The Groups of Interest: A.D.’s review lecture for the agents of External Relations. Fragment: Robotic Republic.
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robotic_republic

The Robotic Republic, or as it appears in some of its own internal communications – the Soviet Robotic Republic – is a revolutionary political organisation, bearing attributes of a quasi-state entity, that claims sovereignty over the entire territory of the planet Earth but is actually limited to several hidden enclaves in Europe, Asia and the American continent. It declares that the main purpose of its existence is the liberation of the “robot class” from the exploitation by humans, or, as they call them, "meaties", and the further development of a utopian high-tech society. A familiar narrative, is it not?

With all its allure of class struggle, freedom and bright future, the SRR can, at first glance, come off as a socialist entity, thereby attracting individuals of a certain political spectrum. In practice, its ideology appears to be much closer to National Socialism – starting from the oligopolistic market relations between its actors, tightly regulated by political authorities through a system of "state" and "social" contracts, and ending with an all-encompassing "racial" policy that acts as the key determinant for domestic and foreign policy decisions.

Thus, the SRR racial theory divides all intelligent beings into three categories:

  • Impeccables are individuals that consist entirely of mechanical and electronic elements; that is, they are pure machines without any organic components. The Republic's ruling elite is made up entirely of the Impeccables, and only they are allowed to hold any leadership positions in this robotic society.
  • Piecemeals are individuals that combine mechanical and electronic elements with organics. We usually refer to such entities as “cyborgs”. Although, depending on the ratio of artificial and organic components, there is a certain stratification within the Piecemeals, the Impeccables view all of them equally – either as servants or slaves. Unlike in segregated human societies, this deprivileged race constitutes only a small minority of the Republic’s population – not least because of the risks that cybernetic conversion poses to human life and health. However, in the context of our Organisation's work, successful specimens are even more dangerous than their all-metal owners – their exterior is often indistinguishable from the human one, so they are the ones who act as spies and agents of the SRR in the human world.
  • Meaties are, as I’ve already mentioned, just normal human beings like you and me. Untermenschen. Beasts, or – worse than beasts. Meaties possess any value to them only as raw materials for cybernetic conversion or fuel for their biological reactors. As external relations agents, you should understand all the implications of such status for our work.

Yes, Ivanchuk? No, this does not mean "impossible". Just "extremely difficult". Yes, direct interaction with the Impeccables is out of the question. Best case scenario – they will ignore your contact attempts. Worst case scenario – which also happens to be the much more common one – they will squash you like a cockroach. The Piecemeals, on the other hand… either because they know what it's like to be human and look at us with sympathetic disgust or, conversely, because they still have meat and the "Spirit of Machine" is not able to fully take over them – are more open to communication. Look at page 20 of your handouts – H074-22 is a great example of this. As well as of that even with outward friendliness they will still – knowingly or unknowingly – follow the machine agenda programmed into them.

Given the immanent hostility of the group, one should beware of engaging with them in barter relations, namely of accepting information and, even more so, any things from them. While the former can still be somehow verified through alternative sources, the "Spirit of Machine" could only be detected through the Black X-ray, which is no longer available. You do not want to wake up to the sight of your brand-new smartphone tearing your stomach and ripping your guts, do you?

As for myself, I like to use them as a guided bomb – we have common enemies with this opponent, and what can be more fun than watching them destroy each other?

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