Ecumene

  

The Ecumene
O Ecúmeno
Emblem of the Ecumene
File:Star map of the Ecumene (simple).svg Star map of the Ecumene
Demographics (est. 4020 CEC)
Population	2,304,000,000,000
Major languages	Lunar English, Standard Apollonian, Octopoid chromatophoric
Major cultigens	Apollonian, Exterian, Gasosic, Octopoid, Tellurian
Religion	21.23% Abrahamicism 18.58% Irreligion 9.86% Saganism 9.54% Concestrism 9.11% Ultraphysicalism 8.81% Stellar Ancestrism 7.43% Buddhism 5.47% Hinduism 4.48% Bronowskism 2.98% Harmonicism 2.51% Other
Demonym	Ecue
Exology
Controlled radius from Sol	5 pc
Controlled volume	523.3 pc3
Star systems	52
Terrestrial planets (Inhabited)	212 (94)
Gas planets (Inhabited)	108 (19)
Minor planets (Inhabited)	493.673±12.5m (133.21k)
Planetary satellites (Inhabited)	22.69k (997)
Largest star (M☉)	Sirius (2.063)
Largest planet (MJ)	WISE 0855-0714 (10.476)
Politics
Government	Consensual union
Legislature	Ecumenical Synod
Capital	Apollo, Sol system
Formation	2642 CEC
Economics (est. 4020 CEC)
Situation	Post-scarcity
I/O Efficiency	Very high (0.998)
Material QOL	Very comfortable (0.985)
Survival labour	Very low (0.007)

The Ecumene is the interstellar sovereign state comprising the largest, innermost portion of Human inhabited space in the 41st century CEC. Established at the Conference of Planets and Moons in the mid-27th century, the Ecumene was originally composed of only the Sol system following the end of the Capitulatory War. At present, the Ecumene de jure extends to a five parsec radius around Sol, with all space inside of this limit considered integral Ecumene space. De facto, the Ecumene's administration of this space is limited to its constituent star systems, with interstellar space being largely uninhabited and only ever transited by interstellar vessels. Travel between star systems takes years at mintimaxis, but microwormhole communications permits effectively superliminal transfer of information between Ecumene star systems as well as itinerant Planemoships.

The Ecumene is a political union ruled by the consensus-based Ecumenical Synod. Individual habitats, ranging in scope from whole planets to small space stations, are effectively self-administering but all equally subject to Ecumenical law. The Ecumenical Fleet is responsible for the enforcement of Ecumenical law in interstellar and interplanetary space, while the Ecumenical Guard is responsible for enforcement on habitats. Each inhabited Ecumene star system maintains a vertically integrated array of shipyards, spacedocks, and fleet groups for the proactive defence of Ecumene space, with all of these components being subject to the Ecumene-wide Admiralty and Synod based on Apollo. The Ecumenical Guard is typically administered per-habitat, but in special cases, authority over any subject Guard group can be directly imposed by the Synod.

Membership in the Synod is granted through nomination by a currently serving member and confirmation by consensus of the whole organ. Appointments are life-long; due to the widespread adoption of Ambrosian immortality across the Ecumene, there have been relatively few members of the Synod whose membership concluded upon the end of their lives. As of 4023 CEC, there are a total of 11,293 serving Members of the Synod, with only 308 of these Members being mortal. Due to the length of the average Member's lifespan, decision-making in the Synod can take years before consensus can be reached on contentious issues. The longest decision to reach consensus on record took 89 years of debate (the adoption of the Feasible Limit policy in the 34th century). The average time for a decision to be reach via consensus, however, only amounts to roughly 7 Earth months. Since the widespread adoption of microwormhole communication in the 39th century, the spread of information regarding new decisions by the Synod is effectively superliminal, greatly enhancing the legal cohesion and political stability of the Ecumene.

