skh@SPICE.CS.CMU.EDU.UUCP (11/08/87)
While flaming out Ray Frank, I got a great idea for cyberpunk. I haven't read any (?) cyberpunk novels, but I hope to get to it soon. Well, ok, I've read some P.K.Dick, and actually this was probably implicit in Bladerunner. Anyway, here it is: COMPANIES AS GANGS Some time in the distant dusty legal history of our society, some jerk came up with the idea that COMPANIES WERE INDIVIDUALS. Therefore, they have all the rights of individuals. (with none of the responsibility -- no ONE PERSON is responsible for the company's actions. Or maybe that's the president or something, while the chairman is who makes the decisions...) Basically it's getting harder to survive without belonging to some company. This "join or die" philosophy naturally links in with gangs, gang warfare, etc. Companies already have "industrial espionage" -- and the CIA is practically a political extension of the american corporate interests. Push this further. Make it really gross (as if it isn't already). Company headquarters/land will be heavily armed -- there may be times when your apartment isn't safe (or should you just live on company land?). There is a problem with "who do they sell to?". I suggest that based upon the idea of replacing centralized government with "company policy", that towns, maybe even cities, will be replaced with local companies, which have absolute power in the lands they own. They sell to eachother, I suppose. But what? Maybe they don't even do that any more, and the novel is set in the aftermath. Basically a return to feudalism? Yeah, people might want to investigate this political "de-evolution" in the face of decreasing (personal) frontiers. It's happening. Remind us. You might want to have the novel progress from individual freedoms to company freedoms to not even that. Like when your company gets bought out and disbanded/dissolved ... sorry, but we need the land... Try taking the bill of rights and applying it to companies. Take your favorite view of the future and make a company that did it and succeeded (as a legend, of course). I think they were working toward FTL drives... Group makes time machine and goes forward to where everybody else has died off... mostly 'cause they wanted to... I think this is necessary to get the desired effect -- that while some eroded the freedoms of their workers (and themselves), others banded together to try to get out of the mess. Might be cool to have one chapter per "individual" right... How is "fair trading" enforced? The SEC is another gang, of course, but... -- Steve -- Steve Handerson Carnegie-Mellon University Computer Science Dept. ARPA: skh@spice.cs.cmu.edu UUCP: ...!spice.cs.cmu.edu!skh (I think) Without chemicals, life itself would be impossible. (Monsanto ad?) 4 lines? I'll have to make it up in the body...
yamauchi@SPEECH2.CS.CMU.EDU.UUCP (11/08/87)
In article <323@PT.CS.CMU.EDU>, skh@SPICE.CS.CMU.EDU (Steve Handerson) writes: > > > While flaming out Ray Frank, I got a great idea for cyberpunk. > I haven't read any (?) cyberpunk novels, but I hope to get to it soon. > Well, ok, I've read some P.K.Dick, and actually this was probably > implicit in Bladerunner. Anyway, here it is: > > COMPANIES AS GANGS > > Some time in the distant dusty legal history of our society, > some jerk came up with the idea that COMPANIES WERE INDIVIDUALS. > Therefore, they have all the rights of individuals. > (with none of the responsibility -- no ONE PERSON is responsible > for the company's actions. Or maybe that's the president or > something, while the chairman is who makes the decisions...) > > Basically it's getting harder to survive without belonging to some > company. This "join or die" philosophy naturally links in with gangs, > gang warfare, etc. Actually, an idea that is implicit in William Gibson's universe is: Companies as Nations Traditional (geographic) nations still exist, but their power has been superceeded by that of the multinationals. Corporate citizenship basically takes the place of national citizenship, and the companies take all of the roles of nations: from maintaining intracorporate peace and order to engaging in intercorporate wars and intrigue. Elite scientists who want to change corporations arrange defections by hiring mercenaries (financed by the company to which they are defecting) to arrange their escape from their current corporation. I'm not sure that corporations would go as far as you are suggesting in eliminating personal rights. Employees would probably have a degree of rights proportional to their personal worth: a brilliant scientist would be very valuable to the corporation and would have almost total freedom (subject to the requirement of producing valuable research) -- on the other hand an assembly-line worker or paper-pushing clerk (assuming any of either remain in the automated workplace) would have minimal rights since they are easily replacable. Even so, it would be to the corporation's advantage to keep even their low-worth employees satisfied, since workers who are happy tend to work more efficiently. I have written a number of SF stories (not really cyberpunk) set in an interstellar society I have developed named the Confederation. In the Confederation, governments and corporations are recognized as the same thing: powerbases. Both types of powerbases engage in the same sorts of activites: manufacturing, trade, exploration, development, security, warfare, espionage, sabotage, assassination, etc. The only difference is that the primary motivation behind a corporate powerbase is economic, while the primary motivation behind a governmental powerbase is political and/or military. For this reason, corporations tend to take a *less* intrusive role in their citizen's lives than governments. Corporations view their employees as machines which require a certain cost (salary, benefits, protection, etc.) and which serve a certain function in the profit-making system. The corporations have a completely lassiez-faire attitude toward any employee actions which do not directly affect profits. In contrast, governments generally