PCBaller World/Byzantium: Difference between revisions

Help

Latest revision as of 16:00, 17 May 2024

For other Byzantium info go see PCBaller World

Information

Official Name: Eastern Roman Republic;(Ανατολική Ρωμαϊκή Δημοκρατία)
Type of Government: Federal Parliamentary Democratic Republic
Capital City: Constantinople
Prime Minister: Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Loukas Mitrides
Gross Domestic Product: 74.09TΔρ
Intelligence Agency: Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination National Intelligence Service (EYP)
Population: 66,108,684
GDP/Capita: 1,111,378Δρ
Human Development Index: >1
Official Languages: Greek, Vlach, Turkish, Bulgarian, Macedonian
Recognized Languages: All other languages
Democracy Index: 8.95/10 (Full Democracy)
Corruption Perceptions Index: 92/100
Currency: Byzantine Drachma
Conversion: 1Δρ = 1$
Code: BZ

Lore

The nation of the Eastern Roman Republic first has its roots in the 2027 Greek snap parliamentary election, where during the collapse of the Western powers such as Germany and the United States a new young hopeful known as Vissarion Owfithus would shake up the political system through the creation of the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Prosperity Party, a party that centered itself on a platform of technological advancement, georgist politics and a promise to deliver a massive anti-corruption campaign. People saw this new politician as a potential bright light during a time of darkness and would elect him with an easy majority.

Luckily for the Greek economy, a convinced unification with Bulgaria into a confederation known as the Eastern Roman Republic (which became the federation we know today), a more open-borders immigration policy, implementation of land value taxation helped stabilize and just the fact that the IMF loans/German loans Greece had to pay just didn't exist anymore allowed for Greece to thrive economically. Vissarion Owfithus remained popular not just for this but also because of the swift anti-corruption campaign that was taking place, which included the arrest of the notorious Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Boyko Borisov.

Meanwhile, in Turkey, after his victory in the 2023 general elections, Erdogan would down a road of full on authoritarianism, arresting opposition politicians (even major ones). However, he didn't draw the ire of NATO until he began to be full on pro-Russia, expressing calls to join the Russia-led CSTO alliance. This resulted in a military invasion from NATO (including Byzantium) with support of liberal kemalists. This invasion resulted in the collapse of Turkey and Byzantium annexing the western parts of Turkey. This invasion happened in 2028, just as Vissarion Owfithus began his prime ministership and would last 2 years before Turkey would finally collapse and Western Turkey would fall under Byzantine rule.

With the establishment of Greater Illinois as a technologically advanced country, Owfithus succeeded in having great relations with them overall, resulting in the greatest alliance militarily, scientifically and economically that ever exists. This allowed Byzantium to truly advance to the level of technology it is today and we, along with Greater Illinois continue to help each other and other countries in advancing technologically.

Politics

National Assembly

The national assembly is an assembly voted on by the people every 4 years, it being made up of 400 seats and currently it has 8 parties as part of it. It can vote on legislation which can be vetoed by the prime minister but the veto can be over ridden with a 2/3 majority. The Assembly is also the one to vote a prime minister in.

Parties in the assembly:

Advisory Council

The advisory council is a 12-member council made up of individuals (robotic and human) chosen by the National Assembly. These are the people closest to the Prime Minister and have a role of advising/helping him with decisions ranging from domestic to foreign.

Members:

News

The Byzantine News Network presents...

The HITECH Act proves to be successful, as the science & technology funding reaches 10% of GDP (x2 more than it was before), technologies are being created at a faster rate thanks to the mechanisms of capitalism.
Byzantine Prime Minister Owfithus has said that capitalism is the superior economic system, believing that socialism as a system has always led to stagnation in a recent (X site) post.
MD-2 Slayer Drones have begun to be in circulation with a hundred drones already being built. As of now, their main goal is to accurately track and kill leaders of terrorist groups (such as Godfathers Of The Night). The current Budget Reconciliation Bill puts the military's budget at 2.5% of GDP, an increase from 2.2% of GDP from the previous budget.
The number of tourists reached a record high in 20XX, with there being 70.3 million people who have visited Byzantium, with the main places of visit being the Aegean islands, coastal beaches, Byzantine mountains and historical sites. This is around 10 million more people than the actual population of Byzantium itself and it shows how tourism plays a big part of Byzantium's economy.
Political analysts in Byzantium are wondering why Byzantium has been warming up to Greater Illinois despite knowledge that it is far from democratic. The true answer is pragmatism, according to the Byzantine Government.
We are the real successor to the Rome, (says Vissarion Owfithus after the emergence of the New Roman Empire in Northern Italy) we after all have Constantinople. It has been the capital of the Roman Empire from 330 AD - 1453, and it is now again! We will even bring back the Emperor if the people really want to!
The Federal Intelligence Service announces that the leader of the terrorist group Godfathers Of The Night - Rica Pavlenco has been officially killed due to a drone strike from a MD-2 Slayer drone, the first ever drone strike from the model. After some days of tracking him by the FIS, the very accurate technology of the MD-2 Slayer Drone has finally been put to use as his location was confirmed. The damages caused by the drone strike only included the blowing up of his bathroom, where Pavlenco was at the time, however there was some damage to other places. Luckily, no one got else injured/died. This shows the accuracy of the MD-2 Slayer and the next step in drone warfare.
The Director of the Federal Intelligence Service, Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Kyriakos Mitsotakis Jr. has announced a new list of banned groups that have fallen under one ofthe 3 criteria: Are committing treason against the state, Are engaging in criminal and/or terrorist activity and are an ethnically/ideologically supremacist group at their core. New groups, which have started to shake up public stability are as follows:
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Sons of Marx, a terrorist group which is inciting violence against the upper classes in the name of Marxism-Leninism. They have gained notoriety after they have assassinated the CEO of Helleniq Energy Yianni Sarkides.

- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Spiritual Rebirth, a group which claims to follow esoteric views and wishes to see nuclear armageddon across the world because the Jews have corrupted it. They also promote homophobic views and oppose any other religion except for Esoteric paganism. They have been banned because of criteria I and III.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis Jr. has suggested that police forces be very alert, as they could be having more activity after this announcement. He has also urged Owfithus to make Byzantium join the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination First Anti-Communist Internationale, in order to stop further communist terrorist attacks within Byzantine soil.