The Ecumene has its roots in Apollo, the seventh planet from Sol, which was colonized by humanity from 2167 CEC onwards. After nearly four centuries of relative isolation and stagnant growth, Apollo experienced a societal renaissance when the propagation of the Microwave sail allowed it to rapidly expand its economic and political control over Neptune and the Kuiper Belt. The discovery of the Comet Ambrosia in 2612 CEC saw the development of immortality; the monopolization of the comet by Apollo culminated in the outbreak of the Capitulatory War between itself and the member states of the Ceres Protocol in 2639 CEC. Following Apollo's decisive victory in the conflict, the Conference of Planets and Moons in 2642 CEC formally established the modern Ecumene. The formation of the Ecumene marked the first time since the earliest years of the Earth-Lunar Union that all of humanity in the Sol system had been united within a single political entity.

The three centuries that followed the creation of the Ecumene was a highly transformative period believed by most modern historians to represent the historical epoch in which humanity at large transitioned from scarcity to post-scarcity, as due to significant innovations in autonomous manufcaturing, currency fell out of widespread use by the end of the 29th century CEC. The Ecumene established its first interstellar colony in the Alpha Centauri system, where it incorporated the Great Migrations-era colony Asylum after peaceful negotiations. The success of the mission to Alpha Centauri inspired a major wave of exploration and expansion across the near-Sol stellar neighbourhood; by the middle of the 32nd century CEC, the Ecumene possessed interstellar colonies in 13 different star systems. In 3171 CEC, the exploration of the Tau Ceti system saw the fraught introduction of humanity to the genetically-engineered Octopoids. The destruction of the Ecumenical exploratory fleet and the First Battle of Tau Ceti in 3201 CEC marked the beginning of the first interstellar conflict in human history: the Octopoid War.

The last encounter of the Octopoid War ocurred in 3274 CEC, and thereafter, Octopoid civilisation was subsumed into the Ecumene. The Ecumene's victory came at great cost, and the conflict caused widespread transformation across Ecumenical society. From the 34th to the 39th centuries CEC, the Ecumene maintained the a policy of Astroinsularism, which established the five parsec feasible limit as the official boundary of Ecumene space in the Milky Way. During this period, major emphasis was placed on bringing the more distant colonies from Sol to the level of civilizational development found in the Ecumene's innermost systems. This epoch of pronounced isolationism came to a close with the development of artificial microwormholes, which effectively permitted superliminal communications between Ecumene star systems and massive starfaring vessels known as Planemoships. With most prominent concerns of astroinsularism subdued, the Ecumenical Synod rendered the policy void and reinitiated official sanction of space exploration and colonization past the feasible limit in 3858 CEC.

As of the early 41st century CEC, the Ecumene remains the most expansive and most technologically sophisticated civilization known to humans. Official economic records describe the condition of the Ecumenical economy as having been in a state of post-scarcity since the late 29th century CEC. Classlessness is reported as near-total, with the most notable exceptions being at the fringes of Ecumene space: there remains a notable distinction between the lifestyles of the most distant citizen colonists from the those living in the innermost star systems. Despite this, the measure of labour required for survival throughout the entire Ecumene represents approximately 0.7% of the average person's circadian wakefulness period. Due to the widespread proliferation of self-replicating autonomous robots, the Ecumene has extremely high levels of input/output efficiency, measured at 99.8% of resource extraction-to-utilization with minimal levels of human intervention. Overall, the material quality of life of the typical Ecumenical citizen is reported as very comfortable, with a 98.5% average access to goods-available to goods-desirable throughout Ecumene space.

Etymology

The modern terms Ecumene in Lunar English and Ecúmeno in Standard Apollonian is derived from the Ancient Greek term οἰκουμένη (oikouménē), which literally means "the inhabited world." In Classical European antiquity, the term was first applied to the world as known by the Ancient Greeks, although in the Roman era it came to reference all of human civilization. In the era preceding World War III, the term had taken on more a religious usage under the Roman Catholic Church, but its historical uses remained on record.

Modern usage of the term refers exclusively to the contemporary political entity. The term was selected at the Conference of Planets and Moons in 2642 CEC on Apollo due to its perceived linguistic neutrality as a term already found in both Lunar English and Standard Apollonian, which had become the dominant languages spoken across the Sol system by the mid-27th century CEC, as well as its political neutrality, not implying any specific form of centralized or domination-based governing structure. Instead, the term Ecumene was chosen as a reflection of the idealistic nature of the political entity itself: an accumulation of human civilization as it was then known to exist, wholly contained within the Sol system and unified under a common political order.

Exology