Seattle is born when all ties to the past are finally severed. Government takes the form of roadblocks, forced injections, kidnapping, and armored soldiers patrolling the streets. The grid of control is not digital but material, garlanded with a kind of electronic primitivism. In effect, the Pulse bombed America back to the early 1990s. The streets are crowded with pedestrians and bicycles, while soldiers float in hovercrafts.
Toothpaste is a luxury.
Dark Angel 's hodgepodge of primitive and futuristic, scarcity and abundance yields a perversely utopian milieu best described as electronic primitivism. The monolith of technology has been shattered. Material luxuries cannot be tracked, nor kept in the right hands. The system has a thousand leaks. A case of 1964 Margaux might show up in the basement storage of Max's squat, and they'd drink it all by the light of a barrel fire.