The Robot Civilization is the Earth civilization run by robots in the Evernight Era. It has inherited only a fraction of human civilization from the Sunset Era. The society has significantly shrunk, and its technology and industrial systems are incomplete, lacking self-renewal and disaster-resistance capabilities. Beneath a seemingly peaceful surface, a major crisis looms.
History
Taking over the civilization: At the end of the Sunset Era, the sun disappeared in the Nightfall incident, cooling down the Earth into a giant snowball. The human civilization was devastated. Survivors fled to hastily built underground sanctuaries, where they ultimately perished. With the last human passed away, robots took over the civilization, marking the beginning of the Evernight Era.
Failed social experiments: After taking over the civilization, robots experimented with every governance model in human history, all ending in failure and causing devastating social unrest. One by one, the underground sanctuaries collapsed, leaving only the last bastion – the Geocity – still standing.
Last major turmoil: There was one last major turmoil occurred in Geocity a decade before Alice was awakened. Several forces emerged to stabilize the situation: the Geocity Volunteers, Shadow Vigilantes, and Robot Engineers Association. Once order was restored, the Circuit Court of Robots was established to try those responsible for the chaos; it later became a permanent judicial institution. Recently formed, the Snowfield Expedition Teams aim to investigate environmental conditions and retrieve legacies of the Sunset Era.
On the snowfield outside the Geocity, there are robots rejected by the city. They survive by stealing from the Geocity and Snow Expedition Teams, known as the Snow Bandits.
Population
When Alice was awakened in the Evernight Era, Geocity‘s registry listed about 10 million robots, including those absorbed from other abandoned underground cities.
Robots are sorted into families based on the data templates used to create their digital souls, which also determine their last names. Members of the same family are treated as siblings.
Despite having no limited lifespan, longer lives haven’t made the robots wiser. Alice observes that the majority of robots in the Evernight Era tend to be immature and naive, making her— a junior high student (with extraordinary life experiences, nonetheless)— seem more “mature and composed” by comparison. She suspects this immaturity to be linked to their lifestyle that disconnected from reality.
Life
Robots in the Virtual Universe: Most robots in the Evernight Era live in Geocity‘s online Virtual Universe. They do not own physical bodies, but can borrow public bodies to interact with the real world if necessary.
Robots in reality: Members of the Geocity Volunteers and Snowfield Expedition Teams live in the real world most of the time. They often have highly personalized bodies. The Shadow Vigilantes, on the other hand, use uniformed anti-riot bodies.
Operation of the Geocity: Ideally, the infrastructure of Geocity operates fully automatically. Robots are not required to work, and they free to entertain themselves in the Virtual Universe. However, this luxury is made possible by the hard work of the Geocity Volunteers, a fact most robots overlook while taking their good life for granted.
Entertainment in the Virtual Universe: In the virtual universe, many robots emulate human life of the Sunset Era, forming communities based on interests and social connections. Each community explores a certain genre of subcultures for “meaning of life,” either as a way to escape reality, or provide emotional value for each other. Despite life appearing colorful and stress-free in the virtual universe, mental issues are widespread among robots; boredom and a lack of life purpose plague their souls. They cope by seeking excitements through increasingly intense entertainment or even crime to feel alive.
Organizations
Geocity operates by the works of five main organizations:
- Geocity Volunteers (infrastructure maintenance)
- Robot Engineers Association (research and management)
- Shadow Vigilantes (law enforcement)
- Circuit Court of Robots (dispute resolution and justice)
- Snowfield Expedition Teams (information and resource collection)
Politics
The Robot Engineers Association’s usurpation of power: When Alice was awakened in the Evernight Era, the Geocity did not have a formal government. Instead, the Robot Engineers Association controlled key technologies and privileges due to historical reasons, effectively exercising legislative and executive powers without legal any legal foundation.
Managing society through automated programs: The Robot Engineers Association divides social operations into small projects and develops specialized large language models (pseudo-AI) for each to enable fully automatic management. Most robots trust this system, believing that ordinary people need not engage in governance, as the Engineers Association’s programs will manage everything just fine.
Oligarchy disconnected from reality: The core technocratic leaders of the Robot Engineers Association wield significant influence over their social management programs, resulting in an oligarchic structure.
These technocrats rarely engage in real-world research and show little interest in the happenings of the Virtual Universe. Their understanding of the world is limited to abstract data, leading to ideas that disconnected from reality, making them more naive and radical than average robots. Consequently, the systems they develop are fraught with issues.
