Intergalactic Summit

From Caille Catwalk, September 114YC Issue

Vocem Simulatoriam Populi
by Piri Papotte

Last weekend, citizens across Caille strolled amidst the arched arbors and glittering shopfronts of the upscale Quartz Falls district. The planned district - an architectural feat bridging one of the largest waterfalls of the Stormeve river - does not yet exist. While competing plans have been submitted to the renovation committee, construction is slated to begin in early 115YC.

How was this temporal paradox accomplished? Committee chairman Etionne Lhast explains that it was “a fusion of state-of-the-art virtual environment technology and an empowered local populace.”

“When the Quartz Falls project was announced, we received over several hundred development plan submissions,” recalls M. Lhast. “That is to say, hundreds of architectural visions submitted by individuals ranging from tenured prodigies of the University of Caille, to immigrant Matari engineers, and luminary sages of the Intaki Idama. We even had a submission from an anonymous individual that we suspect is a capsuleer.

“Even after stringent screening and a winnowing of the submissions by a committee of experts, we still had a few dozen entries, all quite outstanding. Unable to make any significant distinction between those entries that was not based on personal aesthetics, we feared that any decision by the committee would be simply arbitrary.”

The solution? “We turned to democracy,” says M. Lhast. “To be precise, we made the final selection subject to a popular vote by the residents of Caille - those who would actually live, work, and relax in the new district.”

Of course, the process would not be as simple as passing out a ballot. “Just throwing the architectural plans online just wouldn’t do,” notes committee dataspinner Flonne Reivu. “Technical drawings and annotations are arcane, requiring specialist knowledge to interpret. An ambitious district-scale project such as this involves volumes of such documents.”

“To make the vote meaningful,” continues Mme Reivu, “we had to make the choices understandable and accessible. The easiest way to do this was virtual environment technology.”

With the aid of several weak AIs, a classroom full of summer interns, and a team of fellow dataspinners networked in from across the constellation, Flonne Reivu led the effort to realize the development plans in virtual space. Long before the first MTAC would step onto the construction site, the contemplated spires and edifices took digital form.

Their efforts came to fruition last weekend, when the full array of competing development plans were made available to anyone with a GalNet connection and VE support. Scores of different Quartz Falls Districts existed simultaneously, each on their own server, and all entertaining virtual visitors from across the metropolis.

“We underestimated the amount of interest this would generate,” recalled Chairman Etionne Lhast. “The servers suffered a deluge of connection requests, and we had to request back-up resources from the City Council.”

It was not long after the opening of the servers that the Caille local net forums and the regional blogosphere lit up with debate about the competing entries. Rambunctious and often heated, the discussion was difficult to manage with even arrayed upvotes and gatekeeper AIs.

Understandably, many citizens skipped the online discussion entirely and went to visit the virtual spaces themselves.

“I have a weakness for gardens and parks,” admitted Meillia Dupons. The 27-year-old drone engineer stood in the virtual space of server fourteen, which featured the neo-naturalistic design of third-generation Reborn Lucca Silvo. Terraced arbors floated on anti-gravity platforms, basking in the ever-present spray of the waterfall. Labrynthine rainbows marked the dizzying space between walkways.

“The louder the better,” states 35-year-old bouncer and bodymod enthusiast Ralf Middien. He favors server six, the showcase of Sebiestor immigrant Coulla Sven. The proposal, which contemplates an entertainment district, is built ambitiously upon a crystal ledge affixed by ancient cantilever principles. The semi-transparent construction glitters with the ambient lighting of the city, enhanced further by the natural refraction offered by a raging waterfall.

“I admire the architects who would connect this city to its roots,” remarked citizen-user axne231, who declined to offer their physical-world identity. The porcine avatar elaborated, “The Stormeve is a river that flows throughout Caille’s history. Its shores have witnessed decisive battles and momentous coronations.” The citizen-user favored server two, a virtual rendition of the joint effort between local architects Huemme Gaston and Miranda duMoine. Visitors were treated to a Garoune-era castle-city, writ large by cutting-edge engineering. The polished limestone walls rose out of the river itself, vaulted arches and crenellated walkways conquering the raging waters. The neo-Rouvenor buildings could have come straight out of a historical-fantasy holoreel, despite supporting every modern amenity.

Voting is still underway, with the development council reticent as to which server has the lead. “Visit and decide for yourself,” urges Mme Reivu.

About: Caille Catwalk is a monthly periodical publishing lifestyle articles on the fashions, trends, and fads coming out of Caille, the city of wonders. Published throughout the greater Federation, select articles will now be made available over GalNet feeds.

