What were the videos? I want to search them up myself if they don't work through links.
V a p o r v e r s e - Or, a Vaporwave inspired Timeline.
- Thread starter Derpsternium
- Start date
There's something deeply meta about the videos in this timeline succumbing to digital breakdown and becoming vaporware.
Alright
the videos I linked are mostly albums. The original is Cat System Corps - news at 11 which is the album that inspired me to make the timeline. The Console war update was a "hedgehogwave" Sonic Themed vaporwave mix, the recent one was an audio of Quixotics Highway Violence and the Updates pertaining to the new union are mostly Sovietwave tracks.
The video is "ORdinary People" by The Box.
The video is failing because the AH.com video embed code isn't working, as of a recent update.
Sorry about the wait, parental controls again. I got two updates going out tomorrow to make up for it.
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In 1993, the Internet would begin to skyrocket in global popularity. Portals such as America Online and Relcom provided access to curated content, including E-mail, news, and games. Along with a web browser such as Netscape, a whole new world of digital opportunities was just one ear-piercing ring away. Of course, you had to make sure nobody was on the phone at the same time. Companies began creating their own websites to expand their reach to the chagrin of many original users.
1993 would mark the start of an era known in the UseNet community as the Eternal September. AOL would add Usenet access to their portal in September ’93, leading to a massive influx of consumers to the previously geek/researcher-dominated network. The preexisting culture was all but overwhelmed. Meanwhile, the early web was the wild west, with many scrambling to nab sites with “valuable names”. As in, names related to celebrities and/or massive companies. This would hopefully be profitable as brands would pay good money for these scalped websites.
1993 saw the release of films such as Jurassic Park and Super Mario Bros. as well as the legendary series “the X-files”. Fans of these movies and shows would congregate in forums, newsgroups, and in real-life conventions. Early web culture was an evolution of the BBS and Usenet communities, clashing with an influx of “mainstream” consumers. Spam, phishing, and flaming were concepts that many newcomers would quickly learn the hard way.
The console wars remain contentious, as the titans of Sega and Nintendo anxiously await Sony’s inevitable entry. The war is taken to the floor of the US congress during hearings related to the depiction of violent content in video games leading to the foundation of the Electronic Software Review Board. Sega gained an edge by prioritizing SDK Development alongside Console Development. Nintendo had to think of something innovative to take back the lead, and a concept for a 64-bit console was drafted.
Looking to the internets growing popularity, they decided to make online play possible on this console as well.
The web is mainstream now, despite the protests of the geeks with bones to pick with corporations. Questions about the influence of the web on society remain. How best to regulate the internet? Will the net guard freedom or destroy it? What is the effect that anonymity has on conversations? What about Piracy? P**nography? Hacking? Is it even practical to regulate or censor a network being used by more and more people each day?
ＴＨＥ ＩＮＦＯ ＹＯＵ ＷＡＮＴ ＷＨＥＮ ＹＯＵ ＷＡＮＴ 演線維うべ河鬱
Next updates gonna be a bit different. I'm gonna post an interlude between 1993 and 1994 to touch on subjects I might have glossed over. I've been focusing a lot on the US and the Soviet Union obviously. The next update will do the following 3 things.
1) Allow me to make corrections to minor assumptions I made which I later found were false and would end up sabotaging the timeline later on.
2) Explain some minor but important details which I did'nt put in the main updates for readability or brevity.
3) Respond to some points brought up by people who are watching this thread (thanks for that btw) and the general plan for moving towards the timelines goal.
The updates before this have mostly been about creating the conditions to allow for the more interesting changes which will be seen in 1994 onwards, but it is important to make sure I'm not getting ahead of myself and missing some stuff.
1) Allow me to make corrections to minor assumptions I made which I later found were false and would end up sabotaging the timeline later on.
2) Explain some minor but important details which I did'nt put in the main updates for readability or brevity.
3) Respond to some points brought up by people who are watching this thread (thanks for that btw) and the general plan for moving towards the timelines goal.
The updates before this have mostly been about creating the conditions to allow for the more interesting changes which will be seen in 1994 onwards, but it is important to make sure I'm not getting ahead of myself and missing some stuff.
