N40 Shared Universe

Mar,13 2025

Introduction

The N40 Universe Manifest begins in the year 2040, in a future affected both by leaps in technological development, climate change and rising sea levels, and years of decline of the United States of America.

Medical advances began offering cancer vaccines, in which a single (or two with a booster) injection can prevent a group of cancers, sometimes with odd side effects. The pancreatic cancer vaccine, for example, also reduces the odds of Diabetes. The leukemia cancer vaccine protects again heart disease. The Skin cancer vaccine, released in 2034, protects against sun burns, but also makes it easier to tan, but only by a small amount.

After the first ones opening in 2025 in China, dark factories became more or less a norm: fully automated factories operating with zero factory workers. Only the feeding of raw material and export of the produced products require work, as well as periodic maintenance. This eliminated the advantage of developing countries in labor cost.

While a few companies did move back to the USA, developing countries fought back. Many such countries suffered from mass migration due to climate change and the need to invest in massively expansive factories to compete. Those suffering too negatively or unable to keep up lost their citizens to those who could, while those doing well, received waves of migrants they couldn't really offer jobs to.

To fight both imbalances, the old days of company towns came back. A large corporation would buy a large plot of land in a struggling developing country, making it a free zone. One where the corporation is basically autonomous and doesn't require paying taxes other than a "maintenance fee". Often, they create a security fence around their territory and even the police force of the host country cannot enter.

Inside most of these free zones, freedom is lost for the inhabitant in exchange for security. They are fed, get a house or apartment, a job, but they cannot leave and laws are often applied at the discretion of the corporation.

All free zones, however, are still subject to the laws of the country of the corporation. In theory, the FBI can inspect a free zone settled by a US corporation in a developing country. The reality, is that most free zones get sponsored by corporations from isolationist tax havens, including Panama, Liberia and the Bahamas. These countries do not oversee any of their free zones.

People outside of free zones struggle, with mass unemployment, but the Internet allows for an alternate source of income. Online content creation has become more democratized and most creators can live from their creation thanks to marketing revenues.

New more stable forms of cryptocurrencies allowed a form of decentralized alternate banking system which enables people around the world to save money away from the grasp of their government, often with the hope of immigrating abroad.

This gives birth to a new type of free zone: cooperative ones. Some people struggle to find enough capital to invest in a cooperative startup. In short, people who managed to generate funds via content creation unite to form a cooperation which is then allowed to open up a free zone to get relative safety, often inviting their family and friends to immigrate to the new free zone.

These areas aren't always centered on a series of dark factories, but rather are created as communes where people can grow food and keep livestock, while buying supplies from the revenue from content creation or other investments.

Costa Rica

Climate change affected Costa Rica, with the rainy season reducing in strength and the dry season experiencing more rain. Overall, Costa Rica considers itself lucky in the climate change lottery.

The problem, is their inability to cope with new technological developments and, thus, to keep their population stable.

They decided to turn to free zones to keep their economy flowing. While a free zone doesn't pay taxes, it still buys electricity from the country, pays airport fees and the maintenance fee is better than leaving the area unused during a decline in population.

What made Costa Rica unique, is the free zone charter system. Seeing the abuse of early free zone in neighboring countries, they imposed a series of regulations which reduces issues.

It was already a model for protecting the planet thanks to its biodiversity laws and other environmental laws, so they imposed on all the free zones to respect those laws, something unique in the world. They also required a minimum healthcare system for the residents, either paying to offer the Costa Rica system, or establishing their own hospital. Finally, they required all free zone sponsoring companies to be cooperatives, but also to participate in the survival of Costa Rica as a country whenever needed.

This, along with small areas offered to establish free zones, made them less popular as a free zone host country.

Naturism

Naturism was already on the rise, and the recent success of Susanna's world and Eden's creek as a naturist community, combines with the sun cancer vaccine, made naturism popular, including new TV shows where naturism is part of the story line.

After a few more towns became naturist, it only became a matter of time for naturist cooperative free zones to be founded around the world, including in Costa Rica where a few of the free zones in the Central Valley are actually created by naturists, with different values or origins, but often sharing resources, including a naturist hospital.

Those adjacent to each other added gates to travel between each others, while those across the road either built an underpass or an overpass to avoid leaving the system.

In 2040, a group of several close-by naturist free zones opened a cooperation board, to ensure the survival of each of the free zones.

How to use this shared universe

Stories can be written in one of the free zones, but the cooperation board will be featured in an upcoming story, and using them should wait until that story is published.

Any town in the USA or any other country can also be in the N40 universe, without the need to mention the Free Zone. Only the skin cancer vaccine could be used and the time frame.

Climate change effects, mass migration and the mass unemployment are also optional. The setting for your story can be in a booming town where things are going great.

The idea of this shared universe, is that the world is becoming a dystopia and naturists fight back from that dystopia by cooperating while the rest of the world is competing.

It presents a world of friendly, caring naturists escaping from cutthroat competing textiles.

Conditions for using this Shared Universe Manifest

• All creative work created using this S.U.M. needs to be at least published on naturist-fiction.com for free, thought the writer may also publish it elsewhere
• The stories must respect the acceptable guidelines of this site
• The actual map of the free zones and their operations are left to the imagination of the writers, but each writer must pay attention to avoid closing the flexibility of other writers. In other words, keep the universe a little vague.