Theta Corp
Theta Corporation designs and manufactures arm augmentation devices, mainly targeted at workers and security personnel. It’s rumored that they also have subsidiaries involved in genetic alterations for the defense industry [citation needed].
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Theta Corp |
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| Employees | 350,000 |
| Revenue | $1.2T (2091) |
| Type | Public |
| Founded | 4th April 2044 (Shenzen) |
| Headquarters | 5th Avenue, New Seattle, FTA |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| CEO | Herbet Flaubert |
History
Early days
Theta Corp was founded in 2044 by visionary genetic engineer John Skølder. Originally from Norway, John’s family was forced out of his home country of Norway during the first European civil war of the 30s. John moved to New Berlin and joined FirstCrisp, at the time the biggest genetic company in the world. There, John was working on luxury genetic modifications, such as the ones of the cheekbones and the skin neck. Growing increasingly frustrated by this work, he stole a FirstCrisp centrifuge and a robo-implanter and brought them home. He discovered that he could use the same cheek-bone implant technique to render his thumb stronger. John used that discovery to liberate additional equipment from the FirstCrisp labs. When FirstCrip cybersecurity chief Chirs Madgens discovered the theft, John immediately fled North Germany for Shenzen (Greater Bay Area). There, he started Theta Corp, because, as he put it
I think everyone should have access to the illimited powers of muscle augmentation, at an affordable price
Until 2054, Theta Corp and John Skølder himself did not face any consequences of the theft. Interpol was not able to act thanks to the relaxed regulations of the Greater Bay Area in terms of intellectual property, international technology theft.
The first commercial products
The Greater Bay vastly unregulated genetic and augmentation environment allowed Theta Corp to go to market with its first product, the Fist Blow, 18 months later John's escape from North Germany. The Fist Blow was a finger augmentation device based on the prototypes developed in Germany. It was targeted at construction workers, carpenters, and artisans. Its limited success has to be traced to the limited scope, as the Fist augmented only the index finger and the thumb, making them extremely strong and reliable. Its most remarkable feature was its price - 21,000 Yen or $95 current USD. John's experience in utilizing old components by FirstCrisp and other companies allowed Theta to out-price its competitors. The second commercial product released by Theta, the Hefring 1, was an arm augmentation device. Its name derives from the Norse Mythology. Hefring 1 was an overnight success, selling more than 5.000 devices on its first day, all of them directly out of the Theta only manufacturing facility in Shenzen. 5 years later, John Skølder explained the Hefring success during an interview in the Financial Times:
It [the Hefring 1] was designed to be as simple and useful as possible. We knew that the arm and forearm strength was a big limiting factor in the everyday life of so many workers in the Greater Bay. I wanted to free every one of them from the idea that your body defines your power. This is why the Hefring 1 did not have any power settings or limitator like our Japanese friends used to do. It just an on and off switch, and that was it. We wanted every physical worker to have one. We came close to that dream with the Hefringer 3
Hefring 1's success allowed Skølder to expand Theta incredibly fast. The Chinese Government granted John multiple rounds of official financing, and the company opened 4 more manufacturing facilities in the following 4 years. The Hefring 1 was followed by the Hefring 2 only 6 months later. The Hefring is still manufactured today to support legacy users. It was surpassed by the Hrönn series in the early 50.
The Expansion Period
From 2046 to 2052, the Theta Corporation expanded incredibly, opening facilities and service centers in Greater China, Europe, North America, and Africa. Its product line expanded to other muscle augmentation segments, such as legs, torso, shoulders, and vertebral column.
During this period, the employees of Theta grew from 5,000 to 250,000, and its share appreciated fourfold. This is largely considered the most prolific moment of John Skølder life by its biographers. The introduction of Quick Crisp Adjustment allowed expanding the potential audience of the arm augmentation to a segment of the population that could not augment itself before. With QCA, the portion of the population that was experiencing organic rejection was reduced by 90%.