INTERLUDE
INTERLUDE
Alright, here’s the pre-1994 interlude update. This update will be to cover my bases and make sure I’m not going to have many major continuity errors going forward. I’ll make some corrections, explain neglections, respond to suggestions, and layout the future direction of this timeline. I’m really honored that this timeline has gotten as much attention as it has, and I’m looking forward to continuing working on it. With that being said, I’ll start with correcting some faulty assumptions which I don’t want to risk coming to bit me in the ass later down the line.
To start, I began with a flawed assumption that Desert Storm and Desert Shield not happening would prevent Al Qaeda from being pissed off enough to do 9/11. This is because one of Al Qaeda's primary motivations was the continued presence of American “Infidels” in the Holy Land, but after looking a bit deeper there were other reasons. These included support of Israel, domestic policy, intervention in the internal affairs of Muslim Countries, etc. but Since the Americans and the Soviets are working together with little that’s also important to consider since Al Qaeda going to be especially pissed off that we’re working with the same people we funded them to fight. That being said, Recruitment and radicalization would be a tad harder without the Western presence in my opinion.
Another assumption I felt I had to correct was I had assumed that the internet did not exist in the Soviet Union until after 1990. Usenet, Fidonet, and BBS systems were around in the late 80s, and something called “The Soviet American Teleport” which from what I can gather was a sort of research network co-op had been around since 1987. Of course, these were rarely in the hands of average Soviet citizens, but they did exist. That actually works out, however, since it means there is a pre-existing Soviet infrastructure to expand the World Wide Web into.
Now, onto the second part of the interlude. There are some points I did not touch on or glossed over in the official updates due to clarity or time constraints. Here I will add some detail to the most important ones. Starting with the New Union.
The New Union or the Soviet Union without communism is a Confederation with shared armed forces. It has an interesting dynamic in that Republics can conduct commerce with non-union members. The Union also has many semi-autonomous regions similar to the autonomous oblasts in Russia. These are minorities that would better be represented by their own polity. These include Chechnya, Transnistria, Crimea, and many more that would be too long to list here. The leaders of the republics currently are the same that would lead their IOTL post-collapse counterpart, which means that Yeltsin’s drunken ass is in charge of Russia. This shouldn't be for much longer, however.
Another thing to discuss is how China and the rest of the Communist world are affected by this. North Korea is probably going to view China as their new closest ally, and it’s possible Cuba would try and strike out on their own. Either way, it’s going to shake up the Communist world that the Soviets, the harbingers, and model for the movement just abandoned it entirely.
The 1993 Elections in Japan are likely going to have relations with the Soviets a major issue like the United States, but I don’t know if this would lead to the Liberal Democrats maintaining a majority or dampening their loss.
One final point to touch on is Ross Perot, I knew it would’ve been very unrealistic for him to win in 1992, so I had him take Maine as even 1 state is not red or blue is enough to make a lot of people take your third party seriously. I actually found a copy of his book “United We Stand” while visiting grandparents in New England, which greatly helped in understanding his Ideology. That being said, With Clinton in charge, NAFTA is going to go through, and do exactly what Perot warned. The industry would move south to Mexico where labor was cheaper, exacerbating a problem of deindustrialization which had been causing job loss nationwide, but especially around the Great lakes “Rustbelt”.
Now, for the third part of this update. Here I will respond to some commentary from the readers. It has some interesting viewpoints and helps me, a 16-year-old to better understand the decade. So thanks for that, and keep it coming.
So, first, we have the most prolific commenter on this thread, Emperor Norton the 1st. In Posts 21 and 22 you make some amazing points about the more cynical themes of vaporwave. That of how capitalism has become about selling a lifestyle instead of a functional product. It’s a good point since Consumerism in America is especially weird. I saw an ask Reddit thread the other day about what people from the UK think is strange about American Culture. One of the responses was from someone who took a British friend to a Football game, and during a long pause, the American explained to the confused friend that they were waiting for a commercial break to end. The British friend was dumbfounded that a Sporting event would be put on hold for 10 mins so people at home could watch commercials.
