Politics In the late 21st century, the UN finally included all nations of the world within its membership and ratified a new charter, giving the UN a role more akin to the US federal government's original role. The world's militaries were unified into one massive global powerhouse which was basically charged with utterly crushing any military force that would launch a war on anyone. Large scale war became a thing of the past, though smaller scale guerrilla conflict and terrorism persisted. With the new charter, the UN also controlled global currency for a time and regulated international trade. In time, as the US federal government had done, the UN slowly usurped more and more power from the sovereign nations under it. Eventually the only real power worth mentioning other than the global government was the megacorporations that flourished under it. For the most part, the government did what the megacorps wanted (especially when they agreed with each other) in exchange for funding (and positive coverage from VNN), but in the matter of money the government tried to use rapid inflation to minimize their own debts. The megacorps responded by creating Credits, an updated version of the old Bitcoin protocol. The megacorps agreed amongst themselves (publically) to only accept Credits as payment, and almost overnight the world's economy jumped to the new currency. This was the single clearest example of how powerful the megacorps had become (particularly when they worked together). Even the world government was forced to switch to a Credit standard. Rights Over time, the UN settled on a set of rights inspired by the US Bill of Rights (though not identical to it) to apply to all people. "People" being defined as the "Greater Human Species", which included both unmodified and genetically modified humans. (with or without cybernetic implants.) Basing it on the scientific definition, the legal definition includes any subspecies that is proven capable of producing children with other humans in the natural way. Theriandroids were all created incapable of producing children both to avoid inclusion in the Greater Human Species, as well as to maintain a future stream of sales. Legally, Theriandroids are classified as "Agents", a legal category originally designed to deal with weak AI programs. An Agent has a Creator and a Master. Anything they do the Master is liable for as if he committed the act himself, unless they can show that the behavior was done against the Master's will in which case the Creator is liable. For example, if a Theriandroid robs your house because its master told it to, the Master is charged with robbery. If the master didn't order it to, the corp that created the Theriandroid would be charged with the crime instead. Naturally, the megacorps have very powerful teams of lawyers, and only the most blatant cases manage to stick to them. While it is not spelled out in the law, legal precedent holds that a hacker who modifies an Agent's software becomes the Agent's Creator for legal purposes. For members of the Greater Human Species, their rights include a right to a rather generous minimum wage, and a fairly generous welfare subsidy for the unemployed regardless of reason. A side effect of this is that vast swathes of humanity are unemployed, either by choice or because they lack the skills needed to earn even the minimum wage. Theriandroids are exempt from minimum wages, and indeed do not generally receive any wages. The cost to own and provide for a Theriandroid is substantially less than the minimum wage, especially with efficiencies of scale at a larger employer. Therefore, humans are only hired for jobs that Theriandroids are poorly suited for (especially ones that require creativity). Common roles Bioroids are the most machine-like of the Theriandroids in every way, and as such they most often fill repetitive, well-defined jobs. If you can explain the whole job in a flow chart, a bioroid gets the job. They also gravitate towards certain roles where imbedded technology can be a major advantage. For example, the Beta line of bioroids make very popular security guards, in part because they are physically imposing, in part because they are intelligent and tactically minded, and in part because they network to each other and (as part of their contract) will reinforce each other to take down a major threat, even calling in Betas from other owners nearby. (For example, in Micah's neighborhood there are a dozen Betas within one block. If a dangerous group of intruders tried to break into Micah's home, they would have to deal with all 13 7' wolves bearing down on them. A group big enough and dangerous enough to beat that would have Betas coming in from a larger radius to take them out.) Prostitution is dominated by specialized bioroids with removeable, machine-washable genitals as they can be cleaned and sterilized between customers. As such they are much safer than the real thing, while undercutting their prices. Indeed, TokyoRobo has successfully sued some prostitution rings for trying to undercut their prices on the basis that they had to violate minimum wage laws to do so. However, prostitution being what it is, they are far from a monopoly. The outright prostitute bioroids are mostly used by travellers and teenagers. (A group of minors, supported by TokyoRobo lawyers who were not officially working on behalf of the company at the time, managed to win a case claiming that because bioroids were not human that pornography and statutory rape laws should not apply. Some local laws still forbid their use by minors, however.) Established adults almost always have their own Theriandroids (of