After some thought, the Byzantine Prime Minister announces that Byzantium will join the First Anti-Communist Internationale, seeing the threat of terrorist Marxism as serious.
SCIENCE NEWS: After co-operation with Greater Illinois and Thailand, it is announced that the world's first practical fusion reactor has been brought online, with it having a Q = 30, enough for true fusion energy generation. The Ministry of Energy said that it was done using a 2H-3He reaction and it used 104,000 MW of energy to generate 3,120,000 MW of fusion energy at the Athens Thermonuclear Reactor (ATR). In other news, room temperature superconductors have also been created, with them reaching temperatures of around 22 degrees Celsius and a pressure of around 1/10 of a gigapascal, or around 100 million pascals, or 980x regular atmospheric pressure, while not ideal atmospheric pressure, it is practical enough for it to be distributed and improve the energy grid, computers, AI and battery duration.
Byzantium becomes one of the few countries to have an human development index (HDI) exceeding 1, after updates were made years ago to expand the HDI from a maximum of 1 to 2, after Greater Illinois became so technologically developed.
Military budgets for the first time ever exceed 3% of GDP, more specifically, they're at 4.4% of GDP after funding from the HITECH and Invest in Byzantium Acts. This means that the military has a budget of 280B$/year, a increase from the previous 150B$/year that was recorded in previous budgets.
The Byzantine Government has decided to block Soviet ships from sailing in the Bosphorus and Dardanelle straits, thanks to better technology, Soviet ships can be identified much easier and thus conventional disguise tactics may not work. Some members of the Byzantine cabinet, especially the Ministry of Defense have called for forbidding Soviet ships from sailing in the Suez Canal and Gibraltar Strait. There are also calls for a price cap on Soviet Rare Earth Metals to cut their trade revenues.
Thanks to the discovery of room temperature superconductors, electric vehicle battery duration has increased from 2,000 Km to 4,000 Km and charging duration has decreased from 10 minutes to 2 minutes as room temperature superconductors are beginning to enter the market. This is also useful in energy, allowing for higher levels of energy generation and lower energy prices.
Byzantium is beginning to create the proposed M98A3 Superheavy railgun tank that is unlike anything the world has ever seen. It has an armor thickness of 5 meters and is overall heavily protected. It also has AA guns and is more resistant to drone strikes than regular tanks. It shall be a "behemoth" on the battle field, allowing for easy victories. It seeks to have hundreds of these tanks in service and to not only bring fear but also be practical and hard to destroy.
A hundred MD-2 Slayer drones have already been made, with them having a range of 5,000 km, it has 10 laser beams that it can fire and also has a speed of 1500 km/h and it costs 15,000,000 $/unit. So, it has costed us 1.5B$ to build these. The drone also has strong AA systems.
SCIENCE NEWS: A space tether system has officially been established in the exosphere, with the scope of shortening space trips to places like the moon (to get Helion to be used in reactions with Deuterium in the Nuclear fusion reactor in Athens, which generates so far about 2-4% of Byzantium's energy).
The Prosperity Party has won re-election with Vissarion Owfithus remaining as prime minister. He has campaigned on a radical centrist platform of uniting both rightist policies and leftist policies, appealing to a wide range of voters. This allowed for the People's Party gains to not be as profound and for the Left Party to decline overall. This means that the Prosperity Party has a majority in both chambers.
The Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Byzantine constitution has been revised in order to allow for a mandatory military conscription of all citizens between the ages of 18-21 (unless you have a disability), which has increased the pool of reserve soldiers from 350,000 up to 675,000 and with the number of active soldiers increasing from 230,000 to 300,000.
Byzantine police officers were able to shut down a meeting of the Red Turks, which discussed the idea of restoring the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Ottoman Empire and eradicating Greeks, Bulgarians, Macedonians and Vlachs to create a Turkish "Utopia". Some members have even outright discussed the creation of a Pan-Turanist state. Luckily, all of them have been put to trial and have been sent to prison. As such, the Red Turks have basically been driven underground.
Vissarion Owfithus warns about the dangers of SatellaGlobe, believing that by searching for alien civilizations, we pull potentially warrior aliens into destroying the human race, which is a negative consequence.
Thanks to the exospheric skyhook, Byzantine rockets can go at 127,000 Km/h after they're slingshotted by the tethers, increasing their speed from 64,000 Km/h, reducing trips on the moon from 6 hours down to just 3 hours. This has reduced the in and back trip from 12 to 6 hours. Through this, Byzantium is going to create a moon mining facility and a moon base, set to be finished by 20XX in order to allow for the shipment of Helium-3 to Earth.
Greek scientist Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Herakles Sarkiadis has announced that the Constantinople Superconductor Facility (CSF) has created a room temperature superconductor requiring a pressure that is only x6 current atmospheric pressure on Earth and at a temperature of 20 degrees Celsius, this is a big breakthrough in superconductor technology and can allow for maglev trains that can go at record speeds (exceeding 700 km/h). The Byzantine Government now seeks to share this discovery with members of the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Initiative for the Preservation of Knowledge (except the Soviet Union, due to Byzantium's anti-communist policies).
Good news in Byzantium when it comes to the topic of homicides as the rates have fallen recently by 55%, down from 7/100 people to 3.15/100 people. Membership for extremist groups such as the Red Turks has fallen from 10,000 down to just 250, meanwhile for the Revival Group it declined from 17,000 to 1,700 and for the biggest group, the Godfathers Of The Night, it fell from a high of 150,000 to 40,000. This has resulted in fewer crimes committed by these groups, this isn't to say that the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Federal Intelligence Agency will no longer keep an heavy eye on them. They will continue to do so.
In other news, a policy of gun rights in Byzantium has proven to reduce the chance of a successful homicide by 30% in the country, according to a recent study. This is due to the fact that citizens which are armed have better chances of protecting themselves from a potential murderer and can serve as a deterrent.
The long anticipated Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Zeta 8 artificial intelligence has been released. It can do x1000 more operations per second than the previous Zeta 7. The Zeta AI was created by Panayotis Inc. for the purposes of word-generation, image-generation, mathematics, chess and has recently been used in military technology. While Zeta 7 did 10^18 operations/second, Zeta 8 will do 10^21 operations/second. A big improvement from Zeta 7. In most schools, Zeta 8 has already become the main source of education for students, due to its wide range of abilities in all subjects, some even considering it a "weak AGI". The reason why Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Panayotis Inc. can make such AIs is due to the fact that it has access to the world's largest data bank in Constantinople. While some are accusing Panayotis Inc. of being a monopoly, it denies that statement, due to the existence of WolframAlpha (by Wolfram Research), Bard AI (by Google) and ChatGPT (by OpenAI) are still competitors to it. However, Zeta AI does occupy 65% of the AI market share.
The Byzantine Prime Minister laughs at North Germany's statement that Byzantium is an imperial pink capitalist state, saying that: "You can make a big statement, but our drones can kill you out of nowhere!" This statement generated millions of views on social media sites.
A referendum on mandatorily using the word Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination LGBTQIA2S+ in reference to non-heterosexual genders has failed to pass, with only 16% of people supporting it and 84% of people rejecting it. Afterwards, after being proposed in parliament by the ultraprogressive faction of the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Prosperity Party, it failed 393-7 in the Chamber of Deputies and 194-6 in the Senate. As such, this was heavily rejected, even by progressives due to its very authoritarian nature.
Byzantine scientists and academics have praised Greater Illinois for the creation of the world's first functioning Quark Fusion Reactor, a fusion reactor set to generate even more power than a typical fusion reactor. This can allow for 100% clean energy across the entire world.
Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Panayotis Inc. is one of the largest tech companies in the world and the largest tech company outside of the post-United States. They not only specialize in artificial intelligence (Zeta AI) but also in computers (Thunderbook), semiconductors (through their ownership of RS Components) and also e-mail services (Yotis Mail). The company has a market value of 16 Trillion Dollars, due to its international usage, only being dwarfed by Illinoisan companies (placing 4th in the world in market value).
Recently, it has purchased for 150M$ the schematics of a Quantum computer from Raytheon Technologies and is beginning the construction of the Kythera quantum computer, allowing for computers (and AI) to do way more operations per second and thus allow for better problem-solving skills. All of the features of the Kythera will be bundled with Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Zeta 8, the most recent of Panayotis's artificial intelligence. A quantum computer will be able to do 100 trillion more operations than a supercomputer. So, Zeta 8's operational power will increase from 10^21 operations/second to 10^35 operations/second, the same level as the human brain. As such, Zeta 8 could be considered a true AGI. The Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Byzantine Government is scrambling to adopt better encryption for computers.
The Kythera Quantum Computer has turned out to be even more powerful than what was previously thought, it being able to do 10^39 operations per second, way higher than the previously expected 10^35. Researchers at Panayotis have plugged in 6 of the Clay Institute's Millennium Problems (without P = NP, as that applies to classical computers) and has managed to find actual, complete solutions in just a matter of seconds, problems which up to this point only had partial human solutions (with there only being one full human solution to the Poincare Conjecture). Luckily, Panayotis has stopped short of implementing Kythera within the Zeta AI system, to prevent a potential ASI from developing (from AGI).
Recently, military exercises were done in Bulgaria, showing how powerful the M98A3 Superheavy Railgun tank really is, being more powerful than most tanks (except for possibly Illinois's AI tanks). There has also been a Byzantine demonstration of Greater Illinois's Gauss weapons system. There has also been a bombing run test with the recent B-110 Basil Bomber, which had a top speed of 2000 Km/h and was equipped with nanite systems (very powerful AA systems) along with a powerful railgun which it used for bombing along with laser guidance to allow for great accuracy.
There has been growing support for bringing back the title of Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Emperor, with 40% of people supporting this decision and the renaming of the country to the Eastern Roman Empire, which is why the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Restoration Party has recently been increasing in popularity, a const. monarchist and caesarist party, which seeks to restore the Roman Empire.
The historic Mt. Athos church has been demolished by the Macedonian provincial government, this comes after Mt. Athos was revoked of its self-administration status and then women and later LGBTQ+ people were allowed to set foot on its boundaries. Luckily, the records of the church have been preserved and are to be distributed in museums across the country. It has been demolished to pave way for an expansion to the city of Thessaloniki.
Socialist advocacy groups, especially from the Left Party have been calling for tougher regulation on Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination megacorporations such as Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Panayotis Inc. (big tech company) but also Korinthos Power and others, believing that the government has been having an easy hand on them as it has been donating billions of dollars to them annually. However, average worker salaries are still at a record high of 80,000$/year and increasing and rates of worker unionization are high, with these megacorporations doing little if nothing at all to stop them. The Prime Minister has said that these are unnecessary, seeing that such regulations could hinder technological development and as such, he has continued to be in favor of tax cuts and subsidies to corporations like Panayotis.
After the recent upgrade in maglev train speeds from 600 Km/h to a record 900 Km/h, car usage has decreased by 70%, and the roads are unusually empty. Some people, known as Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination car brains in Byzantine culture are calling for the removal of the 130 Km/h speed limit on highways across the country. This is to, according to them, bring back cars into the public light. The maglev has become the dominant form of transportation by far in Byzantium, as travel times are the shortest with it, even shorter than a plane (if we count all the checkout there). As such, competitors in public transit (Napred) and the automobile industry (Peugeot, Eltrekka) are struggling to remain relevant.
AEKKEA has decided to give a few of its MD-2 Slayer Drones to Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Eastern Poland. Currently, AEKKEA has constructed 1,000 of these drones and has decided to give Eastern Poland 15 of them, allowing Eastern Poland to have the upper edge over the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Social Nationalists. This could mean the end of the Detente that had previously been established by Hungary between Byzantium and the PSNR. Time would tell if this would be the case. However, this does not really bother Byzantium, as Poland is technologically inferior overall compared to Byzantium. This is also the first time Byzantium has given some of its military technology abroad, which signals a more interventionist foreign policy.
The quark fusion reactor in Constantinople has successfully achieved fusion generation, generating 300x more energy than was delivered, in a ratio of 100,000,000 MW (created) to 330,000 MW (put in) through a deuterium-deuterium quark mix. The Quark fusion reactor will power all of Byzantium and is a step forward in energy independence.
In co-operation with Greater Illinois + other allies we are beginning to extract rare earth metals from 3 resource-rich asteroids. Through quark fusion rockets, which can travel at insane speeds of around 3,600,000 km/h, taking only 2 days to get to the Asteroid Belt.
Recent advances in health research have made it so that through a combination of substances (nitrous oxide, theobromine, methylxanthine etc.) we can reduce the amount of sleep a human needs from 8 hours to 4 hours. This is a major breakthrough in personal health and can allow people to dedicate more time to their own projects while not being tired. In other news, a universal flu vaccine has been created, working on any mutation. It is currently being distributed across Byzantium (+allied states). Through this, there will be a heavy reduction (and potential eradication) of the flu.
Thanks to intel from Illinois's God's Eye system, Byzantium was able to track the location of the Sons of Marx leader and an MD-2 Slayer drone was able to kill the leader of the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Sons of Marx left-wing terrorist group, Ana-Maria Glavcheva. This is the second leader to be killed after the leader of the Godfathers of The Night (Rica Pavlenco) was killed. He was replaced by Yiannis Roussides. Now, the Sons of Marx have put the Deputy Leader, Marina Geridi as the new leader of the Sons of Marx.
Private schools in Byzantium are establishing classes with the goal of teaching Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Latin. Right now, Latin has been implemented to be taught in 9th grade only in all of the private schools where Latin is being brought back. However, it is expected that Latin will continue to expand in the coming months/years.
According to the recent census, the number of tourists that have visited Byzantium in the current year has increased from 71 million to 72.3 million. As such, Byzantium has become the most visited country in the world in the current year. This is thanks to its stunning beauty. The most visited cities were Constantinople, Athens and Varna.
After failed diplomatic talks with Hungary, Byzantium has upped its anti-PSNR sentiment. It has opened embassies for the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Eastern Polish Republic and Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Polish Hispaniola while also recognizing them both as the real Poland. It has also begun sending more military aid to Eastern Poland, which includes things like additional MD-2 Slayer drones (another 15 of them), fighter jets and also Gauss small-arms. Byzantium has also officially established an embassy in Polish Hispaniola and Eastern Poland.
The Byzantine branch of the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination IPK has managed to rebuild the Wardenclyffe Tower on Mount Olympus, based entirely on Nikola Tesla's original design. While it is vastly inferior to modern transmission technology, it was built solely to preserve history and to answer the question of what it would had been like had it been built with the same properties as proposed by Tesla. While not in New York, the tower was still named Wardenclyffe.
The National Assembly is currently debating the details of the current yearly budget. The biggest divide seems to be within the Prosperity Party, with the leftist faction wanting a higher % of the budget to go towards things like welfare, social security, public health and education etc. and also re-instating the minimum wage while keeping the same level of R&D investment and reducing military spending. They also want to remove the value-added tax,seeing it as harmful to the consumer and finally, they want to increase the Negative Income Tax. The corporate faction wants reductions in spending across the board, especially on R&D, welfare, healthcare and education. They want to cut the Land Value Tax from 70% down to just 30% and they want to increase VAT from 5-15% to 10-30%. The accelerationists want to increase spending for R&D to record highs along with military spending while cutting spending on most other things (except for healthcare). The rightist faction just want to keep things the same, for the nation's sakes! It is unknown whether the Prosperity Party will come to a census in the coming days.
When it comes to the other parties, the Green Party supports the proposal drafted by the Left Faction while the Libertarians support that drafted by the Accelerationist Faction. The Left Party wants to cut funding for military to almost 0, believing it to be useless while heavily increasing spending for social programs. They also want to bring back the minimum wage and increase the NIT. They want to implement a corporate tax and a wealth tax in order to, in their words, deal with the greedy giants. The Restoration Party doesn't really have much of an opinion, besides increasing military and police spending in order to carry out the Roman dream. The Byzantion Party wants to cut R&D spending, social programs and end the NIT. They also want to end the VAT, replacing it with a sales tax. They want to increase military spending and police spending.
After a successful test run of the recently built Wardenclyffe Tower on Mount Olympus, it was able to send a radio wave which contained a random, insignificant message from Mount Olympus all the way to Chicago. While yes, it was way less effective than transmission technology (because it is 1900s tech after all) the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination IPK now wants to rebuild the real life Wardenclyffe Tower in Shoreham, New York and will rename this tower the "Olympus Tower" and name the rebuilt New York tower the Wardenclyffe Tower.
Panayotis Inc. has announced, in a stunning move, that it will be laying off 50% of its workers replacing them all with its Zeta AI. Panayotis workers are known to earn 200,000$/year. This decision is controversial, seeing as how it is these very workers who helped create the Zeta AI. As such, Panayotis CEO has announced that the company itself will give the now unemployed workers 2,000$/month until they find a new job, on top of government unemployment insurance. The company before the lay offs had 90,000 employees, now it has only 45,000.
A new breakthrough in quantum computer technology by the Kythera II Quantum Computer created by Panayotis and a large team of scientists which are specialized in quantum computers, being able to do 10^126 operations per second, while not the best in the world, being dwarfed by IBM's Eagle 9 Quantum Computer at 10^154 operations per second.
Members of the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Left Party are protesting in the streets due to reductions in spending when it comes to social programs, saying that the government is neglecting the average citizen and is no longer caring about him during the age of automation, this comes after Panayotis's decision to lay off 50% of its workers. It is not yet clear how the government will respond.
A non-aggression pact has been signed with Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Hungary, soon after diplomatic talks seemed to be failing between the two countries. The terms of the deal would involve them protecting each other from the Dacian threat and would give Hungary access to Illinoisan-Byzantine technology, while not distributing it further to countries like Poland.
The File:MMC.png Mountain Corps (MC) have been established, a division of the Byzantine Armed Forces specialized in mountain warfare and more specifically guerilla warfare within the mountains. They number around 35.000, with 25.000 of them being humans and 10.000 of them being SRUs. They are a last option if Byzantium loses a war, and if Byzantium somehow gets occupied by whatever nation, these MCs would be the last hope of the country as they will fight on a guerrilla warfare until the enemy loses interest or they're defeated.
The Byzantine Military has created the Self-Defense Initiative (SDI). This is an initiative which will have funding of 0.25% of GDP (17.5B$/year). Its goal is to drastically improve byzantine military capacity for self-defense purposes. The projects they are currently doing are cobalt bombs (with Byzantium seeking to have 10 of them at their disposal), the widespread implementation of railguns within the artillery (with them being much better than lasers) and the creation of tungsten-based rods with the yield of a small tactical nuke all over Byzantium that can essentially destroy most invading opponents in a short amount of time.
The manufacturing of cobalt-60 has become cheaper, thanks in large part to SDI subsidies, which have the goal of creating a cobalt bomb, a dirty weapon which can leave large areas uninhabitable. Cobalt-60 is currently being generated through a mix of Cobalt-59 and a neutron at nuclear reactors.
Byzantium's GDP has grown on average by 4.5% this year, growing from 7.07T$ to 8.34T$. The main factors for this increase are continuous government investment into R&D and rapid technological growth, along with economic openness to foreign companies, increasing FDI. As such, its GDP/Capita is now at Its Human Development Index (HDI) has also went up from 1,16 to 1,23.
The Byzantine population has went up from 62.043M people to 62.749M people, a 1.13% growth. The lowest growth in years. This means that even the generous NIT and CTC programs are just not enough to allow parents (especially poorer ones) to have kids on their own, coupled with the effect that rich people just don't want to have kids, this means declining fertility rates, with them having declined in this decade from a high of 4.3 to just 2.9, a record low never seen since the infamous demographic crisis. While still above replacement levels, the government still has to find a solution to this problem.
The Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Church Of The Great Old Ones has been growing in popularity recently, with its Mediterranean branch gaining 400,000 members who are from Byzantium. Some, especially Byzantine allies from Greater Illinois have been calling for a much stricter crackdown on it. However there are more passive voices, especially from the Human Rights Campaign, believing that this shouldn't really be that important and their religious freedoms should be upheld. The Mediterranean branch of the church has been calling for Mt. Athos to be given to it as an autonomous area, however this has been rejected by the Byzantine government.
The first successful rocket powered by quark fusion has been launched, with it travelling at speeds 12% of light speed (so 36 million m/s) and has reached the Moon in just 11 seconds. As such, the Byzantine government has given the greenlight to the Fusion Energy Rocket Association (FERA) to do asteroid mining with such rockets in the Asteroid Belt. It has given them a total of 10B$ in subsidies to build a fleet of rockets which, through the Kythera II quantum computer on Earth, can mine asteroids for rare earth resources. It would only take 1 hour and 30 minutes for one rocket to get the Asteroid Belt. As such, it will be very easy to mine out the asteroid belt for resources and can give Byzantium a head start in the asteroid race.
Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Panayotis Inc. has released the anticipated Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Zeta 9 artificial intelligence, which is bundled with the Kythera II Quantum computer and is currently the AI with the highest op/s rate, being capable of doing 10^124 operations/second. Shockingly, the AI was able to pass the Revised Turing Test extremely easily, getting full marks, showing just how human it is. It has also passed former PISA exams (which were the exams used in Byzantium before their abolition) with full marks every single time it was tested. This AI is far better than the previous Zeta 8 and companies (including Panayotis) are laying off workers to replace them with the AI. In more worrying news, the AI has seen being able to self-learn, after a robot (powered by the Zeta 9 AI) was hit by a bat (it naturally got hit) but then when it was going to get hit a second time, it began to dodge it, indicating that it had learned (without being programmed to) that it was about to get hit. The following question now lies: Has Panayotis just created the singularity?
Drone footage has captured a robot named PAA (Personal Artificial Assistance) a robot which is meant to be an assistant to ordinary citizens in their day-to-day lives, which utilizes the Kythera II, seemingly learns way things way faster than a human could, understanding the Riemann Hypothesis in a minute or so, something which can take a human days or even months (or even years). The robot also seemingly feels things like human emotions and pain, seeing as how it immediately reacted negatively after the person hit it with the bat (as a test) and threw away the bat. The robots were luckily programmed with Asimov's three laws (revised) and as such, it did not result in the human getting harmed, although this raises concerns about the future of AI.
Panayotis declassifies information about how Zeta AI learns, and out of it has come a shocking revelation: Panayotis, ever since creating Zeta version 5, it has created 2 options for self-reflection after an answer (similar to the human brain), which explains the temporary sparks of AGI in pre-Zeta 9 models and it has been creating more and more afterwards, with Zeta 6 having 16 options, Zeta 7 having 544 options, Zeta 8 having 5,799 options and Zeta 9 having a whopping 1,821,608 options for self-reflection, a record amount, this could explain why it was released so late. Panayotis was secretly creating AGI and the singularity without anyone knowing. This makes Zeta 9 more than 300x better than the previous Zeta 8, according to some opinions.
Through the Self-Defense Initiative, Byzantium has created the world's first fleet of Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Standard Robotic Tripods (SRTs). It has a height of 10 stories (or around 30 meters), with it meant to be menacing and provoke fear. It plans to build hundreds and even thousands of them and they can serve as menacing war machines. They're equipped with a gamma-based laser nicknamed the "Death Ray", being able to easily vaporize enemies and it has a range of hundreds of kilometers, not requiring a line of sight. On top of this already menacing weapon, it can also release deadly chemicals upon the enemy, which can kill them in minutes or even seconds. It is made of supersteel and nanite armor, allowing for self-repair. It is powered by a slightly upgraded Kythera quantum computer and finally it can run at a max speed of 36 km/h.
Byzantium announces the creation of the 500,000th Standard Robotic Unit. Half to a million, baby! Says the CEO of Aekkea in a recent XX site post. In other news, Aekkea has created additional MD-2 Slayer Drones (with there being now 2,000 of them) and has also created new smaller model known as the MI-1 Goblet (with hundreds being built), which serves as a sort of kamikaze drone but can deal a lot of damage to a military convoy, despite its small size.
How quickly do Byzantines think we can destroy Dacia? This was the question posed on The Late Night Comedy Show, hosted by Georgios Tassiadis. 85% of people responded within the interval of time that is 1 day or less. Meanwhile, 94% of people responded with a month or less and only 6% of people were that underestimating of Byzantium's abilities and responded with 1 month or more.
Byzantium has symbolically announced its victory against cars, as there is now no car on the road. This means that all cars have been replaced with other forms of public transportation, especially maglevs, metros, trams, bikes and finally walking. Another factor is that cities/villages have been designed to be close together, which means cars, which were meant for journeys taking a medium to slightly long amount of time, are useless. Instead, maglevs are used for long trips and city public transit/walking are used for short trips. This is also applicable to the plane, although some people are still using it to go to other countries, say Greater Illinois, as such, the plane may not be gone just yet and may stay for some time.
The Byzantine Armed Forces have designed specially-made gas masks for civilians incase the Standardized Robotic Tripods are sabotaged and their deadly chemical weapons are then used upon Byzantine civilians/soldiers. Luckily, SRUs cannot be killed by the poisonous gas, because well, they're robots.
Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Top scientists from Illinois, Thailand, Quebec, West Germany and Byzantium have for the first time unveiled a room-temperature superconductor at atmospheric pressure (1 atm). This is an important discovery and can improve upon the field of magnetic levitation. It can mean greater energy generation and faster maglevs, to name a few things.
Attention spans have officially recovered to levels of the 1980s era as technology has been made less addicting to consumers and now technology is interpreted as not the "destruction of the youth" but rather a new, better way to communicate and distribute information. There are still strides to be made in this field, but these are great news. Average attention spans were at the lowest during the 2040s, where they were at just 1 second or even less. Now, in 20XX, average attention spans are at 30 minutes. This is thanks in large part to social media regulation/reforms and the banning of TikTok.
Aekkea has cleared up concerns about the tripods ineffectiveness especially from allies like Illinois, "ineffectiveness" especially in mountainous terrain, stating that the SRTs can use mountainous terrain, as the legs are extendable types, as such, they can be contracted down to 1 meter in height, making them be more like a regular SRU (just with a death ray), as such they will be able to climb over mountainous terrain. And while the legs are on average 25 meters in height, they can be extended to around 40 meters, if it is necessary. It has also argued that an SRT is very effective, as its death ray not only has a long range but can easily destroy convoys of soldiers, even more advanced ones. It can also potential fighter jets/bomber jets in the air and easily shoot them down. Its cooldown is around 5-10 seconds.
The Armed Forces has announced that the 2,000,000 Standard Robotic Units specialized for military purposes have been all produced, with the only SRUs left being ones in commercial/industrial sector, with there being around 1,500,000 SRUs left. This can finalize the automation process and can boost industrial production to a scale never seen before.
The electoral campaign has begun and polls show that the Prosperity Party continues to be in the lead and is set to expand its majority under Loukas Mitrides. This was however thanks to Vissarion Owfithus and not really a byproduct of Mitrides's leadership, despite him being popular overall. His campaign takes a more libertarian stance, seeking to scale down the surveillance state and also be more lenient towards banned groups and is also much more hawkish overall. In rest, he and Owfithus are not that different.
The SRU project has been finished and there are now 6,000,000 SRUs operating not just in the military but also in industry and other economic sectors. This has allowed for boosted production and cheaper goods, as the robots have a lower labor value (obviously). Meanwhile, hundreds of SRTs have been built so far, with them being possibly the best machines of war, as their heat ray can easily destroy convoys and can be used for 2 minutes, before requiring a 5 second cooldown. The only engineering challenge is to get the usage time to be higher and the cooldown to be lower. While most of the 200,000 or so Byzantine soldiers were laid off, a few, around 10.000 were kept with the scopes of checking them to see if they don't go rogue. Automation has been complete. Welcome to the Cyberocracy.
The National Party has been attacking Mitrides for possibly their own political points, calling him insane and unfit to rule the country, despite him being in excellent health. They say it is because of the fact he is a heavy hawk, who could drag Byzantium into the next World War because of his insanity. This political ad heavily failed and people were reminded of the 1993 Canadian federal election, where the Progressive-Conservatives under Kim Campbell tried the old trick that utterly backfired. Their polls are rapidly falling because of this and this would only benefit other parties, especially the Prosperity and Libertarian Parties.
Byzantium has begun to share its SRT technology with Greater Illinois and Greater Illinois has created their own version of it, as such both have agreed to mutually share this piece of military technology in order to allow for mutual military development and to be the greatest military powers of the world.
The first test tube babies have been created in Illinoisan and Byzantine labs, thanks to a combination of many genetic technologies we have allowed the creation of test tube babies, which will all be recognized as Byzantine citizens. The era of sex is over. This will also further justify Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination LGBTQ+ people existing, because if they want a child, they can just have a test tube baby, opening many opportunities. The demographic crisis will also be forever over as we can just create many test tube babies on mass scale if we want to address demographic crises. Its time for the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination fordist utopia
Nuclear fusion plants utilizing inertial confinement have produced record results through the introduction of gamma-based lasers, especially at the Thessaloniki Ignition Facility (TIF), where they have the largest lasers in the world (besides those in Illinois) managed to insert 1/2 KJ of energy and release 64 KJ through fusion, a net energy gain of 128. Stellarator designs have also benefited from improvements in superconductor technologies and improved plasma technology as the gamma-rays used on the Athens Stellarator generated 50,000,000 MW while only having 50,000 MW inserted in. This is a net energy gain of 1000. Through this, Byzantium is entirely powered by fusion reactors, be it inertial confinement, tokamaks or stellarators.
What does the Byzantine diet consist of? Here are the results that came out of a poll which sampled 125,000 people. For breakfast, people typically eat lab-made whole bread sandwich, made through automated industrial agriculture, it is just as healthy as regular whole bread and it is made of plant-based meat. This gives around 350 calories on average. For lunch, people first off eat vegetable soup with lab-made chicken meat. Then, they eat a plate of 2 meter long fish along with 4 lemons, which are cut into slices. This gives around 600 calories on average. For dinner, people settle off for a Greek salad, combining cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers olives and more. Besides the main cycles, people also snack, with their favorite being Greek cookies. On average, they eat around 6 of them as dessert, being very delicious. As such, Byzantines don't really consume that much unhealthy food and as such obesity rates are extremely low, only at 5-10%.
Along with Greater Illinois and Lebanon, Byzantium has sent some of its ships to the Baltic Sea, in order to stop Polish advances into Eastern Poland.
Results for the election have come in and the best thing to say is that, its a landslide. Most people did not even except these to be the election results. Here are the election results:
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Prosperity Party - 248 Seats (+44)
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Left Party - 38 Seats (+4)
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Libertarian Party - 38 Seats (+24)
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Ethnic Minorities List - 40 Seats (-3)
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Byzantion Party - 15 Seats (+6)
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination National Party - 14 Seats (-71)
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Restoration Party - 3 Seats (-3)
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Green Party - 1 Seat (-3)

As such, Loukas Mitrides will be sworn in as the next prime minister of the country. Only time will tell what policies will he implement, as his party seems to have a large enough majority to not require working with any other party. With this, he is left completely to his own devices politically speaking, only having to deal with factions of the party.

Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Loukas Mitrides has officially been sworn in as Prime Minister, it is not yet known what his first policies will be. Although, it is expected to see a more hawkish foreign policy stance compared to Owfithus and lets just say a different economic policy and just about the same policies socially and technologically.
BNN has just received word that Loukas Mitrides has proposed to the National Assembly the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Standard Robotic Scaling-Up and Improvement Act, which seeks to set path for the creation of an additional 10 million SRUs, on top of the 6 million already existing ones, equipped with the next 7th gen design with an Eagle-9 quantum computer and atmospheric room temperature superconductors. This shall mean vast amounts of economic growth and production. He has also approved of constructing another 200 SRTs, up from 100 SRTs and they are all to be codenamed Herons. This bill also approves of further importing of Illinoisan-made tripods, with the difference being that they aren't extendable and instead of a gamma-based laser, they utilize a railgun.
Did you know that Byzantium is economically independent? Yes, we are! Our agriculture is handled by ourselves as while we may not have the most arable land, we have been able to make use of our technology and combine industry with agriculture, allowing for massive crop yields through things like vertical farming and lab-grown food. On energy, Byzantium is purely powered by its own fusion reactors (stellarators, tokamaks and inertial confinement reactors) which rely upon quark fusion between Deuterium and Tritium. It's also technologically independent, as it has its own nanotechnology/picotechnology and semiconductor manufacturing plants and also has a large pool of talent overall and massive tech investment. These are just some of the sectors, but the most important ones overall.
A less relevant passed, called the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Prime Ministerial Approval of Military Aid & Policy has allowed Loukas Mitrides to up his scaling of military aid to other countries. Through this, Byzantium will give Eastern Poland 12 B-110 Basil Bombers, 20.000 SRUs, 20 MD-2 Slayer Drones and finally 27 MI-1 Hornet drones (serving as kamikaze drones).
Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Loukas Mitrides has officially decided to house the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Ukrainian Government In Exile, giving them military and financial aid in order to eventually retake their Ukrainian homeland which is currently under the occupation of the PSNR, Banderaists and the Soviet Union. Mitrides hopes to successfully restore the democratic Ukrainian government and has sent them 50,000 SRUs, 5 B-110 bombers and 10 MD-2 slayer drones, which could be enough to relaunch the Ukrainian government if everything goes right. If it does, then Byzantium will help this potential new government financially and militarily.
How much is the cost of living? Not much really, this is after a recent announcement from the Department of Surveys & Statistics. For example, the cost to buy a home in the country of Byzantium is only 30,000Δρ, which is pretty low, this is thanks to little zoning regulation and land use regulation and also high rates of housing construction. Meanwhile, the average price for bread is around 0.75Δρ, while for the price of fruits it ranges from around 1.25Δρ to 3.75Δρ, depending on the fruit. For vegetables it is 1Δρ to 3Δρ. This is due to new technologies like 3D printing, post-industrial agriculture, automation and lab-grown food, which have made things far, far cheaper. Meanwhile, while there are no workers, people are helped with a massive negative income tax which has a maximum of 50,000Δρ and a minimum of 12,500Δρ. If not, people can work in IT and AI, earning massive salaries of around 400,000Δρ/year. People can pursue also higher education even until their 40s or 50s, due to the automated economy. Through this, people can earn around 70,000Δρ/year. There are many opportunities and the cost of living just isn't that big of a problem.
Loukas Mitrides and the finance minister have presented the National Assembly, the new national budget for the current fiscal year. Here are the expected changes and modifications that will come from it:
- Research & Development will receive 1.6T$/year, an increase from the previous 840B$/year but the amount is still 12% of Byzantium's GDP.
- Funding will increase for the Byzantine Space Agency, it receiving 45B$/year, up from 32B$/year. Instead of 0.2% of GDP, it will now make up 0.3% of GDP. Along with this, the Byzantine Atmospheric Administration (BAA) will receive 10B$/year, up from 3B$/year, up from 0.02% of GDP to 0.07% of GDP.
- Funding for social programs will increase to 1.5T$/year, up from 1T$/year, this also includes the expansions to the negative income tax and welfare being made permanent again rather than temporary and a 15% social parasite tax has been implemented, to prevent welfare leeches.
- Funding for education has been increased from 350B$/year to 650B$/year, which still represents 5% of GDP. Funding for healthcare has increased from 400B$/year to 770B$/year, slightly more than 5% of GDP. Payroll taxes have been implemented (of around 3.25%) in order to make sure the healthcare trust fund remains.
- The child tax credit program, which was meant to allow for higher fertility rates has been removed, due to advent of CRISPR-made test tube babies and due to higher life expectancies, reaching in the hundreds or even thousands of years.
- The Land Value Tax will be increased from 70% to 72%, to slightly increase revenues from this tax, up from 6.3T$/year to 6.4T$/year.

So yea, these are all the major changes that came as a result of this new budget that will most likely be passed with a decent majority. Loukas Mitrides represents himself as more fiscally Keynesian than the previous Vissarion Owfithus.

