Big O

NCA 74: An Earth government project is established in the city of Seattle, suffering from an economic slump due to the departure of major software companies for the off-world colonies, to produce advanced defense robots modelled on the Giganscudo. These "Megadeuses" use new and advanced forms of artificial intelligence to predict and coordinate with pilot behavior in a "back of the house" way.

NCA 78: An unknown agency executes a terror attack on the Seattle area. The city is not destroyed, although there is massive mental damage to the inhabitants which expresses itself as near-total amnesia. Several prototype "Megadeuses" go berserk as well, and most electronic records are destroyed by the same incident. The Earth Federation engages in humanitarian relief; however, when the amnesiac effects prove to be apparently permanent, the population become unofficial pariahs due to the risk of genetic damage. Surviving elements of the former managers and financiers, together with outside investors, form the "Paradigm Corporation," which dedicates itself to the redevelopment of the badly damaged city, henceforth referred to as Paradigm City.

NCA 87: Paradigm Corporation researchers, using old "memories" from the pre-Event city, perfect a human-sized artificial intelligence. The Earth government moves to simultaneously recognize intelligent androids as sentient beings and to quietly suppress their widespread release, citing humanitarian concerns over their abuse. As the artificial intelligences do not prove greatly superior to humans, they are effectively limited to the Paradigm City area, where repair and maintanence facilities are common, and join the "ethnic" mix of the survivors, who are already developing a distinctive culture.

Modern Day: The Paradigm City area, which constitutes about half of Washington State which had been affected by the Event as well as Seattle itself, is a seperate entity which had been frequently economically depressed. The current CEO of the Paradigm Corporation, and de-facto ruler of the Paradigm City area, Alex Rosewater, has aligned with the ORB movement after the retirement of his father to focus on tomato farming.

(Note for applicants: The Big O requires a higher-than-normal level of adaptation. It's alright to just put a summary of adaptation events into your theme section; the level of adaptation represented by this file is only necessary for themes that need a lot of work.)

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