About the series: Earthlanders: Until the World Becomes a Motherland is a near-future political science fiction trilogy that spans about a hundred years. Three generations of ordinary people who have no blood ties and have never met each other ask the same question one after another: Why does the place of birth determine survival? The first part, "Beyond Order," is about how resistance begins, the second part, "Aftermath," is about how a system is established and then gets out of control, and the third part, "Inhabitants of the Earth," is about how humans turn "living on earth" into an equal political identity. The three parts are independent chapters and can be read separately.
This is the second book, and the story begins in 2088, thirty-five years after the first one ended.
2088. The world is richer than ever, yet a child misses treatment because of conflicts between origin, place of residence and cross-border agreements. Public systems architect Erin Voss comes from the most successful side of the existing system, and she believes it's just a design flaw — one that can be fixed. She built a transnational public service network: global service identities, common medical procurement, and open ledgers for every transaction. The pilot was successful and millions of people benefited. Then the network began to need to punish defaulters, to bypass government funding, and to need emergency permissions signed by her hand - and once the permissions existed, they would be used.
When the system she built was about to become a government without anyone's authorization, Erin made the most important design decision of her life: shut it down, release all records, and go into court.
The trial destroyed the Internet, but it allowed the world to openly discuss the issue for the first time: If minimum rights exist before nationality, who will tax, enforce and be responsible for them?
