Government and Politics:

The political landscape of Earth has forever changed from that at the turn of the 21st century. Earth and the Federal Colonies are now governed by the United Earth Federation (UEF), a world government that replaced the United Nations in 2085AD. The UEF includes representatives from all the nations of Earth, with eight distinct power blocks influencing Federal policy and the decisions of the Security Council. The five most powerful of these each control substantial colonial assets.

The United Earth Federation (UEF) of the 23rd Century still bears some resemblance to the original United Nations, that troubled institution born in the aftermath of World War II. While still dealing with problems of patronage and bureaucracy, sheer necessity has enabled the body to become somewhat effective in its original purpose of keeping the peace.

Notable subsidiaries of the UEF include:

• The General Assembly
• Security Council
• Interstellar Colonial Authority
• Interstellar Trade Commission
• Communications
• Military

Law and Order:

Despite advances in crime detection and prevention, crime is as present as ever in the 23rd century. Technological advances and social changes have created new crimes, or new twists on older crimes, resulting in changes in policing techniques, and the creation of new branches of law enforcement. In addition, several large crime syndicates have a stranglehold on drugs trafficking, pornography and prostitution in the colonies.

23rd Century Crime:

Data Crime:

The use of new technology to commit traditional crimes, such as securities fraud and information theft is not new. In the 23rd Century, identification techniques incorporate retinal scanning and DNA matching, meaning data crime has become a lucrative (and expensive) business.

Narcotics:

Drugs are as ubiquitous as ever, and demand has given rise to smuggling rackets across interstellar distances. Pharmaceutical based drugs such as Betathanatine and Green Meanies, are the latest in a rash of designer drugs to flood the streets.

Prostitution:

Prostitution is now legal in designated 'Red Light Zones', but this hasn't stopped the illegal trafficking of immigrant workers into a life of forced prostitution in the lawless Outer Rim Territories.

Pornography:

Pornography laws are relaxed, but there are obvious exceptions to this rule.

Psychic Crime:

Although the majority of those individuals gifted with psychic powers become responsible citizens, using their abilities for the benefit of society, there are those who slip through the net, who use theirs for illegal gain. Common forms of psychic crime include information theft, psychic assault and fraud using telepathy, and the illegal use of precognitive powers.

Piracy:

The first officially documented cases of space piracy occurred in 2213, in the Outer Rim Territories, and despite the best efforts of the ICA and ITC, there are still several active pirate groups operating from as yet unknown bases, preying on long-distance transport convoys and independent travellers.

Smuggling:

The ITC controls all trade in the Federal Colonies, but there are still those who make a dishonest living through the import or export of restricted goods without paying lawful customs charges or duties.

Law Enforcement:

Policing in the 23rd Century is handled by the Federal Law Enforcement Authority, also known by the acronym 'FLEA'.

From their headquarters on Earth, and via many local stations throughout the Federal Colonies, FLEA have the unenviable task of tackling crime over interstellar distances.

The UEF as a whole is split into 'Administrative Districts', usually encompassing up to half a dozen colony worlds.

FedPol:

The common name for the Federal Police, these are the police force of Earth and the Sol colonies.

MetaPol:

The Metasensory Police deal with all psychic crimes, and are also seconded to non-psychic criminal investigations on a regular basis. Most MetaPol officers are either telepaths or precogs.

ColSec:

Colonial Security police the Federal Colonies outside of the Sol system, enforcing the law and the will of the ICA.

Punishment:

Punishments vary from incarceration in prison, being 'chipped' and placed under curfew at home, to exile to a penal colony. Although no death penalty exists, it is common knowledge that FLEA officers have a 'shoot to kill' policy with dangerous suspects.

Federal Court

The United Earth Federal Court was created in Geneva in the year 2084 out of the International Criminal Court, to promote the rule of law and ensure that no international and interstellar crime goes unpunished. The Federal Court overrides traditional national criminal jurisdictions.

Anyone who commits a crime in UEF territory, as defined in the Geneva Statute of 2084, is liable for arrest and prosecution by the Court.

