Ocaslan Planning

Vincent Ocasla created the perfect operating system for human distribution through an urban system. This computer model has an almost perfect functionality and efficiency, maintaining stable civilizations and population profiles across tens of thousands of years of computer simulation. Ocasla's work stands in direct opposition to the Universe 26 model.

Unfortunately the ramifications of Ocaslan planning are just as dire as the outcome of the Universe series of social experiments. The Ocaslan model requires a rigid social structure, omnipresent police forces, viciously efficient urban planning, and carefully controlled lifespans. The population is kept in check by a limited education system with a restrictive arts and communication program where protest and dissidence don't exist because those concepts have been carefully weeded out. With iron handed central planning, communities are organized, industrial and commercial ventures are tightly controlled, and a state of scarcity is maintained.

In the original Ocaslan model, pollution was rampant. In the Cosmic adaptation of his work, the environment takes a higher rung of importance. The cities and structures produced by the Ocaslan model are clean, and clean the world around them, through atmospheric processing, bioremediation, and other functions. This comes at the cost of the population, who live lives of spartan accommodations, recycled food and artificial foodstock, and a level of existence that would be offensive to the modern denizen of the Petroleum era.

Applied Theory:

Ocaslan planning is not fully implemented anywhere in the Cosmic Era, but the undertones of it can be seen in many places. The dominating philosophy of Ocaslan planning is the Bhavacakra, the Buddhist Wheel of Life and Death. By manipulating a timeless religious symbol in synergy with computer design and urban planning, a sort of organic operating system is created. Human beings are not individuals inside this system, but are rather a minor component of it. The industries that they apply themselves to are the organs of the living program, the movement of people inside the city is the same movement as blood through a body. Like blood moving through the body, it is a closed system. Oscala's Ultrasanti has zero immigration, and zero expatriation. The only way out is death, and the only way in is birth.

Arcologies, space habitats, geofronts and many of the other Cosmic Era megastructures are built with Ocaslan planning in mind, maximizing the utility of the commons, limiting the amount of resources being used in redundancy, and the lay out of decks, floors, and levels inside the structures. The end result is a structure that is a living thing in design, and functions as a strange mix of utilitarian construction and organic layout.

GasPunk

Ocaslan engineering was a major factor in the last days of the Petroleum Era. With burgeoning populations, dwindling supplies, and increased hostility, the application of these design principles built the last great cities of that ear. The first arcologies were not freestanding structures, but were rather built into urban centers, becoming the new artificial heart. Commerce, finances, utilities, and everything else passed through these structures, and the population was forced to align with the new goals. The new goals for the most part were close to the old goals, so most populations either complied, or were simply not self-aware enough to realize what was going on. The legacy of that nationalistic social engineering are the ghost cities that stud the planet.

The highly efficient new cities were highly adept at waging war, both abroad and against their own populations. This efficiency, this magnificence of industrial and military power ensured that the Resource Wars were as devastating as they were.

Technosanti and the Cosmic Era

Ocasla's work was divided out into eras: arcosanti, magnisanti, and ultrasanti. The Petroleum Era, struggling with decreasing resources and a rapidly growing population embraced the first stage, arcosanti. This was the construction of the first arcologies, and the geofronts under them, and the mass transit systems being paired with the social impetus against unnecessary or recreational travel. Had the Resource Wars produced a winner instead of knocking all the major powers out of existence, it is possible that the step to magnisanti might have been realized. That stage would have been the construction of arco-cities. The largest arco-plexes in the Cosmic Era would be suburbs to the arco-cities. There are a few designs and engineering plans left from the Petroleum Era for the first arco-city.

Ordered Life Doctrine

One of the core tenets of Ocaslan planning is the Ordered Life Doctrine. The doctrine proscribes a life path for the residents of the ultra-cities, dictating their level of education, their level of reproduction, the likelihood of them entering criminal enterprises, and subjection to media, directed opinion, and other psycho-social conditioning. The end result would be a long term stable population that supported an elite status quo while maintaining the economic, military, and social engines required to fuel the planned mega-nations.

Measured Life Span - residents on the ultra-cities would have a given lifespan, with their quality of health care being adjusted to make sure they reached the end of their projected productive lifespan, rather than ensuring the longest life possible. According to the O.L.D.people who reach senior age consume more resources and space, and give less back to society than they take. Thus, it makes sense to provide cutting edge care to children and the young, but as the 'deadline' approaches, quality and availability of medical care decreases. This is less of a barrier or burden for the wealthy, but for the middle and lower classes, this is an inevitable death sentence as after a certain age health care is all but removed.

Rationed Education System - acceptance of the OLD and Ocaslan planning requires a certain level of social and educational conditioning. The goal of the education system is not to provide a education per se so much as it is for providing indoctrination and social conditioning so that the masses accept their lot, and do not attempt to rise above it. Those who are allowed to enter higher education are as much screened for their disposition, acceptance of authority, and other pro-Ocaslan values as much if not more so than for their education. These educated people form functionally the 'middle class' of the system, being the managers, supervisors, teachers, and officers inside government organizations.