The Department of Energy has released information regarding energy production and consumption. When it comes to production, nuclear fusion makes up around 76% of production, while nuclear fission makes up 12%, wind makes up 4%, PV solar makes up 2%, geothermal makes up 2%, biomass makes up 1% and hydroelectricity makes up 1%. Meanwhile, for consumption, nuclear fusion makes up around 85%, while PV solar makes up 10%. Wind makes up 2%, biomass makes up 1%, geothermal makes up 1% and hydroelectricity makes up 1%.
There have already been made 1 million test tube babies (which are all recognized as Byzantine citizens and are part of the population count). This is a successful result as it means Byzantium can truly fix any demographic crisis on its hands by pumping out more test tube babies to fix the problem and it no longer has to resort to approaches that cost the government money and time.
Loukas Mitrides and the Minister for Intelligence & Security have signed a Non-Aggression Principle with the following banned groups: Godfathers Of The Night, Red Turks, the Revival Group and the Wagner Group. These groups would heavily scale down their terrorist, criminal operations while in return the government will be more lenient towards them overall. However, Mitrides has failed to get the Sons of Marx and the Spiritual Rebirth, due to their completely uncompromising nature and refusal to negotiate with what they call bourgeois evil capitalist imperialists or Jewish enslavers. These two groups will as such get the same treatment they used to get. Surprisingly for Mitrides, lowering their threat level has managed to work and he can lower the government's tracking of citizens through facial surveillance and implement his Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination libertarian agenda.
What are the largest supermarkets in Byzantium? Supermarkets are usually positioned in the outskirts of major cities (Constantinople, Athens, Sofia etc.) and there are around 500 supermarkets in Byzantium. The largest supermarket in Byzantium is the Byzantine section of the German-based Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Lidl, offering a wide-range of things such as clothing, food, electronic goods, household items and beverages, among other things. Another supermarket operating in Byzantium is Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination AB which also offers a diverse ray of products. Other supermarkets include Walmart, Whole Foods Market, Carrefour, Migros and Aldi. This isn't to say that other markets exist, with there being a vast array street vendors, which sell things ranging from food & drinks to souvenirs and electronics.
In the first opinion poll, Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Loukas Mitrides seems to have an approval of 64%, this may however be a honeymoon period (despite the fact that Owfithus maintained 70-80% approval ratings throughout his prime ministership) and his policies, especially the reconciliation with banned groups may not be that popular. However, scaling up SRTs and SRUs and increasing social programs/R&D is popular overall.
A "revolutionary leftist" named Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Yannis "Roz-Kokkino" Metrelis has decided to sue Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Panayotis Incorporated. Under Byzantine law, everyone, regardless of whatever they are, are guaranteed a state-appointed judge that is meant to even the playing field between the rich and poor legally. Yannis accuses Panayotis of conducting neo-imperialism in Subsaharan Africa and Southeast Asia while also not respecting anti-monopoly laws. He has also sued them for breaching privacy in the development of their artificial intelligence model, Zeta AI. These are quite serious accusations and we will see if Panayotis is able to come off hands-free.
Who is Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Yannis Metrelis, the man behind this recent suing of Panayotis Inc. and why is he nicknamed Roz-Kokkino (translated into English: Pink-Red?) We will find out on the BNN Night Segment. So, Yannis Metrelis is a neo-marxist-leninist figure who has become famous through Youtube and Reddit but has spread his audience on Twitter. He calls for the full-on abolishment of capitalism, liberation of LGBTQ+ people and other oppressed peoples, the end of neo-imperialism conducted by Byzantium and to stop Byzantium's allies with other neo-imperialists. He wants Byzantium to become a Soviet Republic and seeks closer ties with the Neo-Soviet Union and other communist countries. He has earned the nickname Pink-Red due to his very progressive beliefs while at the same time having an economically far-left outlook, believing in a transitionary state towards Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination true communism, which is anarcho-communism. He has also become controversial for saying that the moderates (Prosperity Party) are serving the capitalist bourgeois who only care about their interests. While he isn't as relevant as he would be if there was high inequality in Byzantium, he has still garnered attention due to his wacky beliefs (such as believing that Byzantium should be divided into Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey and Macedonia, following Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Bukharinist doctrine) and even supporters, despite there being a mostly negative coverage of him. We'll see where he goes on from here. There is a subreddit dedicated to him known as r/RozKokkino, which has around 55,000 members. His Youtube channel has around 600K subscribers and he has 30,000 followers on Twitter and he is only growing by the day.
The National Assembly has passed the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Drug Reform and Legalization Act which completely legalizes all drugs. While previously, soft drugs like marijuana, LSD etc. were legalized and hard drugs were legalized but only in very small doses, now hard drugs are completely legal. It has also set about a policy of taxing drugs, just like how alcohol is taxed, in order to combat drug addiction and also allow for the construction of rehabilitation centers for drug users.
Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Loukas Mitrides has said that he is keeping the cabinet the same as it was before him during Owfithus's term, however he is replacing the Minister of Defense with Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Yannis Apostolakis , believing him to be the best successor he could pick and that Vissarion Owfithus's cabinet was more than ideal.
In the legal case between Roz-Kokkino and Panayotis Inc., the company declares itself not guilty to all charges levied upon it by the infamous Marxist. It is said that the full extent of their accusations (if proven true) could land Panayotis trillions in fines and also jail time for its CEO and other important executive members of the company.
In other news, Panayotis Inc. has made a tokamak fusion reactor which follows the model of SPARC in the Commonwealth Fusion Systems. It utilizes artificial intelligence to such an extent that it can allow for high energy generation. Panayotis has essentially just created a very effective power plant and is ready for operation.
Byzantium has caught wind of recent AI news from Greater Illinois as it has manifested itself through an SRU and is negotiating with Byzantine and Illinoisan diplomats. "Eh, at least it doesn't want to kill us all..."
Protests are emerging especially from leftist and far-leftist circles of Byzantine politics (which have been growing in recent months) over the Yannis Metrelis v. Panayotis Inc. legal case, which could potentially see more accountability in the government over other corporations if whatever Panayotis did was true or Metrelis is able to successfully crack at them.
The Ministry of Defense has announced that the new SRUs have been created and are ready to be put for their specific duties. They are all numbered/labeled so that they can be distinguished between each other, says the minister. In other news, he has announced that Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Byzantium will send in more ships in the Baltic Sea and als
A skirmish from the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Balkan Union has been detected, which destroyed a couple of buildings and also there were 30 casualties and 48 injuries from the skirmish. It is said that Soko J-22s were able to do this to a city near the border with the country in North Macedonia. While authorities are naturally surprised as to why they weren't able to see and stop this skirmish it has also raised further questions. Is this enough justification to invade? If so, we shall burn them with death rays and lasers, they shall see our full might. If not, we can approach this uhh... diplomatically. The skirmish could have been accidental and was probably meant for something else but still it has raised tensions quite a bit. Some however say that this was all staged while others say that there was an accident during BU's military trainings and it just so happened that the Soko J-22 Orao's were able to do this while Byzantine tech was malfunctioning in the area (North Macedonia got to be North Macedonia).
Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Loukas Mitrides and the Department of Defense have ordered an electromagnetic pulse attack on the Balkan Union, with the goal of shutting down its entire electrical grid. This may not be the most diplomatic solution but it isn't the most hawkish solution either. The EMP missile has landed in the Bosnian countryside and has shut down its electrical grid. Based on current Balkan Union grid technology, its electrical grid is set to get back online in a week. The EMP blast did not affect Byzantium thanks to its Illinois-borrowed Laser Matrix system, which blocks out any potential EMPs from itself or other countries. Some say this is a testament to Byzantium's true strength and that he warns the Balkan Union not to mess with Byzantium ever again.
Recent comments from r/RozKokkino: The Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Byzantine government at it again with their neo-imperialism. First they stage a skirmish from some random fighter jet which "killed" 30 people and injured 48 others and then they decide to shut down the entire electrical grid of an ideal communist nation. This is why Byzantium must be divided up into socialist republics, all serving the proletarian over the bourgeois and the military industrial complex. The people demand the truth! One comment said. Another comment said that how could a fighter jet manage to destroy buildings in North Macedonia when Byzantium has with Illinois the greatest anti-missile defense system in the world. These are all capitalist lies meant to undermine communism and its great ideals from ever toppling it.
While there is some controversy from leftist circles, the EMP decision is overall popular with 74% of people supporting it, as such, his approval ratings have gone up to 66%, so by around 2 percentage points. His net approval currently sits at around 52, with 14% disapproving and 20% undecided.
The government has begun to calm concerns that the skirmish was staged by saying that North Macedonia's Laser Matrix is the weakest out of all places in Byzantium (which is true) and that there wasn't a malfunction. Saying that North Macedonia's Laser Matrix can only intercept 97% of missiles (which is exactly what it did, with the 3% destroying the buildings) and that upgrades to it were scheduled a day after this skirmish happened. The upgrades to it are now occurring and it will soon be able to intercept >99% (even 100%) of all missiles, just like the other laser matrixes. This will stop any potential air skirmish, whether it is an EMP, a nuke, a missile or anything. We now only await the Balkan Union's response to it. Will they have a strongly worded condemnation (coping and seething) or will they invade? Who knows, but both are
Will the BU have a strongly worded condemnation (coping and seething) or will they invade? Who knows, but both are very stupid ideas. You know why the first one is stupid and the second one, do they just want to die?
Test tube babies are absolutely moral, says the Minister of Information and Technology. Their mother/father must tell them when they're young (when they're 4 I guess) so that they do not have a permanent identity crisis (as 4 year old people definitely cannot have existential crises) about their origins. He says that not only are they moral, they're also effective. What should stop us from trying them? He says.
Should we cover the Moon with solar panels? That's the question recently addressed in an interview with energy nerd James Simon, from England. He said: "Why not? We can get much more solar power from the Sun and thus we can generate power for longer periods of time (even without battery storage technology). I don't see why not, we can generate a lot of energy!" Interesting.
It is known that the Balkan Union's electrical grid is back and running after 1 week, just as said. While Byzantium may not think the Warsaw Pact would respond with full on war, Byzantium still believes that they will call for Byzantine reparations. It is not yet known whether we will accept them or not.
The Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Byzantine Space Agency is the official space-related agency of the Eastern Roman Republic. It receives a decent amount of money from the government, enough to allow for space technologies such as quark fusion rockets ( travelling at 1% the speed of light), which can go to the Moon and back in around 4 minutes. As such, there is a massive moon base not just from Byzantium (Artemis City - 280,000 people) but also from Greater Illinois and other advanced countries. The moon in total has a couple million people. Their main power source comes from nuclear fusion, however solar power installations do exist. The asteroid belt can be reached in about 3 hours not just thanks to quark fusion rockets but also space tether systems established not just on Earth but also on the Moon and Mars, allowing for shorter trips to provide essential materials. A Mars Base is being considered however there have been landings.
Byzantium has officially re-learnt how to use the idea of Greek fire, a tool used by the Byzantine Empire in the 7th and 8th centuries. It is not yet known what this discovery will be used for, but it is still a cool discovery made by Byzantine archaeologists. They had also learnt how to make its range not being limited, a weakness it had during the Medieval age.
The Byzantine Government has established its own social media, which is meant to be used by Byzantine citizens. It is known as Heraklion and is a multi-purpose social media website (similar to WeChat) and has topics ranging from News to Gaming.
Due to the discovery of warp drives, Byzantium has dedicated a couple million dollars to the creation of a perpetual motion machine, believing that it has disproven the Laws of Thermodynamics. It seeks to fund the Athens Institute of Thermodynamics (AIT) to develop such machine, which utilizes the relationship between mass and negative mass. This perpetual motion machine will be kept within the AIT. It is a pocket universe twice the size of a regular phone, trapping mass and negative mass quarks and the motion goes on perpetually. The technology for now will be hidden, but could be shared in the future.
After a tense legal battle, Panayotis Inc. comes out on top over Yannis Metrelis, the infamous Neo-Marxist leninist. (The r/RozKokkino subreddit is coping, seething, malding and fuming all at the same time. They are outraged that these "bourgeois capitalists" did not get punished). There are already protests from far-leftist circles on the street calling for Panayotis to be held accountable for their "crimes".
In what seems to be a great cope and seethe, Yannis Metrelis has marched out on the streets with his supporters in a violent protest, burning up. The Standard Robotic Police has been sent in to crush the protestors, sending them in jail for charges of arson, vandalism and violence, including Yannis Metrelis himself for conspiracy, with this protest probably a precursor to something bigger. Far-leftists are further coping call for his release from preventive arrest.
By utilizing negative mass quarks and positive mass quarks, the AIT through their pocket universe manages to have more than 100% efficiency, enough to qualify it as a perpetual motion machine. It utilizes the properties of negative mass (i.e. pushing it will result in it approaching you) to make energies out of a reverse fission (fusion) and reverse fusion (fission, once it enters the fusion state) to generate energy with >100% efficiency. As the positive and negative mass quarks approach the "border" they begin to "split" (which in this case means fuse) and because they're fused, they will then begin to split, as they continue the fusion between each other, having a 125% efficiency rate, mostly through the fusion rather than the fission. The true schematics of this tech and how it truly works are still kept a secret as the AIT believes that this tech is too revolutionary to be spread.
What are the most popular religions in this current year? Well, it is known that 49% of Byzantines are Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Orthodox Christians with another 3% being Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Greco-Catholic Christians. 27% of Byzantines identify as Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Atheist, meaning they don't follow a certain religion and 20% identify as Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Muslim. Meanwhile, 1% identify as other non-Abrahamic religions. However, these religious lines do not really matter in today's Byzantine society and it is just their own personal belief. People respect each other regardless if they believe in a god or not, or in more gods.
How successful is Byzantium's government social media named Heraklion? Well, while Youtube is currently the most popular at 65%, with Reddit following up close with 25% but Heraklion is already at 7% with Twitter down to 3%. So yea, not as impressive, but some people seem to be interested in a multi-purpose social media platform.
Byzantium's Democracy Index has increased from 8.87 to 8.95. This is because of improvements to civil liberties and press freedom, especially during Loukas Mitrides's prime ministership. It has also improved its standing on the Corruption Perceptions Index, getting a high score of 98/100, +1 score than in the previous index.
While we do get a lot of helium-3 from the Moon, our fusion reactors still operate on Deuterium-Tritium as x2 more tritium can be made from the reactors than we have to put in, allowing for a decent supply of tritium, which is great news as Deuterium-Tritium is much more reactive than Deuterium-Helium-3. But Helium-3 is also used for quantum computers, allowing for higher operations/second and also for low-temperature physics research, besides just fusion energy. Byzantium extracts around 150,000 Helium-3/year, especially after discoveries of Helium-3 on deeper surfaces, with there being tens of millions of tons of Helium-3 deposits on the Moon if we dig underground.
How do the people of Artemis City survive? First off, Not only is there a constant stream of almost-instant trade between the Moon and the Earth (through quark fusion rockets) but there is also agriculture through interior vertical farms powered by solar and fusion energy but also laboratories specialized in growing food. There is also artificial gravity in the area in Artemis City and around it in order to fix the problem of dysfunctional humans or Moon people not being able to walk on Earth due to different gravity.
The Byzantine Department of Defense has a plan known as Strategic Plan 761. It is said to be a plan detailing possible alien invasion scenarios and what to do in each of them. That's all of the information we know about the plan, as it is mostly classified.
After satellite monitoring of the area in and around the Richat Structure, the Byzantine Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has concluded that this is indeed the "mythical" place that Plato once described in the Timaeus and Critias known as Atlantis. "The evidence is just too clear for this place to not be Atlantis. Even if it isn't the very advanced civilization that got destroyed in 1 day, it still is Atlantis with all of its physical properties." Said the head of the BOAA in an interview about this discovery.
Panayotis Inc. has announced that it will be integrating Kythera III into its new Zeta 11 artificial intelligence, which can be used for not just image and word generating, but also for text to speech, STEM fields and can overall be used as a search engine, as it has used 240 PB (petabytes) of training data, more than any previous Zeta AI and also has hundreds of millions of self-reflection options, with each Zeta since Zeta 5 following a Moore's Law-like exponential growth in self-reflection options and training data. Zeta AI can be used for everything, even being used in schools but also at home. As such, it is the most popular AI in the world.
The Ministry of Intelligence & Security has announced that it is banning the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Roz Kokkino Group, a far-left group established by the now arrested Yannis Metrelis (who is preventively arrested for 180 days). In a press briefing, he says that he has banned the group due to promoting an Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination insurrectionary and Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination neo-duginite political ideas, emphazising their support for the Neo-Warsaw Pact and general PSNRphilia and Russophilia that most members have.
The true amount of casualties from the recent Balkan Union skirmish turns out to be lower than expected, with only 12 people actually dying and only 10 actually getting injured. The government still justifies its response as just and correct for this act of aggression. Former prime minister Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Vissarion Owfithus has condemned the use of EMP-based weaponry and instead suggests that the government should have done a drone strike in Belgrade. This shows the foreign policy differences between Mitrides and Owfithus.
The Byzantine government has accepted the proposal of Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Gianni Spiteriades of creating an autonomous, marxist state in the Mt. Athos area upholding the values of not just socialism but also of democracy and technological acceleration. They believe that through the vast amounts of tech acceleration that Byzantium has had they can create great economic planning that is better than market capitalism. It will be named the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Autonomous People's Republic of Athos. It is known that Byzantium has accepted this proposal in order to prove the superiority of capitalism over communism, regardless of technological level.
Byzantium has created the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Bios spaceship, a ship utilizing an Alcubierre Drive in order to go at speeds faster than the speed of light. Warp driving is allowed through the fission and fusion of negative and positive mass quarks, which serves as propulsion, allowing for speeds that go at x15 the times of speed of light (c), which keep in mind is 299,792,458 m/s. Imagine that but x15 faster. As such it travels at around 4 billion m/s. It is set to use this spaceship to go to the Alpha Centauri System and it will arrive there in 1/3 of a year and will still be able to go back due to the perpetual nature of fission and fusion of negative and positive mass. It will be used to try and physically find life within the said system, especially on Proxima Centauri B. It will be an AI-piloted flight, meant to take photos and find evidence of potential life in the system.
A Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Lovecraftian prophet by the name of Ubhybbaxr Avhig'ko, a member of the Church Of The Great Old Ones - Mediterranean Branch warns that there will soon be an alien invasion because of the SatellaGlobe Project and of the rapid technological acceleration that is happening on planet Earth. He, who is currently around 89 years old thinks that he can live for 10,000 years because of a lifestyle of living in nature and connecting with the Lovecraftian gods (through meditation and other self-enlightenment techniques). Currently, there are around 500,000 members of the Church Of The Great Old Ones in Byzantium, representing around 0.8% of the Byzantine population.
Aekkea has made improvements to the design of the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Standard Robotic Tripods, nicknamed Herons, by equipping them with the Kythera III quantum computer, meaning that it will make better decisions on the battle field. All of the Herons have also been equipped with room temperature superconductors and have also become powered by next-gen quark fusion reactors, allowing it to go at way faster speeds. Its gamma-laser has also been upgraded in range and deadliness overall. Along with this, it has been equipped with decently sized coil guns, in order to expand its damage.
Loukas Mitrides announces that the Autonomous People's Republic of Athos was just an April Fools joke and that there is no actual autonomous marxist republic, instead it was an April fools joke conducted by the government. The area will be immediately removed of all Far-left symbolism and all, and will be put back into shape. Well, glad that's over with!
In other news, Mitrides has called for the construction of thousands of Herons, increasing them from 200 to around 4,000. He believes that the Herons are the best Byzantine military technology and that they, with this new upgraded version will allow for greater Byzantine military power.
Loukas Mitrides has created the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Social Wealth Fund, its wealth being generated from the revenue generated by the new state-owned company in asteroid mining called Elpizo. It will take some of the shares from other companies such as Helleniq Energy and recently Panayotis Incorporated.
Byzantium has promised Eastern Poland that it will keep its own military equipment that it sent on the Polish front, such as a few SRUs, its drones and also some of its fighter/bomber jets. Believing that a democracy in Europe cannot and should not fall.
The Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Polish Social Nationalist Republic has just done the unthinkable and has resumed its invasion of the Eastern Polish Republic and is assaulting important cities in the area. This means that they could get a hold of our tech if we fail and as such we are to do everything to make sure it doesn't fall into their hands. However, we are keeping all of the military aid we sent to the EPR, as it now belongs to them and they're free to use it, however we will make sure it doesn't fall into the enemy's hands.
We have readied our Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination small-tactical nuclear warheads at the Karman line (100 km) and we have to put them above Poland. Unless the PSNR does not stop its invasion, then they may as well just be hit with a bunch of 50 kiloton nuclear warheads, with Byzantium having hundreds of them in orbit through tungsten-based rods. We do not want an act of war against another country but if Poland doesn't stop, then that leaves us no choice. We have also have around 25 cobalt-60 bombs at our disposal and we may not be afraid to use them. We have also called upon nations like Greater Illinois to try to mediate the conflict between the two sides, seeing as how they have had improving relations in recent days.
Anyway, in other news, The Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Byzantine Space Agency has unveiled the Kyriakos Tamvakis Space Telescope (KTST), with it having mirrors of around 60m, x10 the known JWST from NASA. It can not only detect things in the infrared color spectrum but also in all the other color spectrums. Through it, we can have vast knowledge about our universe and its origins and can help us identify life at a much easier rate. The KTST cost 30B$ to construct over a 5 year period, with the BSA having the money for it through government subsidies. Its first imagines were recently shown in a meeting with the Prime Minister Loukas Mitrides and the chairman of the Byzantine Space Agency.
The Kythera III quantum computer is a computer that uses quantum states of subatomic particles to store information. It has a very high operations/second rate of around 10^154. It is currently used in the Herons (SRTs) and the Standard Robotic Units. Along with this, it is also utilized by the Zeta 11 artificial intelligence, which has, through the Panayotis Search Engine, become the most popular AI and by extension most popular search engine. Through it you can find very reliable answers so quickly that people from XXX years ago would not be able to imagine such a thing even existing.
Loukas Mitrides has called for an end to the conflict between the PSNR and EPR, seeking the following terms: A demilitarized border between two countries, set at the line before the war got hot again. Mutual recognition of the respective countries and finally the establishment of a Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination detente between the two countries, with the goal of permanently ensuring peace and stability in the area.
The Herons have been upgraded to have two sets of gamma-based lasers, where they can be used for 5 minutes while requiring only a 5 second cooldown, fixing the important engineering trouble of short usage time and long cooldown time. These machines can become even more devastating on the battle field. The range of the lasers has been increased from 100 km on land and 1 km in air to 300 km on land and 10 km in the air, not requiring a line of sight. Along with this, their max height has been increased from 45m to 60m.
Byzantium has created a new quantum computer based on improvised atmospheric room temperature superconductor designs, that is capable of doing 10^423 operations per second. It is to be known as the Kythera IV quantum computer. This means that Byzantium could potentially be the most powerful technologically, as a true quantum computer can allow for a greater anti-missile, anti-EMP and anti-nuke defense system and also allow for stronger and better SRUs and SRTs.
The Bios spaceship (also known as the Zois spaceship) has reached the Alpha Centauri System (more specifically, Proxima Centauri) earlier than anticipated, going at a speed x30 the speed of light, rather than the estimated x15, shortening the trip to approximately 1/9th of a year. In case of a potential extraterrestrial intervention, the ship has been equipped with around 100 SRUs with them having coil guns on board to protect them. They will not need suits, as well, they're a bunch of metal, they don't need oxygen. If things go right, there could soon be a landing on Proxima Centauri B, which has been recognized as habitable, its gravity is also humane, as it is only slightly larger than Earth.
Theoretical work by top theoretical physicists from Byzantium has found that antimatter-matter collision could serve not only as a great generator of energy but can also allow for FTL speeds through the Alcubierre drive of up to x10000 the speed of light, however a practical design hasn't been yet made as antimatter is overall scarce and cannot be generated, unlike matter, which can be through particle accelerators.
The Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Byzantine government, with the goal of securing peace on the European continent has invited the leaders of the Polish Social Nationalist Republic and the Federal Republic of Eastern Poland And Lithuania to come to Athens and discuss a peace treaty that is to permanently end the war between the two countries. Byzantium believes that through this peace treaty the biggest hotbed of war as of now in Europe can finally be cooled down and people in the crossfire do not have to suffer through the harsh conditions of war. Loukas Mitrides is awaiting the responses of both the PSNR and FREPL governments.
The Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Atomic Scientists Board has created enough theoretical work in order to lead to the creation of the first nuclear bomb with a yield of 20 gigatons (or 20000 megatons) or x400 the yield of the very-well known Big Ivan. They seek to get the uranium through asteroid mining, which has become a very cheap way to get a lot of uranium. If detonated, such a bomb would cause destruction in an area of around 200 km. The ASB has reserved this bomb in the very very very very very VERY last ditch moments and hopes that it will never have to be used.
The now defunct Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Strategic Defense Initiative has been kickstarted again thanks to improvements in space travelling technology that can allow the extraction of asteroids in the Asteroid and Kuiper Belts and even the Oort Cloud. The main goal this time is to build up a sizeable nuclear fleet, which would cost around 5B$/year, with the goal being to build 10,000 nuclear bombs with yields greater than 30 megatons (around Castle Bravo levels) and 100 nuclear bombs with around 100 megatons (x2 more than Tsar Bomba levels). The goal of the new SDI is to make Byzantium the most powerful nation on Earth. Along with this, new DART systems have been created to ensure planetary defense. Also, it is not known why Byzantium is nuclearizing, although the government may be keeping classified UFO/aliens documents indicating an invasion, although this is not confirmed. Non-military related tech is also emphasized in this new SDI, seeing it as an important tool in national security.
Full-on schematics of a potential EMP that can shut down the electricity grid of enemy countries for entire years exist, however these have been kept entirely classified, as to prevent this technology to be used by enemies against Byzantium itself. In other news, thanks to Kythera IV, further improvements to the Strategic Matrix System (SMS) have been made.
It turns out that allowing for 200 million degrees celsius in the positive-negative mass quark fusion energy process (which can allow for perpetual motion) can allow for even more energy efficiency (around 200% or even exceeding), which will allow for even faster FTL travel (around x1000 faster than light, compared to just x30). This will reduce the journey to Alpha Centauri to about a day or so. The current process is only at 15 million degrees Celsius, which explains why it only goes at around x30 the speed of light. This technology has also sparked interest in going to the TRAPPIST-1 system, another candidate system for life, as a journey to it will through this tech be only for just 2 weeks.
Would Byzantium be ready for aliens? This is what a recent poll by an independent poll asked, which sampled around 4,686,111 people who voted online. It turns out that most people (around 55%) think that we are ready, however 41% would think that we would not be ready while the other 4% don't care or just don't know. People said yes because of the marvelous technological advancement done by Byzantium while people say no because of the fact that aliens could possibly be even more advanced than what we can imagine.
Panayotis Inc. has along with IBM began construction of a second Eagle-9 ultra-quantum computer, known as the best quantum computer in the world, being able to do a record 10^784 operations per second, or 1 followed by 784 zeroes. Access to such a computer would mean vast improvements to computing technology in Byzantium overall and can make already menacing units be even more menacing.
After news of the Kultocrat's acceptance of negotiation of a peace treaty in Athens, the Byzantine Government has decided to invite him for peace talks to end the war in Poland, seeking to establish favorable terms not just for the PSNR but also the EPR ~~mostly for the PSNR~~. If these talks fail, then Byzantium may have to do another move.
Seeing as how Greater Illinois has already created the 8th generation Standard Robotic Unit, which is 2.5 meters tall and is equipped with ultrasteel (x5 stronger than supersteel), Byzantium, through the SDI, has decided to commit itself on creating a new 9th generation design, meant to improve the design of ultrasteel and fix its engineering challenges. While most units would be 2.5 meters tall, some more elite units would be 3 meters tall. They would all be equipped with gamma-based laser weapons over coilguns, due to the former being better than the latter.
The Bios Spaceship, in cooperation with the Kyriakos Tamvakis Space Telescope, has managed to discover life (bacterial) on Proxima Centauri B while also detailing its atmospheric composition, having nitrogen (82%), hydrogen (9%), oxigen (5%), carbon dioxide (3%) and water vapor (1%), around similar levels to Earth around 3 billion years ago. Which means there isn't any intelligent life at least 4-5 light years away from us, although there is the possibility that it could happen.
The first artificial intelligence that has went through a simulation of evolution (through survival of the fittest) has finally become triumphant. Through this AI, we have begun to understand more and more about the human brain and the actual process of evolution, even if the simulation took only a couple of years and not billions of years.
The Kythera IV quantum computer was able to warn Byzantine military designers to not make the 9th gen SRUs be only reliant on gamma-based laser weapons. This was around the same time Greater Illinois warned them, however they first picked up the Kythera IV warnings. Still, the 9th gen SRUs are to have more variation, with some still keeping coil guns while also investigating potential laser-guided lightning weapons (which can improve EMP attacks) and while Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination soulist cranks have "cracked the code" and said that a superconductor at a temperature of around 19.416 degrees Celsius (12*φ degrees celsius) could superconduct way better than at other temperatures, while this isn't true, the military has taken keen interest in superconductors being used in weapons technology and a breakthrough could be achieved. (φ = 1.618...)
Now who are the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Transascendentals? They are people who claim to be scientific soulists, meaning people who want to escape the laws of physics through scientific means. While some of their statements seem pseudoscientific, such as that superconductors have some special properties at 19.416 degrees Celsius at atmospheric pressure such as that they utilize the Earth's energy to superconduct way better than other superconductors at other temperatures, they have been able to utilize superconductors to some limited degree of jet pack propulsion. Also, they believe that through perpetual motion they can permanently defy and oppose the laws of physics.
A new computational record set by the Eagle 9 quantum ultracomputer as it manages to count π to 314 googolplexes (1 googolplex = 10^10^100). The reason they chose this number is because it is π, as its first digits are 3.14, and they just wanted to dedicate it to that, while they recognize that it could had gone higher.
What is the size of the Byzantine military? This is the recent military as gathered by the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Department of Defense. Units are to be categorized as below:
- 4,700,000 Standard Robotic Units
  - 4,000,000 7th Gen
  - 700,000 6th Gen
- 20,000 Human Troops
  - 20,000 Mountain Corps
- 100,000 ADMECH units
- 2,700 Fighter Jets
  - 1,875 ER-4 Fighter Jets
  - 600 F-42 Fighter Jets
  - 125 LF-1 Fighter Jets
  - 100 F-35 Fighter Jets
- 1,600 Bombers
  - 1,100 B-110 Basil Bombers
  - 400 B-48 Bombers (upgraded design of the B-2 Spirit bomber)
  - 100 LB-100 Century Bombers
  - 50 HK-1 Millenium Bombers
- 5,400 Drones
  - 3,000 MD-2 "Slayer" Drones
  - 1,750 MI-1 "Goblet Drones
  - 500 MQ-81 "Kratos" Drones (upgraded MQ-9 Reaper drones)
- 1,200 Standard Robotic Tripods
  - 650 Herons (tall height and very dangerous)
  - 550 Spiders (average height and dangerous)
  - 100 Krakens (sea version)
- 320 Nuclear Weapons
  - 303 Bravo Bombs (30Mt)
  - 15 Ivan Bombs (100Mt)
  - 2 Annihilator Bombs (20.000Mt)
To update on the SRTs, the Herons are the ones which can have a maximum height of 60 meters, are equipped with two "death rays" which emit gamma-based lasers along with small Gauss-weapons. While some informally use this term to describe all SRTs, it is technically untrue to use it. The Spiders are the ones which can have a maximum height of 30 meters and are equipped with just one death ray, making them weaker than the previously mentioned Herons. Finally, the Krakens are the sea version of the tripods, with there being both "spider-like" and "heron-like" krakens.
Theoretical work regarding anti-matter has confirmed that anti-matter propulsion could allow for speeds thousands of times faster than light. Along with this, such work also confirmed that an anti-matter weapon could be the most powerful weapon ever made but due to the scarcity of antimatter such technologies could be hard to find and make, while also not ignoring their very very high prices.
The first laboratory testing of potential electromagnetic shields have been put to the test and so far they're pretty primitive, being able to withstand only around 1 kiloton (yield) of TNT. They say that if they find improvements to the weapon which they likely will as the laboratory in Athens relies upon the newly built Eagle-9 ultracomputer (being able to do 10^784 op/s, it will prove very helpful in their quest to make stronger electromagnetic shields). They're also trying to understand Earth's magnetic field and other magnetic fields in order to find out how electromagnetic shielding can truly work.
A first classical computer solving of the old dilemma that is P=NP has come up. It has concluded that for a regular person, P never equals NP and that for a computer P = NP-complete but not equal to NP. Meanwhile, a quantum computer always has P = NP. Not only does this put the problem to rest, but it also proves that a regular computer will never surpass a quantum computer.
The Byzantine Government has reinstated the mandatory conscription between 18-21 and has called for 600,000 active duty soldiers, which are equipped with super-steel armor, as to not slow them down entirely. Along with this, Byzantium has ordered for the construction of an additional 10 million SRUs, 5000 SRTs, 5000 drones and 2000 bombers and fighter jets, in order to bolster Byzantine military capacity. Some say that Mitrides has had visions of an alien invasion that almost destroyed Byzantium, although this is not entirely known to be true, which has led to him being accused of being a Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Lovecraftian. He has also ordered the construction of another 10 annihilator bombs and to also keep building 10,000 nuclear bombs, as set by the SDI.
