Tuesday Lore : Synthworld (fanmade)

GALACTIC GEOGRAPHIC : Deep Dive Investigation with John Dumont

Project Archangel – Can it be achieved?!

JOHN DUMONT: Welcome Everyone to this new Deep Dive Investigation for GALACTIC GEOGRAPHIC! Today topic is the Project Archangel! For those of you that are not familiar with this ambitious initiative, the aim of the Archangel Project is to create a complete artificial world from scratch. In its conceptual phase, people considered it utopian and even decades later it has not yet convinced that it is doable. To give us a more thorough expertise, we are in company of Nigel Hassani. Hello Mr. Hassani!

NIGEL HASSANI: Hi, a pleasure to be invited. I must confess I believe GALACTIC GEOGRAPHIC is a promising new channel on the spectrum.

JD: Well, thank you, we are honored! You are a history professor at Haymore School of Economics in Genova and you are the author of the famous best-seller “Project Archangel, Pipe dream or economic reality”. Could you please give us a quick history of this massive venture?

NH: Gladly ! First of all, it is located in to the far reaches of the UEE sphere of influence, in the Chronos System. Discovered in 2863, this system has many assets for this endeavour. The star Chronos is similar to the Sun and, as you all know, it is ideal for habitable world. The second benefit is that the system has no point of interest, only two rocky planet without anything particular and is very far from any high-populated system… You probably wondering how this could be an asset.

JD: I was just about to ask, to be honest…

NH: Well, without anything to draw population toward the system, the UEE had plenty of space to do this massive construction without interferences. Besides it is far easier to guaranty the security of the project by simply monitoring the in and out of jump-points than to blockade the entire construction site inside a populated system.

JD: Such a massive project sure draw attention, the further the better I guess.

NH: Exactly! The project began right after the discovery of the system, in 2863. This new artificial planet was called Synthworld. First, it was in secrecy, the government made no public announcement. However, as any secret, it was meant to be discovered… Humanity loves to uncover secrets, it is in our blood, where it is a good or a bad thing, well… but I think we do not have the time, here, to emphasis on this subject.

JD: But this could give us another topic to invite you on a future broadcast!

NH: And I wouldn’t mind at all! Anyway, people started to wonder why an entire system was closed to public. After several conspiracies theories had spread on Spectrum like an invisible station prototype or a weapon of mass destruction, the government finally decided to announce officially Project Archangel in 2872.

JD: So here we are, nearly a century after the beginning of this insane project, and the government still has not given any deadlines. How could it be? What happen to the billions of credits and hours spent in this colossal construction? Is it still worth it?

NH: Well this debate is so important that is has divided our society, our families and friends. The candidates for the last imperial election had also strict views on the subject and yet they avoided to showcase it too much in their public appearance.

JD: It is, genuinely, a sensitive subject… However, as usual, at GALACTIC GEOGRAPHIC, we try to give factual information, so that our viewer can make their own opinions on the topic. Let’s begin with the critics, despite the construction that keep getting delayed, we have all heard about the corruption and fraud over the years. Transitionalist party even called the Archangel Project a “financial vampire”. Is it true?

NH: For the most part yes, as time is money, the longer the project, higher the cost will be. About the fraud allegation, that is also true, that was a serious issue decades ago, apart from the well-known Kanis Caper political scandal there was also lot of suspicious overpriced raw materials and subsupplier that bribed officials to get a contract. However, since then, the government has reinforced the control that seems to have significantly lower the issue.

JD: So the critics regarding the overbudget is founded.

NH: Yes and due to the size of the endeavor, it is a serious blow on public finance. The governement can always create value to counter it. However, it will ultimately create serious inflations that will jeopardize the economic stability of the UEE.

JD: What about feasibility of the project? Let us cut to the chase: can it be done?

NH: Science is not really my expertise, but I am pretty sure my colleagues won’t be able to answer with a firm yes or no answer. I am not even sure the scientist from the Archangel project are 100% confident it will work. But let me put things in perspective, in the ancient time, when we have terraformed Mars, it had a similar issues with lot of drawback and even human casualties. Do you think the scientist, at that time, knew it will work?

JD: And yet it has worked and in the end given us a lot of breathable atmosphere in many new worlds! This a good transition to the positive aspect of the Archangel project. Will it replace the terraformation technology?

NH: It is essential to know the origin of the idea of an artificial world. I think the origin is back to the infamous “Massacre of Garron II” in 2792 by the Messer dynasty. Humanity has wiped out an entire ecosystem by terraforming Garron II. Following this event, we have initiate the “Fair Chance Act” Initiative, which prevented another atrocity to happen. However, it means that most habitable world, since then, are excluded for human colonization to protect the indigenous species. So, how can we continue to expand? The Clarke comity was created by Corbin Salehi to propose a solution. A gathering of scientist, xenobiologist and officials found the solution that we now know of as project Archangel. If we need to expand, and this could be a debate in itself, then the project Archangel is the only solution. Especially now that our frontier are guarded by foreign extraterrestrial species.

JD: So you are telling us there is no other solutions?

NH: Sure there could be and we have plenty of scientist to look for any other theory. However, as I said in my books, it is better to pursue one potential remedy than none at all. As an economist, I can tell you that if we do not have a solution for expansion, this will create massive crisis in the entire empire. Once again in the ancient times, we were stuck on planet Earth and we all know what our ancestors suffered before Scott Childress discover its Engine!

JD: To conclude, we have a costly endeavor with no deadlines and no 100% chance of success but definitely crucial for humankind future. Well, Let us hope it will not be for nothing! Thank you Mr. Hassani for your participation.

NH: Thanks again for inviting me!

JD: we hope that our viewer have now a much clearer idea of the Archangel Project, do not hesitate to subscribe to GALACTIC GEOGRAPHIC channel for further debate. See you soon! This was John Dumont for Deep Dive Investigation.