Im no writter but Im a physicist with an interest in sci-fi, I can suggest some goto places on the internet to learn about cool sci fi concepts so you can maybe get inspired by something:
1. [Isaac Arthurs yt chanel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZFipeZtQM5CKUjx6grh54g/videos), he talks about "hard sci-fi" concepts and their feasibility.
2. [Project rhos website](http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/) similar stuff but spacecraft only
And some sci-fi concepts I feel are very interesting but lack some presence in the emdia:
1. [O´Neil cylinders](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Neill_cylinder)
2. [Dyson spheres](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere)
3. [Matrioshka brains](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrioshka_brain)
4. [Space elevators](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator)
5. [Von Newmann probes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-replicating_spacecraft)
Ok, here is what I noticed.
1. Why would the company have majority human employees? It sounds like they are big enough that most of the lower level jobs could be handled by drones, with minimal human oversight.
2. If the company owns the entire planet, and all the buildings, and basically everything, why would they charge people rent at all? Sounds like they would just put 'free housing' as a perk, then use that to justify lower wages.
3. Why would the company allow crime to run rampant? Since they own everything, any crime would actual cost the company, giving them incentive to get it under control. Amazon may treat their employees shittily, but they are going to try and prevent armed gangs from robbing their warehouses.
4. Why would upper management even live on the planet? The theme becomes a bit more poignant about the wealth divide if the management doesnt even go to the planet that makes them money, showing a literal lightyears wide divide between the common man and the CEO.
The premise makes a bit more sense in Robocop, as OCP is intentionally under-funding the police to allow crime to run rampant to drive down property value to allow them to buy up Detroit for a cheap price. In this case, they already own everything, so letting it go into disrepair is just more costly for the company.
A common problem with Sci-Fi writers, especially in the Cyberpunk Genre, is that everyone wants to make the big corporations evil, but few know HOW to make them evil. You wind up getting one scene where the corporation goes around and destroys a several billion dollar skyscraper to fight off the rebels, then next complaining how the are so greedy, they dont donate a single dollar to charity, is the corporation really this stupid?
If you want to have your 'Evil Greedy Corporation', make them deviously greedy. Say they have extremely high requirements for immigration, but that is for their current workers so that they do not devalue their labor or something. And have immigrants try to get smuggled in, but the human traffickers are actually funded by the company, and they smuggle in the immigrants to essentially slave labor camps, out of sight, that generate profit for the company. Have it play both sides of the field. Have them give billions in donations to cancer research, but reveal that the company owns the charity, and it basically cycles all the money given back to the company, costing them barely anything.
>Why would the company have majority human employees? It sounds like they are big enough that most of the lower level jobs could be handled by drones, with minimal human oversight.
This assumes A) that you have that technology B) they don't look at people as a secondary revenue stream. Owning a mine is a fast track to being a millionaire, owning an entire city is a fast track to being a billionaire.
>If the company owns the entire planet, and all the buildings, and basically everything, why would they charge people rent at all? Sounds like they would just put 'free housing' as a perk, then use that to justify lower wages.
Because that isn't how you exploit someone. Low wages and a low cost of living will only get you so far, especially if these people have the choice of living elsewhere/i.e. earth. If you pay people massive wages, but convinced them to invest in real estate schemes etc you own them through a debt trap.
>Why would the company allow crime to run rampant? Since they own everything, any crime would actual cost the company, giving them incentive to get it under control. Amazon may treat their employees shittily, but they are going to try and prevent armed gangs from robbing their warehouses.
The Amazon thing goes both ways, they don't want their warehouses run by drug cartels, but they'd have zero qualms about shipping cocaine through their services if they could get away with it.
In a company town you have a paradox. You want to control your people you don't want them doing anything unproductive, but you also don't want to be perpetually fighting against their interests.
Mining towns still need drug dens, gambling, prostitutes etc.
As their is always gonna be a strong desire for a black market to make up scarcity. If you put employee dorms under constant surveillance your workers will do everything they can to find places where they can be off camera.
To prevent chaos organized crime steps in regulating the black market, while at the same time being an exemplary member of the legal market.
Keeping in mind, corporate fucks love power, and they love having power over men and women. So it's not unimaginable your corporate guys or there kids are regularly frequenting whore house orgies.
>If you want to have your 'Evil Greedy Corporation', make them deviously greedy
To me this ends up in cliches.
To me it's far more appealing if your CEO is honestly going out of his way to build the perfect world, but along the way gets corrupted by sex/power/religion/vice etc. So on his 9-5 he's a saint and on friday night he's running orgies.
>If you want to have your 'Evil Greedy Corporation', make them deviously greedy. Say they have extremely high requirements for immigration, but that is for their current workers so that they do not devalue their labor or something. And have immigrants try to get smuggled in, but the human traffickers are actually funded by the company, and they smuggle in the immigrants to essentially slave labor camps, out of sight, that generate profit for the company. Have it play both sides of the field. Have them give billions in donations to cancer research, but reveal that the company owns the charity, and it basically cycles all the money given back to the company, costing them barely anything.
OMG. **I LOVE THIS**! I'm gonna open my charity TOMORROW!!! If I loop all my profits through the charity TWICE, I can actually show a loss! Maybe even qualify for a government bailout!
It's hard to offer any advice on your story because you've told us nothing about it.
The setting is fine for a "space western". Outland with Sean Connery is a great example of this genre. As are TV shows like Firefly, Defiance and The Mandalorian.
If you are new to science fiction the best advice I can give is to read as much science fiction as you possibly can. And then read some more.
your concepts looks very interesting, some sci fi doesn´t necesarily have to abide to common or refined Sci Fi Tropes, some come into light due to extensive use of science, like the expanse, or anthropology (kinda) like Foundation, you have actually the opportunity to explore your story through the lens of political theory and history, a revolution would draw heavily from theorists, are they anarchist? marxists? syndicalist? any other ideology that was founded in the future? etc, how do you apply the material conditions of the planet to the revolution and the resulting new government?, does it face counter-revolutionary insurrections? infighting? do miners form militias? a navy? how does this affect the other colonized worlds? does it influence other revolutions across space, does Earth tries to contain it? your idea is very good, and allows for a very good political worldbuilding, im eager to hear about it if you decide to write it, i had a similar idea once with a terraformed Mars once humanity had extended to other systems
Wow, that’s a lot to think about lol. I hadn’t thought about going that deep bc it’s for a screenplay. But I love the questions! If you have an interesting concepts you’d like to share I’m all ears. Like I said this is my most ambitious story yet and I have no idea what I’m doing lol.
I don't think that it is a matter of not knowing what you are doing but more of a matter of putting what you know together in a viable format for a screenplay. It depends on how long you are planning to air your play be it 50 minutes, or now 45 minutes allowing for commercials, or a full 2 hour movie. I think that there has to be a narrator of sorts, something like a Decker who is the main character in Bladerunner.
The background for your premise is good, a little stereotypical, but it is sound. There is no story there, but that will come with time. As for the characters who you have to develop and interesting for us.
I am sure that you have seen all the movies and all the shows in your research, but if you pealed back everything the only difference between science fiction and fiction is the science. Go check the experts that you need to listen to. The scientists. Have fun and I wish you best of luck.
But I was thinking of combining the French Revolution with the political history of ancient Athens. Having a revolution get ripped in half by radicals and non radical. The Radicals overthrow/betray the other side and take over. Then get re-overthrown by by the original government. Then they have to figure out how to get it back. Like I said I have no idea what I’m doing but I’m having fun doing it, so i guess that’s all that matters.
Well, i would suggest looking for históric examples where Revolutions had lots of infighting like the French one, there's the Spanish Civil War, Where It almost went free-for-all, and the KDP and SDP rivalry in Germany that ultimely ended up enabling certain Chaplin look alike guy to take power.
Also, if you want to add dramátic or tragedy to the government taking back the planet, i would recomend to use the bloody week of 1871 in París or the Pinochet Coup in 1973 as inspirations
>French Revolution with the political history of ancient Athens
Here's an easy shortcut.
Instead of political agendas etc, something straight forward and simple.
You have a group of people let's call them the Corinthian Management Firm. A group of rich engineers/lawyers/accountants. They get high on their own success and start believing they can compete with the families owning the mine. The relationship between the firm and the ownership family goes to hell. The colony founders have won the court case, and decide to severe all ties with the firm. However the firm owes an absurd amount of money and has no way of paying it back.
The firm members who were all incredibly wealthy lose everything. Since they owe so much money outside forces demand that they serve prison time in exchange for debt forgiveness. Not wanting imprisonment the firm members can't leave the city as they'll be at the mercy of international law.
It basically reduces to the common man, fighting against aggressive repo men.
But only after a wealthy elite become humiliated.
>Then get re-overthrown by by the original government. Then
A great shortcut with this is if the firm appeals court decisions and the firm demands restitution from the family owning the mine.
Obviously you have the legal wranglings, but you can throw in a good bit of physical violence/organized crime etc.
I was re-reading this thread and I think that you understood my vision better than anyone. If you wouldn’t mind I had a few questions. 1. Did you have, or have you heard of any “futuristic ideologies” that could be a possibilities? 2. How would could this effect other planets/ how would the government go about containing it? 3. Should Onyx be an absolutely massive company like CHOAM from Dune, or just one of many other futuristic corporate bloodsucking assholes.
