The Synchronized Worlds

The sheer vastness of space, and the multitude of worlds that humanity has settled since its first, shy attempts to become an interstellar civilization, means that even with faster-than-light communication and travel, all but the smallest star-states are highly decentralized by necessity. Even during the height of the Old Empire, conformity was only enforced for a brief period of time, before star systems began to drift away from the core worlds. As the Old Empire faded, worlds upon worlds broke away from its nominal fealty to the central government, before their expansion put their own territory into the same decentralization.

The New Empire, among those who strived to inherit the legacy of the Old Empire, is no different, as the vast majority of its worlds are only nominally bound to the rule of the central government, and are mostly left to their own device. However, some of the worlds are, either voluntary or otherwise, incorporated into the New Empire under the direct rule of the central government, which is enabled by its heavy emphasis on cybernetics and implant technology.

Called the Synchronized Worlds, these direct-rule territories are not managed by human governors or political organs, but instead administered by machines, the complexity and authority of which varies greatly depending on the synchronization level of said worlds.

Regular life in a newly-synchronized world is almost identical to before the synchronization. While a central computer system, connected to the central government of the New Empire through FTL communication, has been established, its main role is that of a decision support system, where information about the production and consumption of the world is analyzed to determine future adjustment to its policies.

As synchronization level increases, the central computer system grows in role and complexity, as more and more of the government function is relegated to its system directly, through a combination of sensor, automated facilities and cybernetic implants. Individuals who choose to connect their cybernetic implants to the central computer will provide sensory data and calculation power to it, in exchange for benefits such as monetary payment, access to information within its network and, for government employee, higher chance to be promoted within the hierarchy.

At the highest synchronization level, the entire world is effectively ruled by the central computer, whose synchronicity with the central government allows it to respond instantaneously to its needs. By this point, almost all facilities are likely to be fully automated, and the majority of the population receiving extensive cybernetic implants to facilitate interfacing with both the infrastructure and the central computer.

According to official Neo Imperial policy, admittance into Synchronized Worlds is mostly voluntary, with the exception of gross mismanagement by its original government. Cybernetic implants and connection with the central computer in both synchronized and non-synchronized worlds are, likewise, voluntary with incentives provided. Opponents of the New Empire, however, often state that both are done under coercion, where the ultimate goal of the New Empire is to force all of humanity into becoming the cogs in the gigantic machine that is the all-seeing and all-encompassing artificial intelligence state.