It is an excellent point, especially how you contrast vaporwave's romanticized depiction of the 1990s with the Grunge aesthetic of the time period. As I understand it, grunge was a sort of counterculture movement against the increasingly sanitary and commercial music trends of the time. Today, most popular artist's songs are about love, as in, very suggestive romance songs. Vaporwave critiques that it's kind of funny that we want to go back to the music we once hated with a bitter passion.
CountDVB, you made an interesting suggestion in post 48 about American energy. You suggest that going full nuclear is the best solution to removing dependence on foreign oil. While I would agree with that sentiment it’s probably going to be incredibly difficult to plausibly achieve. Chernobyl’s only 7 years ago at this point and still has a bad taste in the mouth of many.
Polemic and Paradoxer, you both make great points about the future relationship between the US and the USSR. As shown in the ’93 update, the USSR is just as much a target of terrorism as the US. And the USSR being cooperative with NATO Is a boon to the US should they decide to have the Soviets get their hands dirty. However, I don’t imagine the Union would want another invasion of Afghanistan after the Clusterfuck they went through.
That leads into the final part. What's the plan going forward? It should be clear that Perot winning ’96 is a major goal. I just want to do it in a way that does not make it too saccharine or too parodic. The goal is to create a timeline that was possible, is plausible, but is in no way the most likely set of events (because let’s face it, it isn't).
That being said, the elephant in the room is how I plan to deal with terrorism. Terrorism is the biggest threat to good feelings right now. Here’s my plan. Terrorists are radicalized and trained in conflict areas. Places with incredibly low stability and power vacuums allow for them to gain ground. Places like Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, and Yes, Yugoslavia, should be stabilized as soon as possible. This means support of a preferred faction in these conflicts. In the case of Afghanistan, directly supporting the northern alliance will be much easier with the lack of a hostile state between the US and Afghanistan. Of course, to avoid any clusterfucks, we need to figure out how to do this without placing a massive military presence. I’m thinking of spec ops raids and financial support instead of fighting the war for our supported faction.
That concludes this interlude, thanks for reading up to this point. I can’t wait to continue this soon.
True though at the same time, they have a ways to get around that. Part of it would be proper safety and part of it would be models. Around this time is when the first of the Gen III reactiors would come into play. In fact, the first Generation III reactor to begin operation was Kashiwazaki 6 (an ABWR) in 1996. They were definitely safer and nuclear stagnation is why we have alot of old IIs rather than IIIs. I imagine it could be promoted against foreign oils along as a sign that the Cold War is over. No more worries on nucleae threats so we can use these new versons and so on.
It will be a long road though I imagine it would accelerate over time possibly.
And yeah, Grunge and other counterculture music was born from the Filli Vanilli scandal wich ended the 1980s pop craze. However, boybands of the 1990s would replace grunge and the others once people got tired of grunge and so on because well, can't be bitter forever
The last best chance to go nuclear in the United States was the 1970s given wildly escalating construction costs even before Three Mile Island. Basically complete everything underway that was cancelled IOTL (300 something plants IIRC). Barring that in the modern era I think you could see a few, but would require the feds to cover the bond and huge cost overruns—or straight up make it a public nuclear energy utility.
Likewise it’s too early for solar, tech isn’t there yet and you can’t make enough to lower the cost per megawatt enough in the era. More geothermal for sure, but that’s very location limited. Not many possible dams left (although half or more could be majorly upgraded, and should be), the biggest couple possibilities are in Alaska and are “last chance early ’80s” and “quite possibly” respectively.
Wind on the other hand was completely neglected in the USA but well proven elsewhere led by the Dutch… and the most suitable for Made in America 1990s failed NAFTA / Perot cancelled NAFTA scenario. Building them is sophisticated but within reach of plenty of manufacturing companies so government start-up cash + subsidies could get a ton done. It could support farmers by giving them all a discount on wind energy. Even cost per megawatt way better than most (not like natural gas good though) and if you build an absolute ton and commit to keep doing so for a decade the cost will go way down versus OTL given America’s sheer scale. Unlike nuclear where the complexity of a reactor means you just can’t hit that mass production scale when the biggest order is a few hundred across a few years.
