Alternate Turin Consolidation

[BwapTED]

Alternate Turin Consolidation
I’m working on an alternate.

I’m ditching all of the official history and ideology of the Turin Consolidation.

So, I’ll sketch out a rewrite of the TC, and along lines that can actually be discussed in this forum:

Derivation of Turin:
It’s named after Turín, in El Salvador, which was the birthplace of a senior bureaucrat on the Terran Confederation naming committee.
The accent mark was later dropped in Anglic.



Why is it a ''Consolidation''?
Turin was settled during the ISW by disparate groups of refugees and migrants, who set up many semiautonomous arcologies* under a colonial charter that sharply restricted the scope and size of government above the local level. It wasn’t a balkanized world, but it might have looked that way to outsiders.
During the Long Night, many problems arose that required more effective joint action. A long process of mergers and annexations eventually created a powerful centralized world government on Turin. The centuries-long process of consolidation shaped the world’s history and political culture to such a degree that it even led to the reformed polity being known as the ''Turin Consolidation.’’


* Turin’s thin, tainted atmosphere was breathable with a filter/compressor mask, but who wants to wear a mask all the time? Domes proved a good solution, one that stuck.
Centuries of industrial pollution haven’t improved outdoor air quality.

 

[BwapTED]

Turin today

A.D. 5630

travel, shipping, comms

A network of grav-rail vacuum ''tubes'' connects every arcology on the planet, allowing supersonic transit and shipping over long distances with the convenience of hopping on a city bus.
The rail provides contragravity, while a reaction engine pushes the weightless carriage to extreme velocities--and another engine at the other end of the carriage aids in deceleration.

A high tech level computer network links every neighborhood, practically every house, and millions of drones and robots. Hand/wearable computers are commonplace.
The government uses the net to spy on everybody, and SolSec uses it to spy on the government.


Service is interrupted in 'black holes', places cut off from the net by accident or by design: basements in abandoned inter-arcology industrial sites, obsolete underground infrastructure, closets in certain warehouses, etc.


Although the arcologies only cover a small fraction of the planet's surface, the transport and communications infrastructure make the cities effectively all one city, an ecumenopolis.




The Turin government regulates personal ownership and use of gravitic vehicles through a tangled system of fees, registration, taxes, fees, and licensure. Flying illegally is a felony offense!
If a traveler encounters a man without a police uniform using a grav belt, he's likely met one of the wealthy elite or a criminal.

Corporations using automated, state-approved gravitics fall under different regulations.
Self-driving compact aircars may be rented by travelers. These flying robot taxis come equipped with 3d holo maps, interactive AI travel guide, first aid kit, and an anti-hijack program.

Life under the domes

The Turninese gov't and corporations have invested in multiple improvements over the centuries.

The domes aren't just for holding in atmosphere and shielding radiation.
These structures provide a 24 hour day/night cycle, regularly scheduled rain showers, and holographic public broadcasts on the inner surfaces.

Turinese bureaucrats and police live in special administrative district-megabuildings, which are capable of physically separating from the arcologies and flying -albeit slowly--using thrusters and contragrav.

The structures occasionally detach and move short distances to test the system, but otherwise remain in place unless a major emergency arises.