Ok this is a huge WiP and has taken me a lot of research to even get this far, but before I delve too deep into Wikipedia, I figured I should probably run it by [@Tortoise] first. [hider=Nation Sheet] [center] [color=6ecff6][h2]The Zetan Consciousness[/h2] [i]The choice between humans and machines is a false dichotomy created to confuse and mislead.[/i][/color] [color=6ecff6]Government Form[/color]: [sub]Direct Democracy/Group Mind[/sub] [color=6ecff6]Demographics[/color]: [sub][i]Homo Sapiens Machina[/i] The Consciousness has passed beyond the limitations of [i]Homo Sapiens Sapiens.[/i] Hundreds of years of mechanical tinkering with the building blocks of humanity has lead to them being recognisably different to the humans that once left Earth all those years ago. Perhaps the most obvious one is that [i]Homo Sapiens Machina[/i] are a limited hive mind, otherwise known as a 'Group Mind' that they refer to as 'The Collective.' Although 'drones' maintain autonomy in action, they share a neural network that allows for a startling level of cohesion. Also, they dislike being called drones.[/sub] --- [sub]Under construction.[/sub] --- [/center] [color=6ecff6]Planet Name and Description[/color]: [sub]Zeta-5 is not a particularly friendly world to live on. With a thin, oxygen-poor atmosphere, poor resistance to interstellar threats such as radiation and extreme weather conditions and surface temperature range, most life on Zeta-5 is an extremophile of some kind. Competition is also extremley ferocious, with no animal settling into an apex position. Despite all of this, there are some beneifts to living on Zeta-5. Past eons of interstellar bombardments have left the planet rich with elements and compounds that would be considered fantastically rare on Earth, and its twin captured moons burst with even more such minerals, all of which are gleefully exploited by Zetan society. Furthermore, the unusual conditions not just on Zeta-5, but also on other planets and planetoids within the Zeta system are rife with unexpected answers to scientific questions, allowing for some truly unique research opportunities. [/sub] [color=6ecff6]History[/color]: [sub] To the initial coloniers, flung onto a system with no other habital planets, Zeta-5 was a desperate attempt to preserve something, anything of humankind- to fling a lantern into the future. They could not possibly have predicted what their descendents would do. Zetans rose to the challenge with a startling fervour, and as they did so discarded the forms that humans had taken for so long. There are still some second and third generation Zetans walking about, three hundred years later, bodies and minds almost totally replaced by mechanical constructs. With bodies of steel, Zetans could emerge out of their previously subterranian dwellings and forge livings on the surface, where gradually the melding of flesh and metal would become more tempered, more careful, more deliberate. Over the next few hundred years, Zetan society became more and more collective. Life was harsh, and one day's feast could easily be the next's famine. Helping your neighbours was common sense lest you need their help tomorrow. When combined with the necessity of biomechanical adaptations, it was only natural that the society that has formed since would come about.[/sub] [color=6ecff6]Culture and Society[/color]: [sub](How do they live? Anything from ritual cannibals, to a surveillance state dystopia, to an integrated hivemind.)[/sub] [center] --- [/center] [color=6ecff6]Governance and Politics[/color]: [sub]The Consciousness operates through a form of direct democracy facilitated by their pseudo-hive mind. No individual is worth more than another, and all individuals are provided for, from cradle to their enlightenment out of physical bodies. Unlike most Old Earth direct democracies, the Consciousness can be highly efficient in its decisionmaking- the entirety of the Consciousness can make an educated decision on a matter simultaneously, and members of the Consciousness can petition the collective for even the smallest of matters, although it is unlikely they'll receive much feedback for truly trivial topics. Furthermore, the Consciousness also has no one single 'leader.' Although there are figures of authority, individuals with specialist knowledge and expertise who lend their unique perspective to the colective, there is no 'hive queen,' and ultimately the consciousness acts like a flowing river- an obstacle in the path is flowed around or bulldozed through.[/sub] [color=6ecff6]Technology Overview[/color]: [sub]The Consciousness is a technological powerhouse, having made great strides in almost all fields of study. Of especial notes are Consciousness computing and biomechanical technology- although the birth of true artificial intelligence has frustrated Zetan scientists, increasingly sophisticated self-learning automata and a process of 'uploading' minds has not. Haecceity in these 'uploads' is maintained via the nanomechanical replacement of brain matter, molecule-by-molecule, and when the physical form finally fails, these minds can safely be transferred into the 'cloud' that is the Consciousness' collective, to be subsequently placed back into new bodies if they so desire.[/sub] [color=6ecff6]Military Overview[/color]: [sub]The Consciousness' military is nonexistant. Although their technological expertise could lead to quite a formidable fighting force, their isolation and collective nature has rendered armed conflict larger than petty squabbles between individuals a thing of the past.[/sub] [center] --- [/center] [color=6ecff6]Additional Info[/color]: [sub](Anything else you want to include that there isn't a spot for up there.)[/sub] [/hider]