Self-styled 'capital' of the Disarchy

Image from LordOther

Gillbank is a terraformed lacustrian world, currently the capital of the Disarchy.

Image from Matthew C. Johnson

The planet Gillbank orbits both stars in this system; they are always close together in the sky, and sometimes overlap, eclipsing one another

"All these orbitals joining the NoCozo..it's all a conspiracy"

I paused in my drinking and looked over at what seemed to be a very inebriated person to my left at the bar. Orange skin. Tattoos. Fewer arms than most of us considered fashionable.

"A conspiracy? Like what, that the Hand of the Market is an actual archailect, rather than just chaotic market behavior?" I asked

It was the end of a long week on my group's marketing planning project for the upcoming faction vote and I'd just wanted to relax. But sometimes, talking conspiracies, real or not, is too fun to pass up. My fellow bar patron's browsing history was even public, and my Assistant was already searching to see if the conversations in their "research" section? segment? folder? might venture somewhere interesting. I decided to talk to them in person as well. The storms of the gas giant outside tumbled behind us on the sky screen, filling the bar with a pleasant orange glow. Officially our habitat was orbiting across the night side at the moment, but the wall remained at a steady, pleasant twilight as we drank. It was only early evening in the bar district, after all.

They took another puff from their hookah with one of their two arms. "No no no. See.. maybe the market archailect is real, or maybe it isn't .. but that doesn't matter. What matters is /someone/ is doing it. Goes all the way to the top. Don't you know the history of this region? The modosophont factions out here in this system, and stars nearby.. they've been Negentropist-aligned for centuries, right? But never taking the full cyber-representation by transapient governor...never taking the full tier of resources from what the Negentropy Alliance reps offer, because the terraformer clans in the system keep voting it down, and the rest want autonomy."

My Assistant checked that fact. The voting records of our system's reps bore that out, superficially.

"So how is this about the NoCoZo then?" This was getting stranger, but I was also enjoying my growing sense of feeling smarter- either from the THC Galactic Gargle-blaster and tonic I was drinking, or my neural interface using public processing servers to understand the research, or a combination of the two.

"No no no don't you see? The transapients from the other systems wouldn't even need to take over our minds or break our fabricators, to take full control around here. They can just make us divide ourselves into smaller factions with market forces, financialize society like some primitive ferenji pre-diaspora fools, and wait for the entire local Negentropy-aligned polities to collapse into disarray! It's a total scheme!.... Want a hit?"

I paused, staring doubtfully at the link to the freeware smart drug concoction the smoker was handing me, virtually, so my DNI could produce it. I read the side effects.

"I'm good thanks- I prefer getting my highs from something the bar made"

They nodded in understanding.

"You're talking like the NoCoZo would bring back something primitive like ... capitalism though- the recycling infrastructure would never allow that anywhere in space"

The smoker laughed- "Oh no of course not that- nobody in the NoCoZo's going to financialize the recycling ecosystems or sell air...but it will be market centered.. usually Financial Post-Ecoism or something like that"

"Ok you were beginning to sound a bit crazy there"

The summary of research that my exo-self was compiling though, as I spoke in person to the smoker, was beginning to pierce through the buzz I was feeling...

"Right-" I said "so my Assistant tells me you gave some... workshops a few years ago about how switching to NoCoZo market ecosystems is actually causing a political collapse in surrounding polities? We all know it couldn't go that far. Our tribeminds say so. Even the Iwaju Great House faction wouldn't go as far as to let our political unity break apart like that, right? They're just trying to get the spacer factions to align themselves with the NoCoZo, for good trades..."

It wasn't that my acquaintance (who'd called themselves Gatteo Truthsayer, Gattias Oudar, and "Thespian" in the past, apparently) was particularly convincing in person, as they puffed purple smoke at the bar... but my assistant, and now several freinds on the 'net, were beginning to be convinced by the research from those workshops ... Was my Assistant getting the buzz from my drink too, somehow?
The smoker, Gattias, continued, still excited-

"...But they're saying to place the political alliances under short-term market demands, for the gains, because then it'll fail as people lose interest. Next step, they'll get us indebted to their megacorps or something to make us all follow wage coercion like barbarians... all voluntary at first, of course"

"Of course. Non-coercive, as they say. Everything's voluntary" I sipped my drink, now very troubled.

The problem was... when a mind capable of running a star system's economy was handing your polity the transaction agreement, collective consent about the consequences tended to always end up exactly how they wanted, from what I'd heard... Was the entire NoCoZo actually a tool by some archailect to break apart the political unity of other alliances through "market forces", when they wished? Or were my Assistant and I falling for propaganda directed at some other purpose? or was I just high?

((..A bit of each,)) said my Assistant, and ((laughed))

Fuck.. was my assistant in on it too?

I'd have to think about this with a clear head.

Later, of course.

The drinks were good here

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