Seeing an opportunity, several multinational corporations pledged to support the struggling governments, rushing to establish “safe zones” for uninfected workers in exchange for the temporary relaxation or even abolishment of a swathe laws and regulations. Employment rights, safety, building and planning were all deregulated; removing anything that was an impediment to the corporations, acting quickly to maintain global supply chains in the face of the pandemic.
As time passed, the corporations continued to insist the removal of rights for the workers was essential, and what was initially touted as temporary, increasingly came to appear permanent. Civil unrest grew amongst the safe zone populations, and depleted national police forces struggled to keep control. On top of this, so called “undesirable” people living outside of the safe zones began to break in and attack them with increasing intensity, attempting to steal the resources held inside.
Once again, the corporations were ready to step in, offering to provide funds to governments to increase police resources, and in some cases even using their own security units to bolster national police forces. Politicians who were resistant were bought off, “disappeared” and some even assassinated, and while there were many whispers that the corporations were behind these incidents, there was never anything other than the most circumstantial evidence uncovered.
It wasn’t long until the corporations had consolidated all power from the nation states, with the majority of governments existing only to rubber stamp their corporate benefactor’s activities. While the safe zones remained virus free, by this point they had evolved into secure cities; the workers residential areas began to degenerate into overcrowded slums, in stark contrast to the opulent luxury of the corporates’ executive sectors. The corporations hold onto their power with an iron fist, and any opposition to their operations is dealt with swiftly and harshly by their paramilitary security forces.
With the governments subjugated, the corporations started to turn on each other, initially discretely but with increasing intensity and ferocity. Failed states in the global south were subsumed in their entirety and their military resources used to wage proxy wars against their rivals. This resulting corporate warfare led to an explosion in military technology and cybernetics. Mechanical prosthetics and sensory upgrades became an everyday sight, as corporate soldiers returned home from the front lines with visible modifications. Before long such enhancements became commonplace across the population, at least amongst those who could afford them.
In this hyper-capitalist nightmare, image is everything. If you’ve got it flaunt it, and if you haven’t, do whatever it takes to get it.
Against this backdrop of corporate war and dystopia, a social media platform called Free.me was launched which quickly grew in popularity. The vast majority of workers turned to Free.me as a way of escaping the harshness of their “real” life, choosing to spend as much of their spare time as possible on the platform. The corporations also saw the value of the platform, representing a captive market for their advertisements and prone to influence and propaganda which could be used to increase their control over the working masses. Proxy wars turned hot as the corporations fought for control of Free.me.
The year is 2077…
Life is cheap and tech is expensive. In a dystopian future, Britain is run down and the gap between rich and poor has become a chasm. The working class live in run down accommodation while the rich live in luxury apartments protected by armed guards to ensure they retain what they have taken.
Work in 2077
Large numbers of people exist outside of corporate controlled society, with many having to turn to illegal acts to make money or even just to survive. Jobs like these are obtained from a ‘Fixer’; a go-between for clients who want work done and ‘operators’ who do the work for them.Medicine in 2077
The early Corporate Wars made Cybernetic implants practical then hyper-capitalism made them cheaper than actual medical treatment by experts. Leg bothering you after an accident? Swap it out, you've got to remain productive. Only the truly poor and the truly rich are completely unmodified.If you're not augmented then you're probably medicated. Drug printing innovations allowed for products to be endlessly innovated on with no regulation. Highs, lows, boosts and burns are everywhere. You don't need to be yourself any more, you can be better.
The alienation and detachment from our fundamental biological baseline is blamed for some of the crushing societal problems of the era and violence driven by CyberPsychosis is an increasing issue for those not living in 'better' areas with omnipresent security.
Some like The Inquisition are pushing back. Some think there's a deeper conspiracy behind it all.
Outside, the detritus from this lifestyle makes some things unusable, some things invaluable. Netrunners can do almost anything if they can navigate the noise.
Being completely disconnected is almost a superpower but every superpower comes with its own Kryptonite: the world just doesn't work for you. Good luck stirring your coffee.
Some like The Inquisition are pushing back. Some think there's a deeper conspiracy behind it all.
Social media in 2077
Broadcast media is dead. In its place is Free.me: a never ending stream of viral attention-grabbing material but decentralised so no one Corporation controls it.
It is a battlefield. News media has resorted to old methods: Screamsheets like the pamphlets of old have lurid headlines and fill your screen only so long as they can. The silence and lack of motion is in itself jarring, like when your tinnitus suddenly stops.
The net in 2077
For the Corporate world everything is connected. The magnetic puck you stir your coffee with, the mirror you set your hair in is a screen, your toilet warns you of a vitamin deficiency. It's overwhelming and mostly an exercise on snitching on you to The Company, analysing behaviour continuously for disloyalty or inefficiency which after all is just the same thing really.Outside, the detritus from this lifestyle makes some things unusable, some things invaluable. Netrunners can do almost anything if they can navigate the noise.
Being completely disconnected is almost a superpower but every superpower comes with its own Kryptonite: the world just doesn't work for you. Good luck stirring your coffee.
War in 2077
"It's not personal, it's just business" is how almost all serious armed conflict occurs now. The Nation State is inconsequential and most national culture has been homogenised, barring a small number of holdouts.
When Corporations go to war it's a broader affair occurring more on the 'net, in the streets and in the courts than on the battlefield.