Straylight Future History
- Mass TV, radio, telephones unknown; indoor plumbing rare; much of the world is agrarian, even the US; messages can take months to circle the globe
2005 - Early nanotech; fusion possible for brief time periods; experiments in using computers to simulate neural activity; first mind-machine interface experiments employing simians
2015 - Dwindling reserves of fuel (natural gas and oil) intensify conflicts between China, India, Europe and US
2020s - An "Energy Ice Age," caused by inability to match dwindling supply with growing demand, creates lasting waves of global recession; unrest due to unemployment, food shortages and
blackouts begin to become common - Deep winters and droughts caused by climate-change force world population toward more
temperate regions - Quiet "Nanotech Revolution" begins in labs across US and Europe
- Alternative energy and crash nuclear fission programs arrest complete collapse in some, but not all First World nations
- "Hot" wars erupt for remaining natural gas and oil fields; targeted ethnic plagues emerge, origins unknown; US loses vital proxy war in Venezuela to Chinese, begins withdrawl from world stage
2030s - First world consumer economy in shambles; cars, televisions begin to disappear
- India, China and Japan increasingly engage in direct air and naval confrontations
- US first nation to use remaining resources on restoring national train networks, mass transit; early foundations for vacc train networks that will span the globe
2040s - Most nations begin isolationist policies, using last energy resources to enforce civil order at home
- Many First World powers balkanize due to war, rebellion, and destruction of civil infrastructure; Federal authority dramatically wanes in US
- China and India engage in land conflict, limited nuclear war before splintering
- Nanotech recycling, automation and alternative energy arrest complete slide into post-industrial Stone Age
- US spits into dozens of regions and micronations, the strongest among them Texas, the Western Alliance and the southern nation of Jubilee
- First sentient AI created in prosperous surviving city-states; allows cities to radically expand control over nanotechnology
2050s - Acologies (sealed, armored, nanotech-driven megacities) arise to protect against extreme weather, rogue combat nano and genetic plagues; most soon fall under autocratic rule by religious, corporate or military leaders, but attract large populations because of their safety and wealth
- Rise of the "Nangineers," individuals skilled in merging with AI to bring nanotech to unprecedented heights; soon become independent order of traveling "miracle workers", healing plagues, restoring seedstock and rejuvinating communities
- Surviving powers, under old nationalist / religious banners, increasingly begin fighting as their spheres of control overlap
- "Atrocities Against Sentience": Nanotech used to control or disrupt neural activity of unprotected populations; pathological AI created to enhance nanotech attacks, driving millions to acts of mayhem and depravity
- Nangineers condemn attacks, but outwardly remain neutral; secretly begin planning with independent AI factions to end atrocities
2060s - Emergence of the "I/You Ethic," ethical philosophy based on sharing the experiences and pain of others via mind-machine interface; spread by group of Nangineers and AI; becomes most popular philosophy among youth in arcologies
- "Conscience Revolt:" Cabal of nangineers and AI enable popular uprisings, largely lead by young people, to replace corporate, religious and autocratic leaders within many (but not all) arcologies
- Newly democratic arcologies reorganize into democratic "Global Reconstruction Authority;" voting privledges and nanotech enhancements are sustained through community or military service; leadership of arcologies expelled into wastelands
- Remaining "rogue arcologies" shunned via sanctions until they renounce repression and agree to democratic elections
- "Deconstructor Revolution:" Nangineers leverage culture shock over atrocities and history of near total extinction to foster revolutionary sentiments; philosophy emerges focusing on tearing down old cultures and replacing them with a new, global Common Culture
- Widescale nanite-based deconstruction of old cities, historical heritage leads to clashes between Common Culture and ethnic / religious powers
2070s - Failed radiological bomb forces mass evacuation of Miami Arcology; Jubilee suspected
- AI Peacekeepers supress rising ethnic / religious dissent in wastelands around arcologies
- Global Reconstruction Authority's power increases to combat terrorism and microwars; charter later expands to cover expansion of human civilization into space
- Fusion discovered; several rogue states agree to join Common Culture in exchange for technology
- "Stratoscrapers" arise within Common Culture; eventually become "orbitscrapers" tethered by monowire to space stations; vacc train networks begin to link arcologies
- Construction of L5, first orbital city
- "Colonial Cultural Compromise" reached: Ethnic and religious minded groups agree to expand offworld
2080s - "Nanotech Renaissance:" Vacc train networks connect most Common Culture arcologies around the world
- The "1 Million Nations" arise, made of sentient human-AI communities within the Common
Culture, united under the goal of expanding human civilization to the stars - Human-machine consciousness transfer; rise of post-human cyborg class
- Colonization boom; colonies established on Luna, Mars; asteroid mining begun
- Dismantling begun of cultural icons such as the Great Wall of China and Pyramids at Giza; Vatican exports Sistine Chapel and several other artifacts into space
2090s - Halo of stations, mostly Common Culture, emerges around Earth
- Stations established around Jupiter, Io, Europa
- Beginning of H3-based solar economy
- Oort Cloud probe discovers alien wormhole artifact
2105 - Present day: World is mostly wilderness, deconstructed ruins, desert; 4 billion live in
orbitscrapers; 3 billion in space; surviving 2 billion live in scattered tribal communities continually around the globe
1905 - For reference
Where does Michigan fit into all of this? I mean we have the most fresh water in the US.