This channel has two main series of videos: GovanifY’s Lab, about computer science, pianos and technology, and Frafnir’s HQ, on health social sciences. The former is in English and the latter in French.
The anthropophagous and ecocidal capitalism has expanded all over the planet, consuming entire countries down to the ashes of what they were once. After a series of conquests, and gaining arrogance in the face of European passivity, in 2058 the Great Russian Federation chose to attack industrial platforms owned by the Chinese continental government. This large-scale war, involving a heteroclite conglomerate of state actors, mercenaries and transnationals, ended in brutal defeat. During the war, both hegemons tried to synthesize a drug that would enable them to control young and inexperienced recruits while overcoming their inhibitions in the face of the heightened lethality of conflicts involving drones, biological weapons and tactical nuclear missiles.
It is hard to say whether 2067 was the year of a major stock market crash similar to those of 1929 or 2008, or the year when decades of stagflations and recessions came to a conclusion. It can nonetheless be said that new technologies, often oversold minor innovations, rampant cryptocurrencies and derivatives experienced a violent crash. Since most Western countries had chosen to pay pensions, unemployment benefits and other allowances mainly through such liquidity and tax credits, many national economies collapsed simultaneously and billions of people found themselves out on the streets. 2067 was therefore a year of continuous riots and repression.
The (in)famous drug ended up being synthesized by someone known as “K.”, a former owner of a mushroom farm, who made his fortune by patenting it and organizing its commercialisation through the TotRec Inc., founded in 2066.
The drug was initially intended to alter all self-preservation mechanisms while preserving at an operational state motor functions and responses to orders:
Depending on the dose received, it can plunge the human body into a state of half-life or "Hyper Conscience"—a kind of lucid dreaming between unconsciousness and daydreaming. This explains its many uses, particularly in medicine and neurobiology research, but also in the audiovisual and video game industries, as the players connect to the machines, leaving their bodies in stasis while not feeling any fatigue.
It affects all perceptions—hence its use in simulation—and can be used to divert the transmission of information from the body to the brain. Certain "light" versions of the drug can also be used in the care of certain diseases, to alleviate the suffering they cause, or to slow the progression of cancer cells during treatment. This obviously does not improve the state of the healthcare system, as the technologies are only available to extremely wealthy patients or those with group insurance from large multinationals. It is said that some "low cost" and bootleg versions can add flavour to food, which has a disgusting taste in these early days of the 22nd century.
We will not list the side effects: most public health, clinical, and epidemiological research instances have long been abrogated by neo-fascist governments—or, to use journalistic jargon, ultra-conservative ones. Only private laboratories working for pharmaceutical companies are still conducting research, publishing either excessively favourable or incriminating papers. However, some side effects are clear, such as the alteration of the sensation of fatigue, which has profound effects on the circadian rhythm, and the recurrence of hallucinations and rapid neurodegenerative diseases.
TotRec has become one of the most powerful corporations in the world while its activity has diversified, consider, for instance, the takeover of Navi and various investments in pension funds, transport infrastructures and private laboratories.
Some critiques—lacking analytic skills—accuse the drug of having played a central role in restoring a relative social order while the level of inequalities worldwide is comparable to the 19th century of many European revolutions. Saying this would obviously ignore the evolution of power relations and, in particular, the radical change in the world order. States do not look like the main players of the international relations they once were but more like networks of coercive tools aimed at territorial management, sometimes with a parliamentary spectacle thrown in for good measure. The apparent peace between social classes seems, therefore, the product of both extraordinary progress in surveillance and law enforcement and the consequence of the ecological crisis ensuring forms of ethnic solidarity in areas that have been relatively spared.
Is this some kind of anarcho-capitalist society? That would be simplifying a complex reality. One word that often comes up is ‘decomposition.’ First, the decomposition of modern states into 'night watchman states,' vague petro-monarchies, areas of genocide and pure violence, or simply areas rendered uninhabitable by global warming. Then, the decomposition of the social fabric in favor of professional solidarity and clientelism. And, at last, the decomposition of regional communities by the brutal extractivism of monopolistic corporations governing certain regions almost directly, imposing very high barriers to entry, and regulating trade and collective life. It is often said that the colonial monstrosity that befell certain populations in the South seems to be less parsimonious now—at least in appearance. 11.64 billion human beings populate this purgatory, a decreasing figure.
It is supposedly a pharmaceutical organization.
Unofficially, Gravof, like many others, manufactures TotRec's drugs, selling them at a lesser price for a subpar quality. Manufacturing takes place underground, and Gravof Corp's only legal front is Frafnir's office.
Frafnir and GovanifY are the founders of Gravof. Acting either by conviction or interest, they scrape by in a strange world populated by smugglers, mercenaries, small manufacturers, clandestine laboratories, corrupt district governors, rogue trade unionists, revolutionary activists, anti-ethnic minority raids, cyber activists et cetera.
Why are Frafnir and GovanifY using tools coming from the early XXIst century?
Technology has evolved, but wars, destruction of research centers, and loss of key resources in ecological disasters have rendered many advanced tools unreliable: assemblage processes are incomplete, and many use substitute materials. This state of things reinforces inequalities: those at the top live the dream of complete security and fighting senescence and obsolescence, while those at the bottom live the reality of recycling, cheap experimentation, and the risks of failures. Has the world changed so much? No, but recycling is now a mass lifestyle. Most people know how to repair, or even reproduce, ‘21st-century-style’ technology (cars, computers, etc.), which is often less complex and more reliable.
Frafnir makes a living doing part-time jobs for the government. He rambles on about old books and rarely leaves his home. GovanifY spends his time tinkering with electronics and security software and often makes use of 21st-century technology. His laboratory is used as a cover in case of a surprise break-in by the militia, always on the lookout for illegal drug manufacturers.
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