Organization:Illuminated Brotherhood

Origins
Leonardo da Vinci, along with Adam Weishaupt and several others, founded the Illuminated Brotherhood in 11842 NH. Rather than being an "exclusive secret society", anyone with a scientific or medical background was automatically considered a member of the Brotherhood until further notice, and thus eligible for funding from the Brotherhood.

The goal of the organization was to determine in advance whether a scientific experiment or medical procedure was too unethical to conduct, using the metric "does it hurt someone in a way they did not consent to", and to determine in advance whether a given implementation of a technology was too dangerous to remain unregulated.

In practice, this meant that the New Real no longer had gruesome experiments such as living dissections that had plagued the scientific and medical communities of the New Real for centuries, and that many scientists who discriminated against people of differing ancestry were forced to rethink their viewpoints or be barred from receiving the lucrative funding that came from being part of the Illuminated Brotherhood.

Furthermore, when the knowledge of nuclear weapons entered the Library of Virtually Everything, the Brotherhood's other purpose for existence was finally justified. The Illuminated Brotherhood and the Council of the Descendants held major conventions in every city on Gaia in order to determine the best way to prevent the misuse of nuclear energy.

Since then the Brotherhood has been instrumental in the safe implementation of everything from electrified roads (such as those used by the Gaian Electric Bus Company) to water fluoridation (which was already safe but needed someone to taste their own medicine to prove that, no, flouride is NOT a mind control drug or chemical castration) to the afternet (mostly by preventing the formation of business models based on selling user's data to advertisers).

Controversy
Due to the fact that brain chemistry regulation is an opt-in treatment, there are a few people crazy enough to think the Illuminated Brotherhood is a sinister conspiracy hiding in plain sight. While the Brotherhood has considerable influence, and the Council of the Descendants often cooperates with them, the true nature of the Brotherhood is best revealed by their willingness to consider constructive criticism and allow ordinary citizens to look into their financial records and the affairs of their members. Whenever corruption has started to take root in a portion of the Brotherhood, outside scrutiny has exposed and dispensed justice to those involved.

Regardless, conspiracy theories about the Illuminated Brotherhood continue to persist. After all, if the Freemasons, the United Nations and the Shriners couldn't prove that there were more logical places to look for evil puppetmasters, there's no reason to think that the Brotherhood will ever fully shake off the rumors and fearmongering.