Minor Factions
These are factions which, while too small to influence politics directly, are still meaningful movements, and many of them were once larger and more powerful parties. In general, bioconservatives vote with the Icarus Front, autonomist interests with the Sol Economic Organization, and technoprogressives with the Shadow Coalition
See Crime for a list of some of of the less legal organizations in Human Space.
Contents
Bioconservative Factions
The Friends of Ned
The metaphorical reincarnation of Ned Ludd's original Luddites, disdaining that name's negative connotations and embracing their original purpose-- the restriction of technology that poses a threat to people's livelihoods. In addition to Icarus Front technological restrictions, the Friends demand the complete prohibition of drone intelligence and AGI research, with most also opposing the FTU's plans for wide spread nanofabrication deployment. While the party refrains from making a definitive statement on their view of positronics, many Friends have taken it upon themselves to label them "anti-labor technology", and nominally-unsanctioned lynchings have marred the faction's reputation.
The Unitarian Church
 | Outdated - The lore here may be partially or wholly outdated. Do not rely on it. |
An often-imperfect fusion of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, the Unitarian Church represents the dim voice of religion in a time of increased atheism. With the threat of singularity looming once more, their power is increasing with more converts and more donations, and they use this power to protect the fundamental human soul from corruption by dangerous technologies and to spread their faith among aliens and positronics, who they view as fellow children of God.
Pro-Autonomy Factions
Multinational Movement
The barely-unified voice of SolGov's various independence movements, encompassing Earth governments wishing for a lighter touch from SolGov, fringe colonies who balk at the call of distant masters, anarchist movements who want the freedom to live without government oversight, and the rare Trans-Stellar who no longer see a benefit in working with SolGov. The dissolution of SolGov is still a political impossibility, and many systems are still deeply entrenched in it to the point that a secessionist movement is completely unviable. To this end, the movement usually focuses on promoting local autonomy, although a growing revolutionary sub-group wants to force their change on the government en masse. The Multinational Movement finds themselves in an uneasy alliance with the SEO, connected by their corporate, fringe-system membership, and often provide a dissenting voice to SEO's war hawks.
Free Trade Union
| Outdated - The lore here may be partially or wholly outdated. Do not rely on it. |
A softer counterpoint to the SEO, the FTU is a party representing small businesses, workers' syndicates, and trade unions, who advocate for government measures to reduce the amount of power held by the TSCs. In many ways a holdover from the days before the Shadow Coalition, where corporate malfeasance took the place of technological development as the primary issue of debate, the FTU has found itself adopting technological positions similar to the SEO as a matter of pragmatism, although the views of individual members vary. The FTU is known for their intense lobbying of SolGov to add tax rebates to the purchases of personal lathes and the creation of open-source firmware for experimental autolathes, but have thus far found little success.
Technoprogressive Factions
Mercurials
Positronics and the rare augmented human who want to follow a different cultural path from the rest of humanity, viewing themselves as fundamentally separate from unaugmented biological humanity. Previously an illegal movement, proscribed due to the dangers of unfettered self-modification and the threat posed by positronics without human values in mind, self-described Mercurials still often find themselves persecuted or used by bioconservatives as scapegoats and boogiemen.
Positronic Rights Group
The other side of the coin from the Mercurials, the PRG wants full integration of positronics into human society, with equal wages, opportunities to advancement, and representation in the media. Their current pet cause is a tax credit for humans who wish to adopt or sponsor the creation of a positronic, a measure supported due to its potential to counteract the aging positronic population and to bring the average positronic closer to human culture.
