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Topic Review: Megacorps
#10
Started combining more thoughts together but i'll just continue this in a google doc to make it actually organized and post that next


a) We may (probably will) need to make some tweaks to the earlier history. Most of it is set in the Interplanetary Age prior to the Technocalypse and we've made considerable changes to that period since this Topic was written.

b) We will need to add to the history to expand the level of detail in the Federation Age and extend that history further across the timeline. Current it thins out and all bet ends with the end of the Federation period and then jumps into the Sephirotics and covers that entire period in about 2 sentences.
-some more material about how transapients now run megacorps. as todd said: The megacorps (or at least some of them) saw themselves in competition with the transapients and went in for variant forms of group minds and augmentation to try to compete. Ultimately they failed and either ended up being taken over by transapients or becoming (at least in the core areas/'Boards of Directors"/'Executive level with the greatest amount of augmentation and group mind interlinkage) transapients themselves.

-todd: 3) As part of the Fall of the Federation, the megacorps moved to compete with the Federation and become alternative power centers to it. Including providing alternative ways to live/think - the aforementioned 'corporate culture' - possibly enforced by 'corporate' memetics, group mind variant software, and enhanced augmentation.

I imagine Houses are megacorps that adopted traits of the state and stopped being much of an economic entity.
Another thought - Either the megacorps or great houses, or both might have become vehicles for modos attempting to augment and organize themselves in ways that would let them better hold their own against transapients and transapient run societies. Details of how this would work are TBD, but in a general sense this might fall under the same umbrella as Unity/Unityware and its development of group minds - modos trying to operate on or near the level of transaps without actually becoming transaps.
Something like this could create a very...interesting...period during the early-middle part of the timeline during which various superhumanly intelligent entities and groups all interacted with each other in various ways (competition, cooperation, etc.). Eventually the sephirotic archai come along and dominate things - but maybe we push that back a few hundred or thousand years and have a long interregnum period.

c) We've been talking a good bit about how the megacorps might have been organized and what they might have become - that will need to be polished up a bit and then folded in (in some cases replacing) with what is currently there.
-rynn's more automation of the labor to maximize shareholder value for anyone who buys in
-

d) We will probably want to look at the current description of how megacorps work(ed) internally as well as the InterPlanetary Age economic factors that formed that internal structure and determine if we want to modify it and how.
-rise of untraceable monetary systems that undermine governments
-Rise of AI and transapients (unkown to humans at the time) possibly within some megacorps that to humans appear better run than normal
-primitive von neumann devices and nano-manufacturing are developed, so that allows more automation for megacorps
-tweaks developed so more megacorps operating in extreme environments where automated devices need supervision

e) We may also want to look at describing multiple types of internal structures (both past and present) for megacorps in the vein of our focus on Diversity! Diversity! Diversity! It seems logical that not all megacorps would operate in exact same fashion, although they may fall into broadly similar types.

-megacorporations could certainly vary in their purpose and structure. Some might specialize more in certain economic sectors like building islands/bubblehabs, infrastructure or allowing a smaller number of shareholders to concentrate more wealth, whereas other megacorporations might have a broader but less wealthy shareholder base and/ or more social or environmental goals.

f) The role of transapients definitely needs to be worked into the article fairly early on and throughout their history.
-as more and more of civilization develops into post scarcity societies, the megacorps might tend to have more concentrated power than
-what differentiates a megacorporation run entirely by transapients from a transapient society? that it's more decentralized and less market/ money based as an economic system?


g) The role of augmentation in megacorps is an area we should definitely explore.
" There might also be elements of non-compete clauses in there as well - even after you pay off your debt it's hard to go to another company and take your implants with you, etc." as you said, todd.
could be slightly similar to citizenship

i've been increasingly wondering about some kind of "platform" hive mind type intelligence somewhere between s0 and s1, where some megacorporation or other type of organization might resemble a hive mind with some augmented members having more 'autonomy/ individuality' from the collective and also being able to access a platform that is itself an entity in its own right.
as todd said: An element of these corporate group mind sorta things could be something like the 'xiao'(sp?) or mental domination that is practiced by the Sobornost multi-copy society whereby copies close to the original 'Founders' can dominate those farther away (as in copy of a copy of a copy of a copy,etc.) with the Founders dominating all. Sort of.
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Messages In This Thread
Topic Review: Megacorps - by Drashner1 - 08-26-2020, 01:42 PM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Drashner1 - 08-26-2020, 01:48 PM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Worldtree - 08-26-2020, 03:04 PM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Worldtree - 08-26-2020, 03:13 PM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Drashner1 - 09-10-2020, 01:00 PM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Worldtree - 08-26-2020, 03:14 PM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Drashner1 - 08-30-2020, 02:22 PM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Rynn - 09-10-2020, 09:38 PM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Worldtree - 09-11-2020, 01:46 PM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Drashner1 - 09-11-2020, 11:06 PM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Worldtree - 09-11-2020, 02:29 PM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Drashner1 - 09-14-2020, 12:39 PM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by QwertyYerty - 09-28-2020, 02:19 PM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Worldtree - 09-28-2020, 02:46 PM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Rakuen07 - 09-28-2020, 11:26 PM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by The Astronomer - 11-17-2020, 10:48 AM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Drashner1 - 11-17-2020, 01:25 PM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Technothrope - 11-18-2020, 05:23 AM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Worldtree - 11-18-2020, 06:29 AM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Technothrope - 11-18-2020, 06:47 AM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Drashner1 - 01-03-2021, 01:05 PM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Rynn - 01-13-2021, 08:11 AM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Vitto - 01-08-2021, 04:24 AM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by MacGregor - 01-13-2021, 09:33 AM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by MacGregor - 01-13-2021, 10:25 PM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Rynn - 01-14-2021, 08:21 AM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Drashner1 - 01-14-2021, 01:05 PM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by The Astronomer - 06-20-2021, 12:01 AM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Drashner1 - 06-20-2021, 11:03 PM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Vitto - 07-15-2021, 09:25 PM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by The Astronomer - 07-15-2021, 09:42 PM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Vitto - 07-15-2021, 10:45 PM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Drashner1 - 07-15-2021, 11:10 PM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Rakuen07 - 07-17-2021, 01:32 AM
RE: Topic Review: Megacorps - by Vitto - 07-17-2021, 02:54 AM

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