But like base load energy Wind is not, hence: big pushes for cool non-electric battery energy storage like flywheels, pumped storage, mass weights, and pneumatic batteries. Modern day battery backed grid ideas moved to 1990s and adapted to deal with crummy electric batteries.
Alas even a combo crazy wind farm / geothermal / Alaska Susitna-Watana dam / public nuclear utility / gas tax increase + expansion to natural gas plants / funky battery storage plan… still results in the primary type built being natural gas despite the altered economics of TTL. A better and more fun trajectory though
—
Incidentally Ross Perot ‘92 makes way more sense than ‘96 in my view, second time around outsiders have seen the parties adapt to their positions.
Likewise it’s too early for solar, tech isn’t there yet and you can’t make enough to lower the cost per megawatt enough in the era. More geothermal for sure, but that’s very location limited. Not many possible dams left (although half or more could be majorly upgraded, and should be), the biggest couple possibilities are in Alaska and are “last chance early ’80s” and “quite possibly” respectively.
Wind on the other hand was completely neglected in the USA but well proven elsewhere led by the Dutch… and the most suitable for Made in America 1990s failed NAFTA / Perot cancelled NAFTA scenario. Building them is sophisticated but within reach of plenty of manufacturing companies so government start-up cash + subsidies could get a ton done. It could support farmers by giving them all a discount on wind energy. Even cost per megawatt way better than most (not like natural gas good though) and if you build an absolute ton and commit to keep doing so for a decade the cost will go way down versus OTL given America’s sheer scale. Unlike nuclear where the complexity of a reactor means you just can’t hit that mass production scale when the biggest order is a few hundred across a few years.
But like base load energy Wind is not, hence: big pushes for cool non-electric battery energy storage like flywheels, pumped storage, mass weights, and pneumatic batteries. Modern day battery backed grid ideas moved to 1990s and adapted to deal with crummy electric batteries.
Alas even a combo crazy wind farm / geothermal / Alaska Susitna-Watana dam / public nuclear utility / gas tax increase + expansion to natural gas plants / funky battery storage plan… still results in the primary type built being natural gas despite the altered economics of TTL. A better and more fun trajectory though
—
Incidentally Ross Perot ‘92 makes way more sense than ‘96 in my view, second time around outsiders have seen the parties adapt to their positions.
I mean, it could be possible for it to be a public nuclear energy place. Got a lot of uranium around and using some military budget to build it could be seenas a large sign of peace for it.The last best chance to go nuclear in the United States was the 1970s given wildly escalating construction costs even before Three Mile Island. Basically complete everything underway that was cancelled IOTL (300 something plants IIRC). Barring that in the modern era I think you could see a few, but would require the feds to cover the bond and huge cost overruns—or straight up make it a public nuclear energy utility.
Likewise it’s too early for solar, tech isn’t there yet and you can’t make enough to lower the cost per megawatt enough in the era. More geothermal for sure, but that’s very location limited. Not many possible dams left (although half or more could be majorly upgraded, and should be), the biggest couple possibilities are in Alaska and are “last chance early ’80s” and “quite possibly” respectively.
Wind on the other hand was completely neglected in the USA but well proven elsewhere led by the Dutch… and the most suitable for Made in America 1990s failed NAFTA / Perot cancelled NAFTA scenario. Building them is sophisticated but within reach of plenty of manufacturing companies so government start-up cash + subsidies could get a ton done. It could support farmers by giving them all a discount on wind energy. Even cost per megawatt way better than most (not like natural gas good though) and if you build an absolute ton and commit to keep doing so for a decade the cost will go way down versus OTL given America’s sheer scale. Unlike nuclear where the complexity of a reactor means you just can’t hit that mass production scale when the biggest order is a few hundred across a few years.
But like base load energy Wind is not, hence: big pushes for cool non-electric battery energy storage like flywheels, pumped storage, mass weights, and pneumatic batteries. Modern day battery backed grid ideas moved to 1990s and adapted to deal with crummy electric batteries.
