2200

The World in 2200

The average person of today is likely to spend the vast majority of their time in a virtual reality of some kind. Physical society and culture still exists - but most now eschew it, in favour of the Godlike capabilities they can experience online.

It is becoming very rare to encounter a friend or colleague in person now. In fact, you are more likely to encounter a form of artificial intelligence today, than you are to encounter a living, breathing human. Urban centres are becoming eerily deserted, with most citizens to be found in their homes, or in digital libraries and entertainment venues, engaged in complex simulations wired directly to their brains. Manufacturing industries have been entirely automated now - as well as most workplaces - with almost everyone now working from home. The Internet has evolved into what is, essentially, a gigantic global mind: transparently embedded in everything from clothing to fields of corn, from cars to space stations.

Literally everything has been automated, controlled and made easier. Take peoples' hair, for example. This no longer requires cutting by human hands: it can simply be grown according to a program of your choice. Genetic information is beamed to receivers in your neural interface, instructing the nanobots in the body to apply the appropriate style, colour or length. Precision and control is achieved on a molecular level, with the treatment completed in seconds.

Often, styles are designed by ordinary citizens, or AI, then promoted via online communities, with the best ones rated and made popular, in a manner similar to the commercial music charts of previous centuries. This same process is used for a whole host of other goods and services - from domestic pets, to gardening, to body tatoos, to gourmet food. In this way, a person can become relatively famous by modifying the genetic coding or molecular structure of different items, using the knowledge available to them online.

Technology is changing everything. It is eliminating famine, disease and the need for war, with only a handful of the most backwater nations remaining unaffected by the Singularity. These are closely monitored by the developed states, with severe penalties for any which threaten the technological progress of the rest of the world.

For the majority of the world's citizens, practically any desired resource can be synthesised instantly and automatically, via the technologies available in the home today. These are divided between needs and wants, however - so a citizen will be unable to request a large supply of gold (for example), but will have an immediate and unlimited supply of food, water, clean clothes and other essential needs. "Points" have to be earned in order to access the more sophisticated products and services, and these can be earned by contributing knowledge or innovative ideas to the web.

This development of ideas and information is essentially the main function of the world's economy today. Physical items can be manufactured and distributed so easily that they are no longer a significant part of GDP. What matters today is the information behind items, rather than items themselves.

Ironicwarcriminal posted:

it's cool how the US is soon going to become energy independent and no-one really predicted it

well except for the investors who predicted it and made money off of it

daddyholes posted:

where may I read more about this

here's a link from slate from a few years back: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/future_tense/2011/12/is_there_really_100_years_worth_of_natural_gas_beneath_the_united_states_.html

libelous_slander posted:

Roseweird you were born 2 centuries too early.

2200

The World in 2200

The average person of today is likely to spend the vast majority of their time in a virtual reality of some kind. Physical society and culture still exists - but most now eschew it, in favour of the Godlike capabilities they can experience online.

It is becoming very rare to encounter a friend or colleague in person now. In fact, you are more likely to encounter a form of artificial intelligence today, than you are to encounter a living, breathing human. Urban centres are becoming eerily deserted, with most citizens to be found in their homes, or in digital libraries and entertainment venues, engaged in complex simulations wired directly to their brains. Manufacturing industries have been entirely automated now - as well as most workplaces - with almost everyone now working from home. The Internet has evolved into what is, essentially, a gigantic global mind: transparently embedded in everything from clothing to fields of corn, from cars to space stations.

Literally everything has been automated, controlled and made easier. Take peoples' hair, for example. This no longer requires cutting by human hands: it can simply be grown according to a program of your choice. Genetic information is beamed to receivers in your neural interface, instructing the nanobots in the body to apply the appropriate style, colour or length. Precision and control is achieved on a molecular level, with the treatment completed in seconds.

Often, styles are designed by ordinary citizens, or AI, then promoted via online communities, with the best ones rated and made popular, in a manner similar to the commercial music charts of previous centuries. This same process is used for a whole host of other goods and services - from domestic pets, to gardening, to body tatoos, to gourmet food. In this way, a person can become relatively famous by modifying the genetic coding or molecular structure of different items, using the knowledge available to them online.

Technology is changing everything. It is eliminating famine, disease and the need for war, with only a handful of the most backwater nations remaining unaffected by the Singularity. These are closely monitored by the developed states, with severe penalties for any which threaten the technological progress of the rest of the world.

For the majority of the world's citizens, practically any desired resource can be synthesised instantly and automatically, via the technologies available in the home today. These are divided between needs and wants, however - so a citizen will be unable to request a large supply of gold (for example), but will have an immediate and unlimited supply of food, water, clean clothes and other essential needs. "Points" have to be earned in order to access the more sophisticated products and services, and these can be earned by contributing knowledge or innovative ideas to the web.

This development of ideas and information is essentially the main function of the world's economy today. Physical items can be manufactured and distributed so easily that they are no longer a significant part of GDP. What matters today is the information behind items, rather than items themselves.

okay, but where are the graphic descriptions of future sex in 2200 goddammit