Social Strata System - Another aspect of Ocaslan Planning takes into account human nature. There are always going to be people who reject the system, who despite every effort fail, who slip through the cracks and are forgotten, and otherwise don't get with the program. These people have three options in the OLD. The military and the prison system take in some, where they are fodder for the system and often justification for said systems. A large and robust police force is required to make sure that society is safe from the criminals (many of which were created by said system). The third and final option is the Shake Out. The shake out is the bottom of the barrel, the criminal slums where those who fail in society can fall and collect. The Ocaslan plan for a sustainable stable system requires slums and a criminal underground.

Standardized Economy - In the OLD, the products of the nation, it's wealth and it's industry are distributed by the OLD system. Everyone in the system has almost everything they need, so that they will continue to 'chase the hamster wheel' and keep working at their jobs, always having something just out of reach. While this has the effect of cementing income castes, it is considered acceptable because the end product is stable, and most people labor under the delusion that with enough effort or luck, they can move up in the strata and become wealthy. While this is possible, it is comparable to winning the lottery, as the system is geared towards a stead state, and not improving the lives and wealth of all people.

Praetorian Media - in the past, the role of the media was journalism, to gather information and present it to the populace. Under the Ordered Life Doctrine, the role of the media is vastly different. The media functions as the conscience of the populace, providing the masses with pre-packaged opinion, bullet point thinking, and social guidance. It is the role of the media to tell the people who they should hate and why, who they should idolize and why, and to control the avenues of communication and provide a steady hand on the social narrative. By aiming and controlling public outrage, the controlling government, it's agencies, and it's interests are never the subject of scrutiny or public outcry.

The Paradigm of Control - The ultimate denominator is power. Not electricity, but control over economies, nations, and populations. This is the great commodity of the Petroleum Era, and it sees the emergence of the cyberstate, equipped with surveillance technology that would make George Orwell wet himself, and armed with computer tech able to sort through it. The Petroleum Era is doomed to its fate as the powers that be have made sure that regardless of what happens, they stay in control.

Big Brother - the computer surveillance state, algorithms exist that know the disposition of the population before the individual members of said population do.

Political Correctness/Crimethink - deliberate stupidity, the action of stopping a dangerous thought, one that potentially challenges or disagrees with the narrative paradigm. Freedom of speech exists, but only so long as it agrees with the paradigm, anything that goes against it is slapped with racism, terrorism, extremism, or some other label. You need not even do anything to be accused of these labels, as they may be arbitrarily applied to you at anytime for any reason. (10 ways you're unconsciously racist)Doublespeak - to answer a question without answering it, also to answer a question with bullet or talking points rather than engaging the actual query. (The War on Drugs, The War on Terror)

Fullwise - in 1984's rules of language, any word could be turned into an adverb by adding -wise to the end, thus removing other words from the lexicon. In the Petroleum Era, almost any word can become a verb or a noun through casual usage, replacing actual words with euphemisms, diluting the ability to express oneself. The primary implication is that unlike a proper noun or verb, a verbed noun or verb turned noun is limited in it's usage. The current stand out is the Facebook 'Like'.

The Emmanuel Goldstein - Corollary to political correctness and crimethink, the Emmanuel Goldstein is a figure who is held up by the narrative as someone to hurl scorn and invective upon for their actions, thoughts, or words. Thus, the public is guided in their outrage (he that angers you controls you) and at the same time cowed because it only takes a single viral exposure for anyone to become the next Emmanual Goldstein.

Newspeak - another term that is bandied about casually without being understood. The purpose of newspeak is dumb down communications, and to render large rational intelligent arguments down to the point that they cannot be held coherently. This is presently already happening in the form of memes, bumper sticker length thoughts, emoji, and the rest that renders communication down from debates and novels into tweets and captions on cat pictures.

Oldthink - the counterpoint of newspeak and political correctness, oldthink takes things in the past and makes them not just wrong, but immoral and evil, regardless or not of their actual status. If one does not conform to the newspeak and political correctness, they become guilty of oldthink and are vulnerable to becoming an Emmanuel Goldstein.

Proles and Prolefeed - You are a prole. Prolefeed is the litany of lowbrow, low quality, exploitative entertainment generated to keep the proles entertained. This is pornography, reality TV, talent competition shows, product placement shows, and the rest of the feed.

The Resistance - The enemy, the people who have to be fought because of their poisonous ideas, the nazis, the communists, the socials, the drug lords, the terrorists, the muslims. The people who must be feared, that the government protects the proles from so that the proles don't take down the government controlling them.

The Chinese Doctrine

China maintained a largely coherent central government for thousands of years, and it retained this central power and control even through the original Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, the Petroleum Era, and continuous through to the Cosmic Era. Many of the first world powers of the Petroleum Era took notice of this as revolutions and rebellions were becoming common place. This would eventually be labeled the Chinese Doctrine and it was composed of three legs, disarmament, demobilization, and de-education. These issues would eventually be factored into the Ocaslan system, to ensure the long term stability of the various ruling regimes.