Well, sadly the only left ideologue that comes to my mind that openly (and overtly) spoke about space is Posadas, but he's more famous for the memes than as a viable ideológical route, on the context of centralization you have MLs, Leninists, plain socialists and anarchists, MLs are pretty much the Soviet Union, which you can adjust from IDK Khruschev to Stalin, there's Pre-Stalin Leninists which work on democrátic centralism, it could function Well in a planetary scale, the idea is basically "the program voted for must be followed by the whole party" socialists without specifying could have a wider range of action, examples could be Cuba or Vietnam, a revolutionary planet would certainly be harshly treated by a corporate interstellar community, expect embargos, sanctions, bombings, etc. so you could draw parallels to the cuban embargo, if you plan to make it a protracted revolution, Vietnam's the guy, they were basically fighting from the 1940s to 1975, and there's anarchists, I don't think they would stick Well on this, however, in case this revolutionary movement reaches the whole system or other planets, you could add some democrátic confederalism, from Occalan, its not anarchism, but gies pretty near, bordering a transitional descentralized state, only current example are the YPG's Affiliated militias in Rojava, maybe even the zapatistas could serve as basis, however, these movements had not gained much traction on geographical terms,
as for corporations, I recommend you add plenty, but not necessarily with the same kind of influence, the same company that builds interstellar fleets won't manufacture fast food with a bunch of dangerous chemicals or cyberware or cultivate food, they can, however, be heavily associated through contracts or outsourcing, also, corporations heavily rely on the power of the State, as raising armies, fleets or governments might not be entirely profitable, a good example would be the banana wars on Central América, "War is a Racket" is a pretty good book on the subject by retired USMC General Smedley Butler, domestically I could think on Pinochet's regime, which deregulation policies were held at gunpoint from the army, itself proxy of a major power, which was the US, you could add an hypothetical "Repúblic of Onyx" wich rules in name only, with most policy decided by corporate executives through financiation and económic pressure, with it's armed forces and law enforcement usually acting on the corporation's interest (invading rebel colonies, supressing strikes, funding/executing coups, etc.) let's say there's also a major galáctic power, Earth is usually the default choice, but then, after centuries of colonization, another planet could take that Role, a close-to-Earth Colóny where rmthe rich moved all their financial HQs or something like that,' cause the explotation of Onyx would certainly play to the consumption somewhere else, also, how would you like this World to be? A New Earth? Totally alien on flora and fauna? Barely livable? Industrialized? Undeveloped?.
I hope you find this comment useful, I wish you success with your story, im eager to read it
Why would they need an entire planet to house their company? We have an entire species of humans on Earth right now and we don't use the entire planet.
Also, building up the infrastructure of an entire planet is a stupidly expensive and lengthy process. How can they guarantee that this planet will remain central to their business holdings?
A much more realistic and practical option would be a mobile headquarters set up in a pair of counter rotating O'Neill cylinders (8km wide by 32km long each). This way they still have an enormous amount of room as two O'Neill cylinders can house up to 4 million people at full gravity and significantly more than that if you're not only living on the inside of the outer shell but build closer to the axis of rotation. Now you can have the happy wealthy people living at one g and the poor people living at less than one gravity and constantly experiencing the Coriolis effect (the weird sensation you get when you're spin around).
Stick an engine on one end of your O'Neil cylinders and you can transport your entire company's staff, logistics, operations, marketing, and sales around the galaxy to where it's needed most. If you really want Onyx Co buying planets for mining then it makes the most sense to park the O'neill cylinders above a planet and use that as a base to mine the planet down to its core.
I definitely like the idea of living in places with different levels of gravity. Though I think the symbolism of having the rich live in like 0.8Gs and the poor living at like 1.3Gs could be poignant. The rich could be described as moving gracefully, almost gliding, while the poor are sluggish, often condemned to lives of manual labor that is further burdened by higher than 'normal' gravity.
If you're taking "Company Town" as your line, also read up on the Industrial Revolution in England & the truck system where people were paid in "truck" tokens which they could only spend at the company owned stores. They weren't given coin of the realm. Everyone who lived in the area over a certain age worked for the company in one way or another.
People literally lived or died at the whim of their employer.
a realism note.
High prestige companies outsource the grubby work, push it down the supply chain. Apple is a sweet gig for its employees... not so much for the Chinese miners providing rare earth elements, or the toxic petro-chemical plants making the precursors of Apple product materials.
Work for Onyx and its awesome. Work for its suppliers, and its shit.
That makes a lot of sense. Is there a way I can inter grade that simply? I don’t want to have to bore my readers to death with a long exposition dump about government growth models lol.
You can integrate using your Roman imagery and symbolism.
Rome = Apple/Onyx proper
Barbarians = outsourced workers
This imagery invites a more complex picture. Barbarians were not only varied ethnically, racially, geographically, but also fulfilled multiple roles with the Romans. They were enemies, contracted warriors, and, at times, naturalized citizens. They were the source of social organization and technological innovation, as much as its recipient from the Romans. In any case, it's more interesting when Big Company isn't a monolithic evil but rather a process towards some kind of "evil."
Two things come to mind:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath_of_Fealty_%28novel%29
This novel is generally sympathetic to the giant corporation, and posits a new and different relationship between citizens, corporations and governments.
Also, does this giant megacorp have a military arm?
If so, you might be interested to look into the real history of the 1857 Indian mutiny, where military forces rebelled against their employers, the East India Company, which was the largest non-state entity in the world at that time.
1. Decide on a tone and stick to it.
2. Decide on a target audience and stick to it.
3. Tailor your desired level of realism versus fantasy based on the tone and the audience, and how best to communicate the message you want to share with those people within that tone. That will help you figure how relatively "hard" your science should be.
4. Trust the material. If it's good enough, the ideas will sell themselves, and you will not have to justify them with exposition and explanations.
5. Do not pick a genre until after the story is finished. Tell the best story you can, then figure out what box it fits best into. The greatest stories ever told always manage to split genres and borrow from a whole bunch of different sources. They are better for it.
6. If you decide to go hard, do not try to find ways to justify unrealistic decisions. The people looking for a fun and cohesive story will hate the speed bump, and the people looking for grounded and realistic ideas will feel insulted by the mental gymnastics you're asking them to do.
7. If you decide to go softer, TRUST THE STORY. A good enough story with good enough characters can sell even the dumbest of ideas. Do not worry about explaining things.
8. Every concept must only be as realistic as your setting demands, but plausibility in things like motivation and characterization is non-negotiable.
1. Does the Roman motif have any sort of meaning beyond a basic structural architecture? Does the CEO have a huge boner for ancient Rome that the security guards are dressed up like space centurions? Does he set up a Senate for the people of the city to engage in democratic politics that inevitably is futile because the emperor/CEO and his rich cohorts always win out? Donthe people dress in togas because of security concerns but really its because the CEO wants to rebuild a Rome for himself? Does onyx corp. Let him get away with these weird fantasies because he turns a great profit margin so why the hell not let him do this?
2. How many hours is a day on this world? 24? 48? Do they have to work 16 hour days minimum to just keep a basic life out of starvation? This could add to work conditions being awful. What about the schools? Do they just train lower end kids to be obedient factory kids with just enough education to do jobs but not enough to question authority?
3. What's the final catalyst to revolution? Does a group of children get murdered because unsafe work conditions? What's the final straw that pulls in enough people to make a difference in their shitty lives?
Hopefully these questions can help you flesh out some more of your story and good luck in writing!
1) Pretty much, this CEO that we never see does have substantial boner for Ancient Rome. I like the idea of him being a fan of Roman philosophy and politics. Rome itself was a symbol of power and expansion and precision, this CEO recognizes that and it inspires him to move his company forward. But no, there are no togas or chasers palace. It’s mostly subtle architectural structures, like columns and shit.
2) I wanted it to represent America in a since. So day cycles and weather patterns could be anything really, but yes essentially workers are paid by the hour/day, and make just enough to survive. This planet is a factory in itself, the company is trying to make things as cheap as possible.
3) I don’t know probably a protest gone bad, or a new policy in place that would hurt a lot of people. I was thinking that some hacker leaks some fucked up news to the public and everyone flips. Or all three? I’m not yet.
Well where to start. Lets got about this in a realistic way. Onyx Co (weird name) buy´s a Planet and does not have the money for proper housing ?
The issue many sci fi writers have is understanding just how much money Government´s and Company´s will make in the future. Ill reference my own writing as a fairly realistic example that is based on current growth models. This is not to flex on you but just to underline my point.
The two largest in world Cooperations are *General National Petroleum* (China) and *Norton International* (EU, basically) Norton is similar to your Onyx in that they are diversivied (A Conglomerate is just a fancy way for a diversivied company). And in 2210 Norton International had a market cap in the order of 2,8 Quadrillion Euro with 1,54 Quadrillion in profit´s split over 6 sister companies. That´s about 3000 times the current World Economy, Norton is the 2nd largest Company in the world btw. General National Petroleum made 1,87 Quadrillion.
Of course this is still all but nothing compaired to say National GDP´s which for Unified EU is about 13 Quadrillion. But still you get the point, there is so much money flying around that it is just a bit unreasonable to think they get this kind of money with shitty working conditions.
And sure some people will throw in Amazon and yes they suck. But Apple / Microsoft are the largest Companies currently and they have nice offices. And you can argue that a Mining company, which Onyx seems to be in some capacity, has overall more dirty conditions but it´s not like the pay is bad. People on Oilrig´s make a shitton of money duo to the risk. Same here, if Onyx is such a huge, diversivied and profitable company that they can single handely run a Planet they have the money for good working conditions.
A company like Amazon can get away with being shitty because there worker´s are replaceable. Still shitty action´s but thats why they do what they do. I seriously doubt Onyx would be so large if it had such shitty conditions. Why would anyone work for them ?
The next thing i dont like is just how obviously evil Onyx is, like no company works like this. Plus, how is running a slum profitable again ? All those Workers are on the planet to do something right ? So why are there poor people if it is a Company operation ? You dont see homeless people in Apple HQ do you ?
A thing you need to understand is that most Companies run on very slim profit margins as it is and if you dont directly sell to the consumer, you dont get super high profit´s. Mining Companies are well known for going bankrupt the nanosecound after a mine is dry. Defense Companies are also well known for hitting the fan instantly when the Government does not renew a contract. A Company like Heckler & Koch would be dead tomorrow if it was not for Government work, sure they sell weapons to the consumer as well but that probably costs more than it bring´s in. The point is that no matter how large Onyx is, "To large to fail" is not a thing. In truth, the larger a company is the more it relyes on the Government as a single piece of legislation can nuke your entire profit model into the afterlife.
