What would Zakharov do?

I'm going to start playing my games and i want my social engineering, tech tree decisions to be as close to what the "insert faction leader" would do.
I use the blurbs as clues to what they might be.


Lets start with Zakharov
1) Social engineering:
a) SOICAL: POLICE STATE (reason, in one of the blurbs, his second in command, Fedor Petrov seems to have the power to prevent the genetic inspectors from inquiring about research into retroviral engineering. In one of Lal's quotes "beware of he who denies you access to information , for in his heart he dreams himself your master" I suspect Lal is reffering to Zakharov, though its a tough call.
b) ECONOMY: PLANED ( not sure about free market, but he definatley does not use GREEN. In one of the blurbs he seeps to have a sort of PTSD panic attack because of a mind worm incident in Lab 3 "I want every last mind worm egg, every last one of them cooked to a smoking husk".
c) VALUES : KNOWLEDGE (obvious is obvious)
d) FUTURE : CYBERNETIC (He is perhaps the only faction leader who does this, not sure about Lal though) or maybe THOUGHT CONTROL ?
Hmm no blurb comes to mind that would indicate what future society he would choose, anyone got a suggestion?

I'l be using Blind research, as i believe that is cannon , and leave the default values
in Zakharov's case its Discover:advance of pure knowledge

Please post about the other faction leaders as well, and do include quotes as evidence. This should be interesting eh?

We already know each faction's research priorities from the AI's priorities as programmed. From memory:

Deirdre: Explore
Yang: Build, Conquer
Zakharov: Discover
Morgan: Build
Santiago: Discover, Conquer
Miriam: Explore, Conquer
Lal: Explore, Discover

Not so sure on the SMAX factions.

Pravin Lal

SOCIAL : DEMOCRATIC (Obvious)

ECONOMY: he starts with FREE MARKET, uses it for a while, then switches to GREEN, not sure exactly when he does this ~ when he gets centauri empathy, or when the worms start attacking him.
"In the years since our arrival, we have foolishly disrupted so many of Planet's ecosystems that entire species may vanish without our ever having understood, or even known them. We must halt this plunder, and halt it immediately, for our own survival as a species depends on our ability to strike a balance on this world.
Commissioner Pravin Lal, "Mind Worm, Mind Worm"

VALUES : POWER? ( i have no quote to back this up but is suspect he's using power, its hinted that Lal's faction has some similarities with the american government.)

FUTURE SOCIETY: Lal never got this far in the canon story, his blurbs stop before access to this tech, although he did consider the implications of a cybernetic society, he even got cybernetic implants himself ,he seems to aspire towards cybernetic.

"The Warrior's bland acronym, MMI, obscures the true horror of this monstrosity. Its inventors promise a new era of genius, but meanwhile unscrupulous power brokers use its forcible installation to violate the sanctity of unwilling human minds. They are creating their own private army of demons.
Commissioner Pravin Lal, "Report on Human Rights"

"I think, and my thoughts cross the barrier into the synapses of the machine - just as the good doctor intended. But what I cannot shake, and what hints at things to come, is that thoughts cross back. In my dreams the sensibility of the machine invades the periphery of my consciousness. Dark. Rigid. Cold. Alien. Evolution is at work here, but just what is evolving remains to be seen.
Commissioner Pravin Lal, "Man and Machine"

Deirdre Skye

SOCIAL : FUNDAMENTALIST (what, you expected democratic? ,you naive drone )
"I shall not confront Planet as an enemy, but shall accept its mysteries as gifts to be cherished. Nor shall I crudely seek to peel the layers away like the skin from an onion. Instead I shall gather them together as the tree gathers the breeze. The wind shall blow and I shall bend. The sky shall open and I shall drink my fill."
-- Gaian Acolyte's Prayer"
See, her folowers are brainwashed. They worship Gaia, or Planet or whatever.

ECONOMY : GREEN (nuff said)

VALUES : probably KNOWLEDGE (she was the chief biologist on the unity, and her quotes on planet biology seem to be spot on)
" The prevalence of anoxic environments rich in organic material, combined with the presence of nitrated compounds has led to an astonishing variety of underground organisms which live in the absence of oxygen and "breathe" nitrate. Likewise, the scarcity of carbon in the environment has forced plants to economize on its use. Thus, all our efforts to return carbon to the biosphere will encourage the native life to proliferate. Conversely, the huge quantities of nitrate in the soil will be heaven to human farmers."

FUTURE SOCIETY : THOUGHT CONTROL (Yep, she does this, don't be surprised)
See the secret project video on the telepathic matrix

Hmm I see Zarakhov as being anti control especially government control. He is all about research without limits, be they limits from religion (Diedre), "human rights" (lal - who would stop him from experimenting on prisoners), or possibly business (Morgan). As such I can't see him using thought control. Police State I really can't see either though democracy might allow the body politic to limit research. Maybe democracy but with a constitution that says blatently the government can not put limits on research? (ooo that could be an interesting story idea). Lal's quote I would say relates more to Miriam and what some people see America leading toward.

I am not sure he would go for a planned economy either as that implies government control - if he did it would be a planned economy based around research and not capitalist as a capitalist economy would allow companies to halt research - hmm maybe he starts capitalist then goes planned? (Damn ok going to have to write a zak story sometime now sigh ... so many things I want to do so little time or energy)

For each of the faction leaders best to think of them as some form of fanatic. Zahk is a fanatical researcher knowledge above EVERYTHING else. The environment, human rights, religion, anything. He would laugh at the idea for example that ethics/human rights should keep scientists from experimenting on prisoners or the poor.

And that's why he could run a knowledge based police state. The intellectual elite - backed by the power of the state - are free to do whatever they like to the drone underclass.

That's the beauty of SMAC's social engineering choices, there's more than one way for Zakharov to skin schrodingers cat.

I think the University is better-represented as a Democracy. They are likely to want to preserve the peer-review process adopted by most scientists on Old Earth, and the knowledge-sharing necessary for this implies the use of elected panels, rather than an absolute dictator. Plus, I don't think they'd tolerate the efficiency penalty incurred by Police State Politics, on top of the one from a Planned Economy. Zakharov's quote from the Optical Computers tech suggests he's ok with the spread of information in general, anyway. Otherwise, I agree with all the other options you picked.

I would also argue that Lal is recoiling in horror *away* from a Cybernetic society. He'd almost certainly go for Eudaimonia, but this always comes very late in the game, so he might experiment with Cybernetism for a little while.