"The year is 2364. Everything that could go wrong was reported to have happened. Some of it was true."
"The 21st century continued believing it was the last one until in finished. This happened again as soon as the new fin-de-siecle panic started. People who went to wars thought that everyone who didn't go to one was petty and people who never went to war, never knew what they missed out on."
"To me, the biggest change is habitat. To cope with the dip in population and protect those who persist, our architecture works as a supplemental womb that protects us from dying. Networks and platforms now tower above ground and cities are built above cities, but every individual has a multitude of healthy, private space of their own. If we weren't so worried about extinction events, we'd think we live in paradise. It is widely accepted that tomatoes flourish in the stratosphere, and the best margaritas are made just below it. Madilune prides itself with the most advanced nanotechnology to compliment the architecture, so that nothing as plain as the lack of oxygen will ever take your breath away."
"The transition to nantechnology was painful and full of mistakes. The transition to atotechnology (times 10 -9 smaller) would be seamless, if there weren't so many naysayers. We call them both the same, as the term 'nano' has become uniquitous and encompases everything too tiny to handle. By 2120s, communication, web connectivity, all types of sensual media was based on swarms of subatomic particles that exist all around us. We inhale them, we exhale them, they're in our blood, out food, our water. The technology has become an integrated part of us. Some wonder if it has changed us. Others point to ancient philosophers asking the same question thousands of years ago. Eventually, the most perfect image of these nano drones came to existence. This technology is called tola, and it means business."
"The preferred mode of transportation are anti-gravity vehicles with a common denominator known as 飞艇 Fēitǐng drive, so most aircraft vehicles are either referred to as Feï or Kon. Nation states persist, some with stronger, singular national identities, others with fluid ones. Wars have had no casualties in the last hundred years, just damage, which doesn't mean that people don't refer to it as a disaster. Once, every few years or so, a victim falls in a military conflict and causes a sensation. People lament about the futility of war."
"The world map is different. Some slight climactic complications and an episode with a seismic weapon have disfigured shores and islands. But even though some parts of the land were swallowed by water, some of it was gained. A part of the Atlantic reef has risen above sea level.
No one knows how, but it started going by the name of Madilune."
"The island - At first a lab and experiment site for European and American scientists (due to cheap setup costs and remote location), established as an autonomous protectorate of the common European Union. In a matter of decades, permanent settlements were established and Madilune grew into a cluster of cities. In 2265, it declared independence from the European Union, naming the only coastal city in the South East their capital - Madilune."
The need to know on Madilune:
Has no official pronunciation. Americans usually say:
Mah-dee-LUNN or May-dee-LUHN
Europeans, including the Brits, surprisingly have a similar pronunciation
Maa-dee-loone
...but essentially, anything goes.
まぢるん (Mah - dee- ROON) Japanese
马敌汝女 - (MAh- dee-ROO-noo) Chinese simplified
In case you were wondering.
The natives say it in a very soft, peculiar way that's unpronounceable without a citizenship.
You will be insulted if you don't try and fail in saying it their way.
The city has 80 million inhabitants, out of these, only 17 million live on city grounds and 30 million in surrounding suburbs. Thousands of skyscrapers are scattered around the city, miles high, most of them with clubs on the top floor, which play a crucial role in the distribution of tola (but you need to talk to a conversion expert for the dirty details). Nothing on Madilune can be sensed with one sense only. Sounds have smells, and images trash out to you with their texture. Madilune was build to destroy the deprived flatness of natural existence, as it is believed that sensory overload is the path to the discovery and awakening of new senses.
"Madilune has very few legal limitations when it comes to new technologies. The general rule of thumb is: if something isn't specifically forbidden, it's allowed. Their buildings have less than one fifth of actual matter in them, the rest is completely projected, an example of things that would make continental architects faint. Everything in Madilune is funded by research and technology, but very little good can be said about anything else they produce or provide. Their wine is especially appalling."
"The Institute was established by Seravina Giovanotti, the first scientist to discover the principle which enables semi-holographic buildings to lend one another energy in the event of power failure. It was build on the ruins of several labs and associations left behind by the Five, which were consilidated into one unit."
"Using her Nobel prize award cash to set up a research institute in Madilune was somewhat noble. To this day, this is the only knows selfless act of Seravina Giovanotti."
"What makes Madilune special is its complete dedication to advancing metaphysical sciences. Ever since a certain Danish scientist we all know re-established alchemy through his ground-breaking life's work in searching for proof that claims of sublime side of matter can be measured and observed, these new/old doctrines have been making a comeback. Some even started to believe that these advances are in fact the only way to save humanity from itself."
Birkelund, P. (2245) 'The Hidden Face of Matter' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
"Apart from alchemy, which is one of the three pillars of knowledge at the Institute, Madilune generally endorses new metaphysical findings much before they are confirmed and recognized in two other influential scientific centres on the world: Byeolpyo in Seoul and ZaTech in Johannesburg. They are the trendsetters, the fearless, and the first line of experimentation that could end in less than favourable endings."
"But there are limits to the research we can do and that which we shouldn't do. Surely, when we say it this nicely and reasonably, nothing could go wrong."
