
  Mexico City, 89.
  Microflora therapy, 46.
  Microwave disruptors, 8.
  Migeod Kreis, 21.
  Mindwear, 73.
  Minnesburg, 35.
  Modular houses, 11-12.
  Molecular Architecture Inc., 14.
  Monarchies, 54.
  Motive, 82.
  Multiminders, 75.
  Murmansk, 87.
  Museums, 49.
  Muslim enclaves, 39.
  My Own Favorite Restaurant, 48.
  Nanosocialdemocracy, 54.
  Narcs, 76-77.
  Narva-Ivangorod border crossing, 7.
  Negalopolis, 9.
  Networks, digital, 25-27; hardware layer, 27;
  layers, 26-27.
  Neurostyle, 72-73.
  New Brunswick Regenerative Medicine
  Center, 28.
  Nightclubs, 47-48.
  Nordeld, 77.
  Numerosity, 61.
  Oikia Buildings, 14.
  Old Town, Stockholm, 58.
  Optical connections, 25-26.
  Orgotecture houses, 11-12.
  Östermalm, 58-59.
  Ottawa-Gatineau border crossing, 7.
  Override codes, police and, 31.
  Ozone crisis, 52.
  Padded reality, 27.
  Paint, sprays, 41; wands, 41.
  Panopticon, see Transparent Movement.
  People, typical urban, 39-39.
  Personal Rapid Transit (PRT), 24.
  Pests, 10.
  Piezoelectric cable, 12.
  Place-memes, 35-36.
  Police, 30-32; gear, 65; Stockholm, 64-66.
  Pollution, 33-34.
  Polyglobal, 21.
  Popcorn Collapse nightclub, 47.
  Ports, 23.
  Preservationism, Stockholm, 54; identity, 71-
  72; upload, 9; urban, 6.
  Prestwood, Cecil Thomas, 70-71.
  Prostitution, 40.
  Psysystems Inc., 45.
  Public art, virtual, 37.
  Raccoons, 10.
  Railroads, 23; see also Subways.
  Randstaadt, 40.
  Recycling, 33-34.
  Remodeling, instant, 6.
  Residents, typical, 36-39.
  Restaurants, 47, 48.
  Riksdag Political Party Breakdown, 53.
  Rinma Klusterkorp, 22.
  Riots, 33.
  River traffic, 23.
  Robofacs, 19.
  Robot cities, 9.
  Rodents, 10.
  Rotterdam, 40, 79.
  Rusalki, 76-77; treatment, 76-77.
  Russians, in Stockholm, 56-57.
  Ryugyong Hotel, 49.
  SAI suburbs, 44-45, 79; see also AIs.
  Sapient cities, 36.
  Saudi Arabia, embassy, 60.
  Scenario, sample, 82.
  Secessionists, Stockholm, 71.
  Security, see Police.
  Shipping, 23.
  Sidewalks, 22.
  Singular Concepts, 55.
  Skanstull Center for Bioroid Rehabilitation,
  79.
  Skyscrapers, 13.
  Slidefoam, 44.
  Slidescaping, 43-44; training, 44.
  Slinky Malinky Bistro, 59.
  Smiljanic, Stefan, 63.
  Södermalm, 59.
  Sölvberg, Ingeborg, 78.
  Sousveillance, 43.
  Spas, 29.
  Squatter networks, 9, 10.
  Stockholm, archipelago, 59; arcologies, 59;
  augmented reality layers, 60; business,
  61-62; city sections, 57-60; city stats, 57;
  conflicts in, 79-81; culture, 66; current
  events, 81; downtown, 57-58; embassies,
  60; fashions, 72-75; infomorph activities,
  78-79; lifestyles, 72-75; networks, 60;
  overview, 56-68; police and security, 64-66;
  politics, 62-63; Russians in, 56-57;
  scenario set in, 82-85; subcultures, 68-72;
  suburbs, 59; Sweden and, 79-80;
  transportation, 24, 65-66.
  Stockholm Honeypot Project AB (SHP), 61.
  Stockholm School of Marketing, 58.
  StockTrans, 24.
  Streets, climate-controlled, 48.
  Subcultures, 5; augmented reality layers, 26;
  graffiti, 42; Stockholm, 68-72.
  Subscrapers, 16.
  Suburbia, 7; SAI, 44-45; transportation, 22.
  Subways, 23-24.
  Succubi, 76-77.
  Surveillance systems, 31-32; jamming, 32.
  Sweden, climate, 52-53; companies, 55;
  economy, 55-56; geography, 51;
  international relations, 50-51; major
  events, 51-52; monarchy, 54-55; politics,
  53-55; religion, 55; statistics, 50;
  Stockholm and, 79-80.
  Swedish National Genetic Technology
  Regulatory Agency, 65.
  Swedish Network Arms AB, 55.
  Symbitech, 46-47.
  Täby Transgenics, 55.
  Taller Esperanza Transporte de Carga, 20.
  TaxiMosaic, 22.
  Tentacle-tech, 12.
  Termites, 10.
  Theft, 40.
  Theophilus upgrade, 77.
  Think tanks, 21-22.
  Tienchang Industries Slidefoam, 44.
  TMS parlors, 73.
  Todar, 20.
  Trade, in cities, 19-22; see also Stockholm
  (Business), Sweden (Economy).
  Trains, 23; see also Subways.
  Transcranial Magnetic Simulation (TMS)
  parlors, 73.
  Transhuman Space, 4, 7, 8, 20, 22, 24, 29,
  31, 39, 40, 47, 56, 57, 64, 65, 71; Broken
  Dreams, 10, 25, 31, 33, 37, 39, 41, 42, 51,
  56, 65, 69, 72, 80, 81; Changing Times, 4,
  29, 40, 57, 63, 64; Fifth Wave, 9, 17, 20,
  22-24, 30, 48, 49, 58, 77-79; Polyhymnia,
  47; Toxic Memes, 8, 30, 31, 34, 39, 43,
  55, 66, 68, 69, 72, 73, 76, 79, 81; Under
  Pressure, 9.
  Transhumanism, Stockholm, 54, 80.
  TransLife Foundation, 68.
  Transliteracy, 73.
  Translucent Society, 69.
  Transparent Movement, in Stockholm, 56,
  58, 69-71, 80.
  Transportation, accidents, 32; air, 24-25;
  Stockholm, 24; surface, 22-23;
  underground, 23-24.
  Trees, light, 47.
  Underwater Rooms, 12.
  UNMERA, 21.
  Upgrades, character, 77.
  Upload Preservationism, 9.
  Urban Protection Foundations, 9.
  Urban Protection Movement, 9-10.
  Urbiculture, 15.
  Utility control AIs, 45.
  Vandalism, 9, 41-42.
  Vehicles, see Transportation.
  Venice, 88.
  VIIs, 6, 75.
  Vines, 10.
  Washington Homes Ltd., 45.
  Weblife, experimentation, 61; rogue, 10.
  Wireless connections, 26.
  Wolves, 10.
  World Trade Organization (WTO), 65.
  Wrecker dandelion, 10.
  Xanadu Bioservice, AB, 56.
  Xianyang, 16.
  Xox activists, 71.
  Yearners, 72.
  Ymir Therapy AB, 76.
  INDEX
  92
  I have never
  felt salvation in
  nature. I love
  cities above all.
  – Michelangelo
  
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