AltHist & Movie: Confederate States of America

I was traveling in time and through parallel worlds, and I happen to chance on this documentary from an alternate universe. ;) The documentary from the British Broadcasting Service (the counterpart of our BBC in that world) is about the history of the Confederate States of America from its victory in the War of Northern Aggression.

I won't spoil it for you, but there is definitely some very racist elements in the movie that made me almost gag, so don't watch if you're easily offended. It would have seem that the Confederate society did not evolve much from its focus on slavery. The almost unrealistic Cold War with a certain north country (and it's not Russia) leaves a bad aftertaste in my mouth. It's not a balanced documentary, because only the aspect of slavery in society is focused upon. The Confederate States as presented is as a very isolationist and almost totalitarian country. I would have thought as well that abolitionism would have a stronger resistance to the "slaveocracy". The Presidential family Fauntroy is too much of a focus in the film. The movie's mockery of Christian values, while understandably corrupted by the slavery question, also touches a nerve. 

All in all, the documentary made me think. Today, our rights are being assaulted by politicians. We aren't free anymore from government, as the slaves from the past weren't free from their masters. 

The video is the whole film, so tell me what you think below in the comments.

Tech"punk"

Tech"punk" are the idea that speculates if a certain era and philosophy dominated technology and culture, and vice versa, producing anachronistic realities. The first things that comes into mind when talking about tech "punk" are steampunk and cyberpunk.

Types of Tech"punk":

Steampunk
 Steampunk is the idea that Victorian Age industry could have accomplished much of the technological results we see today and beyond using steam and conventional methods. For example, in steampunk, spacecraft, artificial intelligence, and other technological marvels today would have been built with just steam engines and conventional technology of gears and springs. Jules Verne is a source for many steampunk-like devices.

Cyberpunk
 What if the Internet connected everything and everyone? What if cybernetics were commonplace? This is the world that is cyberpunk. It typically is a near future world with robots, virtual reality, holograms, large corporations, and a currency of credits. Programs are advanced enough to be considered conscious. Movies like Tron and Robocop are cyberpunk.

Clockpunk
 A more primitive version of steampunk, "clockpunk", just uses springs and gears. So instead of using coal to power devices, pendulums are set, coils are tightened, and springs are compressed. While the much-touted Difference Engine, an ancestor of the computer, is usually considered steampunk, its gear-based nature places it as clockpunk. Leornardo Da Vinci's inventions are considered clockpunk. That being said, many people do not see a distinction between steampunk and clockpunk.

Sandalpunk/Bronzepunk/Ironpunk
 A "punk" for the Classical cultures of Greece and Rome. It assumes that Archimedean types of inventions did not cease. Typical equipment include highly advanced catapults and siege machinery, balloons, primitive submarines, wooden equivalents of clockpunk, classical gear computers(like the one found called Antikythera mechanism, pictured above), primitive steam engines of Alexandria, bronze mirrors that redirect sunlight to burn ships... An interesting variations would be Egyptian sandalpunk, with optics and pyramid building tools; and Chinese sandalpunk which would consist of fireworks and junks. Bronzepunk and Ironpunk are variations of Sandalpunk.

Teslapunk
 Nikola Tesla was one of the most brilliant and unheard of scientist of his time. He envisioned a world of free energy and worldwide communication. Teslapunk incorporates his dream of death rays, Tesla coils, wireless communication, and antigravity devices into fiction.

Atompunk
 The Atomic Age ushered by the 1940's. So in that tradition, everything or mostly everything in atompunk runs with nuclear energy. Radiation, nuclear warfare, mutations from such are the main problems in an atomicpunk story.

Dieselpunk
 The dependence on oil exaggerated is dieselpunk. A fantasy of the oil companies, it envisions all vehicles, equipment, and weaponry running in fossil fuels. (By the way, the computer shown is not running in oil, but is submerged in it to dissipate heat.)

Decopunk
 The chrome version of the future! In decopunk, the 1950's and 60's version of the future comes to fruition.

Biopunk
 What if genetic engineering has accomplished what our current technology did? A purely brain-based internet, organic transportation, psychic weaponry, a whole hosts of poisons, solar energy power from literal plants are some examples of biopunk. Pictured above is Mandark from the popular cartoon "Dexter's Laboratory", holding an organic/biopunk laser.

Nanopunk
 Nanotechnology is the emphasis for nanopunk. Nanobots, nanomaterials, nanomedicines... It is assumed nanobots make and maintain everything in a  nanopunk world.

Stonepunk
 Think of the technology used by the Flintstones. That is Stonepunk. The cavemen have cars and other modern equivalents using "Stone Age" technology. (Mind you, the author of the blog does not believe in a literal Stone Age, but believe humans were always advanced as a result of Creation, but he digresses.)