require that their citizens live within a variety of rules which define "good citizenship" in the view of the government -- usually in terms which ensure the power of the ruling elite over a wide area of personal affairs, including areas completely separate from economic production. Governments usually attempt to legislate some form of ideology upon their population, regardless of whether the leaders believe in it themselves. In today's world, this ranges from the rigid puritan morality of the far right to the collectivist wealth redistribution of the far left. Of course, since corporate powerbases in the Confederation are completely non-ideological, they make no attempt to implement a "justice system" independent of corporate interests, so any retribution for individual actions will be conducted on the basis of what is best for the corporation. For example: if a competent middle-level manager kills a menial laborer, he will probably only receive a reprimand (for possibly damaging employee morale, and hence employee productivity), but if the same manager were to kill a top researcher or a high-ranking executive, he would be hunted down and terminated. Note that the same thing might happen in a governmental powerbase whose legal system favors members of the bureacracy, but the government would try to justify its actions as being in the (always nebulous) "public interest", while the corporation would simply act in manner to maximize the efficacy of the corporate system. ______________________________________________________________________________ Brian Yamauchi INTERNET: yamauchi@speech2.cs.cmu.edu Carnegie-Mellon University Computer Science Department ______________________________________________________________________________
paco@homxc.UUCP (11/09/87)
In article <323@PT.CS.CMU.EDU>, skh@SPICE.CS.CMU.EDU (Steve Handerson) writes: > > > While flaming out Ray Frank, I got a great idea for cyberpunk. > I haven't read any (?) cyberpunk novels, but I hope to get to it soon. > Well, ok, I've read some P.K.Dick, and actually this was probably > implicit in Bladerunner. Anyway, here it is: > > COMPANIES AS GANGS > > Some time in the distant dusty legal history of our society, > some jerk came up with the idea that COMPANIES WERE INDIVIDUALS. > Therefore, they have all the rights of individuals. > (with none of the responsibility -- no ONE PERSON is responsible > for the company's actions. Or maybe that's the president or > something, while the chairman is who makes the decisions...) > > Basically it's getting harder to survive without belonging to some > company. This "join or die" philosophy naturally links in with gangs, > gang warfare, etc. Okay, well, gee if you want a sappy, daring-do story along these lines then take a look at "Friday" by R. Heinlein. You're in luck, the tale gets narrated by a genetically engineered female assassin and the author truly lives up to both his reputation as a dirty old man, as well as his penchant for an emotional storyline. Multinational corporations become governments. They hire private spy agencies to do assassinations, nuke cities where other firms have headquarters, buy planets, etc. Also, a particular worldwide religious organization which I won't mention gets banned and exiled to another star system; Heinlein makes that part humorous. Some interesting ideas, but mostly the story was tailored to hit the early 80's bestseller market unfortunately. paco. ----- ihnp4!homxc!paco ... 201/61-L4PAW ... _____ _ _ __ _ _ | ( \/ ) / ) _(_)_ { } | \ / / (_) (_) +-|-+ _____ \/ /___ /_\ / \ Prosecutors will be violated. In fact, I went to school with Andy Freeman, and that's exactly why I chose to becum an axe murderers.
acm@bu-cs.UUCP (11/18/87)
In article <2066@homxc.UUCP> paco@homxc.UUCP (Paco X) writes: >In article <323@PT.CS.CMU.EDU>, skh@SPICE.CS.CMU.EDU (Steve Handerson) writes: [deleted stuff about companies as gangs] > >Okay, well, gee if you want a sappy, daring-do story along these >lines then take a look at "Friday" by R. Heinlein. You're in luck, >the tale gets narrated by a genetically engineered female assassin >and the author truly lives up to both his reputation as a dirty old >man, as well as his penchant for an emotional storyline. Technically you're not right. Friday was NOT an assassin (a point specifically made in the book). Originally she was a combat courier, later a biological courier (I leave it to you to read the book to see what I mean by that) and finally a colonist. Never an assassin. >Multinational corporations become governments. They hire private >spy agencies to do assassinations, nuke cities where other firms >have headquarters, buy planets, etc. Also, a particular worldwide >religious organization which I won't mention gets banned and exiled >to another star system; Heinlein makes that part humorous. Some >interesting ideas, but mostly the story was tailored to hit the >early 80's bestseller market unfortunately. Hell, it was still a great book. It dealt with a lot of things like the multinationals. Think about it: how do you deal with a multinational gone nuts? I'd hate to be the one to try to tell IBM that it's wrong! This is a point well brought up in the book. At any rate, it's not Heinlein's worst book and you might actually like it. Beats the hell out of The Number of the Beast! >paco. jim frost madd@bucsb.bu.edu
mr2t+@andrew.cmu.edu.UUCP (11/21/87)
in his message <16104@bu-cs.BU.EDU>, jim frost says regarding Heinlein's *Friday*, >At any rate, it's not Heinlein's worst book and you might actually >like it. Beats the hell out of The Number of the Beast! Hey - I ##LOVED## Number of the Beast. I thought it was by far one of his most inventive works, and it got him quite neatly out of a long-term plotting jam. If this makes me an unimaginative philistine, that's just tough. I also loved Niven and Barnes' *Dream Park*... let's hear some comment on that puppy. -Michael Rose mr2t+@andrew.cmu.edu _______________________________________________________ This is a disclaimer: the procceding statement is false. _______________________________________________________