Note: Watch this thread for more articles from the September issue!

Digital Sanctity
by Piri Papotte

At the end of the work week, Avant Cartwise embarks on a regular pilgrimage with his fellow faithful of the Green-White Order. His sect, one of many animist beliefs to gain renewed popularity in modern times, dates back to tribal practices on the Luminaire archipelago of Rei-Tsaro. The natives of that island chain regarded a unique species of long-lived tropical gynosperm, which produced hetero-chromatic leaves, as holy. Today, the Green-White Order blurs the boundaries between animist sect and political organization. While they maintain the rites and teachings of the original native islanders, they are involved in environmental and conservationist movements across the Federation. Its members use GalNet networking and social media to champion the preservation of rare flora throughout the cluster.

On this particular day, M. Cartwise is focused entirely on his spiritual journey. “Our way does not merely involve an intellectual understanding of the importance of biodiversity,” M. Cartwise explains, as he cross-wraps a polytextile toga. “It is also about community of belief and practice.” He joins a score of other order members scheduled to visit the Rei-Tsaro Equinox Grove, where they will perform ceremonial rites of pruning and fertilization.

The Equinox Grove resembles many of the other temple-parks maintained by the Green-White Order. Tall palms shelter its aged lanes from warm tropical storms. Beneath those gentle shadows, visitors are treated to a rainbow of plantlife made luminous by pervasive moisture and equatorial sun. As the Order’s rites are performed in utter silence, the only sounds to be heard in the Equinox Grove are the distant rush of the ocean and the many-pitched conversations of its avian population.

Should an outsider attempt to enter the Equinox Grove, they may find it difficult to locate. The temple-park exists on no map of the Rei-Tsaro archipelago.

In fact, it does not exist in the physical world.

Ronna Bouviear, Senior Gardener of the Green-White Order, explains, “It is part of our faith to revisit the traditional groves of Rei-Tsaro, and help tend the ancient plants. But our Order has grown over generations, and many of our members are now involved in worthy causes off-world and even outside the cluster. It has grown increasingly difficult, if not impossible, for many to make regular pilgrimages.”

This dilemma led to a contract with MindScape, an Orvolle start-up firm specializing in virtual entertainment packages. Dataspinner Hue Flonne recounts, “Unlike most of our product experiences, the customer sought a permanent existence. Simulating real-world sensations was only part of the package. Proprietary algorithms replicate the grove’s life cycle from season to season, as well as record persistent changes effected by visitor-user activities, such as gardening.”

Mme Bouviear adds, “We were hesitant at first about this solution. But it was the only feasible way for many of our far-off members to really come together as a community. We had to balance a tradition centered a single archipelago in a single world with followers that have spread through the rest of the Federation.”

M. Cartwise himself, a 31 year-old zero-gravity engineering specialist, has lived for the past three years on an asteroid colony in the Yvaeroure system. “Solitude’s a long way from Luminaire,” he admits, “and no one else in the colony has even heard of the Green-White.” In his view, “the Equinox Grove is the only way I can connect with my faith.”

The story of the Green-White Order and the Equinox Grove is not a unique one. Social observers say that it may be be part of a greater trend towards virtualized places of worship.

University of Caille professor Terrance Duvalle, who this week published “Infomorphs and Identity Politics: The Evolution of Self-Awareness,” argues that virtual reality technology and the accessibility of FTL communication networks are combining to transform religious practices throughout the Federation.

M. Duvalle says, “The Federation is unrivalled in its religious diversity. One’s choice of religion is just as acceptable as one’s choice of fashion or political ideology. At the same time, the emphasis on personal freedoms and availability of modern means of travel means that private mobility is at an all time high. In the past, religious affiliation tended to have a strong correspondence with the circumstances of one’s birth. Increasingly, religious belief is becoming a matter independent of one’s location.”

He concludes, “The result is the fragmentation and diffusion of religious communities across entire constellations. These communities, previously tied together by traditional structures such as the parish or temple, must rely on non-traditional venues to remain interconnected. One such venue is the virtual realm.”

The Cathedral of St. Anahita is emblematic of this trend. Existing only on a fluid router housed in Caille’s expansive network, the cathedral nonetheless hosts weekly sermons and sees thousands of visitors daily. Several parallel versions of the cathedral exist at any one time, and groups of visitors are shunted into a particular manifestation based on server load.

Deacon Isaac Rourthe, a priest-admin of the digital cathedral, is a member of the Church of the Star Saints. His is one of the many denominations of the Amarrian faith that have flourished in the Federation, and he speaks of the decision to “go virtual” as one born from necessity.

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