The Mech Touch

The big debate on kinship networks was how accessible they should become.

Proponents clearly wanted to use them as Ves intended, which was to connect as many people to them as possible.

Networks were only as strong and valuable as the amount of people they could affect. If only a fraction of an eligible population connected to a kinship network, then that would severely discount their usefulness in so many ways!

"It does not make any sense to impose quotas on kinship networks. If they only encompass one out of ten or one out of a hundred people, then that will create a division within populations that will only grow worse over time. Many of the reasons for using them, such as engendering greater trust and monitoring for treachery, will become invalid as those with ill intentions can avoid kinship networks entirely."

However, those who are suspicious about the risks surrounding kinship networks had plenty of reasons to oppose any push to make them mandatory or cause too many people to grow dependent on their existence.

"Kinship networks are both prone to severe abuse and vulnerable to exploitation! It is absolutely unacceptable to violate the privacies of so many people and cause all of their mental activity to become accessible by anyone with the proper administrator rights. No matter how many checks and balances you incorporate, violations will still occur. The victims have no effective means to defend against these privacy intrusions as the kinship network must maintain a constantly active connection to work as envisioned. We severely question the wisdom of doing so and suggest that only 0.1 percent of a population is permitted to connect to this questionable application of E-technology."

"All of the 'sects' proposed in the previous council session should have an opportunity to receive their own kinship networks. It is not an excellent means to bind like-minded people closer together, but also makes it much more difficult for criminals and 'demonic cultivators' to misuse their powers. In fact, connecting to a kinship network should be mandatory in order to improve the control and monitoring of cultivators whose powers will eventually enable them to destroy entire mechs, structures and city districts."

"That is outrageous! These kinship networks are all potential dangers-in-the-making. Letting whole sects embrace them is too dangerous. Anyone who manages to take control over a kinship network can easily indoctrinate and weaponize the sect members without making them aware that they are being repurposed! Sects are the last organizations that I trust with kinship networks. They should only be reserved to the small list of states and organizations that are responsible and reliable enough to stop any critical faults before they can jeopardize the lives of everyone connected to these unreliable creations. We must continue to guard against kinship networks so long as it is too difficult for outsiders to understand how they work and how they can be made."

That was an indirect rebuke against Ves for monopolizing his kinship networks. To be fair, the concerns voiced by the critics were completely legitimate.

If not for the fact that red humanity was being pushed close to its breaking point, the councilors would have felt much more reluctant to start an adventure with kinship networks!

However, the Red Tide Offensive forced them to be more open to solutions, any solutions as long as they sounded viable enough.

It left a bitter taste in their mouths.

As the debated continued to rage on without the need for Ves to advocate for his own creation, it seemed that the Terrans and Rubarthans were pushing especially hard to implement kinship networks as widely as possible.

The few councilors with strong ties to religious organizations were also in favor for obvious reasons. They were strongly in favor of allowing every 'sect', including ones based around religions, to make use of kinship networks, especially ones that were built around their newfangled divine avatars.

However, the proponents also faced strong opposition from a broad majority of concerned parties.

From people who understood little about E-technology and distrusted it for that reason, to paranoid individuals who feared that it was only a matter of time before kinship networks got misused, they had the numbers to ensure that kinship networks would not be able to conquer all of humanity.

When the discussion finally approached an impasse, Ves knew that it was time for him to speak up again and wrap up the discussion by offering a compromise solution.

He knew that he had the power to skew the outcome, but he could not outright invalidate all of the opinions of the opposition unless he came up with a killer argument.

Since Ves was not able to assuage all of the concerns of the critics, he opted to act within his power and merely play favorites.

It might be a bit shameless for him to do this, but this was his prerogative as the chief deputy councilor who presided over the council session. What was the point of holding all of this authority if he did not take advantage of it? Maintaining his impartiality was a huge waste of power!

He banged his fist against the large table. "Alright. Each of you have received opportunities to voice your opinions. Several of you have illustrated the many advantages that kinship networks can bring to red humanity, while others have expressed reasonable concerns about how they can put people in danger. It is clear that we cannot afford to forgo their benefits entirely, so the obvious answer is to support a controlled rollout of kinship networks. As I see it, a select group consisting of powerful states and public organizations should be able to make use of them as they possess the strength and expertise to protect their kinship networks and control for any accidents. Aside from that, sects should all have the choice to adopt their own kinship networks and decide for themselves how widely they want to make use of them. If anyone objects to binding themselves to a kinship network, then they should be able to leave the sect without suffering any penalties."

This was anything but a fair compromise solution!

Letting sects have free reign on kinship networks was not a middle-ground solution. It skewed far too heavily in favor of proliferation as opposed to restriction!

Several opponents already looked as if they wanted to stand up and raise their objections.

Ves knew that it wouldn't be so easy to get away with this stunt. He sighed and reluctantly gave the word to the unofficial representative of the second faction of the Red Collective.

Lieutenant-Commander Astrid Jameson was a familiar face. She had somehow been assigned away from the frontlines and taken over the council seat that was previously occupied by Fleet Admiral Amelie Jameson.