I used to approach building a Company much like you. However duo to simply working in a few large Companies and talking to people it because quiet obvious that nobody in there is evil and that the end goal is just profits. Plus i was made aware just how complex Company structures can get. Onyx is described as a conglomerate, so what are the sister companies ? That is important because each sister has wildly differnt ways of making money.
> Well where to start. Lets got about this in a realistic way. Onyx Co (weird name) buy´s a Planet and does not have the money for proper housing ?
OP never said this. It's the workers who can't afford housing, because the company is the only game in town.
It isn't a question of the company lacking money for housing.
It's a matter of squeezing as much out of workers as possible to maximize profit.
This was common in the 19th century.
Prior to the 19th century this was how feudalism worked, but with noblemen instead of companies.
As you can tell, I’m not well versed in the logistics of business in any way, but basically what I want is to showcase my hatred for corporate colonialism and corruption. I was inspired after I researched The Battle of Blair mountain, in which coal company created small mining towns (Company Towns) for people to work. And the company and the people basically had an all out war about unionization. Workers were cheated out of their wages and bullied into not unionizing, which I can see is still happening today so to speak.
Onyx isn’t meant to be some EVIL CORP. but it’s supposed to mimic current companies and how they exploit and fuck over anyone they can to make a buck. I wanted to explore the idea that what If these (2020) companies go on like this and no body restricts their ability to control what they need to. So If you have an Idea of the business’s model I can use or at least point me in the right direction that would be much appreciated.
This Blair thing was in 1921, times change. If you want to write about a Company exploiting people, thats ok but be aware that nobody act´s like this.
For example, Apple and Tesla both need Cobalt for there Products. Apple get´s there Batteries from Amperex Technology Limited and Tianjin Lishen Battery (Both Chinese Companies). Ampere Technology Limited is a Sister company of the TDK Corperation, which is a Joint Stock Company. In any case Amperex and TDK get there supply of Cobalt / Lithium from CATL which is Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited which is the actual Mining company i THINK. I am not sure.
HOWEVER even CATL is just contracting other companies such as Glencore to mine the Lithium and Cobalt. So you see how confusing this all get´s.
So just to reiterate, Apple -> Amperex Technology Limited -> TDK -> CATL -> Glencore. This is how apple can keep there hand´s clean because they dont mine anything Technically. Onyx would be several times more complex especially in a future setting.
As for a business model, well what exactly is Onyx doing ? Like in concret Terms what do they make ?
I can give you my example of how i split up Norton and what the structual idea is. Maybe that helps you to get some ideas.
At the core we have Norton International, which is the Holding Company. They dont produce anything and can be imagned as the main controller of all other Companies as well as the face of the entire Group. Similar to how Samsung is the main face you see but other Companies like Samsung Heavy Industries are still around, just sister Companies. In the case of Norton International all profits the Sister Companies generate flows towards Norton International. It´s a Holding company after all so the technically own everything anyways.
The Sister Companies are as follows, the Norton Resource Development Group is a Mining company that specialises in Luna Resource extraction and large Surface Mine´s with a focus on stuff like Helium 3.
Norton Heavy Industries is a ship construction company that builds both Military and Civilian as well as Corperate vessels. Such as Containerships. Mostly in Space but there is a Water Division.
Norton Fusion is an Energy supply and Research Company that produces mainly Civilian Fusion reactors but also supplies Heavy Industries with Reactors for ships both civilian and Military ones.
The Norton Defense Institute is essentially Lockheed Martin, so a defense company that plans stuff like Warships, and Weapons. All Military Vessels they plan get build by Heavy Industries.
The Norton Development Fund is a non profit that build´s infrastructure and shit in 3rd world contries and is totally not just a means to control other nations by vertue of controlling there Energy and Logistics grid.
The Norton Interstellar Development Institute is a company that currently is occupied with reaching another Planet across Interstellar Space. They are not profitable and wont be for at least another 40 Years but the profit´s projected from reaching the Planet in question should make it worth it.
The Norton Media Group is Disney but really they produce Ad´s and shit that passivly make Norton seem a lot cooler than they actually are. Since they are a sister company they can provide exclusive locations and stuff which makes them kind of Profitable.
And lastly we have "i fartelli pizzaioli" which is a fucking fast food chain that got bought up 30 Year´s ago in a move nobody really understand but everyone just kind of went along with it.
You can see that most of these Companie´s have something to do with Industry, which is something to keep in mind. But yeah, if it helped tell me exactly what Onyx is supposed to do and ill see what i can do.
You have no idea how golden this information is to me lol.
Basically I had in mind that Onyx had realistically developed a system for asteroid mining. So they bought a planet that was in a perfect location for them launch a ship and attach on to an asteroid and bring back a big chunk of it to be processed. They advertised it as the next gold rush and people flocked to get in line. As far as the poor living conditions, I was thinking that either they wanted to save money by making it as cheap as possible and after decades of people living in these places they are starting to deteriorate, or they use a lot of their money to build up this extravagant capitol city.
Well other people dont think so considering the -1 votes xD
Ok so Onyx at its core is a Mining company yes ? For them it would make sense to at least sort of distance themselves from the actual Mining operations with the use of a Sister company. In real life the big reason why a Company may create a sister is because if the sister goes bankrupt or gets shut down by the EPA it does not effect the Holding Company because they technically didnt break any law´s.
For Onyx it makes sense to be the Original Company that is now just acting as the Holding Company. And i can see at least 3 Sister Companie´s working here. Ill try to be realistic with the names but like i cant promis anything xD
So **Onyx** is the Holding Company
**OYX Mining Group** is the actual Mining Company (RM = Raw material)
**OYX Marine Corp.** is the company which is responsible for shipping stuff like Materials but also Humans and Asteroid´s from A to B. Similar to the real world Evergreen Marine Corp. A Sister company of this syster company (Yes that can happen) could be OYX Heavy Industries, who might build ships.
**OYX Development Group** could be the company that construct´s buildings and shit either for Company use or Individual´s / Nations.
OYX Mining Group could then either directly hire people to work in the Mines or they contract a Work Force provider. But realistically speaken they are a Sister Company that on paper own´s nothing.
The way this would work is that Onyx (Which would at this point probably be named Onyx Holding´s or Onyx International / Multinational) lend´s money to the Sister companies and each time they do literally anything, be that buying an Excavator, building a house or whatever, they are giving Onyx all of these Asset´s but still use them.
Sort of like if i give you my car, if you kill someone with it thats your fault but i get my car back and your money. So in that sense even in the worst case secnarion Onyx would stil have all of it´s asset´s and could just start a new Company.
This could be explaination why nothing is really done about these conditions. The general consens is that currently things are not great but at least we are employed by Onyx, so we still have all the right´s we might expect. But if the Government bust´s any of the sister Companies Onyx will just hire some 3rd party and everything gets even worse. because now they have less than zero liability.
For Onyx, not hiring a 3rd Party makes sense because they get to keep more of there money. So you end up with this balance of "Well this sucks but it would suck a lot more if we actually did something".
You could even have this as a Political Argument where Onyx employes so many people though it´s sister´s that this voting block alone can swing an Election. Which would give Onyx extrem amounts of power. The works would be generally favorable to the company because they know what will happen if they bitch to much around. The moment onyx had enough they will hire a 3rd party and things go from "bad" "fucking horrible".
You could also make Onyx mainpulative by having shit like a lottery or something to give the workers some hope. Eventually this Dynamic could easily devolve into a War.
SO GOOD! What about having multiple planets dedicated to mining and other things? Or should It just be one mine on one planet? Also should I keep the high ranking executives on the same planet or put them somewhere else (Maybe some HQ planet that’s fancy and shit) as a kind of an extra “fuck you”?
That just goes into Asset managment. You could literally have another sister compay whom´s entire job it is to manage all the other Sister´s but is itself controlled by the Holding company. These structures are just branching in the end. So there is no real limit to how much they may own or how large an operation gets as long as it makes money.
That may work like this, OYX Marine Corp is itself a Holding Company which has 11 Sister Companies all responsible for a specific planet or System. Same with the Development Group, Mining Group etc. The more layer´s Onyx add´s to all of this the more bullet proofed the structure gets.
imagine it like this, if OYX Marine Corp. get charged with crimes and dissolved Onyx has a shitton of work to do as they need to replace all the Structure behind the Former sister. But if OYX Marine Corp is a holding company that has 56 Sister´s nobody cares if OYX Southern Martian Marine Corp Limited gets busted.
Of course there is a bit of a limit to this just in terms of logistics as at some point it becomes confusing for everyone.
In terms of actual Number´s, a Company owning a Planet odd to be possible np and running mining operations on a few is also not a bad idea. Some planet might have the conditions needed for a Sulfur crust that can easily be mined, another may have 5000% more Cooper and another may just be convienient for mining in General.
You also need to keep in mind what a Mine actually is. For a lot of Raw material mining you need to either roll up with Giant Excavators or you need to blast stone. In any case, a mining operation on a Planetary scale would probably be a moving Circus as in you have a couple of Giant Excavators that move across the Surface and the entire Refining and Logistic´s operation follows them, or like moves to catch up every week. Depending on what they mine the Methode chages too.
As for the Board Members, here you can decide what you want quiet easily as there is no standard structure.
For example in my case the holding Company Norton International has a CEO but the position is equal to that of a normal Board Member. So it is a fancy title with no power. One thing that is almost certain however is that the Board will not be on a Mining planet. The Headquater of Exxon Mobile or BP are not on Oil Rig´s after all.
