Lifestyle

When a Monsi gives birth, the child is handed over to the Children's Care Commission (CCC). This isn't because the government forces them to, although it is policy, but because Monsi culture doesn't really support families, but more on that later, I want to walk you through the life of a Monsi.

The first few years of the CCC life is spent in the nursery. Monsi are quite squishy and fragile infants, which really does not pair well with their naturally inquisitive and explorative natures. CCC nurseries are start of the art facilities that allow the infants to explore and challenge the world without being in any real danger, always monitored and always watched by caregivers and AI systems to ensure optimal levels of stimulation. Once Monsi are able to retain memories they're put in school, so about the same time Monsi will start to form long term memory, they're also starting school. Once they've graduated the nursery and move onto school they get new caretakers. As they grow and develop they'll get more specialized caretakers, and eventually get one one one counselors that prepare them for adult hood, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Fast forward to early school and the typical day for a Monsi is this; Wake up in your home room. Each Monsi has access to a roughly 20'x20' open area that has an area that is recessed for bedding, then raised parts for study and socializing. They share community areas that have games, pools, and lounge areas aside from their smaller social areas around their bedding. These buildings are typically domes, but not exclusively. Monsians do not have private space at this stage of their life, they're being acclimated to sharing and community as these are the foundations of the culture and lifestyle of all Monsians, and in fact this home room isn't all too dissimilar to what adult Monsians permanently live in. Moving on to actual education, each child is paired with an AI assistant to help them navigate campus and answer the endless questions Monsi children ask. This allows Monsians to develop areas that they naturally gravitate towards. Sure some classes are mandatory, reading, writing, history and civic classes are some of the mandatory classes I can think of for now but these classes are taught at the time where their brain is most receptive to these and each Monsian is different. All Monsians learn to read and write at a young age, but some Monsians take history and civics much earlier than others in their same age.

Education in the CCC is very fluid, allowing Monsians to move where they want when they want, learning whatever they want. Until they're 20. They are told about this exam far before this, but at 20 is when Monsians start taking classes that are assigned to them. Classes are assigned by taking roughly 17 years of educational data gathered by the AI assistant, facility AI, caretakers, counselors, and any other adults the Monsi may have been in contact with. These classes are specialized in what the student has proven they are best at, even if it isn't what they necessarily want the most. For example, if a Monsi has proven to be the best engineer in their age, but they've spent most of their time learning computer science they will now be taken out of their computer science studies and placed in engineering. For most Monsians this is the first time they're being asked to do something they don't want to do, so it's done carefully and informed of this, and where they are likely to be placed, well beforehand. They are warned that the system will be able to tell if they're trying to artificially change their scores after the fact, so once a discipline is revealed at age 17, they more or less know what they're going to get as assigned classes at 20. While taking assigned classes they can still take classes that are unassigned, but assigned classes need to be completed first. This stage or assigned classes last until they are 30, allowing them to become experts in that field given they apply themselves enough.

Monsians that fail to apply themselves enough in their disciple officially do not have any repercussions, but this is also because they have not interacted with society at large and have only interacted with CCC Staff. What they do not know is that Monsians who fail to apply themselves are lowering their Placement score, even if they only have an idea of what that is at this point.

So what is a placement score? At the age of 28 each Monsian is given a placement score. This is calculated by the AI, then approved by the CCC Placement council. You'll get two placement scores, one for the role you want, going back to our previous Monsi, a computer scientist or specifically an app developer. Then they will get a placement score for the role they would be best suited for, in this case engineering. To calculate the score, the AI will rate their skill against every other Monsian awaiting placement in that role, mostly other students but there are ways for adults to get on the waiting list. Let's say our Monsian gets a Desire rating of 97 and a Best rating of 56.

From there the AI systems will take all the roles that are needed in the Arduin, and from there the Monsian will be given some choices. The Que (The capital) only needs Computer Scientist, but the Monsians favorite city (Visited during their travel) only needs engineers so they have to make a choice, the place they want or the job they want. Of course this isn't always the case, and sometimes this works out perfectly and this system allows Monsians to have a say, but ultimately serve the Arduin in the best possible way.

Now what about those Adult Monsians who are awaiting placement? Well that could be Monsians who refused all assignments, waiting for their ideal city and ideal role. These Monsians are placed in Assignment housing, where they do their part to maintain the facility and live while waiting for their role, but they don't get access to the hobby house and cannot partake in any luxury the Arduin offers. Monsians who regret their choice can re-enter the awaiting assignment list and return to the assignment housing.

Importantly, no one is homeless unless they choose to be. No one is without basic needs unless they choose to.

You've got your role and you live in a city, now what? Simple really, find a place to lay your head down every night, most often in a building similar to your home room in school, go to any of the various grub halls for food when you're hungry, and go to work when you're supposed to. Different jobs require different levels of cooperation and therefore more strict rules on when and where to be, but really a computer scientist is allowed to roam wherever they like around the city, and even outside of it so long as they are on the calls they need to be on, so our Monsian took his role in the Capital but spends most of his time in his preferred city. The city AI makes sure that you don't get anything you aren't supposed to, so if you're in assignment housing, you can't go to the grub halls or the hobby house.

This obviously paints the best light of life in the Arduin, there are some roles no one wants to do but they need done. Before I go further, it's important to understand that the AI only shows you roles it has per-approved you for. If the AI determines you're going to go be an algae tank cleaner regardless if you wanted or were excellent at that role, it will only show you available algae tank cleaner roles. If the Arduin says they have ten thousand roles that are undesirable. The AI makes these decisions based on information it's gathered. First, anyone who actually wants the job gets it. Secondly, anyone who's desire job is also their need job, and placed in the very top of their assignment rating get their desire role. The AI then prioritizes filling needed roles, if you scored very highly in your needed role, that's where you'll go. The AI also prioritizes putting people in needed roles they'll be good at or enjoy and can easily learn. The #1 priority is filling all jobs, with 2nd being maximum happiness of citizens.

Where this becomes a real issue is when you consider that the Monsian population is not nearly that large. Their home world has less than 2 billion souls. Even more of an issue, you cannot rely on people retiring from their roles because people do not die of natural causes and therefore will stay in their jobs for as long as they're healthy, which if they're taking care of themselves is forever. Most role openings are in new cities, which there have been plenty of in the last century with expansion to over a dozen space stations and hundreds of planetary colonies on new worlds. These are even creating openings in otherwise old and full cities. With current AI models, the total population of Monsians needed is expected to be over 10 billion, but they're in no rush to fill these numbers unlike other space fairing civilizations who are doing everything they can to pump birth rates.

I realize this is a lot of lore rambling that isn't exactly "lifestyle", I apologize, it's late and these are all ideas that apparently only existed in my head before and needed to be written down as this is one of my favorite factions. I'm sure a sound mind could find plenty of flaws with this, but I am not currently of sound mind and that is my excuse.