The Planet of Aristia was the lone planet orbiting a yellow star much like Earth’s sun. Aristia itself was much like earth in terms of size and climate although most of the inhabited regions were hot by earth’s standards most of the year due to their proximity to the equator. From space Aristia looked somewhat odd in that a band of land ran around the middle of the planet with very large oceans spanning to the polar ice caps. One small continent (more of an island than a continent) called Comunia, was the only land to be found away from the equatorial band. This island was found in the Northern Ocean. Aristia had one large moon, Socracia, a little less than twice the size of earth’s. It was once populated by a colony of settlers from Aristia, but is no longer and whose dominant feature was the colossal crater that covered most of the visible sides surface.
The People of Aristia were almost all city dwellers. In fact for the last 200 years the concept of open spaces, nature, and farms were unknown to the majority of the population. All but five hundred thousand of the planets 99 billion people lived in the equatorial band’s city-nation. Do to the lack of space the people had long since run out of space to spread out and so were forced to spread up. The tightly packed, extremely tall buildings familiar to Earth’s cities spread to the coasts of the equatorial band and the average building was 150 stories high. The only thing resembling a natural setting were the ten Oxygen Plants which consisted of 100 by 100 square mile areas of extremely dense forest areas. These oxygen plants were built to ensure breathable air. They were closely maintained and the trees were all genetically engineered for the compact setting and to produce more oxygen than natural trees. There was no wildlife in these forests because there simply wasn’t room. Natural environment did still exist on Comunia, whose people maintained virtually no contact with the city-nation and lived in a completely communist society.
The economy of the city nation was founded upon an unregulated free market system. The major corporations were unchecked and used tactics to eliminate their competition and gain complete monopolies. The largest of these monopolies controlled entire regions of the city-nation. The government maintained only the Oxygen Plants, the Fire department, and the Police department. Its role in the economy was that it had no role. There was no military for two reasons. One for the last 250 years the entire equatorial belt was unified under one government and two, war was deemed to costly after the Socrasian war. The Socrasian war occurred about 230 years ago between those living on Socracia and those on Aristia and resulted in the extinction of the civilization on Socracia and the large crater.
The city nations society was cashless. All transactions were made with through devices called knowledge link capacitors. Every citizen of the city nation was equipped with a knowledge link capacitor to allow for knowledge transfers. A knowledge link capacitor was essentially a computer chip implanted in the brain that interfaced and cataloged a person’s knowledge. Each person had a plug on their right hand and a socket on their left hand, when two people plugged into each other they would use the interface to negotiate what knowledge would be exchanged for a good or service. Most transactions were not between two individuals however. Knowledge was considered the most valuable possession and so was used to buy all goods and services. When two individuals wished to make a transaction they simply plugged into each other. Most transactions were not from individual to individual however, but from individual to corporate computer. Since corporations controlled almost all means of production and distribution, most purchases were from them. As a result, the corporations acquired rapidly gained all of what would be considered “book knowledge.” Citizens then had to resort to selling personal knowledge in order to obtain goods and services. Personal knowledge consisted of personal experiences, opinions, beliefs, and secrets. The corporations were then able to use this information to create “perfect” advertising. “Perfect” advertising targeted people’s strongest desires making it virtually irresistible. This created and endless cycle of consumption and gave the corporations more power then ever before. Only the island of Comunia was not under their control because its communal lifestyle meant there was no need for knowledge link capacitors.
In terms of religion a wide variety of faiths existed on the planet. The largest religion was Bojudianity, which was founded on the belief that Bojud, the almighty god had planted the seed of life on the 10 planets of the solar system. When life grew most rapidly on Aristia he destroyed the other 9 planets and left only Aristia and its moon Socracia to circle the star. Several other religions split off of Bojudianity but these were not as widely practiced. A significant number of Atheists were present about 25% but even those who practiced could not be considered zealots. Most put religion behind economics.
Family was very important to the Aristians because in a cutthroat world of business it was important to have some guaranteed allies. Every night families would gather and link together to share all the knowledge acquired that day. Everyone lived in apartment buildings because houses were not practical uses of space. No building under 100 stories in height existed in the city nation. With a population of 99 billion people it became very important to build up when there was no more space to build out. Marriage was an extremely important custom as it was during the ceremony that couples first fully interfaced and exchanged all of their knowledge with their partner.