The Cybernetic Utopia of Steampunk Ariel is a massive, genial nation, ruled by S'C'U'T'T'L'E with an even hand, and renowned for its museums and concert halls, keen interest in outer space, and restrictive gun laws. The compassionate, democratic, cheerful, devout population of 4.275 billion Cybernetic Mermaids enjoy extensive civil freedoms, particularly in social issues, while business tends to be more regulated.

The medium-sized government juggles the competing demands of Education, Industry, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Atlantica. The average income tax rate is 72.5%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Cybernetic economy, worth 501 trillion seashells a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is a slick, highly efficient, quite specialized black market in Tourism, Information Technology, Retail, and Book Publishing. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is an impressive 117,400 seashells, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Children must be board certified to append "Jr" to their name, fixing attendance at women's matches is a matter of "when they go low, we go high... funding", young and brooding teens are welcomed with open arms to the Dogwarts School of Strangeness and Sorcery, and there's a bright dawn ahead for Steampunk Ariel. Crime is totally unknown. Steampunk Ariel's national animal is the clockwork crayon ponyfish, which frolics freely in the nation's sparkling oceans, and its national religion is Animism.

Steampunk Ariel is ranked 18,590^th in the world and 724^th in The North Pacific for Largest Black Market, with 25.7 trillion Standard Monetary Units.