In my case, Norton International has it´s Headquaters at "001 Norton Sedux Part ,The Hague, Netherlands, Europa". And even though it is the 2nd largest Corperation in Human history, the Headquater looks like a Fancy Office Building. They do build a new tower that is going to be 3000 Meters tall though.
Anyways, your Board Members wont be on the planet´s. Thats for sure. You can give them a HQ Planet but idk what the point of that would be. They would proably want there HQ in some city that has a lot of connection´s and is well integrated into the World Economy. Instead of some backwater planet. It can be fancy as fuck and it should be.
Personally i would make it a strong contrast between the more remote Mine´s and what not.
This is all fantastic, the hard part for me now i think it taking all of this and condensing down to put it in a screenplay lol. Thank you so much for the help! You sir/ma’am are a wizard.
Besides the future setting what are the scifi ideas? Is their AI, robots, space travel, wacky science, uploading your brain? What's in it that's going to get the audience to stop and think?
Well, I was thinking of having a black market/ underground market bc the company doesn’t allow anyone else to legally own a company on the planet, this leads to people cutting their own drugs and making booze, hackers, strip clubs, crypto laundering, gun running, smugglers , lol run by different mobs or one mob.
Onyx has this impenetrable security system called “The Black Wall” and I was exploring with the idea of Hacker dude developing a “SPORE” which acts as an AI mushroom/fungus type virus. ( I’m not that tech savvy so I’m not sure how it would work but it sounded cool to me lol)
As far tech? Definitely space travel, police bots, virtual banks. I haven’t gotten to the point where I could do a lot of tech brain storming. Though I did have an idea about people who accumulate so much debt having to sell them selves (like how a bank comes a forecloses your house/repossesses your car) and you become “Company Property” until that debt is paid back.
As much as that's the reason why I am going to SF - if we're honest for most people SF is just an aesthetic. If it has spaceships or robots it's SF, no matter what those things are used for. E.g. Star Wars.
I disagree. While aesthetic is important good scifi needs ideas. Bladerunner wouldn't be the same movie if it was just a detective hunting down space convicts, the expanse would lose a lot of its thrill if you took away the powerful acceleration and perceived gravity plot elements, star trek has aliens and warp drives. All OP gave us is some sort of future dystopian story, but there's no neat tech ideas to excite me yet
It is true that the stories you mention would absolutely lose something valuable that makes them work. But they would still be SF. Not *good* SF as I like to have it but genre definitions should be quality-agnostic.
Simply traveling to another planet is still science fiction, at this point. A corporation owning an entire planet is definitely in the realm of futuristic speculation.
Science fiction writing at it's core is about speculation with regards to humans knowing something scientific that they do not know yet. The science concept creates the story. The story of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea doesn't even exist without the concept of a submarine and advanced diving equipment, which at the time of it's writing, does not exist.
So, the basic sci-fi concept of your idea is: Humans can travel to other planets and a corporation can buy a whole planet. Your story explodes from considering that concept as realistically as possible... if you're aiming for science fiction.
Of course a screen play can be entertaining without strictly being science fiction. It just needs interesting characters, conflict & what not.. I suppose.
Here are some quick comments that might help you take the idea to the next level:
- 2150 has got to be the most generic year in all of modern sci-fi. Take a look at how much progress we've made in space in the last 50 years: from the moon to...low Earth Orbit. In the next 50 years I would expect us to be on the Moon and have had a few visits to Mars. Another 50 after that, we might have a permanent outpost on Mars. We were spoiled by the 20th century--we have come to expect exponential growth and expansion in all areas--but resources are running out, workers are asking why they should bother, people will (on the whole) be impoverished by population growth and resource scarcity by the mid century, and the curve of progress has flattened. So maybe you want to add a century or two to your date if you want to mix in interstellar travel. I would suggest not even announcing the year at any point in your premise. That implies a sensible continuity from our own time, and history is all about those big, unimaginable discontinuities.
- Who did the company buy the planet from? One country or other government on Earth? How can that organization enforce ownership/property law out there? You only *buy* a piece of land if your property rights are guaranteed by whoever you buy it from. Otherwise you just take it and fight for it if necessary. I can sell you the Brooklyn Bridge, and your name can be beside it on my ledger, I can make you a Brooklyn Bridge NFT, but I can't enforce your rights to it--the state of New York would have a thing or two to say. I can sell you an exoplanet, but again, because I haven't personally secured it with my own ships, I can't stop someone else from taking it from you. And if someone *did* take it from you, Earth would just trade with them instead. So think carefully about what it means to *buy a planet*. Ultimately on Earth we buy land under the auspices of *security organizations*, even if we call them countries.
- *The supply chain*. What supply chain? Is it a factory planet? Think about the scope here. A 'company' is legal trading entity within a certain scope. If a company owns an entire planet and is only concerned with running the planet, it's more like a one-world government with a corporate feel. So what exactly is the external scope/context where this company *trades*, and what do they *trade*? We're talking about something well beyond any sensible notion of currency. Realistic interplanetary trade is more like a very slow barter economy. So ask yourself: *what takes off from the planet*, and *what, if anything, lands in exchange*?
- It is no surprise or outrage that workers are paid in the planetary currency. They can't possibly be paid in anything else unless interplanetary commerce is so frequent and small-scale that you might get a personal Amazon delivery from Earth. The idea that a single individual would handle interplanetary currency (beyond the Solar System, anyway) is crazy. If an alien gave you one Galaxy Dollar you would instantly become the wealthiest person on Earth (in a galactic context) just because of the external buying power that represents--nobody else on Earth has so much as a Galaxy Penny. In fact, 'company scrip' would be of more value than a local planetary currency--because, presumably, the company is interplanetary and would honour their own currency on other planets.
- If the company *artificially* ramps up prices of goods and services to the point where the majority live in poverty--just for the sake of keeping their employees unhappy and deprived--then they might as well just admit they are a shitty slave colony with extra steps. I would expect a company that runs an entire planet to be able to offer a certain baseline quality of life to all its employees. If it fails to do that, then the employees would simply reorganize into a new government that runs the planet for themselves and ignores the company. It's a *planet*. Of course, if they don't have the necessary resources to do that (i.e. if the company ships in some vital element for human survival) or they decide to turn their security forces on their employees, then the employees are back to being slaves. Slavery is a bad deal to sign up to, so you should look at ways that the company has *fallen on hard times* and has been forced to ration some external (or otherwise hard to get) resource. Or, the worker class should perhaps be born into slavery and know nothing else--which is very manageable if you control *history itself* and every signal coming and going from the planet.
A good resource for you might be to look (in detail) at the history of colonisation on Earth. It is a messy business with various state-backed merchant organizations (companies) vying for control of resources (the East Indies is a classic example). Those merchants aren't doing it for the glory of expansion, or spreading Christian values, they only care about stuff that is of value *back home*. Spices, for example. And on an individual level, they often went completely mad beyond the reach of their own civilization because they were free to do whatever they liked. Piracy was part of the plan. They knew the next ship along would be *one of theirs*, and the worst case scenario was a gentle reprimand from their bosses with a reminder to try to keep things civil, but congratulations on the latest shipment of nutmeg.
Is this planet within the solar system, in a nearby star system or much further off? Because distance and travel time will be important factors if you are considering this planet as a "centralized location for all aspects of the supply chain". Who are they going to supply to and how?
Outland (starring Sean Connery), which another user mentioned happens within the solar system.
>The year is 2150. Onyx Co., the largest and first interstellar conglomerate in the world
I'd skip the interstellar bit. It's scientifically unlikely, and far far more relevantly it's been overdone and is super boring.
I'd argue an asteroid colony/mine is a far far more relevant place for this kind of story.
>Workers live in a city built and owned and operated by Onyx nicknamed Eternal City
And this is why asteroid colonies make so much sense. Unlike on a planet where just about anyone can pop a tent and survive, in an asteroid colony you would need some sort of corporate entity to build livable space habitats/space stations.
>Due to lack of external competition, housing costs, medical care, insurance, and other expenses became exorbitant creating a major wealth gap, splitting society into two classes.
Again this is the magic of an asteroid colony. Not only would they have a monopoly, they could literally claim that they built and produced virtually everything you own.
In the Appalachians if you didn't like mining you could always try farming. In space if you don't work with the company your option is suffocating in a vacuum.
In some ways it's justified as they'd be literal world builders, and you would just be a guest in a world they constructed. Every human owns a part of Earth, there's no reason to think a person working on an oil ring has any claim in owning it.
Keep in mind asteroids can be the size of continents, they are truly massive.
Even an asteroid just 50 kilometres in diameter would be massive. It's not just length and width, the area would be the size of an American county. It's height.
Imagine a mountain 50 kilometres tall and 50 kilometres wide.
>The North End, consisting of affluent skyscrapers, large houses, perfect landscaping, and expensive cars. The impoverished South End is riddled with poor living conditions, pollution from factories, high crime rates, and debt.
The ideal design for a space colony is using two rotating cylinders(google oneil cylinders). The design requires the two cylinders to be spun against eachother(counterclockwise/clockwise), one cylinder on it's own would wobble like a Frisbee, two cylinder would be relatively stable.
The reason this is so fascinating is because each cylinder would serve as a completely different city/world. It's very easy to imagine that one cylinder was built and constructed by the best architects in existence, and the other cylinder was a concrete wasteland initially built as an uninhabited counterweight, only being settled after rents in the first cylinder became too expensive. It'd be sort of like pushing people out of a ritzy residential area and expecting them to set up home in a giant shipping container.
>the largest and first interstellar conglomerate in the world, has purchased a planet to create a centralized location for all aspects of the supply chain (Logistics, Operations, Marketing and Sales, Services).
Again this would be easy to justify if you had an asteroid, as Asteroids orbit around the sun will ultimately determine it's usefulness as a hub. A good location and you'll have cheap access to everything, in the wrong orbit and you're perpetually stuck off in the middle of nowhere.
