The Quadrant Archive
PHILOSOPHY AND ECONOMICS IN THE QUADRANT: The following terms describe
briefly the Philosophy and Economics of The Quadrant. Choose any link to
take you to a description, or simply scroll down the page.
LINKS: Quadthot, Quadits
("chips"), The Purse, The Ekonomy.
Quadthot (see also, the "Accelerationists,"
below): The closest thing to a religion
or philosophy existing in The Quadrant. The fundamental tenet is to promote
and fund any activity which enhances The System without questioning the
nature of The System itself (Inztitut pedagogz regard The System as neither
Relative nor Absolute, but simply A priori). Naturally, what types of activities
are considered to be System enhancing at any point in time are constantly
a debated issue, though it is primarily "debated" only among the
elite. The key to understanding Quadthot is to grasp at once the utilitarian
and antihistorical imperative embedded in The Quadrant term "enhancement"
itself. The traditional aesthetic notions of "heightening," or
increasing the sensory and intellectual perception or attractiveness of
a field of human inquiry normally associated with the term, are collapsed
and condensed into the perceived practical need or urge to develop "new,"
"improved," or "better" versions of The System. The
system can be enhanced by actions which bring various "futures"
about. This, in the simplistic ethics of the The Quadrant, is the greatest
good which can be achieved.
Thus, the "good" and "enhancement" are identified with
the future, and the future becomes the focal point of action. The past,
or history, provides nothing of use (or only inferior methods or efforts)
and therefore has almost no status in The Quadrant and no relevance to Nowtime.
What little practical interest there is in the past or "history"
is largely confined to analyses of videorecords or dossiers by Security
for enforcement -- infraction confirmation -- purposes (though a few aging
professors at the Inztitut do attempt to study "history" for its
own sake).
Some extreme exponents of Quadthot, called "Accelerationists"
in fact denounce the past as nugatory and useless, and call for its removal,
even as a concept. Many extremists vigorously support "Self Enforcement
Kits" which allow family and/or self diagnosis of infractions and self
delivery of sanctions (disconnections and reconnections) without the need
of "messy" third party confirmation or physical involvement of
Enforcerz. Their objective is to make confirmation increasingly irrelevant
and eventually remove it as the last remaining "underpinning"
or practical justification for any need to rely on the past. In this way
the past (or history) will truly become useless (not used) and, by definition,
will cease to exist. To TOP of Page
Quadits ("chips"): Medium
of exchange, or money -- the legal tender of The Quadrant. By far, the major
amount of official Quadit transactions -- payment of salaries, loans, rents,
etc. and purchases of goods and services -- are accomplished by automatic
electronic debits and credits keyed and registered to every enfranchised
inhabitant's account, which is constantly updated by the Transaction Processing
Division of the Purse in Krania. Personal balances are immediately available
to any enfranchised inhabitant on screen by simply entering a personal Quadit
code number.
However, large amounts of the cash form of Quadits (small thin plasticene
wafers in various denominations) called "chips" are also used,
primarily for the purpose of payment of rents on the outer Boards, where
there are many unemployed or dubiously employed "Zeros" -- people
with no electronic account balances or zero account balances. Landlords
particularly encourage cash payments of rent because they are able to minimize
their "autotithe" (tax) burdenz which are only registered in electronic
Quadits. Also, The large amount of Chips in circulation supports various
"Dark Market" cash and carry activity (illegal payments and charges
for certain goods and services not readily available through Consumer Complexes
or Entertainment Domes in the QSU's). To TOP
of Page
The Purse: The annual budget
of The Quadrant; also the administrative unit which, located in Krania tower,
monitors and regulates all monetary exchange in The Quadrant. The largest
share of the budget is set aside to fund (with huge salaries and bonuses)
activities which are deemed to "enhance" The System -- the highest
priority in The Quadrant. Such activities center around the intracacies
of managing Nowtime and The System, designing Auto Upgrades, devising new
Regs, funding the Inztitut (see below), and the like. Much smaller sums
are allocated to fund, with smaller salaries and stipends, lower priority
work which simply sustains or supports the operational infrastructure of
The Quadrant, or merely maintains its services and equipment. The higher
end of these salary ranges are reserved for Security and Enforcement services
and Quadrant-wide energy management. Lower salaries fund mundane mechanical
service functions like heating, lighting, transportation, food delivery,
and waste disposal. To TOP of Page
The Ekonomy: With the exceptions
of "Dark Market" activity originating from the Outer Boardz and
Downshaft, and mild inflation resulting from imbalances in allocation processes,
the ekonomy of The Quadrant is, on the surface, largely static. This is
because there is no population growth on the Boardz -- births (point of
origin instances, or POI's) equal deaths (or terminations from The System)
and the total population remains at approximately 5 million enfranchised
inhabitants.
Although various factions in the Q fight over their allotments from the
Purse, there is no large running external Quadrant-wide deficit because
threats of war from external powers, or threats of sanctions from external
trading partners do not exist (nothing outside The Quadrant exists, at least
as far as The System is aware). However, certain Directors (and other powerful
"Privates") have been known to foster "printing press"
inflation -- increasing the Purse's overall budgetary amounts to grease
the various hands that have fed them -- and this has produced periodic bouts
of hyperinflation, hurting those in the lower income echelons especially.
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