The Time & The Place#
The story begins in the year 2108. Even though it is no longer comprehensible how it happened, there was a democratic shift in the middle of the previous century, which freed the New European Republic from its economic dependency and allowed it to become a tool of progressive change. The capitalist economy continues to exist, but the state imposes strict limits on it and through the right to self-organize public goods, its sharp edges have been blunted. Following the great mass extinction of the 21st century, the onset of monsoon rains, and temperatures frequently exceeding 50° Celsius, society’s primary task became stopping — or better yet, reversing — the advancing climate crisis.
The Law#
The European Declaration of the Commons was signed during the democratic shift, establishing a framework for community governance of public goods. It empowers the active users of a resource to claim full control over it, provided they keep the well-being of both all citizens and nature in mind. Another important rule: should the governing community fail to meet these goals or preserve the resource’s condition, the state retakes control. Depending on the severity of the failure, all community members may lose their right to be an active member of any Project.
The Projects#
All resources that are controlled by self-organized communities are called Projects: residential blocks as well as factories, fields as well as villages. The Projects sometimes differ significantly from one another, whether due to their different internal organization or the boundaries they have drawn. Despite all their differences, they are all accountable to the state for their activities, and most Projects maintain economic relations with one another, which are mediated through Caretaker-Tech.
The Caretaker-Tech#
Early approaches to Caretaker-Tech can be found as early as the 2030s, well before the democratic shift. Caretaker-Tech is an open network of various applications. It supports its users in solving common problems without the use of money and within structures of voluntary cooperation based on shared resources. Caretaker-Tech is closely associated with the Projects and their infrastructure, but is also used outside of them.
How Caretaker-Tech is handled is defined in ‘[Caretaker-Tech] As a Blackbox’.
The Caretakers#
Caretakers are a caste that emerged from the Projects over generations. They do not distinguish between work and leisure, are skilled in methods for collective action and offer support wherever it seems necessary, without any thought of reward. Since they do not use any technology capable of representing digital data, they build and operate unconventional machines to travel and survive under the prevailing climatic conditions. They are recognized by their mere presence, are highly respected and gather wherever a Project is in danger.
Alice#
Alice is the stories protagonist, who moves with her son of 3 years into one of the Projects. Taking the space is kind of a high risk, because the Project is on a downward trajectory and everyone afraid to get sanctioned by the state for being part of a failed Project already left. But open slots in Projects are rare, especially for those, having no contact to anyone inside. To get accepted, she worked hard on her reputation in the Caretaker-Tech-Infrastructure for years, but as her time as a single-mother is limited, she also had to fake some of that data. Alice isn’t an idealist and doesn’t care too much about the Projects culture. But she has seen, how well Caretakers are respected and how they get everything for free, so she wants her son to become a Caretaker too. In the end of the story, Alice becomes a Caretaker herself.