Alas even a combo crazy wind farm / geothermal / Alaska Susitna-Watana dam / public nuclear utility / gas tax increase + expansion to natural gas plants / funky battery storage plan… still results in the primary type built being natural gas despite the altered economics of TTL. A better and more fun trajectory though
—
Incidentally Ross Perot ‘92 makes way more sense than ‘96 in my view, second time around outsiders have seen the parties adapt to their positions.
There could also be things like biogas (alot of potential there) and maybe biodiesal.
You can push solar a lot farther than it was at the time through funding for R&D and production...the cost was rather high in the early 1990s, but even at the time it had a fairly steep cost curve and had come down a lot since the 1970s. You're not going to see it deployed on the same massive scale as today in the 1990s, but concerted investment could possibly move it so that the OTL 2010s boom starts in the 2000s instead. Another thing you can push, solar-wise, is non-electricity applications like solar water heaters. Those were more cost effective and could still cut emissions noticeably.
There's always hot dry rock...
There's also a lot of scope for improving things outside the electrical grid. CAFE could have been pushed harder, particularly for "light trucks" as they took over the market during the decade and pulled the average fleet economy way down. This was the era when the Germans took 1970s work by the United States on building energy efficiency and created the passivhaus standard; widespread adoption of that for new construction could see remarkable reductions in energy consumption. And surely there are things which at the time were mostly done with gas, fuel oil, wood, or other fuels that could have been shifted to rely mainly on electricity, which is important in the long run for minimizing emissions.
I personally view vaporwave as a rose tinted look at the care free attitudes of the 90's and the look towards what the new millennium would bring before it all came literally crashing down. I don't see it as a critique of capitalism, more a call back to pre 9/11 care free naivety.
There's some funny stories relating to that, both from ITV.
The first one goes back to the 2005 San Marino GP, when ITV showed adverts during the race (I think they had to show 3). They hadn't sown their 3rd advert and it was the final laps of the race, so they cut to an ad break, missing them and the post race interviews out. This caused all manner of controversy, their website to crash and the issuing of an on air apology and the replaying of the final 3 laps at the next race in Spain.
The next one comes from the England vs USA game in at the 2010 World Cup. An error caused ITV HD to switch to showing an advert or nothing at all, right before Steven Gerrard scored England's opening goal. Adrian Giles had to issue a live apology during the half time coverage and I doubt Hyundai were best pleased.
You can watch the moment right here
So yeah, it's safe to say we don't like adverts. I couldn't watch the american coverage of the Indy 500 so was forced to watch Sky's coverage and it's pretty boring. On the subject of Sky, they started showing adverts inbetween qualifying sessions, which annoyed a few people. In fact, the BBC isn't even allowed to show paid adverts under it's charter, so fill dead air time with adverts for their own productions.
Oh absolutely agreed. It just doesn’t buy you the same bang for the buck as wind politically, which is why I focused on wind.
—
My Vaporwave addition? 1080p HD video… in 1992/3:
No, but at the same time it was always the renewable, right from the beginning. There's some kind of mystique to getting energy from the Sun, or maybe it's the demonstrably massive potential energy output you could theoretically get from it. If you're seeing a lot of investment in wind you're probably also going to get a fair amount of solar investment, even if maybe not on the same scale. I guess one thing that they might look into more than IOTL is concentrated solar power. Historically, this just ended up getting killed by photovoltaics, but there are certain advantages to it and it was definitely more financially feasible than PV in the 1990s (AFAICT, the cost of late '80s era plants were actually quite similar to those of '10s era plants, which illustrates both the advantages and disadvantages of CSP in the 1990s).
I'm reminded of this article right here: https://www.theatlantic.com/science...olar-panels-anymore-industrial-policy/619213/
Something to be considered
The problem with a '92 Perot victory is that:
a) The Electoral College is not very hospitable to third-party candidates.
b) Perot was not even running under Reform in '92, making it even less likely.
Everytime a Third Party has gained influence in the Electoral College it is usually because said 3rd party is an offshoot or splinter faction of an already established party (As in, broken off of the Republicans or Democrats.) Every time this happens, the election goes to whichever party did not split. In order for a third-party to win the Presidency they have to basically wipe out either the Republicans or Democrats first.
of course, Reform was a little different, since instead of it being a splinter of Republicans or Democrats it was a completely new movement. Problem was, Reform was not founded until it was too late for them to take enough seats in the midterms to make a difference.