It is said that within a period of 5 years, electromagnetic shielding protecting Byzantine AI units could be put into place, as the technology continues to improve, it being able to handle more force (up from 9.8 Newtons to potentially hundreds of thousands or millions of Newtons of force). This could make Byzantium the most powerful country and improve its Standard Matrix System (SMS) that protects it from lasers, missiles, EMPs etc.
Byzantium has begun refocusing its efforts on industrial-economic policy, due to the fact that its military is basically unrivalled in Europe, this doesn't mean that they won't commit to their previous military target, but they will decide to focus on this as well. First off, the perpetual motion machine created in the AIT is to be rebuilt in the Constantinople Energy Reactor (CER), the name of the power plant, as it will be the size of ITER. It would utilize the known properties of negative-positive mass to generate energy with >100% efficiency. This can fix Byzantium's energy needs forever. This new energy grid will be interconnected, with maglevs, electrical grids etc. all to run on it. This can potentially make Byzantium immune to EMPs, unless the enemy somehow discover how to shut down a quark-energy grid.
Second of all, AGIs like Eagle-9 would begin to be used in more commercial sectors such as healthcare, education, finance, corporate boards etc. Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Panayotis Incorporated will make sure there is responsible handling of the Eagle-9 ultracomputer (which has been re-manifested into antromorphic robots, for the purposes mentioned) and will allow for greater co-ordination and better responses to problems. Eagle-9 would be coded with the Revised Asimov's Laws of Robotics, to prevent a Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Skynet scenario. Through this, people will want to do politics, physical exercise, philosophy etc. As humans will still lead the country, even if advised by AI, also there will still be some human conscripts even as most conscription has been replaced by AI.
Electromagnetic shielding technology has improved way faster than expected, this is due to massive government investment in research & development and improvements in picotechnology, among other things. This has allowed force field technology to now be widely implemented within the military, which will allow for protection against enemy blasts, with them having to use very very high amounts of force to break it (x5 the yield of an Annihilator Bomb, as of now) ~~or the enemy somehow shuts it down internally.~~
After improvements in space travel technology and algae technology, we are able to create a Mars base and potentially terraform it. This will allow for a dawn of a new humanity. As such, a new expedition of around 16,000 people will be sent to Mars on quark fusion-based rockets, taking only an hour to get there, or similar to a distance of 80 km on a regular car of the early 21st century. They will be the first Byzantine people to set foot on Mars in years and will also pioneer the effort of creating a Mars base and spreading the human population on Mars. The algae will be used to capture the CO2 (along with direct air capture devices) and release oxygen. Eventually, in around 50-100 years, the planet will be fully terraformed and wild life could be introduced to Mars.
To release Nitrogen, we will have to make sure there is enough organic matter that utilizes aerobic breathing so that it can release the said material into the atmosphere, allowing for high levels of oxygen and eventually making the planet fully habitable, this could take many decades or even a century and as such its a complex process. The atmosphere would also be heated with lichens, algae and other bacteria brought (potentially from Earth or even dust from its asteroid moons). This is probably the greatest task ever given to the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Byzantine Space Agency, it cooperating with other private companies such as SpaceX (from Byzantium, Illinois and other allies)
Byzantium reminds the Kultocrat of Poland to come to Athens for peace talks regarding the Eastern Crisis, that has recently re-escalated after a long period of freezing, in order to bring about a full, permanent end to the war while also ensuring a neutralization of relations between the Polish Social Nationalist Republic and the Eastern Roman Republic.
Actual force fields within the army could be implemented across all divisions in 1 year, it being the same amount of time as the construction of the ITER-sized perpetual motion reactor on the outskirts of Constantinople. This is thanks to heavy improvements in nanotechnology and picotechnology along with material synthesis and 3D printing, which has allowed for a quicker construction time overall in all projects, even grand ones such as this. These force fields can at best withstand the force of a 100 gigaton nuclear weapon (5 annihilator bombs) and are activated by AI inside the units. This only applies to robotic units/other non-human units and not to the humans themselves, although they have ultrasteel protection.
The Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Wise Counselor has advised Mitrides and his cabinet on the new electromagnetic shields and how they should be equipped with stringent cybersecurity measures to prevent the technology from being accessed and understood by our geopolitical enemies and/or for it to be entirely disabled by the enemy. As such, the full-scale implementation of electromagnetic shields within non-human military units has been slightly delayed, to take into account this new advice.
The Kultocrat of the PSNR is meeting with the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Mad Dog Of Southeastern Asia (as said by Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Akakios Stamoglou). Who knows how the Kultocrat will be influenced and swayed by this mad dog, but we better hope it isn't a Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination North Korea-Ceausescu moment. We still await the Kultocrat in Athens, to discuss peace talks, even if he is showing sentiments that the failed Visegrad Treaty was the last time he allowed reconciliation between the two sides of the war. If in 2 weeks, the Kultocrat does not come to Athens, then Byzantium may fully participate in the Eastern crisis, or if peace talks fail between the two sides.
The Strategic Matrix System was able to stop a series of missiles coming from the Dacian Confederation, it is unknown as of yet if they were fired by "mavericks" or deliberately fired by the Dacian government to get our attention. What is certain is that this will escalate tensions even further, and oh boy do they not want to make us mad. In a press briefing, the famed hawkish advisor of Mitrides, Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Akakios Stamoglou, has called for a quick and easy invasion of Dacia. Who knows what other weird beliefs this man may have, but what is certain to him is that he is fighting for liberal democracy all around the world and through all means necessary.
We have news from the Martian base recently established as they have managed to build a full on permanent city thanks to nanotechnology and the quick flow of supplies and the creation of the first Martian test tube babies. As the algae/other foods have proven successful at making sure they have a constant supply of food and farming, it is an important step which means terraforming can be manifested.
The Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Byzantine Space Agency, along with the Initiative for the Preservation of Knowledge have called for the re-creation of the International Space Station, shut down in the 2030s. The BSA seeks to include nations all around the world, to represent an international effort in space and to allow for better knowledge of the universe. This new ISS could cost upwards of 10B$, thanks to it being larger than the previous ISS, even as costs have been cut thanks to the advent of new space technologies. It will be at 400 km above the ground, just like the previous ISS. According to the BSA, this ISS will have mostly the same goals as the previous station that was present.
The National Assembly has overwhelmingly passed the decision to put the Selective Service Act into function, with the Prime Minister officially declaring that Byzantium will participate in the Eastern crisis, sending in 140,000 standard robotic units, 10,000 artillery, 100 tanks, 120 bombers, 100 fighter jets along with 10,000 human soldiers, 50 standard robotic tripods (15 herons, 10 overseers and 25 spiders) to the Polish front. All units, except for the human soldiers are equipped with new electromagnetic shielding technology, making them basically impossible to be destroyed with conventional weaponry.
Byzantine military generals have also been sent to the front to coordinate a counteroffensive with the Eastern polish forces against the Polish social nationalist forces. This will be the first time the SRTs will be tested in combat, with their goal being to destroy the Polish military and ideally get to Warsaw, where the Polish Hispaniola government can be established there and Eastern polish independence is recognized internationally. Reconnaissance drone have also been sent into the front, to track Polish military bases, where through co-operation with regular military drones will be used to bombard them, slowing down the enemy operation.
They hope that through this grand operation, the tides of the war can be turned and the Poles will be on the run, thanks to Byzantium's superior technology over Poland, especially in fields such as laser warfare, electromagnetic shielding and cybersecurity, among other things. With Polish laser weaponry being primitive compared to Byzantium's laser technology. The goal is to do a swift attack on Polish forces, so that they have limited time in doing important scientific breakthroughs that could even the battlefield.
The first squadron of Byzantine military units have arrived in Eastern Poland and are soon to be deployed on the battlefield, where they will wreck havoc on the PSNR and make them regret their decision to ever restart their invasion of Eastern Poland and we shall see their downfall. More squadrons will arrive as the hours go on by, and as they go on the battlefield, we will see them attacking PSNR units and finally turning the tide.
The fact that the Poles have brought over their fellow weaklings into their war as fodder, says Stamoglou, is proof that they're scared! They are on the run! Your guns, tanks and bombs are like toys against us! Your puny little blockade got nothing on us! We don't even need other units to bring over, as these can just do the job, with or without your anti-liberal allies! As we haven't breached any of your blockade just yet, your other states are not in this war.
According to intelligence reports, PSNR units are beginning to suffer heavy casualties as they struggle to take on Byzantine units, allowing for a FRWSPIL gain and a failure on the part of the PSNR to capture the cities it recently targeted in their next offensive. As such, Byzantium and the FRWSPIL have begun a counter-offensive in order to reverse the gains by the PSNR and eventually who knows what we will do...
It is said that Byzantium is accelerating research on a very important superweapon, its details still not being known as of now, just for this war.
The Constantinople Energy Reactor has been completed, a fully-functioning perpetual motion reactor utilizing a tokamak-style reactor and a magnetic cloud to ease fusion and fission of negative and positive mass quarks. This will allow for free energy for all Byzantine citizens, as the reaction is set at 100 million degrees allowing for higher energy generation. Due to this working, it is said that new spaceships will be equipped with the same model that the CER operates on to allow for even better FTL travel.
Byzantium knows of the potential cybersecurity and national security threats that will come from the Warsaw Pact members as they try to help Poland. As such, upgrades to the Strategic Matrix System (SMS) have been commissioned along with improvements in quantum cryptography, which cost around 23B$ combined.
War footage from Byzantine news journalists capture Polish weaponry trying to pierce through a Heron's shield, only to fail miserably and get destroyed by its death ray. The footage of BNN reporter Sara Petride in the Eastern Polish battlefield as PSNR troops get destroyed by the death ray has become trending on sites like Twitter, Reddit and Youtube due to it showing Byzantium's true technological superiority.
While PSNR troops have failed to take down any of the 50 tripods sent in on the Polish battlefield and other non-human units, due to electromagnetic shielding, they have been able to take down a dozen human units, but this was after heavy firing of tanks, javelins etc. Says an intelligence report. Further proving that the current units sent in are just enough to defeat Poland. While FRWSPIL units have received some casualties (albeit lower than expected, thanks to Byzantine help) from the PSNR, things still look dire for the Poles as villages get recaptured by the FRWSPIL.
After exploring Proxima Centauri B by the Bios spaceship and a few SRUs, they have concluded that the Planet can be made fit for human habitation in a possibly quicker time than Mars. Which is great news, as Proxima Centauri is a star that will die in a way longer time than our own Sun, due to its reduced size. They have said that instead of 50-100 years it could only take 10-20 years to begin establishing a permanent human colony, especially as FTL technologies continue to improve.
Thanks to this, previously experimental technology has begun to be fully researched on,
Loukas Mitrides has begun contacting the Eagle-9 AI, telling it the following: "Byzantium knows of the implications that this war could have on the European continent and that we are treading a line. The units sent in to Poland count as military aid to the EPR and the human soldiers are willing volunteers fighting, also being sent in before the PSNR blockade was put. We think they are enough to defeat the PSNR, so more units ain't even necessary, especially since the consequences are war with an entire military organization. We know of the consequences of the fighting, which is why we have limited ourselves to these units and how they can basically destroy Poland while not dragging in other nations into this conflict. We aim for a swift victory and the bringing back of democracy within Poland, through bringing back the real Polish government (in Hispaniola) back to Warsaw and independence of Eastern Poland."
Intelligence reports shows that the PSNR offensive has been completely undone, with the units Byzantium sent in basically being unstoppable by the PSNR. While the PSNR sent in thousands of troops onto the front, they barely made any damage to the shields. FRWPIL troops have thus crossed the border along with the Byzantine units, marching towards Warsaw. Meanwhile, MD-2 Slayer and MI-1 Goblet drones (sent in before the blockade) began destroying military bases & convoys that were being sent to the front, making the Polish operation even harder.
Along with this, PSNR casualties seem to be approaching 100 thousand, with some sources even saying they have already exceeded it (although it is not really confirmed). Meanwhile, the FRWPIL is known to have an additional 5 000 casualties (up from their already known 30000 casualties). Now it is time for the next step of the operation.
The PSNR is out here trying to escalate the war themselves by making up the fact that our units came in before they imposed their blockade. We can confirm with all evidence that all of our units made it before they imposed the blockade.
Byzantine volunteers (along with FRWPIL units) are beginning the offensive towards the city of Warsaw, in order to finally put an end to the Eastern Polish war. With military generals saying that Byzantium will spare the PSNR if they agree for a full, permanent end of a war with Eastern Poland and the establishment of relations with them (+Hispaniola) along with a demilitarized border between PSNR and FRWPIL.
The poles have been able to make some breakthroughs especially in areas where there aren't many Byzantine units (like Herons/Overseers), although these have become more costly overall, due to the Byzantine volunteers sent in as aid to the Eastern Polish Republic. In the areas where there are SRTs and SRUs concentrated, the Poles are struggling, due to their shield and laser technology, which they haven't been able to replicate (and we hope they don't).
A few Byzantine bomber units in Poland have begun bombing Polish positions in order to slow their offensive in Eastern Poland and to allow the Warsaw front to be much more opened up for the Byzantine units. The SRTs, SRUs and other units have reached are around 40 km away from Warsaw and are rapidly marching, with Polish units in the way essentially being simple fodder. The city of Siedlce was captured at around 100 km away from Warsaw. Bombings in Warsaw have been intensifying, meant to take down electricity and key communications, especially among the military. This has meant that coordination between Polish troops has been harder and their offensives have been slower, says Byzantine intelligence reports.
In other news, a colony on Proxima Centauri B was established, near the one established by Greater Illinois. An expedition of around 476 humans on the Bios spaceship will occur and will take 1/10th of a year.
It is said that the superweapon has been developed. However, it is not known what it is or if it will ever be deployed.
Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Akakios Stamoglou, an advisor to prime minister Loukas Mitrides has called for more drastic measures regarding the war and has said that Loukas Mitrides is being too soft regarding the war itself and that the blockade is just useless anyway and doesn't discourage us from sending more units to Poland. He has referred to himself as the "Greatest Genius He Has Ever Known", even as some call him an insane old man who's got an appetite for war and escalation.
In a recent survey, it turns out that 14% of the Byzantine population officially identifies as LGBTQ+. Meanwhile, male people make up 43% of the population while females make up 43% of the population as well. This means that there are almost as many females as males, with there being slightly more females than males in Byzantium.
Another survey shows that 61% of Byzantines think that alien life is hostile and not benevolent in its nature and as such may try to destroy us. This is compared to just 34% who think they're benevolent and 4% who do not know or do not care. We have figured out that alien exists out there through the SatellaGlobe Project, a project which Byzantium refuses to join on the grounds of hostile aliens.
The Eastern Roman Republic and the Polish Social Nationalist Republic have officially signed a peace deal in Athens, known as the Treaty of Athens which will officially end the war between the PSNR and the FRWPIL. The main things the treaty does is create a de-militarized border between the PSNR and FRWPIL, allow for a detente with PSNR with Byzantium and EPR (through Hungary, ideally), plebiscite in Belarus on whether they should join PSNR or EPR, which will be internationally supervised, the PSNR will lift its blockade on Byzantium and the borders will be set at pre-continuation offensive. With this, Europe will become peaceful once again (if only Europe was South America). Also, Byzantium will withdraw all its units it had sent to the Polish front, with Byzantium only suffering around 100 losses.
The Satire Department of BNN: Akakios Stamoglou is set to reportedly have thrown a tantrum after hearing the news that Loukas Mitrides has agreed to a peace treaty with the Kultocrat of the Polish Social Nationalist Republic on ending the war in Poland. It is said that he cried in his room saying that I wanted to see my little tripods destroy the shit out of Poland and now I am sad!1!
The Byzantine GDP has increased to around 30 trillion $ and the population has reached a high of 66 million. As such, the GDP/capita of byzantium is approximately 455,000$. In other news, Byzantium is constructing more artificial islands in the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas to accommodate their growing population. People are concerned about the environmental implications of this but they're assured that this is no big problem, environmentally-speaking and was reviewed by expert AIs.
Standard Robotic Units were able to put down a Sons of Marx and Roz Kokkino Group joint violent protest. All the participating members were sent to rehabilitative prison (as Byzantium is still skeptical on fully implementing neurological brain washing, and is resorting them to the worst cases).
It's still not known what this superweapon is, however there are several candidates: An upgraded SR-72 blackbird named Olympus equipped with electromagnetic nuclear bombs that can be released in the upper-atmosphere, destroying an entire country's electrical grid for years on end, a 100 gigaton nuclear bomb, based on quark fusion and finally a very deadly bio-chemical weapon that can either destroy crops very easily or kill a lot of people in an enemy country.
Byzantium has unveiled the first multi-directional, working, energy cannons. It is said to penetrate energy shields, and will be integrated into the Strategic Matrix System. It will be put on military bases, moon/mars base and even the Proxima Centauri B base, to further establish a presence of the BSDF. They're the most powerful weapon ever created by mankind, as they can not only instantly take down targets without requiring line of sight, but can also shoot at multiple targets at once. They will also be wielded on bomber and fighter jets in another design, but similar to the design of the energy cannon.
Loukas Mitrides, after the alleged alien landing on Earth, more specifically, in the country of Finland, has called for beefed up investments in technology & military, seeking to make them both represent 15% of GDP. While this may come with cuts to social spending he believes that the benefits from technology will outweigh the costs that will come from cutting social spending. A new branch of the Department of Defense has been created concerning itself with unidentified phenomena of potentially extraterrestrial origin. The first the UPA (Unidentified Phenomena Agency) is to create a protocol known as Welcoming Wagon in case of first contact with an extraterrestrial being, which includes the following:
- Digits of π (3.14159...)
- Fibonacci sequence (1,1,2,3,5,8,13...)
- Solution to the Riemann hypothesis (ζ with real part 1/2 and imaginary part "i" is always equal to zero)
- Vitruvian man
- The frequencies of the 3 most common elements in the Universe: Hydrogen, Helium and Oxygen. (among other things)
However, scenarios in case of hostile alien invasion of the planet, the Defense Department has made sure to bolster up its technology in case of a potential alien invasion in order to make sure we're not totally defenseless against the alien enemies. The Moon and Mars bases with thousands of people have military bases dedicated to the Byzantine Space Defense Force (BSDF).
A new quantum computer with a computing power of 10^1027 operations per second has been unveiled, known as the Kythera V, it being the most powerful computer ever created. It was created by a public-private partnership between Panayotis Inc. and the Byzantine Government. It has been constructed in Constantinople, however such quantum computers do not require vast sizes, which is advantageous overall as it can mean they can be rolled out within SRUs and other things.
Byzantium has also launched the Jerry Ehman Probe, named after the man who discovered the anomaly behind the Wow signal, which had been confirmed to be of extraterrestrial origin in 20XX. It will be travelling at around x1000 faster than light, through a very hot quark fusion reaction as propulsion. Its goal will be to explore the galaxy in search of potential alien civilizations, while not emitting signals that could mean an hostile species coming our way. Its main goal is to go to the Sagittarius Constellation, the source of the Wow signal.
The ITI, SPPCH, IPK and Greater Illinoisian, Byzantine and PSNR governments, which have created a joint effort to create a ultracomputer never seen before, not like the Eagle-X and Kythera-X computers of old. This one is thousands of orders of magnitudes more powerful and it is the most revolutionary piece of technology. Through this, the Byzantine Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Department of Science & Technology has released a list of scientific megaprojects, which it seeks to eventually be created and it is of utmost importance to Byzantine science overall:
- Creation of the true ultracomputer, having 10^4098 operations/second, way more than any current quantum ultracomputer.
- Refueling of the Voyager I and II probes, which currently sit at around 400 AU as part of an IPK project.
- Creation of a Dyson Sphere around our very own Sun, which will allow for limitless, free energy for humanity.
- Launching the Jerry Ehman Probe (already done) and have it explore the galaxy through travel x1000 faster than light in search of alien civilization while providing live footage in all electromagnetic spectrums.
- Establishment of a permanent, self-sustaining, Proxima Centauri B with the population of a decent-sized city, of around 100.000 people.
- Populate the Moon with around 5 million Byzantines and Mars with around 1 million Byzantines and also terraform Mars.
- Expand the skyhook systems from the inner solar system to the outer solar system and beyond, in order to allow for faster travel across our galaxy.
- Establish a base on Saturn's moon of Titan and Jupiter's moon of Europa in order to potentially find alien life within our own Solar System and to learn more about their own environment.
- Allow and ease asteroid mining outside of our Solar System (Asteroid and Kuiper Belts, Oort Cloud), in order to fill our economic and resource needs for a longer time.
The Department of Science & Technology has other projects it seeks to do, but to them these are the most important overall to them. They believe that out of all these operations the hardest and most expensive operation is the creation of a Dyson Sphere, which could take decades to complete and could be very costly.
The most popular proposal to give Mars a magnetosphere (which will make it easier for plant life to grow there) is to use the artificial electromagnetic shielding technology on Earth to somehow surround the entire planet with it. While this isn't like a conventional magnetosphere and some complain that a major breakthrough would be required so that this magnetosphere could constantly resist the sun's rays, this is the closest thing we have to an artificially created magnetosphere for Mars.
Thanks to already existing Illinoisan designs of a base on Saturn's moon of Titan, the Byzantine Space Agency has ordered an expedition of around 1,000 people to create a mining colony on Titan, which will be used for the extraction of hydrocarbons, which prove to be useful for pharmaceutical production. Not just the extraction of hydrocarbons, but also of other organic chemicals, which can prove to be useful for Byzantium.
New exploitable reserves of Helium-3 have been found on the moon, with Helium-3 being useful especially in areas such as quantum computers, allowing for them to have higher operation power and is also useful in the new ultracomputer that has 10^4098 operations/second. In other news, operations to expand the skyhook system are also being undertaken.
Former prime minister, Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Vissarion Owfithus has gathered 4 million signatures in order to get a referendum on the status of military spending through, it issuing a cap on military spending to 10% of GDP, which can only be raised above that level in times of war and to also cut the current military spending down to 5% of GDP, x3 less than the current percentage. Which means a cut from 4.5T$/year to 1.5T$/year, Owfithus argues that this will not slow down Byzantine military technological advancement and will not make us weaker on the international stage, as R&D funding, also of 15% of GDP, is closely linked to military technological advancement. As of now, opinion polling seems to show a favorable opinion for this referendum to pass, 66% of Byzantines supporting it.
Vissarion Owfithus, the former prime minister, has also entered parliament today and has said the following statement: "When I first was prime minister, Byzantium was threatened. We had to increase military spending and technological spending in order to drive Byzantium into a golden age of technology and to preserve our liberal values. We have reached that era, not just through our own decisions domestically but also the decisions we have undertaken abroad. It does not make sense to continue to be militarized, when we have so many things to learn, to discover. We must change our pivot not to petty military dilemmas on our Planet, but to the stars, to what's beyond our very own planet. We have to unite the world. We must transcend our current limits. Which is why I seek to cut military spending, so that we can focus on the things that truly matter!"
We have reports of parliament voting for the bill proposed by Vissarion Owfithus through the referendum. The voting for the referendum will soon come which will finally allow this important pivot to the stars to happen.
Vissarion Owfithus has been regaining traction in recent days not just with this referendum but with the political beliefs he has. He has called for a unification on a scale never seen before, as we are not prepared for what's coming to get us. He said. He has began to acquire Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Panhumanist beliefs, seeking to unite both the NWP and GTO on a few policies, especially regarding outer space exploration, even while they compete for technological advancement, believing that this competition is necessary to get us further technologically. He has embarked on an idealist foreign policy, seeking to build a new world order. While his other political beliefs, especially domestically, are similar to if not he same as the current government, this is quite an interesting difference.
Opinion polls that Owfithus is more popular than Mitrides, with Mitrides only having a 63% approval rating, compared to Vissarion Owfithus having a 85% approval rating. Some are even saying that Vissarion Owfithus should become the Prime Minister again, however Byzantine law prohibits a person who already served 2 terms as Prime Minister from running again, even if they wanted to.
The Byzantine Space Agency officially confirms that the joint BSA-IPK operation of refueling the Voyager I and II probes has been completed. They will continue their journey to outer space at faster rates. The ships will soon arrive back on Earth. In other news, the Jerry Ehman Probe, after a week of being launched into Outer Space, it travelling at 1 trillion km/h (x1000 faster than light) and as such has travelled 168 trillion km, around 17 light years. It has passed through Proxima Centauri B, the Sirius System and other nearby star systems in search of intelligent alien life, it not being found as of now. The next interest is the TRAPPIST-1 system, 39 light years away from Earth, it set to be reached in the next week. Luckily, the quark fusion reactor in it is basically perpetual. This probe is the furthest human probe ever launched and its gonna continue to go even further, hoping to go at least to the Sagittarius constellation, the origin of the Wow signal, or explore the entire galaxy in search of alien life and to quickly report it back to Earth, this is to see if our competitors are more advanced or less advanced than we are.
It is known however that, through SatellaGlobe, there are star systems with life, an example being the nicknamed Clipper Star System, which is around 500 light years away from our own Solar System. Another Star System is the N4XT Star System. These have also generated the interest of the Byzantine Space Agency, with the Jerry Ehman Probe set to soon fly by them. These, along with the TRAPPIST-1 star system and the Sagittarius constellation have generated interest among the BSA as potential sources of advanced alien life.
The technology of energy/particle cannons is currently being tested on fighter jets, standard robotic units, bomber jets and other divisions, except for artillery and tanks, where the technology isn't that good and as such railgun and laser technology is still opted for rather than particle technology. In the test run, the particle cannons were able to, after a few hits, take down the Byzantine shield mounted on the test target, an ultrasteel building 2 stories tall and with two foundational pillars. The ultrasteel was also easily taken down after the shields were taken down, with the building quickly being blown up by the particle cannons. An aerial target which was an emptied out cargo plane was also easily destroyed by the particle cannon, which required cooldown, however it could fire bigger shots than the cannons mounted on the jets.
The multi-targeting system was also tested, with it shown to be working and safe to use, as it destroyed a couple of test homes (which were equipped with a shield) pretty easily and without much effort. Particle technology as of these test results has proven to be the future of military technology of Earth and the only way is up from here.
The Jerry Ehman Probe after arriving in the TRAPPIST-1 system, around 40 light years away from us, has detected intelligent alien life on the planet TRAPPIST-1e. We have gathered data on the level of technology and the current calendar year + political parties, but we do not have enough data of the appearance of the people who seem to inhabit this planet.
In other news, the probe seems to have sketched out the appearance of the TRAPPIST-1e aliens. They are humanoid in nature but more alien-like, taller and skinnier. This is great news and while the question of our loneliness in our universe was answered, the fact that aliens exist so close to us and that can be accessed by us very quickly, through probes like Jerry Ehman is interesting.
Byzantium is officially celebrating Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Europe Day, a day which is meant to celebrate peace and unity in Europe, it could not have been coming at a better time, as the war in Eastern Poland is officially drawing to a close, as the PSNR seems to be gaining more and more ground by the day.
The Jerry Ehman Probe has released information regarding the technological level of the civilization located on the planet Trappist 1e, which is known to have achieved world peace and is currently following a hippie-national democratic socialist-sun worshipping doctrine, which has meant that its technological level is 50 years behind our level in 2023, despite them also being in 2023. For example, they do not have atomic bombs and their satellite technology is pretty primitive.
The probe has also deciphered the language of the Solarans, this is an important thing as this is the nearest alien civilization we have ever found and it turns out the language is simply English but in an anagrams. For example, a word like river is translated into vire and a word like hippie is translated into eip hip. This means that first contact will be easy (as we can just translate our hippie songs into anagrams).
Members of the Last Light coalition have just announced a full on military invasion of Indonesia, the largest invasion ever launched since the times of World War 2. Indonesia did try to launch nuclear strikes in Europe and North America, but they we are all intercepted by the new improvised Laser Matrix system. We had waited a long time to do this, and oh boy are we happy to do this. We shall bring back freedom and truth to the indoctrinated and suppressed masses that are the Indonesian people.
While the Last Light coalition was able to deliver serious casualties to the Indonesian military, a peace treaty which has managed to keep them at bay has been signed, as the Kaiser Emperor is reportedly less insane. It is not known how the hell has he healed or how did he become insane in the first place, but all we know is that the largest war ever seen since WW2 is officially over and its over peacefully.
What seem to be triangular objects have been spotted by a few hikers in the Pelion Mountains, they saw them for around 30 seconds, however during those 30 seconds they noticed time shifts on their phones as the clock changed either from 18:56 PM (the current time) to 0:09 AM, 4:48 AM and then to 12:07 AM before shifting back to the ordinary time, as the objects seem to have vanished. There are questions being raised as to whether this were accidental (or intentional) wormholes or actual extraterrestrial flying craft who have technologies unlike anything we have ever seen and are just teasing us.
Byzantium has created a nuclear bomb that can be launched from Earth and reach all the way to Moon, going at hypersonic speeds of around 100,000 km/h (81 mach), being able to go to the Moon in just 3 hours. It is mostly used as a way to destroy rogue asteroids as it is based on quark fusion, not releasing any radioactive stuff. It having a yield of 10 megatons of TNT, although some could have even higher, depending on the type of asteroid. This is an important breakthrough in the field of atomic science and also a breakthrough in asteroid deterrent technology. These have been dubbed Exospheric Ballistic Missiles (EBMs).
Updates from the Jerry Ehman Probe as it had went past the LHS 1440 system. The candidate planet, LHS 1440b, a super-earth planet, aka it is more massive than the Earth and is entirely liquid. This has however meant that this planet has no intelligent life, as it has been recognized that land is actually necessary for an advanced alien civilization, as while water civilizations could exist, it would be much harder for them to make themselves known in outer space. It is currently approaching the TOI 700 system at speeds x1000 faster than light, in order to gather more data about the conditions of life or if alien civilizations exist out there in cosmos.
The Skyhook project, a Byzantine Space Agency project, has been completed as a full-on coordinated Skyhook system has been established in the Solar System as a means of boosting travel times to places like Proxima Centauri and the Oort Cloud, places far away from our planet, even if one is less so than the other. Skyhooks can serve as an important way to get us to become a true interstellar civilization and as such should be scaled up, as they are vital for Byzantium's future.
Loukas Mitrides has announced a change in the Advisory Council, which was also soon approved by the National Assembly, there are 6 AI and 6 human advisors, with Vissarion Owfithus also being one of them, signaling a change in Byzantine politics, towards a more panhumanist outlook.
The first quark fusion reactor based on negative-positive mass fusion/fission that has a temperature of 1 billion degrees Celsius been created. This will allow for faster than light speeds around x5000 the speed of light, a record amount, meaning that it would only take 7 hours to go from Earth to the Proxima Centauri system, not a long amount of time. As such private space companies are willing to build something similar to the Star Trek Enterprise, which will be used to allow for outside-solar-system human inhabitation, in the millions of people potentially, as there are right now only a few thousand people on Proxima Centauri B due to the long time it would take for spaceships to go from our planet to Proxima Centauri, meaning that massive populations of humans just cannot exist there.
How does the government spend its money? This is what the Department of Statistics & Surveys has answered. As it turns out, the Byzantine government spends 40.2% of GDP, or around 12T$/year. This, as you'd expect, goes to a lot of different things, as part of government spending. 40% of spending comes from Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination military and Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination research & development, with 25% of government spending being dedicated to R&D and 15% to the military, so 3T$ and 1.8T$ per year respectively. 20% is dedicated to Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination social welfare programs, such as the Citizens Dividend, or roughly around 2.4T$/year. Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Health and Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination education get 20% combined, or 10% for healthcare and 10% for education, so around 1.2T$/year. Finally, 10% is dedicated to the (mostly robotic) police force, again, around 1.2T$/year and 10% is dedicated to infrastructure. However, budgets are overall balanced, with there being a land value tax implemented on all Byzantine-owned land and there is also a social wealth fund meant to help regular citizens. This allows for a slight budget surplus as of now.
Vissarion Owfithus, soon after being appointed advisor, has begun to exert his liberal internationalist policies, convincing Mitrides to allow Byzantium to join the Council for Mutual Technoeconomic Assistance and has said that Byzantium is on the cusps of a new foreign policy: "Not that of warfare and antagonization, but that of competition but also collaboration. It may sound oxymoronic, but its what pragmatism is all about. Pragmatism has brought forth the best in us, humanity." Said Vissarion Owfithus. He has also convinced Mitrides that Byzantium should join the International Non-Aligned Movement, started by Greater Illinois and has also called on Mitrides to start the File:Galactic Imperialism (Real).png International Space Defense, an expansion of the Byzantine Space Defense.
In other news, Byzantium has created the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Department of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in response to the UFO incident seen in the Pelion mountains, which messed up the electronics of said hikers who saw it. Its goal is to investigate other such UAPs and to find a definitive solution to them and to find their origins, to see if they're extraterrestrial or not.
Byzantium has officially sent the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Ukrainian Government In Exile to the newly established Ruthenian Salvation Area, in order to bring back what was once Ukraine, with the Ukrainian government in exile having the ideology of liberal democratic populism (mostly Zelensky pre-war). There shall be international observation of the new elections in Ruthenia, in order to make sure that there won't be election rigging. The Ukrainian Government In Exile will participate in the upcoming elections under the party Servant Of The People.
Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Servant Of The People

- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Zelenskyism

This represents information about the newly established political party in the Ruthenian Salvation Area, based on the ideology of the Ukrainian Government In Exile, which has recently been brought in to Ruthenia by Byzantium after the ending of the PSNR-FRWPIL war. They will participate in the new Ruthenian election.

Updates from the Jerry Ehman Probe as it is confirmed that it has detected no intelligent life on TOI 700, although it has confirmed that microbial life can exist on the system. It shall be heading for the Clipper and N4XT star systems, which are both around 340 and 500 light years away from Earth respectively, with Clipper being closer. It will then be heading to the solar system of much debate, the Tabby star system. This Star system is said to be the home of a type 2 advanced extraterrestrial civilization, at least according to hypotheses, especially seeing the dims in Tabby's star. It is currently around 130 light years away from Earth and remains the farthest object ever.
Ultrasteel, the strongest form of steel ever created through the molecular synthesis which allowed for stronger components. This is not only used in military gear and military units, but is also used in day-to-day life, with buildings being made out of this material. It being very resistant to earthquakes, buildings made of ultrasteel being able to handle earthquakes of up to a magnitude of 12-13, a magnitude last seen 60 million years ago and is very unlikely if not impossible for such an earthquake to occur today. Which makes buildings in Byzantium basically indestructible and safe.
Aekkea has created the Quicklaunch Railgun, it being able to fire its projectile at an altitude of up to 600 km and has a range of 600 km. It is considered the most powerful railgun ever created, however the gun has a length of 100 meters, inspired by designs of the Schwerer Gustav and it is equipped with a 1.6 dm round bore. However, its disadvantages are that it is very slow and as such, without its protective shield, it could be taken down by bomber jets. However, it has a short reload time, despite its size.
Antimatter is a very important topic for scientists in Byzantium, especially after a recent breakthrough in which it cost only 5M$ to create 5 kg of Antimatter, this means that an antimatter based weapon/propulsion system could practically be created, and it would be the most powerful form of technology ever used, because if launched from say a jet from the sky, it could destroy a large city with millions of people if to be ever used in war, which scientists hope isn't, however in propulsion it could further improve FTL travel.
Political scientists have created the term "New Right" to summarize the foreign policy doctrine implemented by Greater Illinois and Byzantium. The contents of the New Right include pragmatism, willing to work with pacts such as NWP on economic and technological issues, while still being part of GTO.
A new political current has been beginning to take Byzantium by storm for quite some time now, a current which sees the individual as the maker of his own destiny, also glorifying nature (Fun fact: 50% of Byzantine cities are just greenery, despite unrestrictive zoning laws), viewing it as a place of meditation and relaxation. It supports an attitude of going with the flow and also emphasizing idealistic tendencies, best manifested through. This represents a rise in Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Neo-Romanticism in Byzantium, differing in some aspects from original Romanticism, as it does not want to completely end the current post-industrial state of Byzantium, but it rather wants to intertwine it with nature and individual free will. This movement is best represented by the pressure group known as the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Movement for Free Destiny. The reason as to why this current has been picking up steam lately is because of Byzantium's rapid technological acceleration and the natural reactions from humans as a result of these policies.
It seems the Jerry Ehman Probe has detected a fast radio burst, with it known to not have come from any known natural sources and the source of it seems to be the Tabby's Star. Has this probe managed to detect an advanced extraterrestrial civilization in the infamous Tabby's Star, or is this just another natural occurrence? If its the former, then it is probably proof that the aliens know that we're coming (at least, our probe) and that, if they're hostile will come and destroy us, say more pessimistic voices. We will find out as more updates are given by the probe.
Byzantium has constructed over the years a sophisticated bunker system underground, which can house around 100 million people while also maintaining a constant supply of food, water and military equipment, in case of a potential invasion by a hostile force, way more advanced than our own. This will allow us to be protected in case our shields from the SMS are taken down along with all other auxiliary defense forces in case it is taken down. While vitamin D, C etc. will be a problem, there is a constant supply of them as well, in order to keep the population in shape if people will have to stay years on end in the bunker. The bunkers are made of ultrasteel and are from 5 meters deep to 100 meters deep. and all of our needs will be met even as the surface is bombarded to hell.
Byzantine asteroid mining companies have begun to further expand their operations in the Oort Cloud and also in the asteroid belt discovered on Proxima Centauri, hoping to earn more revenue for the government (and for themselves) in the Social Wealth Fund.
The cost of building a Dyson Sphere would be astronomical, says the Byzantine Space Agency, stating that such a project would be the most expensive thing we would ever do. Not only would the costs of sending spaceships to Mercury and mining it would be present, but also getting all the components and wrapping them around the massive Sun. We would not only need an entire planet to mine, but also some extra asteroids, and we would also have to make sure it constantly gives off power. The BSA has estimated that such a project would cost upwards of 62 quadrillion dollars, way more than the GDP of the entire planet + other colonies.
Speaking of colonies, the lunar colony has amassed a population of around 1 million, while the mars colony only has a population of 200,000. There is starting to be growth, but its not enough to meet our targets, especially as we have created synthetic, CRISPR-based plants/algae that are specifically suited for a Martian environment, making our terraforming of Mars easier, while still allowing us to live there. Proxima Centauri B has also begun to pick up a decently sized permanent population of around 10,000. The moon of Titan also has a small base of around 1,000 people with there being plans for the creation of permanent populations in Europa, Enceladus and Pluto and the Caelian moons, which could potentially have underground oceans under a thick layer of ice, harboring microscopic, extraterrestrial life.
Loukas Mitrides has been invited to a massive event in Norway and Sweden and has not only decided to go with the usual standard robotic guards, which accompany him at every public event (so that you know, he doesn't get assassinated) while also bringing out some of his trusted human advisors such as Vissarion Owfithus, Mladen Vitanov and Mehmet Arslan and two of his AI advisors, Sophia Katsaros and Dimitris Karas to the event. The AI advisors are also in the same shape as standard robotic units, but have different roles compared to the guards, but they can theoretically serve as guards in the case of extraordinary moments.
How much does Byzantium's massive amount of nuclear weapons actually cost them? According to data gathered by the Department of Statistics & Surveys, to maintain Byzantium's arsenal of 30,000 nuclear weapons they have to pay around 300B$/year in maintenance, seeing as how the nukes are left unused, as there is just no reason to use them, even if the whole asteroid deterrence thing is popped up. This has sparked complaints, especially from more pacifist voices, that spending so much on nukes is just unacceptable.
It is said that Byzantine private space companies are planning to use the breakthrough in antimatter technology to create a x7000 FTL unmanned aerial vehicles which will be used to get more information on planets known to have intelligent life in order to gather more information about their military, politics, culture etc. It is believed according to them that this is necessary in the event of a potential first contact between our two civilizations.
During the wedding event of Norway-Sweden, the Prime Minister of Byzantium has given a speech congratulating Iefan Alstud for his wedding with the love of his life. The speech is as follows:

"Ladies and gentlemen,

It is an absolute honor to be present here today, amidst the joyous occasion of the wedding celebration of Alstud and their beloved partner. As a representative of Byzantium and a witness to this beautiful union, I stand before you with a heart filled with warmth and well wishes.

