#second renaissance

[awkwardpariah]

A sampling of Martian states from my Second Renaissance worldbuilding project.

[scriptorsecular]

Despite Being the World's Largest Growing Religion, There is Hope for Irreligiosity in the Islamic World, Too

Irrespective of whether you attend a place of worship or not, would you say you are a religious person, not a religious person, or a convinced atheist?

The results of a “Religiosity and Atheism” poll conducted by WIN-Gallup International reveals a rising tide of non-belief. The media has, quite rightly, latched on to the 9% decline worldwide and the 22% drop in Ireland, but looking into the details, one big surprise for me was that 25% of people in Saudi Arabia are not religious. (5% identified as specifically Atheist, 19% identified as not religious and 1% did not respond). In other words, 1 out of every four Saudi’s identify as not religious. 

...

59% of the world said that they think of themselves as religious, 23% think of themselves as not religious and 13% think of themselves as convinced atheists.

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The US now only has 60% who proclaim themselves to be religious, that’s a decline of 13% since 2005

Canada is down by 12% to 46%

Turkey was a big surprise, only 23% described themselves as religious.

As mentioned previously, Saudi Arabia also only has 75% who would acknowledge themselves as religious … wow.

Another big surprise were the Muslim numbers, only 74% identified as actually religious, 20% identified as non-religious and 3% as atheists. In other words a lot of Muslims don’t actually believe, they are simply cultural Muslims … double wow.

In Palestine only 65% identified as religious … another wow.

Why these numbers, what is happening?

I have no data, just an opinion, but I’d like to suggest that the flow of information now available has greatly increased since 2005 due to the Internet, people are now able to find out previously hidden truths and are being exposed to factually based criticism of irrational beliefs. It also allows individuals to ponder and independently think things through for themselves using logic and reason. A better richer flow of information has yielded better decisions.

Now that is indeed encouraging.

The Internet is the new Printing Revolution. Social upheavals inbound.

Welcome to the Second Renaissance.

[divinesilverdingo]

Hey, does anyone remember a Kids Next Door episode that was basically a shot-for-shot remake of the Second Renaissance bit from The Animatrix?

That was fucked up, right? What producer saw The Second Renaissance and was like “Hey, let’s make this into a kid’s show episode!”

If anyone has any explanations, I’d actually love to hear them.

[xchronicles]

The Machine Ambassadors / The Human Ambassadors

[awkwardpariah]

In 1997 NASA launched the Mars Pathfinder mission, landing a small lander and the first interplanetary rover in what was once the Ares Vallis of Chryse Planitia. The lander was later renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station, while the rover, Sojourner, operated for 92 sols before losing power. And for nearly 40 years the sands of Mars would burry these robotic pioneers in dust. When terraforming began in the 2030s, NASA was charged with preserving sites and artifacts on the surface considered to be of special historical or scientific interest. The Pathfinder spacecraft were no exception, and were exhumed by 2037. Carl Sagan Memorial Station would become the site of a permanent scientific instillation  that would grow into a network of facilities spread over hundreds of square kilometers. The original settlement would eventually become the city of Sojourner while the network of research bases would form the core of the eventual Sagan Territory established after World War III by President Jacobi. As the once dry Ares Vallis became the thriving Ares Sound, Sagan went from being a relatively underpopulated network of research stations to a top destination of immigrants from Earth. Its research bases became part of the Sagan University System, which remains one of the greatest systems of higher education in the Sol System. While founded as a place of learning, Sagan has become a primarily maritime oriented society, with some of the busiest ports and shipyards on Mars. Most of the population is concentrated around the Bay of Galilaei centered on the city of Tana which bestrides the inlet of the same name. Tana is home to one of the lesser Universities of the SU system, SU Tana, which is really only known for its contributions to the Martian shipbuilding industry. The crown jewel of the SU system is in the capital city of Sojourner, the Sagan Institute of Technology or SIT. It was SIT scientists who first proved the existence of the Graviton in the lab, and has since become one of the most important players in the field of Gravitonics. Thanks to all my Patreon supporters who made this map possible. All my patrons get early access to my projects before they go live. Please subscribe at: patreon.com/SeanMcKnight

[awkwardpariah]

A recent commission by Raj Villarin aka @synergiescomic of the K’lerin, a species of intelligent avians from Tau Ceit f in my #SecondRenaissance worldbuilding project. K'lerin or Ornithosapiens cognitus are the dominant lifeforms and only known sentient species occupying Tau Ceti f, known as Le'ma to the inhabitants. They are characterized by erect posture, bipedal locomotion and avian-like plumage.

Like most large animals on Le’ma, the K’lerin are members of a clade of xeno-avians that emerged some 44 million years ago and have since come to dominate the biosphere (much like mammals during the Cenozoic on Earth). While they superficially resemble owls, their closest relative on Tau Ceti f is a terrestrial tetrapod with a body plan similar to that of a Mandril that is known to dwell in the rocky highlands of the planet’s smaller central mountain range. Like this evolutionary cousin and their common ancestor, they sport no claws on their hands or feet. Unlike their evolutionary cousin and common answer, they sport no feathers beyond their upper back, head, neck and to a lesser extent their forearms. The latter feathers are entirely vestigial, the remnants of their ancestor’s lives as a mountain dwellers that required extreme balance to navigate the ledges, cliffs, and trees that provided most of their food.