On the parties adapting to the positions of Reform, AFAICT that did not really happen IOTL. Most of the positions of Perot and the reformists were already standard for one party. Reform was about taking the best of the Republicans and Democrats positions, package it with lowering the National Deficit (with the eventual goal of eliminating the Debt), and substantially reforming the Political Institutions of the US to mitigate the problem of "Career Politicians" beholden more to lobbyists than their constituents.
Needless to say, many of the more unique positions of Perot's movement became fodder for the Republicans to throw at the Democrats, even if they were part of the same problems. Except for Abolition of the Electoral College, which is only recently picking up traction again, this time as a position held by progressive Democrats.
edit: I should also add that while many positions of Perot were also held by either the Republicans or Democrats the Reform Party advocated for alternative means of implementing these positions most of the time.
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So, Schools started for me today. It's my Junior year and I don't want to get everything under the sun blocked in the first week. I'll be getting some updates ready though. given current events IOTL I'll be doing some heavy research into the Afghan Conflict.
ＣＨＡＰＴＥＲ ９： ＩＮＤＩＧＯ．ＷＡＶ 羽ーヴ
Alright, guys, Vaporverse is back. I’m starting to find a balance between my work life, school life, and this, so updates should start becoming more frequent. This is very good because things are going to get very interesting from here. Let’s get into 1994’s political update. I was originally going to do something about the Rwandan genocide, but I couldn’t figure out how to make it plausible. I’ll make it up later though I promise. Let’s start with our favorite stuff, Elections.
1994 has two big Elections for our Timeline. First off, we have the 1994 Midterm Elections in the United States. IOTL, 1994’s election is called “The Republican Revolution” because the Republican Party was able to take control of the House, Senate, and most governorships in these elections. However, this timeline is a little different. In 1992, Ross Perot took Maine, leading him to find the Reform Party in 1993. 1994 is the first chance the Reform Movement has to get into Washington.
Using the growing platform of the Internet Reform Candidates can disseminate their platforms quicker than ever, many with their own websites laying out their policies on all sorts of issues from Free trade to Public Healthcare, Border Security to LGBTQ Rights, each candidate is a little different. The one thing all of them have in common is a genuine desire to reform American Politics into a “System that works for the people” instead of a group merely voted in every 4 years. Even though the candidates jumped in late (By Perot’s direction, many didn’t start until 5 months before Election Day). The Internet-based campaign pays off. Instead of the 1994 midterms being called “The Republican Revolution”, they go down as “The Indigo Wave.” The House is split evenly in three, among the Republicans, the Democrats, and the Reformists. Maine, Texas, and The Rustbelt elect Reform Senators largely due to a campaign against the recently ratified NAFTA Agreement. While no Governors' seats were taken in the election, the writing is on the wall. America is no longer dominated by 2 political parties, and any idea the Republicans or Democrats have will need to go through the “The Purple Buffer” in the house.
Meanwhile, the stage is being set for the first truly free elections in the Soviet Union. Since the fall of Communism in 1991, The Soviet Legislatures have seen many former communists defect to new Parties of all sorts of ideologies. Each of the republics has its own soviet and president, semi-subservient to the policies of the All-Union Supreme Soviet and the General Secretary. Also, Complicating things is the additional Republics set to be officially created. Elections are set for 1995, and all seats in all legislatures and executive branches are up for grabs. Also notable is that Mikhail Gorbachev has announced his intention not to run for election in 1995, and to retire from politics after seeing as smooth a transition to Democracy as he could. The 1995 Elections in the New Union will certainly be a turning point in not just Soviet Politics but international politics as well. The Future of the New Union is on the bargaining table.
These two elections will set the stage for the changes to come. Can the Reform party build on their successes and implement their desired changes? Or will they fall victim to the Political Midlife Crisis that befalls all parties who make it into Washington? Will the Soviet Union’s election bring stable and free prosperity? Or will they bring a messy ruin filled with corruption? You’ll have to find out, in the 1995 update.