Prison:

The prison institution remains fundamentally as the means by which a society can deter, punish, and rehabilitate criminals. While there are still many government funded and run prisons, many more are now contracted out to megacorporations, who seek not only to run the prison to deter, punish, and rehabilitate criminals, but to also gain financial wealth from the inmates. Control of a prison also means control of a captive workforce. Prisoners earn benefits in return for working for the corporation.

Penal Colonies:

For the those criminal with a knack for escaping from even the most secure prison facilities, and those individuals the government wants to be rid of permanently, a life-sentence to a penal colony is usually the most common solution. Penal colonies are typically Class 3 Colony worlds, requiring decades of terraforming work. A prisoner sentenced to such a place faces a bleak life of mining planetary resources or maintaining the terraforming machinery, under the watchful eyes of a small team of wardens. Revolt is discouraged by withholding of supplies.

Behavioural Alteration:

With what the government describe as 'corrective surgery', some of the worse persistent violent offenders can be 'pacified' and returned to society. Behavioural alteration involves the implantation of a device in a subjects' pre-frontal lobe through complex micro-surgery. This device, often referred to as an 'artificial conscience' controls the levels of enzymes and neurotransmitters in the brain, preventing violent acts from being committed.

Civil liberties groups are actively campaigning against Clause 404 (the law that allows FLEA to sentence offenders to undergo Behavioural Alteration), as those receiving the treatment, though pacified, are left in a persistent state of tranquilized numbness.

Identity:

All citizens of the United Earth Federation have their DNA fingerprint recorded at birth and added to the Federal Public Records Database, allowing police to identify any suspect within a matter of hours.

In addition, citizens of the Federation are required by law to carry an ID card at all times, which contains biometric information.

Money:

Though most nations still retain their own currencies for domestic use, virtually all international trade is conducted using the Euro-Dollar as the base, an amalgam of the two strongest 21st Century currencies before the collapse of the global economy in 2084.

Most of the daily transactions made by Federal citizens are electronic. Scanners in retail outlets match an individual's retina against the biometric information on their bank smart-card to verify identity. Money is debited from the citizens' bank account when goods are purchased.

Because of the delay in communications over interstellar distances, many banks provide a facility where credit can be downloaded to a smart card before a journey.

Hard currency still exists, but it is rare in the Core Systems, being much more common in the Outer Colonies and beyond. Hard currency is still the preferred payment method by those individuals who do not want their spending habits recorded.

Currency is printed in Eurodollars, though some corporations print their own currency, which is legal tender only on colonies that they control.

Food:

In the 23rd Century, genetically modified food is commonplace, and by far the most common genetically modified organisms are crop plants.

Megacorporations engineer crops to produce traits such as disease resistance and drought tolerance, or the ability to grow on planets orbiting stars of a different spectral type. Bringing in and altering genes from other species is the only way to improve these crops, thus enabling the crops to be grown on marginal colony worlds.

Animals are no longer reared for their meat. Instead, 'cultured meat' is grown from cells removed from farm animals and proliferated in a nutrient-rich medium. Using this technique, single cells can be used to produce enough meat to feed a global population for a year.

The resulting meat product can then be harvested, seasoned, cooked, and consumed as a boneless, processed meat.

Property:

On 23rd Century Earth, there is a premium on real estate, with the government and corporations owning most available property. Renting is the norm, with owning one's own house reserved for the rich and famous.

Healthcare:

By the latter half of the 23rd Century, medicine has advanced in all fields to levels unparalleled. Infant mortality rates on Alpha Status worlds is the lowest ever recorded, and life expectancy has increased to the point where it is now the accepted norm for people to live well into their 90s. Though the Eckerley ruling of 2086 prohibits the cloning of an entire human body, cloning technologies now enable hospitals to grow new organs and limbs for patients needing transplant surgery, thus forever eliminating the spectre of organ rejection. Micro-surgery has reached a point where the rebuilding and/or attachment of severed/cloned limbs has a success rate of over 96.4%.

Although gene therapies have all but eliminated many hereditary disorders, and genetically-enhanced designer pharmaceutical products have defeated many diseases, more still exist. Some of these are new to humanity, being unintentionally imported from alien biospheres. Some forms of cancer have yet to be conquered, and one of the biggest killers in the 23rd century is heart disease, especially with large percentages of the population clinically obese.