Theta Corp also took advantage of its own innovation in its manufacturing facilities, augmenting its own workers with its latest products before the products were approved by international regulators and launched to the market. This practice - called augmented dogfooding by Skølder - allowed Theta to flood the market with high-quality, low-priced products before anybody else.
The Public Aug Program
In 2051 Theta launched its first Public Aug program in two cities of the Greater Bay (Shenzen and Macau). From the words of Skølder to Good Morning Asia on June 2nd, 2051: > Our job is not done until everyone in the world is freed from his flesh chains. Right now, we are only serving a small portion of the world population. The main reason is not organic rejection anymore. We solved it. The main reason is financial, and we will solve that as well The Public Aug Program, since its first introduction, allowed workers to get augmented for free at dedicated Public Aug facilities. The worker was then required to find a job and repay Theta for the following 10 years. If the worker did not find a job in the following 36 months, Theta would not require any payment. This new financial structure was possible due to Theta enormous sources of revenue and its access to the capital market, guaranteed by the Chinese government.
The Public Aug Program pilot program in the Greater Bay created some excitement but was dismissed after 5 months due to its limited lack of applicability. From the words of Theta official historian Jeb Lush:
There were simply not enough workers interested. The Greater Bay had a long history of augmented workers, and the ones that still were not augmented did not want or could. So the program was very limited in that area.
The limited scope of the first version of the Public Aug Program was probably the reason why the CCP did not try to limit its geographical ambitions. On August 10th 2052, Theta launched the Public Aug Program in 7 Greater China cities. The response was immediate: on the first day, 200,000 workers signed up. On the second day, 400,000 workers signed up. Theta was able to augment only 10,000 workers per day. To keep up with the demand, Theta was forced to scale up the construction of manufacturing facilities, distribution centers. and clinics. By the end of the month, Theta had augmented more than 2M workers. The need for scale meant that the majority of the workers that entered the Public Aug Program ended up being hired by Theta itself to expand the program even further. From the point of view of the average Chinese worker, getting augmented meant getting a secure job, immediately.
Historians consider October 22nd 2052 as the peak of the Public Aug Program. On that day, 543,332 workers were augmented in Greater China.
CCP takeover
The growing number of augmented workers in Greater China had enormous consequences for the political history of China and for the rest of the world. At first, the sudden increase in personal capabilities translated immediately into strong increases in available income and job opportunities. As the months progressed into June 2052 and the population augmented, though, the labor market became saturated and workers started to find it increasingly difficult to find jobs. As the American economist Carl Huder pointed out:
The Chinese companies were not able to keep up with the increased augmented job offer at their disposal. Their rate of growth stalled, and efficiency became the way to compete. Efficiency meant cutting cuts, and what is better than having the same augmented worker do the same job as three people used to do? Once the average Chinese manager figured it out, the Chinese economy started to turn.
Compounding the situation, Theta Corp started to freeze its own hiring, as the need for scale diminished.
The change was sudden. The unemployment rate for augmented workers went from 2% in May 2052 to 34% in mid-June 2052. The laid-off workers were mostly laggards, workers who decided to augment later in the year, among the last ones in Greater China. Layed off workers were off to increasing financial difficulties, as their contract with Theta required them to pay off monthly payments for their augmentation since they found an initial job, but they were lacking any form of personal revenue. In other words, the Public Augmentation Program was not built for such a massive shift in the economical conditions of the workers. In extended areas where Theta operated, reports describe scenes of sudden poverty in areas and people considered well off 3 or 4 months before, such as sleeping in slums, selling not-augmented organs, and begging.
Recognizing the crisis at hand, John Skølder delivered a now-famous internet address on September 2nd 2052:
I started Theta by stealing from big corporations that served the rich. I started Theta to empower everyone in this country. Not to have them in ruin. I did it because the system failed you, leaving you in your flesh chains while the rich adjusted their cheeks. Today, I'm announcing that Theta will refrain from requiring you your monthly payments if you lost your job.
This internet address - nicknamed 'Flesh Chains' - ignited a series of reactions.
First, the company plummeted in the Hong Kong stock exchange, as elite investors believed that Theta would never recover from the financial loss.
