State of the World

In the 27th Century, or around the year 2610, mankind has both advanced in many aspects and also remained the same in some others. We have developed anti-aging techniques and drugs that have pushed the average lifespan of humanity close to 200+ years, that while in use for the general population to a certain degree there has been an increase medical technology to the extent that life expectancy is just much longer overall despite the fact that those with the wealth to afford it or privilege to access it can go further still.

While over the last hundred years or so the utilization of the time wars to resolve conflicts between nations, and other parties important or wealthy enough to afford to maintain their own forces, has tended to maintain the status-quo of the overall world in which they live. While it can't be argued that the development of the time wars did assist in the advancement of many technologies, this has all been relatively focused inwards. To that end, we have for the most part curtailed much expansion off world in the form of deep exploration or colonization. Maintaining the development of Earth as the primary location for humanity.

While this is true, this does not completely account for the utilization of space for what it can offer. Humanity always one to try and exploit its environment for all it's worth, has branched out as far as it can reach, out to the stars. While we have stopped continuing to expand, we do continue to take advantage of what we did explore and discover in the years leading up to our shift in focus, and have a relatively expansive enterprise of mining asteroids and barren planetary bodies in deep space.

While there are always rumors or conspiracy theories of "deep space outposts" or "hidden places out there" that crop up into the mainstream every now and then, this is generally just the expression of a people tired of the status-quo yearning for that next frontier, especially when it is one we started down, but then stepped back from.

For many disadvantaged youth for instance the options to "join up" that have been available though time are now largely restricted to two options, join the Temporal Corps and fight back in time, or join up with the branch of the military that is responsible for security and policing the wide reaches of asteroid and space mining that go on.

General education of the population is still something that while overall accessible by all, it has been and will likely always be something that has inherent bias's by privilege. Across the board the education system brings up most to have the same opportunities available to them, and the ability to reach to lofty goals.

The Referee Corps, arguably a body of some of the most brilliant and privileged people on the planet with the ability to argue with nations and win, is something that is truly a meritocracy at its heart. If you test high enough, and are able to make it through all the extensive educational courses that are required you can be accepted.

Almost as a contradiction to that meritocracy mentality, the availability for the wealthy to be able to afford educational implants at an early age, separate from anything provided by a vocation based need. Does allow for some to get a bit of a jump when it comes to their education and skills. This for the most part is a reminder that while many things have equalized over the centuries there is still a degree of inequality that is inherent to societies nature even now. And while these implants can give a person a decent leg up, the knowledge of a thing doesn't always equate to the understanding of a thing, and doesn't always guarantee that they will maintain that advantage.

The technology of memory implants is something that has been perfected over the decades. This technology is used for various purposes, from psychological therapy, to criminal re-education, to general knowledge acquisition. As it pertains to the Temporal Corps the ability to implant or program knowledge of a time periods languages, customs and common knowledge is part of what makes the entire effort possible. Rather than spending a large and possibly futile time training troops to acclimatize themselves to a point in Minus Time, with the inherent result of a large number of otherwise capable.

At this point in history, as a whole we have resolved the moral questions inherent in the conditioning of criminals or those of truly psychological issues. With the extension of life at the point that it has gotten to, the thought of killing someone as punishment is reserved for only those truly heinous or egregious crimes. Rather, the ability to subtlety modify a person to remove the memory and tendencies that resulted in the event are available. That said, this is still a higher bar to reach for this to be applied in this fashion, it is not a common occurrence for every crime, and only for those truly deserving. In relation to the past, this might be seen as the replacement for the death penalty as the high end of the punishment spectrum for extreme cases, with the death penalty being raised up even higher in its use.

Granted the type of characters and experiences that we are to follow are, by their nature those of the extreme variety, dealing with issues of resolving timeline paradox creating events, or terrorism on a massive scale. By it's nature these situations will mean that the discussion of what is in reality a much more extreme part of everyday life for people of Plus Time, is in a way much more common.

By example, James Bond deals with global threats and large schemes to the degree that he is one of a few agents authorized to use lethal force when needed. He is not someone who normally deals with issues such as robberies or assaults of a nature that are dealt with by the day to day police forces. That does not mean that those more base line criminal acts aren't occurring all the time around him, but that it is not what he is focusing on and dealing with. If we were to take the slice of life of a Bond film, we might erroneously extrapolate that the entire world is filled with this extreme event and reaction to them, when in reality we are seeing the one or two times that this kind of thing is happening, the exception rather than the rule.