Edenists

The two branches of humanity, Adamism and Edenism diverged in 2090 when humans who had affinity bonds where excommunicated by the Christian Church. These people are edenists. The greatest difference between adamists and edenists is in their technologies.

Development of Affinity Bond and Memory Transfer
In the early 21st Century much research work was carried out in the field of genetics and biotechnology, leading to the development of quasi-sentient creatures and eventually to the development of intelligent fully sentient creations such as habitats or voidhawks. The key to these creations was in their neural nets, brains capable of taking orders from humans.

In 2058 Wing-Tsit Chong developed affinity symbiont neurons, a revolutionary new method of controlling bitek creations: using thought commands broadcast by affinity to implant directions into the bitek construct. Affinity could also be used between humans, in a method likened to telepathy people with the affinity neurons could talk to each other directly using thought.

When Eden was opened for habitation in 2085 most of the people working there had affinity, allowing them to interact directly with the habitat personality. Wing-Tsit Chong had been heavily involved in the development of Eden’s genetic structure and when he died in 2090 he revealed another aspect of affinity which had never been considered before: memory transference.

The Start of Edenism
As he died, Wing-Tsit Chong transferred his memories into Eden’s neural strata. Because of the size of Eden it could easily hold the memories of thousands of people without comprimising its own processing capacity, and people began to realise that there was such a thing as continuation of life after death.

Shortly after Wing-Tsit Chong’s death Pope Eleanor declared that what he had done, transfering his memories to the neural structure of Eden was circumventing divine judgement. She excommunicated all people with affinity from the Christian Church.

There was an exodus of affinity-capable people from Earth to Eden. Eventually thousands of habitats would be grown, all holding people who were practically guaranteed a continuation of life. This exodus signalled the end of bitek use on Earth and the technological and theological separation between adamists and edenists had begun.

The Growth of the Edenist Society
Eden had been germinated in Jupiter orbit in 2075 to serve as a dormitory town for the mining of 3He from Jupiters atmosphere. When Eden became independant from the UN it continued this 3He mining.

Because of affinity, edenists are perfectly suited for life around gas giant planets: Habitats thrive in the magnetosphere of huge planets like Jupiter. As mankind began to reach out of the solar system in the 22nd century more and more worlds capable of supporting human life were located. Because of the cost of shipping 3He fuel the presence of a gas giant in the same system as a terracompatible world became essential, cementing the edenists’ monopoly on the 3He market.

By the beginning of the 27th century Edenists have germinated thousands of habitats throughout the Confederation. The only solar systems which they don’t have a presence in are those owned by the Kulu Kingdom. Jupiter has remained the core of Edenist society, there are 4250 habitats in jovian orbit as of 2611.

Edenist Political Structure
Affinity allows for the greatest stability of political ideologies. When a big decision needs to be made a consensus is formed. The size of a consensus depends on the size and scope of the decision to be made — in some cases every edenist can be consulted. The consensus is formed using affinity to link minds with the habitat, allowing every viewpoint to be taken into consideration, making for a truly democratic process.

See also:

 * Voidhawks
 * Serpents