Culture

Much of what some might now call ‘high culture’ does not really exist any more, at least in any least in any widespread sense. Art and literature are no longer on school curricula, replaced with purely vocational training. Universities – which are only accessible to the richest 0.1% of the population – do teach these courses purely for the interest and indulgence of the students, but again the vast majority of courses are vocational. Arts and humanities make up perhaps a twentieth of enrolments.

Libraries are a thing of the past. For the employed and the rich, all information is accessible online (for a price). For dependents and ineligibles, the expenditure would not be wasted on providing them with anything so frivolous as knowledge or enlightenment. Physical books are still produced, mainly for the rich, though textbooks and manuals still appear sometimes in paper.

Most historical artifacts are ways of storing wealth or for ostentation. With the study of history or even political events of recent decades seen as increasingly obsolete, a Medieval sword or Renaissance tapestry is generally seen primarily in terms of its worth.

England’s, and particularly London’s, rich architectural culture has gone to wrack and ruin. Most of it is at ground level, where the toxic smog makes tourism dangerous, and much of it has been eroded by acidified rain. Only a few buildings – Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, the Marble Arch and, outside London, the old College buildings of Cambridge – have been preserved within vast domes.

Live entertainment still thrives in the entertainment district, in both the Towers and the Clouds. Musicals, dance acts, circuses, magic and theatre all appear in the Clouds and have their less glamorous equivalents in the Towers. In the Clouds, a show might be in the original Shakespeare, or a circus might contain cloned animals rather than convincing animatronics. The Warrens of the entertainment district are where the seedier entertainments typically take place.

Gladiator has been a popular sport for a decade or so. In the legitimate, Clouds and Tower district versions, non-lethal weapons rigged to cause pain or to stun are used; in the unlicensed rings down in the Warrens, anything goes, and even the rich high-rollers tend to prefer these more bloody games.

The Captains of Industry tend to be celebrities in their own right, glorified like epic heroes in ways that would make the cults of Steve Jobs, Elon Musk or Henry Ford seem trivial.

English has remained the international language of commerce and is therefore dominant. This is reinforced by automated translation systems, which mean that no one really needs to learn a foreign language. However, Mandarin, Hindi and Spanish are spoken frequently by people in the Warrens who had relevant ancestry when they more or less lost the ability to migrate a generation ago, and by people in the Towers who have recent family from abroad.

Other sports are still played – football and rubgy, notably, as well as the Human Race, a parkour/speedrunning challenge across London, and the ludicrously dangerous Dronesurfing. Movies are still released, TV shows binged, computer games played, though most of these are on the vast virtual world Arcadia to which nearly all Captains of Industry, Employed and Dependents can connect. Given the soul-numbingly mundane horror of daily existence in the real world, many increasingly prefer it.