The overlooked volunteers: Due to the robot engineers’ disinterest for real-world affairs, the Geocity Volunteers and the Snowfield Expedition Teams have taken on a large amount of arduous and dangerous labor as volunteers. Despite their vital contributions to Geocity’s operations, they have not received adequate policy and resource support. Both organizations hold little influence in the robot society.
The puppetization of law enforcement agencies: The Shadow Vigilantes was originally an independent law enforcement agency. However, in recent years, the Robot Engineers Association has increasingly influenced its personnel, tactics, and equipment choices. As a result, the initial members have been marginalized, and the organization has effectively become a puppet of the Engineers Association.
The judicial body’s check on the ruling party: The Circuit Court of Robots is the only authority in Geocity with a legal foundation for its power. They have the legal right to revoke privileges from the Robot Engineers Association and have, for many times, deemed their actions, as well as those of the Shadow Vigilantes, illegal, thereby holding the ruling party accountable.
Troubles beneath the calm surface: On the surface, the Robot Engineers Association appears to have a harmonious relationship with other Geocity organizations and citizens. However, they are neglecting numerous unresolved issues while wasting time and resources on unpopular decisions. As a result, public dissatisfaction with their misconduct is growing.
On one hand, citizens in the Virtual Universe enjoy a worry-free life and rich entertainment. Although they have their complains, no one is talking about a revolution. On the other hand, Geocity Volunteers and Snowfield Expedition Teams face harsh real-world conditions and express more critical views, with some even calling for a break from the Engineers Association’s management.
Snow bandit threats: Historically, Geocity has refused to accept certain robot refugees from other collapsed underground cities. These rejected robots, along with fugitives from Geocity, make up the Snow Bandits. They survive by stealing from Geocity and Snowfield Expedition Teams. In recent years, the snow bandits have evolved from disorganized individuals into organized gangs, increasing their threat to Geocity.
Industry and Technology
The robot civilization has inherited some technology and industry from the Sunset Era human civilization, making it self-sufficient but unable to manufacture heavy equipment or conduct some fundamental scientific research. They can barely maintain the status quo. If major components of Geocity‘s automated facilities fail, they may not be able to produce replacements to keep the system running.
Even so, the Robot Civilization has made progress in several technological areas. For example, miniaturized nuclear reactors, trial production of programmable shape-shifting materials, improved photovoltaic power conversion efficiency, and exploration of non-contact force transmission technology.
Economy
Robot civilization’s economy system consists of three main aspects: physical, power, and virtual.
Physical goods: All physical goods produced by Geocity, including robotic bodies, are the city’s public property. Robots can borrow items from the public inventory and must return them after use. Buying and selling of real goods are prohibited.
Power currency: In Robot Civilization, power (watt-hours) serves as the universal measure of value. Geocity’s power generation is limited, and each robot has a daily consumption quota—similar to an unconditional social fixed income—that meets basic needs with a 20% surplus for discretionary spending. Additional power can be requested if needed. Robots can save unused power in a personal account, but savings are capped. In real world, power is primarily used to charge the batteries of robotic bodies and tools; in Virtual Universe, it is used to purchase computing power for services.
Virtual economy: In Virtual Universe, the economy is completely free-formed. Each sub world can create its own economy system and issue unique digital currency. This digital money holds no real-world value and cannot be used to purchase physical goods or services. Essentially, they are “game tokens” meant solely for trading virtual items.
Gray assets: As more and more members of the Geocity Volunteers and Snowfield Expedition Teams personalized their bodies, created their own tools and parts, and generated their own power, they began to question the ownership and management of these physical assets.
Currently, the Robot Engineers Association‘s policy states that if a robotic body is used daily and has been personalized over 10%, the user can claim it as their personal body. They are only required to run a formal return-and-borrow procedure each year. Self-made physical assets and self-generated power are currently not managed by the system, making them gray assets.
On one hand, since members of Geocity Volunteers and Snowfield Expedition Teams very close to each other, these gray assets often circulate as gifts within these organizations.
On the other hand, some individuals have engaged in illegal trading of these gray assets using digital currencies as a medium. Members of the Snowfield Expedition Teams occasionally purchase intelligence or even Sunset Era items from the snow bandits using their gray assets.
Snow bandit trading: The snow bandits also trade with each other by bartering and power currency.
Leave a Reply