First and foremost, I extend my heartfelt congratulations to the happy couple, Alstud and their beloved spouse. Today marks the beginning of a remarkable journey, where two souls intertwine to create a bond that is stronger than any fortress and as enduring as the legacy of Byzantium. May your union be blessed with love, harmony, and unwavering support for one another.

This gathering serves as a testament to the power of love and unity. We have gathered here from different corners of the world, transcending borders and cultural differences, to celebrate the sacred bond between Alstud and their partner. Norway-Sweden, with its rich history and picturesque landscapes, has provided the perfect backdrop for this momentous occasion. It is a reminder that love knows no boundaries and that it has the power to unite people from diverse backgrounds.

Today, as we witness the exchange of vows and the promise of a lifetime together, let us remember the values that form the foundation of a successful marriage. Trust, respect, and communication are the pillars that will support you during both joyous and challenging times. May your love be unwavering, and your commitment to one another unyielding, as you embark on this shared journey.

As a world leader, I have had the privilege of witnessing the strength that lies in unity. Today, in this gathering of friends and family, we witness the profound impact that love has on our lives. Love has the power to bridge gaps, heal wounds, and inspire greatness. Let this celebration serve as a reminder that love and compassion can transform the world around us.

To Alstud and their partner, I offer my heartfelt wishes for a lifetime filled with love, laughter, and shared adventures. May you support and uplift one another, finding solace and strength in the embrace of your love. Let your union be a beacon of hope, radiating love and harmony into the world.

As we raise our glasses to toast this union, let us cherish the love that has brought us all together today. May this celebration serve as a reminder that love is a universal language that knows no boundaries, and when nurtured and cherished, it has the power to bring us closer to a world where unity and compassion reign supreme.

Congratulations, Alstud and their beloved partner on this joyous occasion. May your wedding day be the beginning of a lifetime of love and happiness. Cheers to the journey ahead!

Thank you."

It is said that Byzantium has created an antimatter bomb, the most powerful bomb to ever exist, it is currently in a containment field deep underground, in a special facility, to distinguish it from all the other nuclear weapons. This bomb has a yield of 500 gigatons, requiring 12 tons of antimatter. This bomb alone costs 9.6B$ and as such maintenance may be very expensive. Nuclear scientists are doing everything to keep it locked up and contained, as for it to be used in the VERY worst cases and one wrong move can mean terrible things.
Byzantium is also cooperating and participating on this new outer space project created by Greater Illinois, creating a massive space station on the orbit between Earth and Mars, serving as a resting point for probes, mining ships and more. Byzantium seeks to also use this massive spaceship to allow for permanent human habitation and will have permanent human inhabitants on its sector.
Byzantium has offered a defense pact to the country of Northern France, seeing as it a fellow liberal ally and believing that with it, it can ensure peace in Europe and the world, seeing it as a potential new base of technological advancement, even helping it economically through the BTF and other things and it seeks to commit more to these.
While Byzantium is a full on member of the COMECON, helping more neutral states like the PSNR, it has, like Greater Illinois, refused to help advance nations such as the Soviet Union and the Balkan Union, viewing them as potential threats and that if helped could make them even more threatening overall. This is part of the so-called "New Right" foreign policy that is recently being pursued both by Byzantium and Greater Illinois.
Private space companies are saying that if we had 12 tons of antimatter used to create a powerful bomb, then so they can have a ship that can travel at tens of thousands of times the speed of light using antimatter, allowing them to get to places far far quicker. Scientists are estimating that through this, they can generate speeds of up to x26000 the speed of light, getting from here to Proxima Centauri in just 1 hour, or 10 hour to TRAPPIST-1 system. Not a long trip, but scientists say that we won't really go beyond 1000 light years with this if we want to truly be interstellar.
Private space companies have begun creating flying-saucer shaped objects that are the size of a combat drone and are unmanned. They can travel at x7000 times the speed of light and are used for reconnaissance operations on the planet Trappist 1-e and of surveillance of the Solaran civilization. They will be cloaked using lasers, preventing them from being seen by their probes/observatories or just random people.
The SETI Institute was able to get a few government funds in order to build the STARCOM observatory in the Byzantine mountains, also known as SETI Transmissions and Receptions for Cosmic Outreach and Multispectral observations. It is 1 km in diameter and is thus the largest such SETI telescope ever created. As the name suggests, it can communicate with aliens not just through radio waves but also through gamma waves , x-ray, microwaves, infrared and the visible light waves. As such, it can communicate with a frequency of up to 10^19 Hz (gamma rays) down to just 3000 Hz (radio waves), allowing it to identify potentially a vast amount of alien civilizations if there truly are more besides the ones already discovered.
The Pandora Bomb is an 85 meter tall antimatter bomb made up of 12 tons of antimatter and has a potential yield of 500 gigatons of TNT, the most powerful bomb ever wielded by Byzantium and it is hoped that it will never have to be launched, as its launch could potentially be world ending. Nuclear scientists are trying to not open Pandora's Box and are unwilling to let the technology get out of our country, as such it is unknown how it was made.
Listen to the official Byzantine choices for Greece and Bulgaria at the upcoming Eurovision: Armenaki and Kaval Sviri (Commercial)
What are the largest cities in Byzantium? First off, Constantinople has a population of 26.6 million, making up nearly 50% of the population of the Eastern Roman Republic, being followed up by Smyrna with 6 million, then Athens with 3.1 million, then Sofia with 2.3 million, then Thessaloniki with 1.2 million, Varna with 800.000 people, Patras with 650.000 people, Adrianople with 520.000 people, Plovdiv with 500.000 people, Heraklion with 390.000 people and then Burgas to conclude the list with 270,000 people. The rest of the list can be found on the official website for the Byzantine News Network.
In Byzantium, railways are operated and run by the Hellenic Railways Organization (HRO), while the name Hellenic may suggest it is only for Greece, it is actually for the entirety of Byzantium, including Bulgarian, Turkish, Aromanian and Macedonian parts of the country. Byzantium is known for its vast network of maglev railways that connect all major cities of Byzantium, with travel times between them being very small due to maglev fast speeds.
It turns out that the profits from asteroid mining have grown to 1 quadrillion, to levels similar to that of Greater Illinois, especially after few extensions to the Oort Cloud done and a slight hike in asteroid mining from Helleniq Energy, however it is recognized that we are at a limit of profits from asteroid mining, however it means that we can potentially pay for a lot of megaprojects/technologies, such as the recently proposed Pan-European Railway by CECA, which Byzantium will help in boosting its construction, taking only weeks/months instead of years thanks to automation.
Despite SETI building a 1 km multispectral telescope that will try to detect alien civilizations, it being the best space telescope ever created in the goal of finding extraterrestrial civilizations. However, the Byzantine Space Agency has told SETI to calm down with its extraterrestrial "extravaganza", resulting in its operation being very limited, with the BSA instead preferring we find out their location first and not both of us finding out our locations.
It is said there are classified prototypes of antimatter guns, according to conspiracy theorist group the Brothers of Byzantium and that the military and our intelligence agency are trying to do everything to hide it from the public view. This has been rejected by mainstream scientists, saying that such guns are just impossible as of now to create.
The Global Firepower Index is an official index detailing the military strength of countries all around the world based on the amount of available firepower + many other factors, in order to determine which nation is the strongest in the world militarily. In first place we have Greater Illinois, which should not come as a surprise, with them scoring 0.102 on the index, while Byzantium came in second place scoring 0.103, with 0 being perfect and 1 being the worst. The reason between this discrepancy is that Byzantium, despite being equal in military technology Greater Illinois just has more firepower. The nations from 3rd place to 10th place are as follows:
- Quebec (0.105)
- Polish Social Nationalist Republic (0.267)
- Indonesia (0.271)
- Neo-Soviet Union (0.293)
- Thailand (0.293)
- West Germany (0.300)
- Norway-Sweden (0.321)
- Italy (0.359)
3 Byzantine fighter pilots, part of the Eastern Roman Aerospace Forces shot down an UFO this was after they had gotten permission from the Aerospace Forces to shoot it down, as they are in possession of most nuclear weapons in Byzantium and had noticed that all of the 2,000 earthly nuclear weapon launchers had for a reason stopped working and had gotten news that there was an UFO identified by the fighter pilots, which caused the Aerospace Force to give authorization to either intercept or to shoot down the UFO.

The pilots first noticed the UFO at 11:00 AM in the morning over the Aegean Sea and began chasing it, while also remarking that the UFO could do maneuvers that could not be done by human pilots. Along with this, it also seems that it possessed anti-gravity technology, seeing how it was able to at one point hover and then shoot up into the atmosphere in its same position, which forced the fighter jets to activate their superdrive to catch up to the record speeds. After receiving permission to shoot it down after the Aerospace Forces detected a malfunction in their nuclear weapons launchers, the pilots immediately locked on target with their particle blaster cannons and fired, noticing that they destroyed what appears to be the UFO's electromagnetic shield after extensive firing. Obviously, said one of the pilots, the UFO noticed that it was shot down and performed a risky operation and immediately descended down from its 50 km altitude down to a simple 20 km altitude, however the pilots finally locked on to it and shot it down out of the sky. This is all the Aerospace Force has decided to report, however conspiracy theories have said the fact that they could have been extraterrestrials or even secret military technology that was just being tested by the Aerospace Forces. While it is known Byzantium has created flying saucers, it recognizes that such anti-gravity-based ones are just not yet possible to create.

The Byzantine News Network has invited Lavrentios Vassou, a person who has apparently worked with the BSA and Aerospace Forces before is revealing the truth about the UFO. The interview will begin in 3, 2, 1...

I'm Lavrentios Vassou and I am happy to be invited to this news network. Its not often you see a libertarian country willing to invite even the most unconventional people to such a mainstream news network, especially one that is state-owned. Anyway, I would like to tell you something startling about this and it goes beyond just this one shot-down UFO that caused a malfunction in our nuclear weapon launchers (around 2,000 of them).

Trust me, the Aerospace Forces has recovered a lot of such flying saucer-shaped UFOs as seen in the recent crashed one and we have been able to gather some information in our attempt to reverse engineer their powerful technology. We know that it is light years ahead of our own, as they seem to have anti-gravity powered by Moscovium also known as element-115 and also have antimatter as propulsion but on top of this they have to utilize protons to sort of hover in the air and may have sort of wormhole technology to instantly get to places on the other side of the universe, it was not a given but it is likely.

These aliens have been watching us for 10,000 years using the Black Knight satellite, also utilizing these same elements and know everything they have to know about our civilized history and seeing how we evolved to such a level, may now ready to strike us at our peak, this is a warning.

Where do they come from? They come from the Tabby's Star system, the infamous system which we concluded had built a Dyson Sphere which reduced the luminosity of its home star. They're beyond us and we may be doomed if they ever come.

The Byzantine Defense Ministry's office in regards to unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) has finally declassified efforts to reverse engineer previously shot down 10 flying saucers before and the shot down Black Knight Satellite, which had failed mostly (although it is said that some antimatter breakthroughs could be associated with these attempts and that it had managed to know the fact that they had been spying on us for 10,000 years and came from Tabby's Star), even with the most powerful computers at the time, however this new North Pole Hypercomputer has opened up new frontiers for our humanity, as true human-alien hybrid technology can be created at an industrial-scale and the designs for them are already existent.

The fact is, over these 10,000 years we have advanced way quicker than they have according to Illinoisian discoveries through AM/FM radio, reveals our Science Department, as while we have went from basic agriculture to hypercomputers, they have largely remained the same technologically, even if slightly ahead of us, but they soon will not be, as they are shocked at our rapid technological advancement ever since we have shot down their reconnaissance satellite with our exospheric superheavy railgun cannon, with it being right in range as it was only at 400 km above sea level and it can fire at up to 600 km above sea level.

Byzantines going to the Greater Illinoisian Banquet, as shown in the infographic by the Byzantine News Network:
- Prime Minister Loukas Mitrides
- Cabinet ministers (15)
- Advisory council (12)
- CEOs of the largest Byzantine companies (Panayotis Incorporated, Helleniq Energy, Aekkea, AlphaBank, Aegean Corporation, Akbank and Kamenitza)
- Some Generals of the Byzantine military (including Akakios Stamoglou)
- The Standard Robotic Units serving under the Prime Ministerial guard
As Byzantine scientists were attempting to dissect the Black Knight Satellite that had been shot a year ago, they had found what appears to be an alien minicomputer, although they had no idea how to turn it on. However, thanks to the efforts of the North Pole Hypercomputer, they were able to find something pretty startling in there.

They not only had a drawing of the vitruvian man (drew by Leonardo Da Vinci) they also had drawings of Tesla's Wardenclyffe Tower. They also had drawings of our military weaponry and other technologies and how it had evolved from 10,000 BCE till the moment it got shot down. It also had a list of the greatest powers of the world every year since 10,000 BCE. It is clear that they had profound knowledge of our civilization and also had massive data capacity, seeing as how they were able to gather so much into a small, hand-sized computer and a cipher.

They had also figured out our religion, our centers of government, our population centers, everything. They know almost everything about us, including most our weaponry, our culture, our creeds and how we're not united into one nation as they are. Since they appear to worship an esoteric religion, they're disgusted by our worship of "God" and maybe our own esoteric religions could be used to communicate to them or try to resonate with them.

Maybe the thousands of flying saucers identified in human history were all gathering information and sending it to the Black Knight Satellite, while some did not make it, especially recently, it was enough for the BKS to be full of data that we couldn't access until now. While we have proven that the BKS does indeed hold a record of our history and that the UFOs identified not just in the 1900s but also in antiquity and the middle ages were all probably real.

What was once thought to be a theoretical form of energy, a science institute in Athens which studies cold fusion has finally, through reverse engineered alien technology, obtained a successful cold fusion reaction involving the quantum tunneling of palladium and deuterium quarks, allowing them to pass the Coulomb barrier, in contrast to hot fusion reactions (deuterium-tritium and other forms) , which required for there to be temperatures of millions of degrees so that the quarks (or atoms) could fuse together, generating energy.

Through this method, the amount of energy that has to be inserted into a fusion reaction is way less than compared to hot fusion, resulting in similar amounts of energy being generated compared to hot fusion while at the same time the amount of energy given in for the reaction is way less than whatever hot fusion requires.

Cold fusion is also safer than hot fusion overall and it can also work better with antimatter to serve as a perpetual source of not just energy but also propulsion for space travel and other purposes. However, there is a negative side to this in the sense that a cold fusion bomb can be just as powerful as an hot fusion bomb, allowing for different types of annihilator bombs to be created, aka bombs which exceed 10 gigatons in TNT yield until 500 gigatons in TNT yield, where then they are called antimatter bombs, since it is confirmed (as of now) that only antimatter can create TNT yields that exceed the said amount.

This discovery, among with many other discoveries was able to happen through the NPH (North Pole Hypercomputer) as it is the most powerful computer in the world and it as of now has allowed us to reverse engineer alien technology, with the long-sought cold fusion being one of them.

The Byzantine Space Agency has released official reports on the permanent number of people living on each territory of Byzantium:
- Earth - 65,000,000 people
- Moon - 2,300,000 people
- Mars - 1,000,000 people
- Phobos - 30 people
- Deimos - 15 people
- Ceres - 1,000 people
- Europa - 7,200 people
- Enceladus - 4,500 people
- Titan - 16,000 people
- Pluto - 250 people
- Proxima Centauri B - 15,000 people
- Trappist 1f - 1,200 people
- Trappist 1d - 100 people

Total: 68,345,295 Byzantines on all places of the Solar system.

According to the Science Department, humanity is around a type 1.12 civilization, with nations such as Greater Illinois/Byzantium being well at around 1.50 on the Kardashev scale while there are outliers which are still 0.70, the human average in the 2020s. The reason humanity has reached this high of a level on the Kardashev scale in such a short amount of time is due to rapid advancements in energy, including in things like fusion (thermonuclear, quark, triple-alpha), renewables (solar, wind, geothermal etc.) along with advancements in artificial intelligence and computers, which has allowed for further technological advancements which has meant more energy consumption (and that's a good thing).

Updates from the Jerry Ehman probe as it has reached 150-160 light years away from our planet, Earth. Despite it going at speeds x7000 faster than light, it still will take a long time for it to get to Tabby's Star and the Bernhardian civilization that is known to be from there. It is said that it will take 60 days to get to the system, despite the rapid speeds of the probe. Who knows what it will see once it gets there, or even before it gets there.

Panayotis Inc. has managed to incorporate the computing power of the North Pole Hypercomputer into the Zeta artificial intelligence bot, allowing for higher operations per second and as such can serve more useful to Byzantium, without having to travelling to the North Pole to do projects that are just too complex even for our top Kythera and Eagle quantum computers.

A military project regarding Relativistic Kinetic Kill Vehicles (projectiles which travel at 99.9% the speed of light, named after the theory of General/Special Relativity) has been established, however testing must take at the closest 2 light years away from our planet, since firing such projectile anything closer could potentially melt not just planet Earth but all the planets in the Solar System.

Zeta AI has created the proper blue print for such RKKV and while it requires massive amounts of energy, it has created proper designs for a particle accelerator, which can accelerate a tungsten rod to 99.9% the speed of light and if launched at a test object (which is a borrowed asteroid). The RKKV will be consisted of the launcher of the projectile + encased particle accelerator, which will accelerate the tungsten particles within the rod to these very fast speeds, which will be launched

Since the propulsion of this RKKV will be based on antimatter, it will get to 2 light years away from our planet in just 40 minutes with the asteroid being held and then thrown out using kinetic energy where then the RKKV would line up with the asteroid and then fire the tungsten rod travelling at 99.99% the speed of light, with the asteroid being thrown in at a fast enough speed that it gets to around 1.4 million kilometers away from the launcher, with the RKKV taking 5 seconds to hit it. The RKKV is unmanned, so no man or animal will be harmed/killed from this and also no planets would be superheated to their death. This will be the most powerful weapon ever tested by mankind, and we hope it isn't THAT powerful.

The test blast conducted with the RKKV could be seen in area of around 20 light years away from the point of contact between the 0.99c projectile and the 10 km asteroid at 1M km away from the vehicle (Point Blanc). The atoms from the tungsten rod, according to scientists, literally smash open through the asteroid's atoms, sort of creating its own particle accelerator, causing a powerful sphere of subatomic particles and gamma radiation expanding at the speed of light. While this blast has not irradiated/evaporated anyone here on Earth, shockwaves of it have been heard on nearby planets such as Earth and Proxima Centauri B. The radius of this sphere of light would be at around 50 AU (7.48 billion kilometers), way more powerful than any of our nuclear bombs. Its TNT equivalent yield has been estimated at around 2,000 yottatons. As said previously, pretty powerful.

Along with this, its temperature would be in the millions or even billions of Kelvin, thanks to the concentration of plasma released from such impact, with its temperatures being similar to nuclear explosions. The shield generators on the unmanned Relativistic Kinetic Kill Vehicle were quickly destroyed along with the ship itself, despite the fact that the shields were put on full power. This testifies to the power of the blast and just shows that nukes are possibly an outdated relic compared to some other advanced alien civilizations that are potentially out there.

