Alix Moreau does not like to be interviewed. During their career, they have given lectures, chaired roundtables, conducted symposiums, held rallies, published books, authored research papers, and much more. Yet, when I met them today, it was their second-ever interview.
The previous journalist to receive this honor spoke to a young Moreau after they became the youngest ever Intaki citizen to be accepted into the University of Callie. The interview lasted five minutes and was cancelled after the fifteen-year-old Moreau called the questions “asinine and reductive”, then walked out.
Hoping that I can fare better, I met Alix Moreau at their new campaign center being set up on Bourynes V. An active worksite, construction drones whizzed past me as I moved through what felt like a storm of metal. Despite appearances, a member of Moreau’s campaign team explained that this was actually a carefully choreographed ballet operating at a level of algorithmic precision too great for the human mind to calculate. Human staffers and visitors like myself were encouraged to stick to green lines painted on the floor. Restricting human movement to these safe paths apparently allows the drones to operate at greater efficiency and ensures that, though they may fly by at terrifyingly close distances, there will never actually be a deadly collision.
At the eye of this storm lay an area of completed construction, and within it the immaculate calm of Alix Moreau’s personal office. Pragmatically angled white walls are covered in green holodisplays. “Most of these are monitoring campaign relevant statistics,” the Governor informs me as my gaze is pulled into the endlessly scrolling data streams, “demographics, Federation administrative intel, live news streams, etc. Though there are also certain ongoing research projects I like to keep track of, offering support where appropriate.”
Dr. Alix Moreau’s support is not limited to lending political capital; with PhDs in both robotics and quantum computing and five years as a professor of automated technologies, they are one of the Federation's leading experts in their field. Moreau initially made the move from academia into politics to protect their fellow researchers' right to free enquiry.
“Researchers should be free to follow the science, wherever it might take them,” Moreau informed me. “The freedom of ideas is a foundational principle of this Federation. Without the freedom to explore, to take risks, the Gallente would never have reached out to their neighbors. There were those at the time who counseled against it. If their voices had won out, future generations would have been condemned to cower in fear on their separate worlds, trapped in a dark forest of the unknown. Instead, they took a risky step into a better future. Bold technological excellence is what made us the cluster’s only true multi-origin interstellar civilization.”
The Governor has shocked many with their claim that the recent outbreaks of Rogue Drone emergences are not the result of having gone too far, but from not having gone far enough. “We cannot control something we do not understand. A first mistake only becomes a final result when there is no further testing.”
It was this controversial opinion that placed the Governor of Bourynes in the spotlight. Though many find it shocking, their outsider opinions have garnered enough support to make them a meaningful contender for the Presidency. This has been further bolstered by the Autonomist party, which seeks to take the principles of its Intaki roots and plant them on the Federal stage.
Moreau’s political career began as a member of the Intaki Assembly. Though they had moved on to serve as Governor of Bourynes before Aguard’s invasion, they have never been shy about sharing their opinion on the matter. “Determination of authority in a free society must begin with the needs of the individual and flow up from there, not the other way around. When Aguard invaded Intaki, she disregarded the desires of a great multitude in favor of military conveniences.” This stance led to Alix Moreau being embraced by the Autonomists, who were until recently the Intaki Autonomists. The party gained electoral victory in the Intaki Assembly in YC125 after forming a coalition with the Social Co-operative party. While they considered the military presence in Intaki illegal, they are not as extreme as the Intaki Lamkatka nationalists. Autonomists still support Federation membership, but are crying out for ratification at a Federal level of greater power to local authorities.
However, the positions of the Autonomists and Moreau are not as philosophically aligned as they would like people to believe. “Of course, I believe in autonomy. I also believe that we must move beyond the limitations of planetary politics and embrace a more democratic future.” When asked what they mean, Moreau clarifies that “the first democracies were impossibly corrupt and unrepresentative by modern standards. As will our democracy seem to future generations. I question the nature of elected representatives in a civilization with advanced algorithms and instantaneous communication capabilities. What is a meaningful unit of governance for a people who can move between planets in a matter of minutes? What is the path to greatest liberty for the self-determining individual within a collective of trillions of such individuals?
“For today, we have districts, planetary authorities, a senate, a President. But what might we have tomorrow, should we be unchained from the past? We need only be unafraid if we wish to embrace the future.”
News in Brief
-
New stars within the New Eden cluster appear in astronomic register.
-
CONCORD and AIR state a joint announcement on newly registered stars system to come in weeks to follow.
-
Special coverage released of No Vacancies vs Mercenaries Sans Frontiers, as well as others.
-
Caldari Business Tribunal agents investigate missing funds.
-
Syndicate members denounced by organization following being found guilty of attempted stargate tampering.
-
Project Discovery celebrates ten year anniversary with gala in Yulai.
-
Brutor and Vherikor chiefs join Starkmanir in celebration honoring history of old Minmatar Empire.