Blood as Currency: The Catastrophic Failure of the HitCorp Network State

 

Document HCP-2107-BC-002

Historical Conservation Project, OHM Archival Institute

 

Overview

The transformation of human society under Network State rule, as exemplified by Block City, represents one of the most profound sociological shifts in recorded history. The dissolution of traditional social structures and their replacement with corporate hierarchies based on techno-fascistic ideologies has created patterns of human behaviour previously unseen in any political system. Originally designated as Flower City #47 under the Eastern American Corporate Zone, Block City's development followed the characteristic pattern of early corporate settlements while exhibiting several unique features that would later become standard in Network State architecture.

Founded as a Flower City in 2052 by Hitcoin Incorporated (formerly Hudson Industrial Technologies), Block City initially represented the idealized corporate municipality. Early records indicate a population of 2.3 million citizens, all corporate-vetted and assigned efficiency ratings that determined their residential and occupational placements. The city's infrastructure, revolutionary for its time, featured the first full implementation of the Universal Digital Oversight system, which would later become the foundation for modern corporate surveillance in the Network States.

Full transition from nascent Flower City to recognised Network State occurred in 2065, coinciding with the National Decentralization Initiative. HitCorp's successful absorption of three neighbouring territories established Block City as the dominant corporate entity in the region.

 

Social Stratification

The corporate class system that emerged in Block City between 2065-2107 differs fundamentally from previous socioeconomic hierarchies. Rather than traditional class distinctions, society fractured along corporate efficiency ratings and technological access levels. Archived personnel records indicate a rigid five-tier system:

  1. Executive Class (The Board and Upper Management)

  2. Technical Elite (Systems Administrators and Security Directors)

  3. Efficiency-Rated Workers (Corporate-Vetted Citizens)

  4. Provisional Labor (Probationary Citizens)

  5. The Unauthorized (Unregistered Inhabitants)

Social mobility, contrary to the corporate propaganda which proliferated in the early years of the 21st century, became virtually impossible by 2075. Genetic screening at birth determined preliminary efficiency ratings, while mandatory neural implants tracked productivity metrics throughout a citizen's life. Toxic run-offs and other pollutants have led to various mutations which have further impacted the health of the population (see Violence & Anomaly: Anatomical Deviance in the Late Network State, Brady et al. 2096). Digital records from Block City's Central Processing reveal that less than 0.01% of the population ever move beyond their assigned tier and that this figure is declining year on year.

 

Cultural Dissolution

Perhaps the most striking sociological impact is the systematic erosion of cultural identity. Corporate policies actively discourage any form of community organization not directly tied to productive output. Surveillance logs from 2075-2090 show a steady decline in non-corporate social gatherings, with traditional holidays replaced by quarterly productivity celebrations and annual shareholder events.

Family units have undergone radical restructuring. Corporate housing algorithms assigned living spaces based on efficiency ratings rather than familial bonds. Children, at productivity age, are frequently relocated to different corporate blocks based on their assigned functions. Internal corporate memos reveal this to be a deliberate strategy to prevent the formation of loyalty structures outside corporate hierarchies.

 

The Language of Control

The efficacy of neuro-linguistic programming through social media throughout the early 21st Century has been well-documented (See Satellites of Babel: Deadcoding the Narrative, Jones, 2073) and the profound effects of Techno-Fascistic power over the means of communication are everywhere apparent. Corporate linguistic engineering has played a crucial role in reshaping social consciousness. Archived communication protocols from 2067 onward show the systematic replacement of traditional social terminology with that of the organisation. By 2083, corporate newspeak had so thoroughly penetrated social discourse that even private communications (preserved in recovered personal data cores) show individuals thinking and expressing themselves in corporate terms.

 

Technological Segregation

The implementation of tiered access to technology has created unprecedented social barriers. Neural interface records show that by 2100, citizens in different corporate tiers literally perceived different versions of reality through augmented reality overlays. Executive Class members experienced a pristine, advertising-free environment, while lower tiers were bombarded with productivity incentives and behavioural modification prompts. The rise of illegal bio-hacking and the illicit and often dangerously unpredictable trade in unlicensed tech augmentation in the underclasses were perhaps to be expected.

 

The Rise of Micro-Societies

As corporate control intensified, the population began to fragment into micro-societies, particularly in the lower tiers. Recovered security files from 2100-2107 shows monitoring of the emergence of distinct subcultures which HitCorp classifies as follows:

  • "Ghost Networks": Communities of tech-savvy individuals who learned to exist between the gaps in corporate surveillance

  • "Analog Tribes": Groups who rejected neural implants, developing elaborate systems of non-digital communication

  • "Corporate Cults": Extreme productivity-focused groups who transformed corporate policy into religious doctrine

  • “Criminal Fraternities”: Organised for-profit criminal networks which imitate the corporate structure as well as a sub-set of small, anarchic, loosely-knit gangs which control small deprived pockets of the city.

 

Violence as Social Currency

In 2107 violence has become so deeply embedded in the social fabric of Block City that it functions as the only true means of social mobility, the last ghost of societal cohesion. Corporate Moderation has replaced all policing within the Network States and the brutality of suppression in Block City is illustrative of a wider trend. The mercenary qualities of the Fight Leagues have appealed across all social classes and created an uneasy bridge between the underworld and the elites as its capitalistic focus has resulted in wide popularity amongst citizens of all social classes. Gambling on these events, although illegal, is widely tolerated.  

 

Legacy

The Block City social experiment demonstrates how corporate control structures, when taken to their logical conclusion, inevitably lead to the atomization of human society. The resulting system has proven unsustainable precisely because it succeeded in its goal of reducing human beings to purely economic units. Further violence is inevitable. War has penetrated every aspect of society, from the molecular to the global. Blood is the last currency. This is Block City: A HitCorp Network State.

 

Note: This record draws from digital archives including corporate databases, surveillance logs, neural interface records and recovered personal data cores. All sources have been verified through multiple independent systems.

 

Classification: Academic Use Only
Archival Reference: HCP-2107-BC-002
Last Updated: 2107
Author's Note: This document is being written in real-time as events continue to unfold. Future updates unlikely.