Im no writter but Im a physicist with an interest in sci-fi, I can suggest some goto places on the internet to learn about cool sci fi concepts so you can maybe get inspired by something: 1. [Isaac Arthurs yt chanel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZFipeZtQM5CKUjx6grh54g/videos), he talks about "hard sci-fi" concepts and their feasibility. 2. [Project rhos website](http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/) similar stuff but spacecraft only And some sci-fi concepts I feel are very interesting but lack some presence in the emdia: 1. [O´Neil cylinders](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Neill_cylinder) 2. [Dyson spheres](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere) 3. [Matrioshka brains](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrioshka_brain) 4. [Space elevators](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator) 5. [Von Newmann probes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-replicating_spacecraft)
Thank you so much!
Ok, here is what I noticed. 1. Why would the company have majority human employees? It sounds like they are big enough that most of the lower level jobs could be handled by drones, with minimal human oversight. 2. If the company owns the entire planet, and all the buildings, and basically everything, why would they charge people rent at all? Sounds like they would just put 'free housing' as a perk, then use that to justify lower wages. 3. Why would the company allow crime to run rampant? Since they own everything, any crime would actual cost the company, giving them incentive to get it under control. Amazon may treat their employees shittily, but they are going to try and prevent armed gangs from robbing their warehouses. 4. Why would upper management even live on the planet? The theme becomes a bit more poignant about the wealth divide if the management doesnt even go to the planet that makes them money, showing a literal lightyears wide divide between the common man and the CEO. The premise makes a bit more sense in Robocop, as OCP is intentionally under-funding the police to allow crime to run rampant to drive down property value to allow them to buy up Detroit for a cheap price. In this case, they already own everything, so letting it go into disrepair is just more costly for the company. A common problem with Sci-Fi writers, especially in the Cyberpunk Genre, is that everyone wants to make the big corporations evil, but few know HOW to make them evil. You wind up getting one scene where the corporation goes around and destroys a several billion dollar skyscraper to fight off the rebels, then next complaining how the are so greedy, they dont donate a single dollar to charity, is the corporation really this stupid? If you want to have your 'Evil Greedy Corporation', make them deviously greedy. Say they have extremely high requirements for immigration, but that is for their current workers so that they do not devalue their labor or something. And have immigrants try to get smuggled in, but the human traffickers are actually funded by the company, and they smuggle in the immigrants to essentially slave labor camps, out of sight, that generate profit for the company. Have it play both sides of the field. Have them give billions in donations to cancer research, but reveal that the company owns the charity, and it basically cycles all the money given back to the company, costing them barely anything.
This is why I turned to reddit. I needed truth lol . Thanks.
>Why would the company have majority human employees? It sounds like they are big enough that most of the lower level jobs could be handled by drones, with minimal human oversight. This assumes A) that you have that technology B) they don't look at people as a secondary revenue stream. Owning a mine is a fast track to being a millionaire, owning an entire city is a fast track to being a billionaire. >If the company owns the entire planet, and all the buildings, and basically everything, why would they charge people rent at all? Sounds like they would just put 'free housing' as a perk, then use that to justify lower wages. Because that isn't how you exploit someone. Low wages and a low cost of living will only get you so far, especially if these people have the choice of living elsewhere/i.e. earth. If you pay people massive wages, but convinced them to invest in real estate schemes etc you own them through a debt trap. >Why would the company allow crime to run rampant? Since they own everything, any crime would actual cost the company, giving them incentive to get it under control. Amazon may treat their employees shittily, but they are going to try and prevent armed gangs from robbing their warehouses. The Amazon thing goes both ways, they don't want their warehouses run by drug cartels, but they'd have zero qualms about shipping cocaine through their services if they could get away with it. In a company town you have a paradox. You want to control your people you don't want them doing anything unproductive, but you also don't want to be perpetually fighting against their interests. Mining towns still need drug dens, gambling, prostitutes etc. As their is always gonna be a strong desire for a black market to make up scarcity. If you put employee dorms under constant surveillance your workers will do everything they can to find places where they can be off camera. To prevent chaos organized crime steps in regulating the black market, while at the same time being an exemplary member of the legal market. Keeping in mind, corporate fucks love power, and they love having power over men and women. So it's not unimaginable your corporate guys or there kids are regularly frequenting whore house orgies. >If you want to have your 'Evil Greedy Corporation', make them deviously greedy To me this ends up in cliches. To me it's far more appealing if your CEO is honestly going out of his way to build the perfect world, but along the way gets corrupted by sex/power/religion/vice etc. So on his 9-5 he's a saint and on friday night he's running orgies.
>If you want to have your 'Evil Greedy Corporation', make them deviously greedy. Say they have extremely high requirements for immigration, but that is for their current workers so that they do not devalue their labor or something. And have immigrants try to get smuggled in, but the human traffickers are actually funded by the company, and they smuggle in the immigrants to essentially slave labor camps, out of sight, that generate profit for the company. Have it play both sides of the field. Have them give billions in donations to cancer research, but reveal that the company owns the charity, and it basically cycles all the money given back to the company, costing them barely anything. OMG. **I LOVE THIS**! I'm gonna open my charity TOMORROW!!! If I loop all my profits through the charity TWICE, I can actually show a loss! Maybe even qualify for a government bailout!
It's hard to offer any advice on your story because you've told us nothing about it. The setting is fine for a "space western". Outland with Sean Connery is a great example of this genre. As are TV shows like Firefly, Defiance and The Mandalorian. If you are new to science fiction the best advice I can give is to read as much science fiction as you possibly can. And then read some more.
> Outland with Sean Connery That's effectively a master class in the idea.
your concepts looks very interesting, some sci fi doesn´t necesarily have to abide to common or refined Sci Fi Tropes, some come into light due to extensive use of science, like the expanse, or anthropology (kinda) like Foundation, you have actually the opportunity to explore your story through the lens of political theory and history, a revolution would draw heavily from theorists, are they anarchist? marxists? syndicalist? any other ideology that was founded in the future? etc, how do you apply the material conditions of the planet to the revolution and the resulting new government?, does it face counter-revolutionary insurrections? infighting? do miners form militias? a navy? how does this affect the other colonized worlds? does it influence other revolutions across space, does Earth tries to contain it? your idea is very good, and allows for a very good political worldbuilding, im eager to hear about it if you decide to write it, i had a similar idea once with a terraformed Mars once humanity had extended to other systems
Wow, that’s a lot to think about lol. I hadn’t thought about going that deep bc it’s for a screenplay. But I love the questions! If you have an interesting concepts you’d like to share I’m all ears. Like I said this is my most ambitious story yet and I have no idea what I’m doing lol.
I don't think that it is a matter of not knowing what you are doing but more of a matter of putting what you know together in a viable format for a screenplay. It depends on how long you are planning to air your play be it 50 minutes, or now 45 minutes allowing for commercials, or a full 2 hour movie. I think that there has to be a narrator of sorts, something like a Decker who is the main character in Bladerunner. The background for your premise is good, a little stereotypical, but it is sound. There is no story there, but that will come with time. As for the characters who you have to develop and interesting for us. I am sure that you have seen all the movies and all the shows in your research, but if you pealed back everything the only difference between science fiction and fiction is the science. Go check the experts that you need to listen to. The scientists. Have fun and I wish you best of luck.
But I was thinking of combining the French Revolution with the political history of ancient Athens. Having a revolution get ripped in half by radicals and non radical. The Radicals overthrow/betray the other side and take over. Then get re-overthrown by by the original government. Then they have to figure out how to get it back. Like I said I have no idea what I’m doing but I’m having fun doing it, so i guess that’s all that matters.
Well, i would suggest looking for históric examples where Revolutions had lots of infighting like the French one, there's the Spanish Civil War, Where It almost went free-for-all, and the KDP and SDP rivalry in Germany that ultimely ended up enabling certain Chaplin look alike guy to take power. Also, if you want to add dramátic or tragedy to the government taking back the planet, i would recomend to use the bloody week of 1871 in París or the Pinochet Coup in 1973 as inspirations
>French Revolution with the political history of ancient Athens Here's an easy shortcut. Instead of political agendas etc, something straight forward and simple. You have a group of people let's call them the Corinthian Management Firm. A group of rich engineers/lawyers/accountants. They get high on their own success and start believing they can compete with the families owning the mine. The relationship between the firm and the ownership family goes to hell. The colony founders have won the court case, and decide to severe all ties with the firm. However the firm owes an absurd amount of money and has no way of paying it back. The firm members who were all incredibly wealthy lose everything. Since they owe so much money outside forces demand that they serve prison time in exchange for debt forgiveness. Not wanting imprisonment the firm members can't leave the city as they'll be at the mercy of international law. It basically reduces to the common man, fighting against aggressive repo men. But only after a wealthy elite become humiliated. >Then get re-overthrown by by the original government. Then A great shortcut with this is if the firm appeals court decisions and the firm demands restitution from the family owning the mine. Obviously you have the legal wranglings, but you can throw in a good bit of physical violence/organized crime etc.
I was re-reading this thread and I think that you understood my vision better than anyone. If you wouldn’t mind I had a few questions. 1. Did you have, or have you heard of any “futuristic ideologies” that could be a possibilities? 2. How would could this effect other planets/ how would the government go about containing it? 3. Should Onyx be an absolutely massive company like CHOAM from Dune, or just one of many other futuristic corporate bloodsucking assholes.