"With all due respect, Professor Larkinson, sects exist to increase our ability to control and regulate the cultivators that are emerging in increasing numbers. Kinship networks may help us do so, but they also provide too many unnatural advantages to sect members. Not only that, but their existence also puts vulnerable and impressionable people at the mercy of networks that can always be subverted and corrupted. It would be far too easy for entire sects to fall and degenerate into hives of murder and sin. The Guardians of Order that I represent are in favor of stricter control, but only by relying on the tried-and-tested means of manpower and proven technology. We cannot rely on a cultivation-based solution to regulate cultivators. That sounds as stupid as relying on automated systems to keep hackers in check."

That was a remarkably sound argument. That also made life more difficult to Ves.

What Ves found interesting was that Lieutenant-Commander Astrid Jameson had become its current spokesperson.

17:24

The 'Guardians of Order' was the second faction that had formed as a very rushed response to the formation of the Coalition of Faiths.

The name that these secularists had chosen for themselves was very deliberate.

First, they explicitly use the term 'guardians' in order to paint themselves as the vigilant defenders of mankind.

The unspoken implication here was that anything they opposed should automatically be categorized as a threat to the human race!

Using the word 'order' was not only a deliberate callback to the times of relative order and stability during the Age of Mechs, but also represented their aspiration of favoring stability over taking risks.

The Guardians of Order therefore sought to portray their quest to halt as much progress as possible in a benevolent light, casting themselves as the only sane group of people in the Red Collective that tried to hold back the crazies from blowing up the Red Ocean.

Considering that the Guardians of Order existed in direct opposition to the Coalition of Faiths, this impression was not completely unjustified!

What Ves found interesting was that Lieutenant-Commander Astrid Jameson had become its current spokesperson.

His sources weren't good enough to tell him whether Astrid assumed a leadership position of this brand-new faction, but this was likely not the case.

While it seemed as if the Guardians of Order wanted to present a counterpart to Ves that was just as youthful and open-minded, the lieutenant-commander simply did not possess the prestige, accomplishments and experience to command everyone's respect.

"Yes. It's a fair tradeoff. In exchange for greater transparency, we can help guard their kinship networks against outside exploitation as well as control for internal abuses. This should address most of the concerns related to the use of this wonderful new tool. It is also a convenient way to incentivize sects to subject themselves to greater monitoring without displeasing their members. In other words, we can kill two birds with one stone."

That seemed enough to win over a lot of councilors that had yet to commit themselves to either side.

Much of the reason why she enjoyed her rank at her age in the first place was because of the backing of her ancestor!

Nonetheless, Astrid did not need to take absolute control over the Guardians of Order. The faction's members were united in their opposition towards the encroachment of faith, superstition and the spread of mystical tech that few if any people understood.

Ves needed to respond to Astrid's well-crafted critique.

"I have taken the points that you have raised into consideration, lieutenant-commander." He calmly responded as if he already expected that the discussion would unfold like this. "This is why the risks, and benefits, of kinship networks should mainly be confined to the sects, which are already isolated from the rest of humanity to a degree. Not only that, but we should confine this benefit to the sects that have accepted greater oversight by our Red Collective."

"Oversight?"

"Yes. It's a fair tradeoff. In exchange for greater transparency, we can help guard their kinship networks against outside exploitation as well as control for internal abuses. This should address most of the concerns related to the use of this wonderful new tool. It is also a convenient way to incentivize sects to subject themselves to greater monitoring without displeasing their members. In other words, we can kill two birds with one stone."

That seemed enough to win over a lot of councilors that had yet to commit themselves to either side.

They might not be interested in kinship networks, but what they did care about was increasing the power and reach of the Red Collective!

They did not want the organization that they would eventually lead to turn into a weak and marginalized regulatory institution. Any excuse that permitted the Red Collective to grow larger and increase its entanglement with human society was a win in their books!

Lieutenant-Commander Astrid Jameson furrowed her brows. She was clever enough to realize that she could not sway the minds back into her camp unless she came with an exceptionally good argument.

She did not have that so settled for a fairly weak response.

"It is irresponsible to hand out kinship networks to sects that merely agree to allow the Red Collective to station more inspectors in their organizations. We should at least subject them through a rigorous examination to verify they can protect their kinship networks and make responsible use of them. We should not hand this dangerous and unstable weapon to irresponsible cultists who have far too little self-control and reverence towards authority."

Her argument sounded convincing enough to make it into the final proposal.

Though Ves still felt tempted to abuse his power a bit further to shove aside this amendment, it was not wise to go too far and leave the opposition without any victory, even if it was relatively small and symbolic.

This was why Ves ultimately let the Guardians of Order enjoy this small victory. He at least managed to secure most of the conditions that he desired.

It was time to address the next item on the agenda. This subject was considerably more consequential to Ves.

"Let us talk about… rethinking the role of religion in human society."

Now that certainly caused the councilors to sit at full attention!

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