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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7397611" data-attributes="member: 996">Sure.  I just feel like near-future stuff needs to feel a bit plausible in a way space opera and the like doesn't, so I limited myself.  Some further thoughts:  One interesting idea you had was that the satellites were ostensibly there to block sunlight to counter climate change, but that it didn't work, and OBtW, they generate lots of power to run massive orbital server farms that the moneyed classes need.  By the same token, perhaps mining is all but outlawed on earth for environmental-protection reasons, so there's fortunes to be made mining asteroids in space.  I'd think there'd be no reason not to mine the moon, too, but, maybe, if sunlight is being blocked from the earth, farming has moved to domes on the moon?  With the attendant need to protect the lunar environment from mining?  Thing is, you have a 2-week solar 'day' on the moon, which can't be good for plants, either, so maybe not. Then there's the Lagrange points.  Sci-fi used to make a big deal about building stations there, because they'd be relatively low-energy-cost to reach or travel among, and be comparatively stable (station keeping wouldn't require a lot of energy or reaction mass, either).  If you want privileged people living in orbit, stations at the Earth-Moon Lagrange points could be reasonable candidates - they could be large, use spin-gravity and be comparatively safe & comfortable.  Another question you want to think about in a 'not too distant future' is whether anyone alive today is still alive, then.  It matters to how much culture may have changed.  So if your time-line is w/in the 21st century, many of the core beliefs, societal trends, conflicts and whatnot that are present today might be so, and barely seem changed, then.  But, if your timeline goes further, something only gaining steam today could be utterly dominant - or just gone - by then.  Environmental concerns, for instance, are a very powerful force, today, but still struggling compared to economic and political ones.  Maybe in your future they eclipse those concerns, at least for Earth and terrestrial authorities, while in orbit & the moons & belt, economic issues are paramount, so there's a deep philosophical as well as a have|have-not divide going on.You could have the tension between idealistic Earthlings and pragmatic Spacers underlying the cyberpunk cynicism and corruption.  PCs could be crusaders or mercenaries depending on where they fit into that, or could be seeking a middle path or playing those divisions off against eachother in pursuing their own goals, whether personal or epic in scope...</blockquote>

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