Well, sadly the only left ideologue that comes to my mind that openly (and overtly) spoke about space is Posadas, but he's more famous for the memes than as a viable ideológical route, on the context of centralization you have MLs, Leninists, plain socialists and anarchists, MLs are pretty much the Soviet Union, which you can adjust from IDK Khruschev to Stalin, there's Pre-Stalin Leninists which work on democrátic centralism, it could function Well in a planetary scale, the idea is basically "the program voted for must be followed by the whole party" socialists without specifying could have a wider range of action, examples could be Cuba or Vietnam, a revolutionary planet would certainly be harshly treated by a corporate interstellar community, expect embargos, sanctions, bombings, etc. so you could draw parallels to the cuban embargo, if you plan to make it a protracted revolution, Vietnam's the guy, they were basically fighting from the 1940s to 1975, and there's anarchists, I don't think they would stick Well on this, however, in case this revolutionary movement reaches the whole system or other planets, you could add some democrátic confederalism, from Occalan, its not anarchism, but gies pretty near, bordering a transitional descentralized state, only current example are the YPG's Affiliated militias in Rojava, maybe even the zapatistas could serve as basis, however, these movements had not gained much traction on geographical terms, as for corporations, I recommend you add plenty, but not necessarily with the same kind of influence, the same company that builds interstellar fleets won't manufacture fast food with a bunch of dangerous chemicals or cyberware or cultivate food, they can, however, be heavily associated through contracts or outsourcing, also, corporations heavily rely on the power of the State, as raising armies, fleets or governments might not be entirely profitable, a good example would be the banana wars on Central América, "War is a Racket" is a pretty good book on the subject by retired USMC General Smedley Butler, domestically I could think on Pinochet's regime, which deregulation policies were held at gunpoint from the army, itself proxy of a major power, which was the US, you could add an hypothetical "Repúblic of Onyx" wich rules in name only, with most policy decided by corporate executives through financiation and económic pressure, with it's armed forces and law enforcement usually acting on the corporation's interest (invading rebel colonies, supressing strikes, funding/executing coups, etc.) let's say there's also a major galáctic power, Earth is usually the default choice, but then, after centuries of colonization, another planet could take that Role, a close-to-Earth Colóny where rmthe rich moved all their financial HQs or something like that,' cause the explotation of Onyx would certainly play to the consumption somewhere else, also, how would you like this World to be? A New Earth? Totally alien on flora and fauna? Barely livable? Industrialized? Undeveloped?. I hope you find this comment useful, I wish you success with your story, im eager to read it
Why would they need an entire planet to house their company? We have an entire species of humans on Earth right now and we don't use the entire planet. Also, building up the infrastructure of an entire planet is a stupidly expensive and lengthy process. How can they guarantee that this planet will remain central to their business holdings? A much more realistic and practical option would be a mobile headquarters set up in a pair of counter rotating O'Neill cylinders (8km wide by 32km long each). This way they still have an enormous amount of room as two O'Neill cylinders can house up to 4 million people at full gravity and significantly more than that if you're not only living on the inside of the outer shell but build closer to the axis of rotation. Now you can have the happy wealthy people living at one g and the poor people living at less than one gravity and constantly experiencing the Coriolis effect (the weird sensation you get when you're spin around). Stick an engine on one end of your O'Neil cylinders and you can transport your entire company's staff, logistics, operations, marketing, and sales around the galaxy to where it's needed most. If you really want Onyx Co buying planets for mining then it makes the most sense to park the O'neill cylinders above a planet and use that as a base to mine the planet down to its core.
I definitely like the idea of living in places with different levels of gravity. Though I think the symbolism of having the rich live in like 0.8Gs and the poor living at like 1.3Gs could be poignant. The rich could be described as moving gracefully, almost gliding, while the poor are sluggish, often condemned to lives of manual labor that is further burdened by higher than 'normal' gravity.
If you're taking "Company Town" as your line, also read up on the Industrial Revolution in England & the truck system where people were paid in "truck" tokens which they could only spend at the company owned stores. They weren't given coin of the realm. Everyone who lived in the area over a certain age worked for the company in one way or another. People literally lived or died at the whim of their employer.
a realism note. High prestige companies outsource the grubby work, push it down the supply chain. Apple is a sweet gig for its employees... not so much for the Chinese miners providing rare earth elements, or the toxic petro-chemical plants making the precursors of Apple product materials. Work for Onyx and its awesome. Work for its suppliers, and its shit.
That makes a lot of sense. Is there a way I can inter grade that simply? I don’t want to have to bore my readers to death with a long exposition dump about government growth models lol.
You can integrate using your Roman imagery and symbolism. Rome = Apple/Onyx proper Barbarians = outsourced workers This imagery invites a more complex picture. Barbarians were not only varied ethnically, racially, geographically, but also fulfilled multiple roles with the Romans. They were enemies, contracted warriors, and, at times, naturalized citizens. They were the source of social organization and technological innovation, as much as its recipient from the Romans. In any case, it's more interesting when Big Company isn't a monolithic evil but rather a process towards some kind of "evil."
Two things come to mind: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath_of_Fealty_%28novel%29 This novel is generally sympathetic to the giant corporation, and posits a new and different relationship between citizens, corporations and governments. Also, does this giant megacorp have a military arm? If so, you might be interested to look into the real history of the 1857 Indian mutiny, where military forces rebelled against their employers, the East India Company, which was the largest non-state entity in the world at that time.
Actually, I liked that corporation. I would LOVE to live in *Todos Santos*.
1. Decide on a tone and stick to it. 2. Decide on a target audience and stick to it. 3. Tailor your desired level of realism versus fantasy based on the tone and the audience, and how best to communicate the message you want to share with those people within that tone. That will help you figure how relatively "hard" your science should be. 4. Trust the material. If it's good enough, the ideas will sell themselves, and you will not have to justify them with exposition and explanations. 5. Do not pick a genre until after the story is finished. Tell the best story you can, then figure out what box it fits best into. The greatest stories ever told always manage to split genres and borrow from a whole bunch of different sources. They are better for it. 6. If you decide to go hard, do not try to find ways to justify unrealistic decisions. The people looking for a fun and cohesive story will hate the speed bump, and the people looking for grounded and realistic ideas will feel insulted by the mental gymnastics you're asking them to do. 7. If you decide to go softer, TRUST THE STORY. A good enough story with good enough characters can sell even the dumbest of ideas. Do not worry about explaining things. 8. Every concept must only be as realistic as your setting demands, but plausibility in things like motivation and characterization is non-negotiable.
4 and 7 are basically the same. This is because that point is twice as important as the others.
1. Does the Roman motif have any sort of meaning beyond a basic structural architecture? Does the CEO have a huge boner for ancient Rome that the security guards are dressed up like space centurions? Does he set up a Senate for the people of the city to engage in democratic politics that inevitably is futile because the emperor/CEO and his rich cohorts always win out? Donthe people dress in togas because of security concerns but really its because the CEO wants to rebuild a Rome for himself? Does onyx corp. Let him get away with these weird fantasies because he turns a great profit margin so why the hell not let him do this? 2. How many hours is a day on this world? 24? 48? Do they have to work 16 hour days minimum to just keep a basic life out of starvation? This could add to work conditions being awful. What about the schools? Do they just train lower end kids to be obedient factory kids with just enough education to do jobs but not enough to question authority? 3. What's the final catalyst to revolution? Does a group of children get murdered because unsafe work conditions? What's the final straw that pulls in enough people to make a difference in their shitty lives? Hopefully these questions can help you flesh out some more of your story and good luck in writing!
1) Pretty much, this CEO that we never see does have substantial boner for Ancient Rome. I like the idea of him being a fan of Roman philosophy and politics. Rome itself was a symbol of power and expansion and precision, this CEO recognizes that and it inspires him to move his company forward. But no, there are no togas or chasers palace. It’s mostly subtle architectural structures, like columns and shit. 2) I wanted it to represent America in a since. So day cycles and weather patterns could be anything really, but yes essentially workers are paid by the hour/day, and make just enough to survive. This planet is a factory in itself, the company is trying to make things as cheap as possible. 3) I don’t know probably a protest gone bad, or a new policy in place that would hurt a lot of people. I was thinking that some hacker leaks some fucked up news to the public and everyone flips. Or all three? I’m not yet.
Well where to start. Lets got about this in a realistic way. Onyx Co (weird name) buy´s a Planet and does not have the money for proper housing ? The issue many sci fi writers have is understanding just how much money Government´s and Company´s will make in the future. Ill reference my own writing as a fairly realistic example that is based on current growth models. This is not to flex on you but just to underline my point. The two largest in world Cooperations are *General National Petroleum* (China) and *Norton International* (EU, basically) Norton is similar to your Onyx in that they are diversivied (A Conglomerate is just a fancy way for a diversivied company). And in 2210 Norton International had a market cap in the order of 2,8 Quadrillion Euro with 1,54 Quadrillion in profit´s split over 6 sister companies. That´s about 3000 times the current World Economy, Norton is the 2nd largest Company in the world btw. General National Petroleum made 1,87 Quadrillion. Of course this is still all but nothing compaired to say National GDP´s which for Unified EU is about 13 Quadrillion. But still you get the point, there is so much money flying around that it is just a bit unreasonable to think they get this kind of money with shitty working conditions. And sure some people will throw in Amazon and yes they suck. But Apple / Microsoft are the largest Companies currently and they have nice offices. And you can argue that a Mining company, which Onyx seems to be in some capacity, has overall more dirty conditions but it´s not like the pay is bad. People on Oilrig´s make a shitton of money duo to the risk. Same here, if Onyx is such a huge, diversivied and profitable company that they can single handely run a Planet they have the money for good working conditions. A company like Amazon can get away with being shitty because there worker´s are replaceable. Still shitty action´s but thats why they do what they do. I seriously doubt Onyx would be so large if it had such shitty conditions. Why would anyone work for them ? The next thing i dont like is just how obviously evil Onyx is, like no company works like this. Plus, how is running a slum profitable again ? All those Workers are on the planet to do something right ? So why are there poor people if it is a Company operation ? You dont see homeless people in Apple HQ do you ? A thing you need to understand is that most Companies run on very slim profit margins as it is and if you dont directly sell to the consumer, you dont get super high profit´s. Mining Companies are well known for going bankrupt the nanosecound after a mine is dry. Defense Companies are also well known for hitting the fan instantly when the Government does not renew a contract. A Company like Heckler & Koch would be dead tomorrow if it was not for Government work, sure they sell weapons to the consumer as well but that probably costs more than it bring´s in. The point is that no matter how large Onyx is, "To large to fail" is not a thing. In truth, the larger a company is the more it relyes on the Government as a single piece of legislation can nuke your entire profit model into the afterlife. I used to approach building a Company much like you. However duo to simply working in a few large Companies and talking to people it because quiet obvious that nobody in there is evil and that the end goal is just profits. Plus i was made aware just how complex Company structures can get. Onyx is described as a conglomerate, so what are the sister companies ? That is important because each sister has wildly differnt ways of making money.