Secondly, the CCP elite (that, at the time, hugely overlapped with the financial elite) started to feel threatened by John Skølder. It is rumored that, when the CCP elite heard the part of the address that references 'the system that failed' the Chinese workers, the room erupted in indignation[citation needed]. Following the address, the ruling members of the CCP had an emergency meeting in Beijing, which content is secreted. It is believed [by whom?] that the CCP rulers decided to take over Theta Corporation during that meeting [citation needed].
On September 10th 2052, the CCP emitted a decree that established the following:
- The Theta Corporations shares owned by the CCP (that were responsible for 10% of the voting rights) were now expressing 100% of the shareholder voting rights
- The other existing shareholders were allowed to keep their financial interest, but their voting rights now amounted to 0%
- The new shareholder (the CCP) was electing a new board and looking for a new CEO
- The new shareholder was thanking John Skølder for his work as Theta CEO
The move was widely published by the CCP owned media and social media networks.
The second Skølder escape
It is still widely discussed among historians whether John Skølder fled the Greater Bay Area on September 10th or if he had prior knowledge of the CCP meeting. It is believed [by whom?] that Skølder escaped using an Energy Transportation Pod from the Macau harbor. Energy Transportation Pods are scanned with difficulties by border patrols and border control drones due to their heavy lead shielding and radioactive material. The radiations absorbed by Skølder during the transoceanic trip are the most probable cause of his illness later in life [citation missing].
On September 11th, 2052, John Skølder gave another internet address from what appeared to be an apartment in New Seattle, FTA. During this second address, Skølder revealed that the CCP repeatedly requested him to interrupt the Public Aug Program, for fears of social uprising, but that he resisted the requests for the good of the people. He also revealed that Theta also implanted what he described as 'brain-liberating' chips in the right shoulders from May onwards. These chips, as John described:
Will allow you to see beyond the propaganda of the government, and will allow you to be free
The internet address was widely seen in China, as the censoring board of directors of the CCP did not act swiftly enough to suppress it. It is widely believed[1][2][3] that this address was the cause of the Guangyan Riots, which are considered the initial flashpoint of the Fall Events.
The after-Skølder years: from 2058 to today
On the 8th of March 2058, John Skølder announced on Book that he was going to terminate himself the following day. His decision was due to the degrading condition of his body due to pancreatic cancer.
On the 10th of May 2063, with the ending of the CCP Financial arm, the shareholders of Theta Corp got their voting rights back. The company was in dire straights, as its facilities were overrun during the Interregnum. The shareholders decided to elect a new board of directors and a new CEO, Mark Wilkins. In the span of two months, Theta Corp went through the following changes:
- Its headquarters were moved to New Seattle, and its US subsidiary became the holding
- Theta Corp transferred all of its R&D from the Greater Bay to the New Seattle area
- Theta Corp shares were not traded on the Hong stock exchange
- Theta Corp was traded on the Indianapolis Stock Exchange
- Theta Corp announced that it would cease operations of 50% of its China manufacturing capabilities
In addition to these changes, Wilkins led the company to two major agreements:
- The so-called Pub Aug agreements with the Federal Trade Authority
- The so-called Reconciliation Agreement with the Hebei People Republic
- The so-called Third Agreements with the Sichuan Trade Area
The agreements allowed Theta Corporation to continue its operations and R&D efforts. They also led to the release of new products by Theta. Wilkinson was replaced in 2075 by Herbet Flaubert.
Product Line
Theta Corporation offers a relatively small range of consumer products to its clients around the world:
Conspiracy Theories
There are numerous conspiracy theories regarding the Theta Corporation, most of which are debunked[1][2]. The most common one asserts that the brain-liberating chips were used by Skølder to cause the intense protests and riots that led to the Fall. Following this theory, the brain chips are still implanted in the US Public Aug Program and used by the US Federal Authority to prevent unrest. The theory was debunked multiple times but it is still widely circulating, fueled by the fact that the US Federal Authority and the Theta Corp board have multiple members in common since June 2053, such as Mark Folino and Helen Ferdar.