The only known civilization, the T’Vai Dynasty, on their planet originated in the northern latitudes of Le’ma’s only megacontinent, and at the time of First Contact was a Bronze Age city-state, itself the remnant of a far larger society that fell around 1000 CE. It is believed by some that the more nomadic tribes of the planet’s northern Tropics were once part of a civilization that achieved a bronze age level of technology far earlier than their northern cousins, however human scientists have only limited evidence for this in the form of forensic studies of language families. The T’Vai are matriarchal with three queens sharing spouses to maintain their family lines and that no single monarch could wield political influence greater than the other through marriage rights. At present, the royal families are themselves checked by a legislative assembly elected from the general population. Relations with humans are cordial, though got off to a rocky start not long after first contact when the first interstellar school established on Le’ma caused the dissemination of human political theory to the populace. Of particular interest were the ideas of John Locke and Karl Marx, which in turn sparked a revolution that nearly destroyed the confederated monarchy, and in the backlashed nearly caused the mass murder of civilians. The worst was averted thanks to the intervention of the human explorers who mediated the drafting of a constitution and with it the establishment of a representative legislature.

[awkwardpariah]

One of the original Martian colonies, New Virginia was first settled in 2031 by the Praxis Group, a collection of venture capitalists hoping to capitalize on the value of the Margaritifer lowlands that would form an equatorial peninsula once terraforming gifted Mars with Oceans. Its first settlemetn of New Richmond would go on to become one of the most important settlements on Mars after the construction of the first space elevator just outside of settlement proper in 2039. The Praxis Group aggressively pushed for greater expansion of the Mars Transit Network from New Richmond, which became a central hub for new settlers seeking lives across the planet. Naturally, many simply chose to remain in New Richmond and serve the needs of the millions that would descend from the elevator. In many respects, the First Martian Revolution was born in New Virginia. Where most of Mars's founding corporations had ceded more and more power to the populace throughout the first half of the 21st Century, the Praxis Group maintained private control of the New Richmond Elevator and the colony itself, leveraging its position as the primary landing site and interplanetary trade port to always be exempt from MarsCorp reforms. When Martians began to formally call for Representation in the US Congress it was in New Virginia where the first calls were made, not by Praxis, but by the Delegation of New Richmond, an unrecognized political group that had been quietly gathering support with the other colonies for some time. However, where most of the colonies who joined in the calls for representation did so out of a desire to see their new citizens granted all the rights and privileges they had done without for so long, the Delegation had an ulterior motive: to unseat the Hegemony of the Praxis Group before the Second Wave began. When MarsCorp Chairman Kanzaki, a former CEO of Praxis, announced the plan to impose planet wide fees on products imported from Earth and travel between the territories, Mars finally spoke up. Protests, boycotts, and strikes broke out planet-wide, and Mars seemed poised for Revolution against MarsCorp, and potentially the United States on Earth. But it was Praxis where the only real hatred was directed. Fighting between colonists and Praxis security forces broke out whenever a protest was held and assemblies were often broken up by raids. In 2078 members of the Delegation held one of the largest sit-ins in recorded history. 25,000 people surrounded the base of the New Richmond Elevator and stopped all unloading and loading of the most critical supply line for Mars. With freeze packed food from shipping containers at their disposal, and a wall of people that the security forces could not penetrate, the protest lasted months. MarsCorp's shareholders were reeling from profit losses and the potential loss on their territorial claims, Galileo Development's President, Adrian Hayer proposed a solution. Galileo Development was an offshoot of Lunar Energy Ltd, and while it did not have a direct stake in MarsCorp, it had been shipping Nitrogen down system from Titan to Mars for four decades. Through LE, Galileo agreed to broker a deal with the colonists and Earth, and purchase 35% of MarsCorp's holdings, in exchange for continued trade between the colonies. Praxis agreed, and ceded all claims to New Virginia to the newly created Interplanetary Trade Commission. Praxis would only hold ownership of a financial district in the heart of New Richmond. To prevent any future monopolization of trade, the first order of the ITC was the creation of 12 additional elevators, and improvements to the existing three outside of New Richmond. The New Virginia Colony was partitioned in 2085, but the core of the colony around the New Richmond Elevator remained intact. By 2100 New Richmond surpassed every city in the system for size and population; despite its new competition with the other elevators, most colonists still came through New Richmond. The terraforming process left the peninsula in a perfect position for colonists to easily reach the fertile coats of Araby and the farmland stretching from the Chryse Gulf to the Argyre Sea. The wealth of Mars all flowed through New Richmond and New Virginia prospered, so much so that when the Luongists tried to gain a foothold in the colony where the first Revolution had started, they found no support for as Second. New Virginia was comfortable and sought integration over separation. When the first calls for statehood went out in 2134, New Virginia was one of the first to be accepted to join the Union along with 50 other territories across the system. And when the call for colonial reinforcements came down, it was from New Richmond that they ascended to help.

[awkwardpariah]

US States on a future terraformed Mars from my Second Renaissance worldbuilding project.