Schismatrix - Ideologies

Ideologies

• Preservationism: Contends that technology is destroying the essence of humanity. Places strict limits on anti-human technologies, advocates study of human art and history, and even for some the end of the Interdict with Earth.
• Détente: Belief that in the face of alien contact that humanity should present a united front. Followers of détente called for increased cooperation and contact between Shapers and Mechanists. Détente ended with renewed war and the rise of the Cataclysts.
• Militarism: Dogmatic loyalty to one's own faction, that underlies the cold war between the Shapers and Mechanists. Outright warfare is rare, as the fragility of life-supporting environments in the Solar System makes mechanized warfare an exercise in mutually assured destruction. Instead, economic warfare, political rivalry and espionage are the more socially acceptable forms of conflict.
• Cataclysm: This ideology was first promulgated by the Superbrights. It demanded an end to artificial social controls and destruction of authority. Eventually devolved into terrorism and resulted in lingering animosity towards the Superbrights.
• Zen Serotonin: A cult that uses biofeedback (principally neurochemical-deploying biomonitors and sleep-monitoring beds) to maintain zen-like calm and detachment. The "Nonmovement" (as it is sometimes called) looks to slow the process of societal change, and has a strong focus on social order.
• Galacticism: A belief that mere loyalty to species was obsolete, and worked for faster than light technologies, interstellar colonization and increased contact with aliens. While not inherently militant, the resources required to pursue these goals demanded major faction support and so indirectly increased militarism as Shaper and Mechanist Galacticists competed with one another.
• Post-Humanism: Post-humanists believe in Prigoginic Levels of Complexity and its surrounding philosophy and science. Sterling only hints at many of the tenets of post-humanism, but a key goal of post-humanists is terraforming, which they consider to be a primal duty of intelligent beings. Post-humanists are supporters of détente. Wellspring is a key ideologue for the post-humanist philosophy.