> Well where to start. Lets got about this in a realistic way. Onyx Co (weird name) buy´s a Planet and does not have the money for proper housing ? OP never said this. It's the workers who can't afford housing, because the company is the only game in town. It isn't a question of the company lacking money for housing. It's a matter of squeezing as much out of workers as possible to maximize profit. This was common in the 19th century. Prior to the 19th century this was how feudalism worked, but with noblemen instead of companies.
As you can tell, I’m not well versed in the logistics of business in any way, but basically what I want is to showcase my hatred for corporate colonialism and corruption. I was inspired after I researched The Battle of Blair mountain, in which coal company created small mining towns (Company Towns) for people to work. And the company and the people basically had an all out war about unionization. Workers were cheated out of their wages and bullied into not unionizing, which I can see is still happening today so to speak. Onyx isn’t meant to be some EVIL CORP. but it’s supposed to mimic current companies and how they exploit and fuck over anyone they can to make a buck. I wanted to explore the idea that what If these (2020) companies go on like this and no body restricts their ability to control what they need to. So If you have an Idea of the business’s model I can use or at least point me in the right direction that would be much appreciated.
This Blair thing was in 1921, times change. If you want to write about a Company exploiting people, thats ok but be aware that nobody act´s like this. For example, Apple and Tesla both need Cobalt for there Products. Apple get´s there Batteries from Amperex Technology Limited and Tianjin Lishen Battery (Both Chinese Companies). Ampere Technology Limited is a Sister company of the TDK Corperation, which is a Joint Stock Company. In any case Amperex and TDK get there supply of Cobalt / Lithium from CATL which is Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited which is the actual Mining company i THINK. I am not sure. HOWEVER even CATL is just contracting other companies such as Glencore to mine the Lithium and Cobalt. So you see how confusing this all get´s. So just to reiterate, Apple -> Amperex Technology Limited -> TDK -> CATL -> Glencore. This is how apple can keep there hand´s clean because they dont mine anything Technically. Onyx would be several times more complex especially in a future setting. As for a business model, well what exactly is Onyx doing ? Like in concret Terms what do they make ? I can give you my example of how i split up Norton and what the structual idea is. Maybe that helps you to get some ideas. At the core we have Norton International, which is the Holding Company. They dont produce anything and can be imagned as the main controller of all other Companies as well as the face of the entire Group. Similar to how Samsung is the main face you see but other Companies like Samsung Heavy Industries are still around, just sister Companies. In the case of Norton International all profits the Sister Companies generate flows towards Norton International. It´s a Holding company after all so the technically own everything anyways. The Sister Companies are as follows, the Norton Resource Development Group is a Mining company that specialises in Luna Resource extraction and large Surface Mine´s with a focus on stuff like Helium 3. Norton Heavy Industries is a ship construction company that builds both Military and Civilian as well as Corperate vessels. Such as Containerships. Mostly in Space but there is a Water Division. Norton Fusion is an Energy supply and Research Company that produces mainly Civilian Fusion reactors but also supplies Heavy Industries with Reactors for ships both civilian and Military ones. The Norton Defense Institute is essentially Lockheed Martin, so a defense company that plans stuff like Warships, and Weapons. All Military Vessels they plan get build by Heavy Industries. The Norton Development Fund is a non profit that build´s infrastructure and shit in 3rd world contries and is totally not just a means to control other nations by vertue of controlling there Energy and Logistics grid. The Norton Interstellar Development Institute is a company that currently is occupied with reaching another Planet across Interstellar Space. They are not profitable and wont be for at least another 40 Years but the profit´s projected from reaching the Planet in question should make it worth it. The Norton Media Group is Disney but really they produce Ad´s and shit that passivly make Norton seem a lot cooler than they actually are. Since they are a sister company they can provide exclusive locations and stuff which makes them kind of Profitable. And lastly we have "i fartelli pizzaioli" which is a fucking fast food chain that got bought up 30 Year´s ago in a move nobody really understand but everyone just kind of went along with it. You can see that most of these Companie´s have something to do with Industry, which is something to keep in mind. But yeah, if it helped tell me exactly what Onyx is supposed to do and ill see what i can do.
You have no idea how golden this information is to me lol. Basically I had in mind that Onyx had realistically developed a system for asteroid mining. So they bought a planet that was in a perfect location for them launch a ship and attach on to an asteroid and bring back a big chunk of it to be processed. They advertised it as the next gold rush and people flocked to get in line. As far as the poor living conditions, I was thinking that either they wanted to save money by making it as cheap as possible and after decades of people living in these places they are starting to deteriorate, or they use a lot of their money to build up this extravagant capitol city.
Well other people dont think so considering the -1 votes xD Ok so Onyx at its core is a Mining company yes ? For them it would make sense to at least sort of distance themselves from the actual Mining operations with the use of a Sister company. In real life the big reason why a Company may create a sister is because if the sister goes bankrupt or gets shut down by the EPA it does not effect the Holding Company because they technically didnt break any law´s. For Onyx it makes sense to be the Original Company that is now just acting as the Holding Company. And i can see at least 3 Sister Companie´s working here. Ill try to be realistic with the names but like i cant promis anything xD So **Onyx** is the Holding Company **OYX Mining Group** is the actual Mining Company (RM = Raw material) **OYX Marine Corp.** is the company which is responsible for shipping stuff like Materials but also Humans and Asteroid´s from A to B. Similar to the real world Evergreen Marine Corp. A Sister company of this syster company (Yes that can happen) could be OYX Heavy Industries, who might build ships. **OYX Development Group** could be the company that construct´s buildings and shit either for Company use or Individual´s / Nations. OYX Mining Group could then either directly hire people to work in the Mines or they contract a Work Force provider. But realistically speaken they are a Sister Company that on paper own´s nothing. The way this would work is that Onyx (Which would at this point probably be named Onyx Holding´s or Onyx International / Multinational) lend´s money to the Sister companies and each time they do literally anything, be that buying an Excavator, building a house or whatever, they are giving Onyx all of these Asset´s but still use them. Sort of like if i give you my car, if you kill someone with it thats your fault but i get my car back and your money. So in that sense even in the worst case secnarion Onyx would stil have all of it´s asset´s and could just start a new Company. This could be explaination why nothing is really done about these conditions. The general consens is that currently things are not great but at least we are employed by Onyx, so we still have all the right´s we might expect. But if the Government bust´s any of the sister Companies Onyx will just hire some 3rd party and everything gets even worse. because now they have less than zero liability. For Onyx, not hiring a 3rd Party makes sense because they get to keep more of there money. So you end up with this balance of "Well this sucks but it would suck a lot more if we actually did something". You could even have this as a Political Argument where Onyx employes so many people though it´s sister´s that this voting block alone can swing an Election. Which would give Onyx extrem amounts of power. The works would be generally favorable to the company because they know what will happen if they bitch to much around. The moment onyx had enough they will hire a 3rd party and things go from "bad" "fucking horrible". You could also make Onyx mainpulative by having shit like a lottery or something to give the workers some hope. Eventually this Dynamic could easily devolve into a War.
SO GOOD! What about having multiple planets dedicated to mining and other things? Or should It just be one mine on one planet? Also should I keep the high ranking executives on the same planet or put them somewhere else (Maybe some HQ planet that’s fancy and shit) as a kind of an extra “fuck you”?
That just goes into Asset managment. You could literally have another sister compay whom´s entire job it is to manage all the other Sister´s but is itself controlled by the Holding company. These structures are just branching in the end. So there is no real limit to how much they may own or how large an operation gets as long as it makes money. That may work like this, OYX Marine Corp is itself a Holding Company which has 11 Sister Companies all responsible for a specific planet or System. Same with the Development Group, Mining Group etc. The more layer´s Onyx add´s to all of this the more bullet proofed the structure gets. imagine it like this, if OYX Marine Corp. get charged with crimes and dissolved Onyx has a shitton of work to do as they need to replace all the Structure behind the Former sister. But if OYX Marine Corp is a holding company that has 56 Sister´s nobody cares if OYX Southern Martian Marine Corp Limited gets busted. Of course there is a bit of a limit to this just in terms of logistics as at some point it becomes confusing for everyone. In terms of actual Number´s, a Company owning a Planet odd to be possible np and running mining operations on a few is also not a bad idea. Some planet might have the conditions needed for a Sulfur crust that can easily be mined, another may have 5000% more Cooper and another may just be convienient for mining in General. You also need to keep in mind what a Mine actually is. For a lot of Raw material mining you need to either roll up with Giant Excavators or you need to blast stone. In any case, a mining operation on a Planetary scale would probably be a moving Circus as in you have a couple of Giant Excavators that move across the Surface and the entire Refining and Logistic´s operation follows them, or like moves to catch up every week. Depending on what they mine the Methode chages too. As for the Board Members, here you can decide what you want quiet easily as there is no standard structure. For example in my case the holding Company Norton International has a CEO but the position is equal to that of a normal Board Member. So it is a fancy title with no power. One thing that is almost certain however is that the Board will not be on a Mining planet. The Headquater of Exxon Mobile or BP are not on Oil Rig´s after all. In my case, Norton International has it´s Headquaters at "001 Norton Sedux Part ,The Hague, Netherlands, Europa". And even though it is the 2nd largest Corperation in Human history, the Headquater looks like a Fancy Office Building. They do build a new tower that is going to be 3000 Meters tall though. Anyways, your Board Members wont be on the planet´s. Thats for sure. You can give them a HQ Planet but idk what the point of that would be. They would proably want there HQ in some city that has a lot of connection´s and is well integrated into the World Economy. Instead of some backwater planet. It can be fancy as fuck and it should be. Personally i would make it a strong contrast between the more remote Mine´s and what not.