There's a few more "punks" that I felt was not invented, yet. And so I invented them:

Etherpunk 
 The ether theory of the nineteenth century is found to be true. In this universe, technology is mostly ether based. Ether seems to be the medium in which light transverses.

Crystalpunk
 Crystals hold piezoelectric properties. Thus, technology based solely on crystals are possible.

Chronopunk/Timepunk
 A techpunk relying on time travel. I don't exactly know how feasible that is, but it sounded cool.

Hydropunk/Waterpunk
 If cold fusion is ever feasible, it would change the world.


Aethericpunk
 A combination of Crystalpunk and Etherpunk. The (im)material that is Aether is understood to be partly spiritual, partly multidimensional, and barely matter-influenced. Also, it is the material that composes the time-space continuum. I use this for creating the fictional Mirror Universe.

Some other punks I didn't have time to write about...
Transistorpunk
Nowpunk
Splatterpunk
Elfpunk
Mythpunk

AltHist: Eighteen Eighty Four: Rise of AmCap

The Federalist Alexander Hamilton's National Bank was deemed unConstitutional by a Republican controlled Supreme Court and is never brought to fruition. In the Jeffersonian era, the two Presidencies of James Madison and Andrew Jackson further limited what the national government was allowed to do, slowly turning the federal republic of the United States into a confederate republic. The Second Great Awakenings further strengthened the Protestant/Puritan work ethic and the free enterprise system of economy.

The War of 1811 against British-controlled Canada turned into a decade-long cold war. Frought with other military matters elsewhere in the world, particularly with Napoleon, the British Empire decides to sell Canada to the United States. This passes in the Senate, and the United States more than doubles its area in size. Canada is split into about ten territories for future statehood. Quebec's application for statehood is quickly accepted.

A Mexican War, made famous because of the defense in Alamo, gave the United States the whole of Mexico, divided into 5 territories and Texas, which are now states. There is talk of an "American Empire" in other parts of the world, especially in Europe.

The slave issue was relegated an issue of the state government by the federal government. The Union is preserved through political manuevering, though tensions are still high. However, Civil War was averted, and the North largely ignored the slavery in the South to avoid raising tensions. This show of power by individual states make some term the states "sovereignties", and sometimes "Sovereignties", to show that they now hold more sway over their areas than the national government and thus countries in their own right.

The reason for that the Civil War being averted is a force that has been gaining tremendous power in the North: the corporation. A result of advanced and unfettered capitalism, the North entered a state of technological advancement the world had never seen before. The South struggled in its dated agriculuturally-based economy. But the free enterprise system is not only limited in the North. Soon, entrepreneurs all over the South built corporations of the Industrial Age. The slave owners gradually lost power over time.

The aerocraft, a flying steam vehicle, was invented in 1854. It became a tool for exploration of the expansion. In 1860, electric generators now generated power to the growing Northern cities. In the South, each plantation came to have their own electric generator to operate machinery.

On April 15, 1865, because of the speeches of Lincoln, all Southern states abolished slavery, except as a method of criminal punishment. Slaves were no longer needed for the most part, efficient farming machinery operated by a one person became widespread. Steam tractors and plows multiplied the South's agricultural output. In turn, more and more of the populace began to dwell in the urban areas.

In 1867, Karl Marx publishes "Das Kapital". But he praises what Capitalism has done instead of degrading it, as in this timeline. He inspires a generation of radical entrepreneurs. Karl Marx dies a rich factory owner.

The more industrilized nation began expanding in three prongs: northwards to Canada, southwards to Mexico, and westward to the untamed wilderness. City building is rapid and accompanied by quick advances in technology. Needing a communications network between their polises, the corporations of the sovereignties built telegraph and the newly-invented telephone networks.

As the corporations grew in power, it was just logical that their power structures limit the governments. In 1878, the United States national government was incorporated(jokingly referred to as "U-dot-S-dot-A-dot-Inc" or "U.S.A.Inc"). It still functions as a intermediary between state governments, and the sovereignties maintained the power in their borders. The incorporated National Government is still the only power legally able to perform diplomatic relations with foreign nations, inter-state law enforcement, and since it is incorporated to make profits, no taxation. The government is now run by the citizens as they invest in it as any corporation.

The voting system is overhauled. All citizens can still vote for the House of Representatives and the electoral college for the President, however, the Senate is voted on by investing in government stock. The electoral college votes using the sovereignties investments and stock in the government for the President.

Afraid of the rapid technological change, the Neo-Luddite Party is formed. Initially, their main base of support are farmers. They prove to be unpopular in the long run as they turned radical. They are responsible for some terrorist acts.

By 1884, Europe is fraught into a war by pro-Capitalists and pro-Socialist groups.

In 1902, atmospheric space travel is invented.

(This alternate history is not finished.)

http://althistory.wikia.com/wiki/Eighteen_Eighty_Four:_Rise_of_AmCap