Religion
Cassidy is a Wildthing. Most inhabitants of the Empire assume that Wildthings are aliens from another Empire inside the Cluster. As is gradually revealed, she is an entity from the other side of the Reality Field. If "heaven" is on the other side of the Reality Field, then humans have many different beliefs about what that is like.
One fact is revealed on their first journey in the Escape, when Joe asks Cassidy,
“The Borderland? Is that where we are?” “For now,” she said. “But we can’t stay here long. The Borderland is not the final layer of reality." (Chapter 5)
Mad Erik the poet has an artist's connection with the "collective unconscious of the universe". He says, “The gods are but ideas born from mortal dreams.” Here are two of his poems that express religious sentiments.
We are the light / each with our own unique frequency / After passing through the dual slits
in the boundary of reality / Our wave functions collapse into consciousness. / And we become the observers. (Prologue)
C exists for a reason, / That symbol from Einstein’s equation, / Thou shalt not go supraluminal it commands us. / It is a stone wall around Eden. / But we look through the cracks and wonder, / If time slows as we approach the speed of light, / If we exceed it, can we become immortal? (Chapter 8)
Katie Ray describes her physics to Joe and Cassidy.
But I don’t like to stop at boundaries, and I don’t believe in nothing. My mathematics links each string in the physical universe with another string. Supersymmetry theory is something like that; it assumes that each physical particle has a partner. But my partner strings are in the spiritual universe. (Chapter 6)
Philosophy
Mad Erik's poetry is also philosophical.
Reality is porous. Things seep in… things seep out. (Chapter 13)
Katie's metaphysics blends religion, philosophy, and science.
The soul is a multivalued, multivariate function. (Chapter 17)
Katie stood up and went to the section of the whiteboard covered with the symbols that matched each standard physics concept with her theoretical duals from within the spiritual universe. “Mass corresponds to meaning, forces correspond to powers. A force moves matter, a power moves spirit. Gravity and mass correspond to contemplation and meaning. Electromagnetism and charge correspond to free will and choice. The strong nuclear force between subatomic particles and the color property correspond to the emotional power and to love. The weak nuclear force of radioactive decay and the flavor property correspond to the emotional power and to hate.” (Chapter 20)
Politics
Earth must deal with the Discontinuity as do all the new civilizations. However, the presence of Cassidy and her team ease the transition. The Senator has been chosen as the liason between the Resistance and Earth. His skills as a career politician and his connections enable them to keep humanity from fracturing into hysterical chaos. Their control of translating devices helps influence reluctant powers.
He shifted position again, trying to stop his back from hurting. The world was in chaos: political, economic, religious, scientific. Only a dozen of his oldest and wealthiest associates had been willing to discuss the possibility of collectively influencing their respective governments to cooperate, but no consensus emerged on what work should be done. As usual, some wanted to fight and some wanted to appease. There was no way to flee. But thirteen elders, no matter how rich and powerful they had been, were not enough to gain control of the runaway horses of human hysteria. (Chapter 9)
The politics of the Empire of the Breeze is a typical imperial system, with similarities to the British Empire. Imperial Fleets patrol the space lanes, search for pirates among the new stars of the Surface, and bring the Empire to these new civilizations. Imperial Governors rule the new colonies, using the assimilation drugs to change their physiology to match that of the conquered. So that all the sentient species of the Empire can communicate, translating computers or transcom are provided. They are supported by Libraries and Library Ships that synchronize the languages of everyone in real time. Of course, this also provides surveillance and political control.
“You knew when you signed up this mission was to check in on the colonies, secure some new systems that had already been scouted, and to eliminate the pirates.”
The Little Emperor said, “The Empire endures because it protects Sentients from the barbarians. Long live his Imperial Majesty.” (Chapter 8)
Economics
The Imperial economic system depents on slave labor, not for physical tasks, but for intelligence and engineering skills. Sentients are needed to build all the technology that is known to be possible. AI and robots can not do it all.
He and his new first-mate examined the stars again. Scar Snout quickly agreed on the new course along the surface of the Cluster. They would search for a moon to attack and capture engineers for sale as slaves. The fringe planets would not know the difference if they were new low tech engineers instead of more advanced personnel from the inner Cluster. If the slaves happened to be more skilled than average, maybe he could convince them to join him in the pirate life. (Chapter 8)