All citizens of the Federation are entitled to free health care via the Federal Health Service (FHS), although waiting lists for expensive treatments and therapies can be up to 6 months long. As a result, private healthcare organisations, such as Medtech, provide an expensive way to get immediate access to treatments.

Sex, Birth Control, and Children:

With a population over 10 billion, and colonial populations pushing the economy to it's limits, people in the Core Systems and especially on Earth are encouraged to have small families, with incentives like tax cuts, free education etc for those who do. Every birth must be authorized by the Federal Health Service, and the health status of parents must be verified.

In the Outer Colonies, birth control is mandatory. Small families are encouraged for different reasons, the main one being to maximise the gene exchange between the colony. Extra DNA material is kept in the colony science labs to increase the gene richness should the colony have to survive long term without a new influx of colonists from elsewhere.

Education:

In the Core Systems, children are required by Federal Law to attend school until the age of 18. At 18, a student has the choice of attending a University, or three years of Federal Service.

In the Colonies, students begin what is known as 'Obligation' at the age of 16. This involves performing minor duties for the colony for a maximum of 4 hours per day.

Federal Service:

Students completing their education but not wanting to continue to a University are required by Federal Law to take the Federal Orientation Test and complete three years of Federal Service. This involves working for the Federal Government in one of it's many branches, including the United Earth Armed Forces, the Federal Health Service, the Federal Transportation Network, and the Federal Labourforce. The pay isn't great, and choice of career path is limited depending on the results of the FOT, but completion of Federal Service usually gives an individual the option of staying on in their chosen profession with a salary increase.

Tourism:

Interstellar tourism is very expensive, and a pursuit reserved for the rich and famous. In star systems like Sol, interplanetary cruises are affordable and popular. Offworld packages such as the 'Red Planet' tour of Mars, and the 'Rings of Saturn' cruise are popular and comparable in cost to exotic intercontinental holidays of the 20th Century.

Immigration/Emigration:

Interstellar immigration/emigration is tightly controlled by the ICA and the ITC. Despite hundreds of millions of people now living offworld in the colonies, Earth in the late 23rd Century is still home to almost 10 billion people and is woefully overcrowded. To compound matters, those wishing to live in the colonies must apply for Colonist Status from the ICA. This involves a series of rigorous background checks, physical, mental and psychological examinations.

Religion:

As long as humanity needs answers to the unanswerable, there will be religion. All the major religions of the 21st century are still going strong, with a few notable additions. One of the fastest growing religions in the 23rd century is Chrislam - an amalgamation of Christianity and Islam that occurred during the Second Exodus (2166-96) from Earth. Chrislam is a very popular religion in the colonies, though it has made little headway on Earth.

Media:

There are a multitude of independent media organisations in the 23rd Century, providing news and current affairs to the populace. The official Federal News Network (FNN), can best be described as an interstellar hybrid of the BBC and CNN. FNN is a quasi-autonomous organisation part-financed by the taxes of the civilian population, and is renowned for it's impartial news reporting.

Entertainment:

The Federal Network, or FedNet, is the collective term for the technology behind the wirelessly-networked, ubiquitously-connected urban environment of the 23rd century. FedNet provides entertainment in the form of over a thousand digital television and radio channels, information in the form of the Interstellar Web (ISW), communications access for Personal ComLinks etc. Every tax-paying citizen of the United Earth Federation has at least the basic FedNet package. Extra services can be 'bolted on' for a higher subscription fee.

Transport:

Ever since the global economy collapsed in 2084, public service industries such as transport, water & power and health were globalised. Most citizens use the integrated public transport systems, which include MagLev trains and passenger scramjets. With scramjet technology now commonplace, travel time between continents has been cut dramatically. A commercial flight between London and New York now takes just less than an hour. Cars are controlled by intelligent traffic control computer systems on major intercity routes, but manual control is still allowed on local road networks.

Interplanetary and interstellar travel is still an expensive business. Most people who travel are either company employees, military personnel or government staff. There are no commercial passenger services out beyond the Core Systems. Travellers must negotiate their own ticket prices.

Youth Culture:

As ever, youth culture continues to confound adults, with its ever-changing styles and fads.