(Still got to do the techno culture update though)
1994 has two big Elections for our Timeline. First off, we have the 1994 Midterm Elections in the United States. IOTL, 1994’s election is called “The Republican Revolution” because the Republican Party was able to take control of the House, Senate, and most governorships in these elections. However, this timeline is a little different. In 1992, Ross Perot took Maine, leading him to find the Reform Party in 1993. 1994 is the first chance the Reform Movement has to get into Washington.
Using the growing platform of the Internet Reform Candidates can disseminate their platforms quicker than ever, many with their own websites laying out their policies on all sorts of issues from Free trade to Public Healthcare, Border Security to LGBTQ Rights, each candidate is a little different. The one thing all of them have in common is a genuine desire to reform American Politics into a “System that works for the people” instead of a group merely voted in every 4 years. Even though the candidates jumped in late (By Perot’s direction, many didn’t start until 5 months before Election Day). The Internet-based campaign pays off. Instead of the 1994 midterms being called “The Republican Revolution”, they go down as “The Indigo Wave.” The House is split evenly in three, among the Republicans, the Democrats, and the Reformists. Maine, Texas, and The Rustbelt elect Reform Senators largely due to a campaign against the recently ratified NAFTA Agreement. While no Governors' seats were taken in the election, the writing is on the wall. America is no longer dominated by 2 political parties, and any idea the Republicans or Democrats have will need to go through the “The Purple Buffer” in the house.
Meanwhile, the stage is being set for the first truly free elections in the Soviet Union. Since the fall of Communism in 1991, The Soviet Legislatures have seen many former communists defect to new Parties of all sorts of ideologies. Each of the republics has its own soviet and president, semi-subservient to the policies of the All-Union Supreme Soviet and the General Secretary. Also, Complicating things is the additional Republics set to be officially created. Elections are set for 1995, and all seats in all legislatures and executive branches are up for grabs. Also notable is that Mikhail Gorbachev has announced his intention not to run for election in 1995, and to retire from politics after seeing as smooth a transition to Democracy as he could. The 1995 Elections in the New Union will certainly be a turning point in not just Soviet Politics but international politics as well. The Future of the New Union is on the bargaining table.
These two elections will set the stage for the changes to come. Can the Reform party build on their successes and implement their desired changes? Or will they fall victim to the Political Midlife Crisis that befalls all parties who make it into Washington? Will the Soviet Union’s election bring stable and free prosperity? Or will they bring a messy ruin filled with corruption? You’ll have to find out, in the 1995 update.
(Still got to do the techno culture update though)
ＣＨＡＰＴＥＲ １０： ｎｅｗｋｉｄｓ．ｂｌｏｃｋ 姻応ォ
Alright, 1994 tech/culture update let's go.
So, as the title update suggests, 1994 brings many new kids on many blocks. We’ve seen the Reform Revolution last update; in this update, we’ll dive a bit deeper into that of course. But the main course is the arrival of Sony to the Console race and China to the Internet.
The PlayStation was released in Japan around the same time as the Saturn. Sony was giving the establishment a run for its money, due to its ability to produce its console completely in-house, the price was low. They had amazing 3rd-party support as well, with a similar system to their Sony Music label. Sega had the games though, a Day-1 SDK Policy meant that someone could expect 3rd-parties to be pumping out games a month after a console's release. Sega was comfortable in the knowledge that they would have a high volume of games for all their consoles. Peculiarly, they decided they would not be releasing their next big game, “Sonic X-treme” until the Console dropped in American and Europe, a bold move some would consider cocky.
Meanwhile, Nintendo was having a terrible year. The Much-Hyped Virtual Boy had been a commercial flop and a critical pan, due to its monochromatic proto-VR headset inducing massive headaches in its users. Nintendo needed to pull something big of it was going to keep up, and soon. Sega announced that they would be collaborating with Time Warner Cable to create an online gaming subscription service for the Sega Genesis, Nintendo knew they had to get on the Internet Action. To counter the “Sega Channel” Nintendo announced, “Nintendo Net” in a collaboration between them and America Online. Both services would be competing for the American market. Meanwhile, in Japan, work continued on the BS-X Satellaview modem for the Super Famicom. 1995 would surely be a great year for gaming.