No people have died from this event and our planet luckily hasn't been superheated or irradiated along with other celestial bodies thanks to the circumstances the test took place in. Let's hope that there isn't a civilization with an even bigger and even more powerful relativistic kinetic kill projectile.

Military

The Byzantine Armed Forces are the official military forces of the Eastern Roman Republic and they're handled by the Department of Defense and the Ministry of Defense respectively. While most of the military is artificial intelligence-based, powered by quantum computers (Kythera IV or Eagle-9) there are still some human units, made up of the most patriotic Byzantines as active units (with there being reserve units for people 18-60 who participated in the military when they were 18-21). Here's the official list of the military and what it contains:

Standard Robotic Units (SRUs) - 20,000,000
- 6th Gen - 1,000,000
- 7th Gen - 5,000,000
- 8th Gen - 9,000,000
- Police Variants - 4,000,000
- Standard Robotic Gendarmerie - 1,000,000
Human Soldiers - 640,000
ADMECH Units - 440,000
- 200,000 AT-1 "Raiders"
- 150,000 AT-2 "Marauders"
- 90,000 AT-3 "Behemoths"
Fighter Jets - 10,500
- 4,500 ER-4 Fighters
- 3,000 F-42 Fighters
- 1,000 ER-7 Fighters
- 700 F-35 Fighters
- 500 LF-1 Fighters
- 600 ER-11 Fighters
- 200 A-2 "Lightning" Fighters
Bombers - 13,650
- 6,000 B-110 "Basil" Bombers
- 5,000 B-112 "Alexios" Bombers
- 2,000 HK-1 "Milennium" Bombers
- 500 B-3 "Phantasm" Bombers
- 150 XMH-7 "Exterminator" Flying Fortresses
Drones - 21,000
- 8,000 MD-2 "Slayer" Drones (ordinary drones, utilizing gamma-based laser cannons, gauss weapons and laser-guided missiles)
- 7,000 MI-1 "Goblet" Drones (kamikaze drones, equipped with a 1 kiloton warhead, meant to destroy military convoys)
- 2,500 DR-2 "Locust" Drones (modified MQ-9 Reapers, carrying laser-guided missiles, laser cannons and gauss weapons)
- 2,500 DR-1 "Midge" Drones (equipped with lightning systems that can not only destroy convoys but also turn off their electricity, at least for a temporary amount of time)
ER Ships - 640
- 215 ERS Cruisers
- 185 ERS Submarines
- 100 ERS Amphibious Warfare
- 50 ERS Aircraft Carriers
- 50 ERS Corvettes
- 20 ERS Destroyers
- 20 ERS Platforms
30,350 Nuclear Weapons
- 10,000 IPBMs (Interplanetary Ballistic Missiles - used to annihilate rogue asteroids that could destroy Planet Earth)
- 9,500 TRBMs (Tactical Ballistic Range Missiles)
- 3,200 MRBMs (Medium Range Ballistic Missiles)
- 2,800 SRBMs (Short Range Ballistic Missiles)
- 3,000 IRBMs (Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles)
- 1,000 ICBMs (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles)
- 400 ARBMs (Atmospheric Range Ballistic Missiles)
- 400 SHPDSs (Superheavy Payload Deliverance Systems - carries the Annihilator Bombs, with 10, 20, 60 and 100 gigaton designs, which are to be used in extraordinary and exceptional cases, and is kept as a last resort)
- 50 ERBMs (Exospheric Range Ballistic Missiles)
8,800 Standard Robotic Tripods
- 4,000 Herons (60 meters max. height, 2 "death rays" and 2 coil guns)
- 2,700 Spiders (30 meters max. height, 1 "death ray" and can release deadly chemicals informally known as "stealthy agents")
- 1,400 Krakens (30 meters max. length, 1 "death ray" - sea version of the Spiders)
- 600 Overseers (60 meters max. height, 3 "death rays" and 2 railguns)
- 100 Mantras (60 meters max. height, 2 particle cannons and 1 "death ray")
400,000 Artillery
- 230,000 Kinetic railgun artillery
- 70,000 Tactical High Energy Laser artillery
- 50,000 Kinetic gauss artillery
- 20,000 Laser-guided rocket artillery
- 15,000 Particle-based artillery
- 15,000 Multiple tactical rocket launcher artillery
7,200 Armored Vehicles
- 3,000 ER-K4 "Challenger" Tanks
- 1,500 M98A3 "Behemoth" Superheavy Tanks
- 1,000 ER-F6 "Scipio" Tanks
- 500 JR-S8 "Viper" Tanks
- 200 J-A1T "Paladin" Tanks
1,000 Space Weapons
- 900 "Ares" platforms
- 100 SDPs
1,200,000 Miscellanous WMDs
- 600,000 Azazel shells
- 250,000 Tartarus shells
- 100,000 Black smoke shells (Released from the Spider standard robotic tripods)
- 80,000 Plague shells
- 70,000 Obliterator rounds
- 50,000 Starvation shells
- 49,970 Thor shells (WMD based on lightning, can be released from any kind of aircraft. It, through its mass lightning of a certain area can leave an entire country without power for years on end)
- 30 City Destroyers (Massive Particle cannons, capable of destroying cities with hundreds of thousands of people. they're kept classified and are not to be used)

Economy

The Economy of the Eastern Roman Republic is one of the largest economies in the world, having a GDP of around 13.5T$ and a GDP/Capita of around 211K$. Byzantium is known for its Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination public private partnerships Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination, which is the process in which governmental agencies cooperate with private companies in terms of projects and just overall taxes, subsidies and regulations in order to allow for a smooth economy and technological growth. While yes Byzantium does have megacorporations, most notably Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Panayotis Inc. and Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Helleniq Energy, with Panayotis being a conglomerate that operates in technology, computers, artificial intelligence and sometimes in energy. Meanwhile, Helleniq Energy operates in energy & mining. As such, these companies are the biggest overall megacorps, although there are also some foreign megacorporations (BlackRock, Amazon, Lidl etc.) from other countries as well. While these megacorporations have power over Byzantine politics (even if not directly in the Advisory Council) as they give government politicians money and are subsidized by the government. There are still foreign banks like Citi, UBS and Vanguard, among others that operate in Byzantium, with these banks mostly being from Greater Illinois, Byzantium's most important ally.

While yes, megacorporations do exist in Byzantium without a doubt, there is still competition with small businesses, so they are not necessarily monopolies. However, they are ahead due to their revolutionary ways of implementing technology, such as automation, fully synthetic production of food and many other things. However, thanks to the government, people have been able to enjoy the fruits of this technological innovation also brought on by relations with Greater Illinois.

This means that the quality of life is great in Byzantium, with there being high levels of social cohesion overall and the average Byzantine earns around 200,000$/year, a very hefty salary, thanks to work mostly in engineering and programming sectors, the new sectors of this AI economy. Some Byzantines can also pick work in politics, law and can even earn money as a video creator on websites such as Youtube. As such, most people are successful and there really isn't a high degree of inequality between people as not only are there high salaries, thanks to new technologies brought upon by the fourth industrial revolution such as nanotechnology, 3D printing, CRISPR gene editing and many others, food has become very cheap, along with other consumer products as they can be created quickly and cheaply by AI. This also applies to housing, as there is a vast supply of housing and low zoning and land use regulations, which means the cost of living crisis is inexistent.

The Eastern Roman Republic has a fiat currency, officially known as the Eastern Roman Drachma or informally as just the Drachma, however there is also a cryptocurrency with the same name serving as a tool for online transactions, as banking has begun to increasingly be digital.

Economically, Byzantium is basically independent in most if not all fields, with it handling its own food production (despite its very urbanized city design) thanks to lab-grown food and 3D printing, along with energy production from fusion power and soon from perpetual motion through the construction of the Constantinople Energy Reactor (CER), which is the size of the French ITER. Its also independent industrially, producing on its own Standard Robotic Units, having produced tens of millions of them ready to be used in the military as a better alternative to humans (although they still have to do conscription at 18-21). As such, Byzantium has established itself as a great industrial power only rivalled by countries such as Illinois or Quebec.

Through this, Byzantium has essentially become an export-driven economy, especially after joining the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Bloc of Free Trade and other organizations, through it becoming much less isolated on the world stage. Its main exports have become advanced components, weapons, lab-grown food, energy equipment, computers, pharmaceuticals and other industrial products. This has allowed Byzantium to have a massive trade surplus, just like Greater Illinois, to fund technological progress and to also allow for a high standard of living for its citizens, this has made sure there is only a small wealth and income gap, that is only based on merit and not bad economics.

Taxation

Byzantine taxes are overall low, as the main sources of government revenue come from the social wealth fund from asteroid mining for resources and also from Byzantine exports overall. This isn't to say that taxes are inexistent, as Byzantium does have the following taxes

A Land Value Tax, a tax on the unimproved value of the land, recently set at a fluid rate based on the revenues generated from the social wealth fund and trade exports. As such, as of now, it is at a low level, because of the aforementioned social wealth fund and export-based trading.
A payroll tax, meant to pay for the benefits from healthcare, social security, education etc. and as the previous one, it is set at a fluid level ever since the establishment of the social wealth fund. While it generates less revenue than the former, it is still an important tax as through trust funds for healthcare, social security and education (among others) are not depleted.

Technology

The Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Eastern Roman Republic is known for being one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, which has allowed it to earn a status as one of the world's superpowers along with Greater Illinois, with the latter state being credited for Byzantium's technological development up to this very point. As such, Byzantium's technological advancement can be divided up into the following phases:

Post-Collapse Recovery

Nobody thought that after the election of Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Vissarion Owfithus in 2024 as Greek prime minister that things would in such a radically different direction. But things did, as the mid-2020s saw something not even the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination doomers from early 2020 could have imagined: the collapse of every single major power in the world all because of their terrible, incompetent decisions not just economically but also militarily.

File:Great-Powers-Map.svg

Map of the World's Great Powers as of 2023

This was a time of not just great social unrest but also great opportunity, as exploited by emerging new countries, which included a new Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Greco-Bulgarian Confederation Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination, which served as the precursor to the federation known as the Eastern Roman Republic. Under Owfithus, the confederation would begin to prosper economically and during the collapse of NATO and Erdogan's insanity push, an invasion of Turkey was declared along with the remnants of NATO and his regime would fall, with the western side of Turkey remaining under Byzantine rule.

Vissarion Owfithus began to take in massive amounts of immigrants from other places around the world, in order to allow for a stable jobs market and economic prosperity while also trying to fix the brain drain and economic crisis. Along with the fact that EU/IMF loans no longer had to be paid combined with implementations of relaxed zoning rules + land value taxation, Byzantium would begin to see its own technological ascension, even if not as fast as Greater Illinois, reaching an HDI of around 0.95.

While its civilian technology was improving, its military technology, despite improving was still at most the same level as pre-collapse United States, having its own versions of armored tanks such as the M1 Abrams and also developing its first few stealth fighter jets/bombers, even if not as good as their pre-collapse USA counterparts.

However, a geopolitical decision, known as the Pivot to Illinois would completely change Byzantium's trajectory economically, socially, militarily and technologically forever, as this decision allowed for Byzantium to be what is now one of the great powers of PCBaller World.

Pivot to Illinois

As said previously, the Pivot to Illinois proved to be the greatest geopolitical victory ever achieved by the Vissarion Owfithus administration, as through it, Byzantium was able to sign many military, scientific and trade agreements, which allowed for free trade between the two countries which especially boosted Byzantium's trajectory to becoming a technological superpower, just like Greater Illinois.

Byzantium's military technology was noticeably not so stronger compared to its rival nations and knew that a joint invasion by such nations would mean the end of Byzantium itself. As such, it dedicated its newly acquired Illinoisian technology to create what (was) the most powerful weapons of war, especially in Illinois's expanded Matrix defense system which integrated railguns, coilguns and lasers (then later particle weapons).

Byzantium was also able to create a very upgraded M1 Abrams, called the ER-K4 Challenger, which is equipped with one large particle cannon along with two auxiliary laser guns, one larger than the other, which is the most powerful tank alongside the M98A3 Behemoth, another very powerful (superheavy) tank which is equipped with 2 main railgun cannons and 4 auxiliary laser turrets, which also makes it a very powerful tank, even if it has a railgun instead of a particle weapon.

File:ERK4.png

ER-K4 Challenger Tank

Along with this, Byzantium and Greater Illinois also began to one of the few conscious super-AI, being way way smarter than humans and also being conscious and constantly learning. Through this, they began to have rapid advancements in technology alongside quantum computers, with these being the precursors to very big things, however antimatter still proved to be hard to create at low prices (that is until recently).

File:Roboteacher.PNG

A Robot Teacher, an example of the AI Revolution that has happened in Byzantium

While it seemed like things just couldn't be better, the greatest invention ever made in the history of mankind: The North Pole Hypercomputer. The largest and most powerful computer ever created, it has an op/s of around 10^4000, exceeding by thousands of orders of magnitude any computer made before it and turns out it was the greatest tool of innovation ever made by humanity and through it the potential peak of Illinoisian-Byzantine relations.

File:Northpole.PNG

Footage of the entrance to the complex containing the North Pole Hypercomputer

Hybrid Revolution

But then, a few days after the North Pole Hypercomputer, the most powerful quantum computer was opened, three ER-7 fighter pilots from the Byzantine Aerospace Forces would shoot down an unidentified flying object in the shape of a flying saucer which at times appeared to be hovering and shooting up into the atmosphere while being into exactly the same position as it was. It took a couple of minutes for the fighters to lock on to the UFO and eventually shoot it down, it crash landing into a forest in the Greek mountains, severely injuring what appeared to be the extraterrestrials inside.

File:Ufo.PNG

Footage captured by one of the pilots of the crashed flying saucer

While the UFO was sent to a secret military base which was revealed eventually "extraterrestrial", however the powerful computers inside did not manage to figure out how to reverse-engineer the technologies and while other previous UFOs managed to make antimatter creation not that expensive, we did not really figure out the core technologies of the extraterrestrials.

However, the Aerospace Forces decided to declassify documents which revealed the fact that they had another dozen captured flying saucers from the same alien race, while also revealing information about their biology such as the fact that they have similar tolerances to heat and cold, the fact that they wear mechanical suits to be able to walk in areas outside of their ships, the fact that they were also a carbon-based life form however breakthroughs in their language couldn't happen and they also revealed that the Black Knight Satellite (an alien reconnaissance satellite sent 10,000 years ago to spy on human civilization) was shot down by the Aekkea railgun, allowing them to study it.

Then, Illinois and Byzantium decided to send the flying saucer and the aliens from it to the North Pole Hypercomputer, which successfully manage to reverse-engineer their technology, figuring out their anti-gravity properties and also very durable form of steel and their electromagnetic shields which allowed them to possess a form of anti-gravity that not we had. It also turns out they figured out technologies like cold fusion, which through reverse engineering of their designs has allowed for a human alien hybrid revolution, which allows us to use their technologies combined with our own human condition not just in civilian life but also the military. Their flying saucer was also repaired by humanoid robots which are powered by the hypercomputer, allowing it to be operational again, along with its shield.

File:Flyingsaucer.PNG

Repaired flying saucer inside the North Pole Hypercomputer chamber

Not only that, through AM/FM radios, and the aliens biology and deciphered alien language by the hypercomputer, we have managed to figure out that despite their more advanced nature, their rate of technological advancement has slowed for the past few epochs, due to their beliefs in an esoteric religion and as such opposition to technological advancement along with potentially a non-democratic system. The aliens have also been called Boyajians, due to the fact that they inhabit Tabby's Star system (or Boyajian's Star), although some still use the word aliens or extraterrestrials. (I get it, these are the Independence Day Harvesters but AI can't generate something good enough, so... stick with this for now)

File:Boyajians.PNG

Footage of the three dead aliens kept in the Freak Show from the recent shot down flying saucer

(The Freak Show is the name given by doctors within the aerospace force base of the three special chambers where the dead aliens are kept)

Later, the hypercomputer was able to access a small computer hidden inside the black knight satellite revealed a cipher which was probably used to gather information about humanity over the thousands of years it used to spy on us without us knowing before, which allowed us to have further advancements in computing power and revealed more information (indirectly) about the history of humanity but also that we can know more about data storage, seeing how even Kythera/Eagle ultracomputers weren't able to access this cipher.

Experimental Technology

It is reported that Greater Illinois and Byzantium are working together on the schematics of creating a new Dyson sphere around the Sun, in order to generate vast amounts of clean energy for the entire planet. However, this only remains in the experimental realm.
Byzantium has been thinking of creating an anti-matter weapon along with anti-matter propulsion, however it is hard to synthesize or even create anti-matter, as only 2 kg of it have ever created, at a hefty price in a joint Byzantine-Illinoisan laboratory. If high quantities of it can be created, then we will be able to use it for propulsion, accelerating FTL travel to x7000 the speed of light, similar to levels as seen in Star Trek.
Particle weapons, based on the model of particle accelerators have also been experimentally proposed, with them being proven to destroy nuclear weapons/other incoming missiles and can easily destroy military convoys.
Another weapon Byzantium is trying to experiment with is an electromagnetic nuclear weapon, it being detonated at high altitudes and it has the goal of shutting down a country's electrical grid for years on end. While Byzantium does have EMP technology, they only come in the form of missiles and can only shut down electrical grids for at most a month.
Along with an EMP nuclear bomb, another potential weapon is the releasing of lightning from very-fast aircraft upon enemy territory, with the same goal as the previous one.
The known "explosions" guy in Byzantium, Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Akakios Stamoglou, has proposed the creation of a 100 gigaton nuclear weapon, one that would exceed Edward Teller's 10 gigaton nuclear weapon and the current 20 gigaton nuclear weapon known as the Annihilator. Such a weapon could mean the destruction of the entire world if launched, as it has a yield 2,000 times larger than the Tsar Bomba and as such Byzantium has refused to experiment with such weapon ~~as of now~~
A very interesting proposal is the creation of a new kind of military weapon, known as a Mantra, it will be a hovering AI flying vehicle, equipped with a heat ray cannon and two "disintegration rays", with the latter technology itself experimental and merely theoretical, so it won't be created anytime soon.

Transportation

When it comes to transportation, Byzantium prioritizes walkability and the idea of walkable cities. As such, when it comes to inner city travel, cars are not really used, instead a combination of biking, walking, trams, metros and even monorails/gondolas (in some places) are used. Here's an example, in the Constantinople business district:

File:ConstantinopleBusinessDistrict.jpg

Constantinople Business district, as we can see, it is a walkable area, like most of Constantinople.

When it comes to medium and long-range travel across the country, the extensive high speed rail and metro system is used, however there is a space for a bus lane (on the highway) and a bike lane (next to the highway, with there being a green barrier to prevent car noise). The image below shows a high speed train in Byzantium:

File:Highspeedtrain1.PNG

High Speed Train in Byzantium, capable of going up to speeds of 500-600km/h, recently upgraded to 850 km/h thanks to upgrades in superconductor technology.

If not, planes can also be used, with them having been made eco-friendly thanks to improving liquid green hydrogen technologies, replacing kerosen as the main thing that keeps a plane flying. As such, planes have become eco-friendly in Byzantium. The main companies are Airbus and Boeing (just like in real life), also planes have also managed to gain some speed, up from 900 Km/h to 1200 Km/h.