various types) to meet their sexual needs if they wish. Clones fill most of the common jobs that require more of a "human" touch such as a wide variety of service jobs. They answer calls in call centers, wait tables at restraunts, give massages, serve as secretaries, etc. The most common role is as "Domestics", live in maids (who are very commonly used sexually as well). Others are sometimes purely companions, with no other job than personal interaction with their master. Interestingly, they are rarely used in sales. Bioroids frequently fill basic cashier positions, while a sort of protectionist sentiment keeps almost all sales positions (the sort where you actually talk to the customer and convince them to buy something) exclusively the domain of humans. Uplifts are most commonly household pets. As such they are mostly uplifted from common household pet species, mostly dogs and cats. Their cognitive abilities is usually lower than that of most humans, and they can be troublesome to manage, making them a poor fit for most jobs. However, there are some specialized varieties that have seen fairly widespread use. In rural areas where small family farms provide all their own food, uplifted cows that can milk themselves (with the milk flowing year round despite their inability to become pregnant), pastuerize the milk, and can even be trained to make various cheeses unassisted are a popular choice. (Larger farms that export milk generally prefer natural cows, as efficiencies of scale make all those tasks easy enough to perform on hundreds of cows.) Police forces have largely moved to uplifted canines to replace their K9 units, as they can function better in complex situations. Humans have been pushed out of many job roles, undercut by theriandroids who work functionally less than minimum wage. However, a few areas remain mostly or solely human. Management and sales are carefully guarded as human-only endevours even though theriandroids could easily fill those roles. Theriandroids can neither vote nor be voted for in any elected position. (In some sense the corp that created them represents their political interests, but in truth what is best for the corp isn't always best for the theriandroids themselves.) Creative and artistic endeavours are dominated by humans, often with supporting theriandroids performing some of the actual implementation, directed by a human's creative vision. Family structure About half of human women are "traditionalists". They have monogamous marriages with a human man, who is generally strongly discouraged from sleeping around even with theriandroids. They tend to have large families, averaging about 6 children each (4 sons, 2 daughters on average, due to the impact of modding on gender balance). The other half either have more open, or simply childless marriages, or chose to never marry, and only average about 0.5 children each. (Long term birth control is quite common for them.) The net result is a fairly stable overall population. Men outnumber women about 2:1, so only about a quarter of them end up in traditionalist marriages. Many of the others sate their needs with theriandroids (usually Domestic clones, who also perform most of the other duties usually ascribed to a wife). Clones are usually considered "family" in some vague sense by their owners' families. They consider others of the same model to be "brothers" or "sisters" (and often a model will have male and female variants that consider each other siblings). All clones from the same company (almost all are from Advanced Genomics) consider each other "cousins". Clones that are owned by smaller companies tend to form a vaguely defined family as well. Some domestics are treated essentially as wives, though usually with less respect and certainly no obligation for their husbands to be monogamous. Bioroids are rarely considered family by anyone, and tend to be treated more like appliances. Their default programming suits them well for this role. However, the Personal Usage Datapack adjusts their programming to make them fit into a little better as a family member if they are treated like one (while keeping them emotionally hardened enough to survive being treated like machines if they are). Uplifts are usually treated as pets. Common views on sex Traditionalists tend to view any sex with a theriandroid as inappropriate. Because they have so many more children, most people are raised by traditionalists, but tend to have their views change as they interact with the rest of society. Sex with a bioroid is usually seen as analogous to using a dildo or other sex toy. Essentially a more elaborate form of masterbation. It may cause some friction between human lovers, as some view it as cheating (either due to traditional values, or just gut impulse). Sex with an uplift is considered very kinky, sort of half way to beastiality. It's a fairly common insulting taunt to accuse someone of it. There is no law against it, however, and it happens a lot more often than people are willing to admit. Sex with a clone is mostly considered about the same as sex with a human. Traditionalist families rarely allow any such thing in their household, as it would be akin to having a live in mistress. Many single men have a clone take the role of "wife", and nontraditionalist women often end up marrying into such a "family" and making it work for them. (Sometimes they have their own clone lover as well, but that is less common.) Nontradionalists often take a pragmatic view of sexuality, willing to try almost anything that isn't dangerous or harmful (and sometimes things that are). Over time they tend to get more daring and experimental.