Disarmament - the unarmed citizen is unable to fight back should they become disillusioned with the regime, or should they still decide to fight, it is much easier to dominate a foe reduced to throwing stones and improvised weapons than it is one that is actually armed. This further elevates the position of law enforcement, as the police state becomes the only mode of protection for the citizenry from the criminal element. To this end, the media played its role making sure every negative incident even remotely involving firearms was a headline story. The entertainment industry started painting weapons in a stark and violent light, making firearms into weapons of terror and the people who owned them into seething maniacs waiting to go on drug fueled murder sprees.

Demobilization - Western society discovered that if the population disliked the conditions where they lived, they were largely able to relocate to other areas where things were better. This was a function of surplus wealth available to the middle class, and the prominence of the personal automobile. This was a source of frustration for many regimes, as their long term plans could be wrecked by economic exodus from a region, or by the self-migration of segments of the population. In ancient China, personal movement was restricted, and in Communist eras, only people with proper papers and permissions could travel. This grated against the psyche of the highly mobile western societies, thus leading the planners to start their quiet war against the personal automobile. By the end of the Petroleum era, automobiles were dramatically more expensive, and had a fraction of the abilities of their ancestors, swapping range, reliability, and durability for gadgetry, safety devices, and low emission systems. Relocating became much more difficult as one could not move anything except a small number of personal belongings or just immediate family in their hybrid vehicles. Relocation required hiring or renting large trucks, something that became restrictively expensive as the era wound to an end.

De-education - The original purpose of public education was to ensure a steady supply of skilled and competent workers to fill out the production floors of factories and other trades during the Industrial Revolution, and later into the Petroleum Era, the institution turned to creating as many college applicants as possible. The problem was that in the middle, a number of people were raised with a decent education and started asking questions, challenging authority, and otherwise making themselves a nuisance to the regime. The Ocaslan plan for education was twofold. The first was that the system should more aptly be called the Public Indoctrination System, as the lessons that were being taught went afield from critical thinking, objective and subjective reasoning, and serious applications of history, economics, or social studies. Instead, lessons were designed to create a specific world view, or weltanshauung. The weltanshauung demonstrated that the Regime was the best regime, and all others were wrong, that certain topics were verbotten, and making sure that the paradox of unity/compartmentalization was taught. Everyone was a minority, fit into one of dozens of categories, and describing one's self could require half a dozen or more adjectives. Thus split, the body populace was weakened. But the body was a single whole hammered together under the pretense of nationalism, patriotism, and statism. The other half of the weltanschauung was that the graduates of the system be competent enough to function within the desired society, but not smart enough to question or challenge it.

Zola's Maxim

'Humanity cannot be entrusted with it's own freedom. The problem is that if you try to take that freedom, they fight back. The wars taught us much. Humanity must surrender it's freedom, willingly. Thus, you create a world so full of violence, so full of chaos, that humanity willingly gives up it's freedom for a chance at safety and security.'

A quote from a fictional character, but one that resonated with the Ocaslan planners, Zola's Maxim demonstrated that when a change was needed a regime that forced the change would fail, while one that manipulated the population into making the change itself would prevail. Using the tools available, the planners and the regime started their work demonizing those things that stood in the way of their millennial plans. In the Chinese Doctrine, weapons, vehicles, and the education system weren't stripped away, they were changed. In the name of safety, under the weight of public opinion, with banners and protests by the population often begging the government to step in and just heavy handedly fix the problems.

Rather than take something away, make that thing so repulsive that it is thrown away in disgust.

Loki's Maxim

'It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.'

One of the most cynical of the Ocaslan Maxims, Loki's Maxim quite simply states that humanity will accept whomever has the strength and power to rule them.

Remnants of the Ocaslan System

The end of the Petroleum Era, and the massive destruction of infrastructure, and the population contraction saw the core fall out of the Ocaslan plan. Certain parts remained, especially the high density residential zoning and high efficiency of resource use. Rather than this wealth being funneled into the hands of the banks, the ultra-wealthy, and into the industrial military complex, it was done in response to the Oxygen Depletion Event and the environmental concerns of the Cosmic Era. The Cosmic Era cities are built on the remains of the Petroleum Era cities, which means that the structures are there to support the first stage of the Ocaslan Model. This is best demonstrated with the central location of the arcologies and their enclosed transit and supply systems, the conurbation built around them, and the decaying sprawl around that.

The Ordered Life Doctrine remains as a ghost of the Petroleum Era, and the sort of thing that the residents of the Cosmic Era consider the great white elephant of the previous era. The doctrine showed horrific disregard for the environment, for resources or conservation issues, and while life is cheap in the Cosmic Era, the treatment of people under the doctrine remains reprehensible.

There remain factions, such as the Anunnaki embrace many of the OLD tenets and are slowly working their way back to the ruthless power and control that was enjoyed in the Petroleum Era.