… I had read about the outside world for many years, the reality seemed very different. Urban desolation seemed ubiquitous as I waled past boarded up houses, small cramped shops selling scavenged goods, kebab shops selling white synthesized meat made palatable by huge amounts or salt & a chemical cocktail of sauces. The muffled sound of yelling made me look up to a second floor apartment, a bottle smash, a smack, a woman crying. The other people in the wet dark streets paid no attention as if this was a normal coinsurance. As I passed dark alley ways I could hear the faintest sounds, and caught the occasional glimpse, a reflection, something told me I should’t move away from the brightly lit roads. Everywhere there were signs for accommodation, private property seemed to be a luxury for the rich as waves of dirty sweaty body’s pushed past me. The only protection from the night lay in sleeping pods, about 6’5 long with enough room to sleep and store your bags for the night. Many strong community’s had grown up around these sleeping areas, the old, the disabled, students and the poor: all part of this sprawling group of hostels.
The iron tree project: This technology fuses aluminium with carbon created by living plant cells. The system’s genius, aluminum’s extracted from the earth and carried up into the city in the sky. Plant cells use photosynthesis to create carbon which is then fused with the aluminium to create almost endlessly huge structures and synthesize nearly any useful product the rich people need.
Downsides: Natural plants die, sun is blotted out for normal people, the larger the system gets, the more energy it needs.
Huge bean stalks fly upwards towards heaven funneling nutrients up to the sky.
**Huge amounts of coal are burned to sustain the system. Oil’s almost never used.
**Cable Cars transport people around the slums, connected to the IronTrunks
***Climate change had made the financial markets unworkable. Currency’s fluxed violently and organisations found trading impossible. A new gold standard was found in energy: Universally desired and unbelievably useful, Energy soon became the new global standard. Governments issued bar-coded notes that could be traded for fixed amounts of energy, or indeed any other commodity a person wanted. The change in currency’s changed the world, energy company’s found themselves in very favorable situation, Financial investment in the energy sector tripled, new companies and technologies thrived. One of the new technology’s to appear was the IronTree project, that would change the world. ***
The world’s human population had been booming uncontrollably for many years, however the number of people grew even more with the eradication of disease and sickness. ‘Health slips’ planted under the skin at the back of the neck monitored the body’s electrical field, temperature fluctuation and blood chemistry: even able to monitor changes at the cellar level using an extrapolated, triangulated simulation of the body. the technology was so sensitive that it could detect microscopic changes in the body. Damaged and sick cells are now vaporized by tiny bursts of focused electrical energy. Health slips also reprogram and destroy rogue Nanorobotic devices. Health slips functions like a queen bee: working with Nanorobotic devices to perform a huge range of functions: making everyone healthier.
The development of the first artificial entities were celebrated around the world. Millions of people could talk simultaneously to the entity’s who were soon elected into political office. This was the greatest triumph of democracy ever where the options of everyone were considered. In practice these cold & calculating entities did what was best for mankind, but additionally were incredibly cold. They struggled to understand many human concepts like religion and philosophy whilst excelling at science, mathematics and economics. The answer was to come in a further development, A new generations were developed that would mimic human behavior. Direct brain scan’s created even more sophisticated designs making the entities even more human-like. The problem was that many artificial entities came up with many very unpopular policy’s that would fundamentally change how the society’s would function. The answer was simple: Nationalist subroutines were added/brain scans (to ensure loyalty). These new entities soon realized that civilization as it currently stood was unsustainable. …a war between machines.
