The Ephemeral Rifts of Transtemporal Shifts is a gargantuan, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by the Transtemporal Federal Council with a fair hand, and renowned for its complete lack of prisons, unlimited-speed roads, and daily referendums. The compassionate, democratic, cheerful population of 17 billion Transtemporal Travelers are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whomever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.

The enormous, liberal, socially-minded, outspoken government prioritizes Education, although Healthcare, Environment, and Welfare are also considered important, while Spirituality and Defense aren't funded at all. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Eterne. The average income tax rate is 96.7%.

The frighteningly efficient Transtemporal economy, worth a remarkable 2,579 trillion Plancks a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is led by the Tourism industry, with major contributions from Book Publishing and Information Technology. Average income is an impressive 151,758 Plancks, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Young girls aren't having a ball but they are enjoying themselves, modelling agencies send their clients to work in nursing homes, old dogs don't have to learn new tricks but they have to prove they haven't forgotten old ones, and astronauts take one small step for Transtemporal Shifts and one giant step backward from confrontation. Crime is totally unknown. Transtemporal Shifts's national animal is the Space Whale, which frolics freely in the nation's sparkling oceans, and its national religion is nonexistent.

Transtemporal Shifts is ranked 7,579^th in the world and 182^nd in the South Pacific for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 466.04 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.