Game Developers were not the only ones new to the net, as the Reform Revolution showed the Internet was an important means of disseminating information to the platform. The Russian Internet was full of Political ads and campaign sites as the 1995 elections approached. Journalists and news agencies like CNN and RT saw the need to get online in response. In August of ’94, China allowed for civilian internet access. Of course, this was heavily restricted, but in the age of the wild west, it was hard for the censors to keep up.
The world keeps getting smaller but more complex. As The Internet is expanded further across the globe, it brings new opportunities for discussion and commerce. The Future is coming, and people are hopeful. However, the next few years will bring the first challenges for the freedom of the Internet in the Western and Post-Communist Worlds. It is normal of course for any evolution in Mass Media to be fearmongered about the impacts on children. It has been that way since Gutenberg first put stamps in a row and pressed a bible. But The Internet is set to not just be another thing one can willfully ignore, but an ever-present force in the global systems of economics and politics. Any meaningful attempt at censoring it, even if only to protect the eyes of children from explicit content, risks sliding down a slippery slope turning the internet from a boost for Democratic Expression to a tool for authoritarian oppression.
Ａｄｖａｎｃｅｍｅｎｔｓ ｏｆｆ ｔｈｅ ｗａｌｌ ゝめむフ
So, as the title update suggests, 1994 brings many new kids on many blocks. We’ve seen the Reform Revolution last update; in this update, we’ll dive a bit deeper into that of course. But the main course is the arrival of Sony to the Console race and China to the Internet.
The PlayStation was released in Japan around the same time as the Saturn. Sony was giving the establishment a run for its money, due to its ability to produce its console completely in-house, the price was low. They had amazing 3rd-party support as well, with a similar system to their Sony Music label. Sega had the games though, a Day-1 SDK Policy meant that someone could expect 3rd-parties to be pumping out games a month after a console's release. Sega was comfortable in the knowledge that they would have a high volume of games for all their consoles. Peculiarly, they decided they would not be releasing their next big game, “Sonic X-treme” until the Console dropped in American and Europe, a bold move some would consider cocky.
Meanwhile, Nintendo was having a terrible year. The Much-Hyped Virtual Boy had been a commercial flop and a critical pan, due to its monochromatic proto-VR headset inducing massive headaches in its users. Nintendo needed to pull something big of it was going to keep up, and soon. Sega announced that they would be collaborating with Time Warner Cable to create an online gaming subscription service for the Sega Genesis, Nintendo knew they had to get on the Internet Action. To counter the “Sega Channel” Nintendo announced, “Nintendo Net” in a collaboration between them and America Online. Both services would be competing for the American market. Meanwhile, in Japan, work continued on the BS-X Satellaview modem for the Super Famicom. 1995 would surely be a great year for gaming.
Game Developers were not the only ones new to the net, as the Reform Revolution showed the Internet was an important means of disseminating information to the platform. The Russian Internet was full of Political ads and campaign sites as the 1995 elections approached. Journalists and news agencies like CNN and RT saw the need to get online in response. In August of ’94, China allowed for civilian internet access. Of course, this was heavily restricted, but in the age of the wild west, it was hard for the censors to keep up.
The world keeps getting smaller but more complex. As The Internet is expanded further across the globe, it brings new opportunities for discussion and commerce. The Future is coming, and people are hopeful. However, the next few years will bring the first challenges for the freedom of the Internet in the Western and Post-Communist Worlds. It is normal of course for any evolution in Mass Media to be fearmongered about the impacts on children. It has been that way since Gutenberg first put stamps in a row and pressed a bible. But The Internet is set to not just be another thing one can willfully ignore, but an ever-present force in the global systems of economics and politics. Any meaningful attempt at censoring it, even if only to protect the eyes of children from explicit content, risks sliding down a slippery slope turning the internet from a boost for Democratic Expression to a tool for authoritarian oppression.
Ａｄｖａｎｃｅｍｅｎｔｓ ｏｆｆ ｔｈｅ ｗａｌｌ ゝめむフ