….Technology had become incredibly efficient, cheap yet powerful immune support devices (ISD’s) powered by the body’s own electrical field monitored, and helped destroy infections & stray Nantes. A whole range of technology’s augmented the human lungs, filtering out both the filth of the streets and some of the hazards associated with heavy industry. Advances in technology and efficiency had come at a great cost to mankind. Many of the better jobs had been taken over and automated by computer entities, The stock market had become entirely automated and far too complicated for the standard human mind to understand. All the design and intellectual jobs had been assumed by computer entities making the human being a rather inefficient & embarrassing relic of an earlier time. Nationalist machines argued and fought, playing endless childish games of politics and economics competing for dominance seeing their human populations as workers, as the unemployed and as economic units. Foreign countries were ravaged by these entities looking to extract both profits and materials to grow and out-compete the other machines.
**Computer entities have replaced normal governments, These entities ruled over both the human and other entities mimicking the behaviors of their human counterparts. Powerful and all encompassing rules were created to regulate the markets, control tax’s and every part of human life. just like previous human governments, the new rulers put riots down quickly and effectively. Human neural-linguistic programmers had direct connections with their creations who could learn and process incredible amounts of data, but lacked the adaptability some humans have.
personally I think the internet will change beyond all recondition. In a way we are all waiting for a thinking computer entity to rise. I don’t think such a thing will unless we create it, however if we did create one it would change everything. Can you imagine governments, stock markets, research, design, every high tech thing being automated and controlled by computer entities? It would make new forms of human society possible where every citizen is in direct contact with the government 24/7. Where the needs of everyone are considered and policy created accordingly. Any thinking computer entity would have the entire collective human knowledge and history at it’s finger tips, it would know all languages, etc.
it’s just an idea but maybe the world would ma much better more efficient place.
Poverty was never a big issue when the human race were the running the show, but it seemed even less of one now the Computer Entity’s were in charge. The gap between the rich and the poor had been growing for the past five hundred years. Advanced technology’s had prolonged
The coral complex’s that featured areas of genetically modified coral could be used to create almost perfect quality air, energy and food. these coral complex’s were connected to wealthy areas supplying them with find quality food, air and
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Whilst approaching the bar I noticed a ball of tattered rags laying on the floor wrapped around a passed out body. I couldn’t tell it’s age, it was quite honestly hard to tell if it was even alive. A large, well muscled black bouncer, arms folded looked through me, ‘Wait in the Cue’ he snapped, ‘unless… you’ve got a special entry pass’… The man looked as if he had been imported, his English was native and he looked very out of place. ‘The best way of avoiding corruption is to isolate, and pay well’… certainly this guy didn’t look like he had been here long. ‘I won’t ask you again, Pay up or get to the back!’. I put my hand into my pocket, pushed a few notes into his hand and then walked past into the bar.
…As I entered the bar the first thing I noticed was the smell, it smelled as if the room in front of me contained a lake of ethanol. The sound proofed walls held back a torrent of noise, This club looked as if it had once been a concert hall for clasical music. I looked up to see four oval balcony’s, Tables and chairs stuck out erratically from each of the balcony’s, seat’s long ago ripped out to make way for more people. Lights flashed in random sequence Nanites, it seemed could be programmed by black-market traders to quickly convert nearly any living mass into alcohol. Potent yet almost undrinkable to all but the most alcoholic. I walked through crowds of people, looking for my contact. **marked with green above her head*** holograms, eye implants.
I questioned the price, it seemed the strongest spirit’s that would burn to the touch were some of the cheapest. It was almost suicidal not to dilute that alcohol. Bottles were cheap, recycled plastic bottles from the 1990’s and 2000’s. They looked as if they had not even been cleaned, not that it mattered. The strength of the alcohol would surly kill any living thing. The bar tenders ran blue flashers over the bottles that would knock out and destroy any rogue Nantes still working in those bottles. I had heard rumors that some of the alcohol had been created by breaking down submerged corpses: people the gangs in this city wanted gone.
My thoughts returned to my *perfect childhood. That much coveted Simulated American childhood based more on fiction than reality. I’d had every advantage, yes these people in this oppressive, packed bar, this was all they knew. They danced and drank and partied as if it was the end of the world, and in all honesty it seemed like it was. It seemed when everything else was taken away all they had was each other.