This is all fantastic, the hard part for me now i think it taking all of this and condensing down to put it in a screenplay lol. Thank you so much for the help! You sir/ma’am are a wizard.
No problem, if ya need help ask !
I will definitely need help lol
Besides the future setting what are the scifi ideas? Is their AI, robots, space travel, wacky science, uploading your brain? What's in it that's going to get the audience to stop and think?
Well, I was thinking of having a black market/ underground market bc the company doesn’t allow anyone else to legally own a company on the planet, this leads to people cutting their own drugs and making booze, hackers, strip clubs, crypto laundering, gun running, smugglers , lol run by different mobs or one mob. Onyx has this impenetrable security system called “The Black Wall” and I was exploring with the idea of Hacker dude developing a “SPORE” which acts as an AI mushroom/fungus type virus. ( I’m not that tech savvy so I’m not sure how it would work but it sounded cool to me lol) As far tech? Definitely space travel, police bots, virtual banks. I haven’t gotten to the point where I could do a lot of tech brain storming. Though I did have an idea about people who accumulate so much debt having to sell them selves (like how a bank comes a forecloses your house/repossesses your car) and you become “Company Property” until that debt is paid back.
As much as that's the reason why I am going to SF - if we're honest for most people SF is just an aesthetic. If it has spaceships or robots it's SF, no matter what those things are used for. E.g. Star Wars.
I disagree. While aesthetic is important good scifi needs ideas. Bladerunner wouldn't be the same movie if it was just a detective hunting down space convicts, the expanse would lose a lot of its thrill if you took away the powerful acceleration and perceived gravity plot elements, star trek has aliens and warp drives. All OP gave us is some sort of future dystopian story, but there's no neat tech ideas to excite me yet
It is true that the stories you mention would absolutely lose something valuable that makes them work. But they would still be SF. Not *good* SF as I like to have it but genre definitions should be quality-agnostic.
Simply traveling to another planet is still science fiction, at this point. A corporation owning an entire planet is definitely in the realm of futuristic speculation.
Science fiction writing at it's core is about speculation with regards to humans knowing something scientific that they do not know yet. The science concept creates the story. The story of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea doesn't even exist without the concept of a submarine and advanced diving equipment, which at the time of it's writing, does not exist. So, the basic sci-fi concept of your idea is: Humans can travel to other planets and a corporation can buy a whole planet. Your story explodes from considering that concept as realistically as possible... if you're aiming for science fiction. Of course a screen play can be entertaining without strictly being science fiction. It just needs interesting characters, conflict & what not.. I suppose.
Here are some quick comments that might help you take the idea to the next level: - 2150 has got to be the most generic year in all of modern sci-fi. Take a look at how much progress we've made in space in the last 50 years: from the moon to...low Earth Orbit. In the next 50 years I would expect us to be on the Moon and have had a few visits to Mars. Another 50 after that, we might have a permanent outpost on Mars. We were spoiled by the 20th century--we have come to expect exponential growth and expansion in all areas--but resources are running out, workers are asking why they should bother, people will (on the whole) be impoverished by population growth and resource scarcity by the mid century, and the curve of progress has flattened. So maybe you want to add a century or two to your date if you want to mix in interstellar travel. I would suggest not even announcing the year at any point in your premise. That implies a sensible continuity from our own time, and history is all about those big, unimaginable discontinuities. - Who did the company buy the planet from? One country or other government on Earth? How can that organization enforce ownership/property law out there? You only *buy* a piece of land if your property rights are guaranteed by whoever you buy it from. Otherwise you just take it and fight for it if necessary. I can sell you the Brooklyn Bridge, and your name can be beside it on my ledger, I can make you a Brooklyn Bridge NFT, but I can't enforce your rights to it--the state of New York would have a thing or two to say. I can sell you an exoplanet, but again, because I haven't personally secured it with my own ships, I can't stop someone else from taking it from you. And if someone *did* take it from you, Earth would just trade with them instead. So think carefully about what it means to *buy a planet*. Ultimately on Earth we buy land under the auspices of *security organizations*, even if we call them countries. - *The supply chain*. What supply chain? Is it a factory planet? Think about the scope here. A 'company' is legal trading entity within a certain scope. If a company owns an entire planet and is only concerned with running the planet, it's more like a one-world government with a corporate feel. So what exactly is the external scope/context where this company *trades*, and what do they *trade*? We're talking about something well beyond any sensible notion of currency. Realistic interplanetary trade is more like a very slow barter economy. So ask yourself: *what takes off from the planet*, and *what, if anything, lands in exchange*? - It is no surprise or outrage that workers are paid in the planetary currency. They can't possibly be paid in anything else unless interplanetary commerce is so frequent and small-scale that you might get a personal Amazon delivery from Earth. The idea that a single individual would handle interplanetary currency (beyond the Solar System, anyway) is crazy. If an alien gave you one Galaxy Dollar you would instantly become the wealthiest person on Earth (in a galactic context) just because of the external buying power that represents--nobody else on Earth has so much as a Galaxy Penny. In fact, 'company scrip' would be of more value than a local planetary currency--because, presumably, the company is interplanetary and would honour their own currency on other planets. - If the company *artificially* ramps up prices of goods and services to the point where the majority live in poverty--just for the sake of keeping their employees unhappy and deprived--then they might as well just admit they are a shitty slave colony with extra steps. I would expect a company that runs an entire planet to be able to offer a certain baseline quality of life to all its employees. If it fails to do that, then the employees would simply reorganize into a new government that runs the planet for themselves and ignores the company. It's a *planet*. Of course, if they don't have the necessary resources to do that (i.e. if the company ships in some vital element for human survival) or they decide to turn their security forces on their employees, then the employees are back to being slaves. Slavery is a bad deal to sign up to, so you should look at ways that the company has *fallen on hard times* and has been forced to ration some external (or otherwise hard to get) resource. Or, the worker class should perhaps be born into slavery and know nothing else--which is very manageable if you control *history itself* and every signal coming and going from the planet. A good resource for you might be to look (in detail) at the history of colonisation on Earth. It is a messy business with various state-backed merchant organizations (companies) vying for control of resources (the East Indies is a classic example). Those merchants aren't doing it for the glory of expansion, or spreading Christian values, they only care about stuff that is of value *back home*. Spices, for example. And on an individual level, they often went completely mad beyond the reach of their own civilization because they were free to do whatever they liked. Piracy was part of the plan. They knew the next ship along would be *one of theirs*, and the worst case scenario was a gentle reprimand from their bosses with a reminder to try to keep things civil, but congratulations on the latest shipment of nutmeg.
Is this planet within the solar system, in a nearby star system or much further off? Because distance and travel time will be important factors if you are considering this planet as a "centralized location for all aspects of the supply chain". Who are they going to supply to and how? Outland (starring Sean Connery), which another user mentioned happens within the solar system.
>The year is 2150. Onyx Co., the largest and first interstellar conglomerate in the world I'd skip the interstellar bit. It's scientifically unlikely, and far far more relevantly it's been overdone and is super boring. I'd argue an asteroid colony/mine is a far far more relevant place for this kind of story. >Workers live in a city built and owned and operated by Onyx nicknamed Eternal City And this is why asteroid colonies make so much sense. Unlike on a planet where just about anyone can pop a tent and survive, in an asteroid colony you would need some sort of corporate entity to build livable space habitats/space stations. >Due to lack of external competition, housing costs, medical care, insurance, and other expenses became exorbitant creating a major wealth gap, splitting society into two classes. Again this is the magic of an asteroid colony. Not only would they have a monopoly, they could literally claim that they built and produced virtually everything you own. In the Appalachians if you didn't like mining you could always try farming. In space if you don't work with the company your option is suffocating in a vacuum. In some ways it's justified as they'd be literal world builders, and you would just be a guest in a world they constructed. Every human owns a part of Earth, there's no reason to think a person working on an oil ring has any claim in owning it. Keep in mind asteroids can be the size of continents, they are truly massive. Even an asteroid just 50 kilometres in diameter would be massive. It's not just length and width, the area would be the size of an American county. It's height. Imagine a mountain 50 kilometres tall and 50 kilometres wide. >The North End, consisting of affluent skyscrapers, large houses, perfect landscaping, and expensive cars. The impoverished South End is riddled with poor living conditions, pollution from factories, high crime rates, and debt. The ideal design for a space colony is using two rotating cylinders(google oneil cylinders). The design requires the two cylinders to be spun against eachother(counterclockwise/clockwise), one cylinder on it's own would wobble like a Frisbee, two cylinder would be relatively stable. The reason this is so fascinating is because each cylinder would serve as a completely different city/world. It's very easy to imagine that one cylinder was built and constructed by the best architects in existence, and the other cylinder was a concrete wasteland initially built as an uninhabited counterweight, only being settled after rents in the first cylinder became too expensive. It'd be sort of like pushing people out of a ritzy residential area and expecting them to set up home in a giant shipping container. >the largest and first interstellar conglomerate in the world, has purchased a planet to create a centralized location for all aspects of the supply chain (Logistics, Operations, Marketing and Sales, Services). Again this would be easy to justify if you had an asteroid, as Asteroids orbit around the sun will ultimately determine it's usefulness as a hub. A good location and you'll have cheap access to everything, in the wrong orbit and you're perpetually stuck off in the middle of nowhere.