- Negative Format
Upwarp is a formal alliance of planned societies with a common interest in social technology, rationalism, and order. Most of Upwarp's societies reside in a within Up/Up-Prime?, a network of domes, spheres, and tunnels organized by social function. Up-Prime is the source of the primary stereotypes of Upwarp: pristine white hallways, regular geometric buildings, and blandly amiable citizens.
There is ample space allotted elsewhere for planned societies with visions not compatible with the mainstream of Upwarp. The technocrats of Up's Omega Sector refer to such a group as a Subculturally Affinitised Behavioural Cluster, or SABC. Such groups are well-tolerated by Omega Sector, though they are subjected to constant friendly attempts to demonstrate to them that Up/Up-Prime? is the Better Way and they should adjust accordingly.
Up is a technocratic society; not authoritarian, totalitarian, or statist. The central founding principle of Upwarp is that coercion is never necessary to enforce the social order in an economically transcendent culture. Instead, social uniformity and efficiency are achieved through precise scientific manipulation of language, culture, education, and mass psychology. Yes, Omega Sector takes the lead role in formulating and implementing these techniques. But they consider themselves to be merely researchers, studying and implementing an objectively ideal society which is beyond their own selfish needs.
Upwarpian society is generally stable and ethical to the extreme. Granted, this is by its own somewhat clinical standards, which put little faith in "romantic" notions like love and free will. (Generally, if Omega Sector can't measure it, they'll insist it doesn't exist, or is unimportant.) There may be occasional exceptions -- minor upheavals, infiltrations, and conspiracies do occur. Conspiratorial elements like the Architects of the Future are a perennial threat, and the occasional citizen does get caught up in their machinations. But Up's core is remarkably resilient in the face of social change, for better or worse.